Post Holiday Recovery

Well, M and I are back from all of our various holiday festivities. The benefit of flying and driving all over the country during the holidays is that much knitting can be accomplished. I finished the herringbone mittens the night before we flew out but I had to weave in all of the ends so I saved that for the plane. I also made major headway on M's sweaters, finishing one sleeve at my Mom's (then pulling it out because the gap between needles was too obvious and I'm not confident that I can effectively block something, especially well enough that you wouldn't notice those, so I started over). I then started the second sleeve and am an inch away from finishing that before joining with the body.

I've decided that knitting in public is like walking a dog....it almost guarantee's someone is going to ask you something about what you're doing. It just so happens that I was seated next to a knitter and a semi curious male beer guzzler on may home, M was seated on the opposite side of the plane and one row behind me. My fellow knitter was making a hat and gave me a few tips about blocking. The beer guzzler was curious as to how one can do the same stitch over and over again and maintain interest so I enlightened him on the joys of knitting. On the way home, I attracted the flight attendant who was currently trying to finish a stocking but was having gauge issues, been there done that.

The holidays as a whole were nice as always, what makes this holiday nicer is that M and I will be hosting next year and therefore will not be traveling!!! It's been 9 years since I have not flown over the holidays so this will be a fantastic turn of events.

One of our gift's this year, or shall I say, one of M's gifts this year was a Le Crueset Dutch Oven. I was very excited because I was given a no knead bread recipe last year but didn't have the correct baking paraphenalia to make it so I jumped at the choice now that we own this luxurious item. Here's a pic of my first attempt at wheat bread cooling on my new Calphalon cooling rack from my mom:

The taste test reveals that it needs more salt...something is missing. The inside is pretty light and airy, the bread just needs more flavor over all. But isn't it pretty??