Something New

I picked up one of my personal sock kits this weekend, found that it was the Kenkyo pattern, and I came really close to putting it back and picking up a different one.  

I love this sock, I think it's gorgeous, and I bought the pattern a year or two ago, but every time I picked up the pattern to try to knit it I found the whole thing so overwhelming that I put it back.  

The reason is this:  in order to knit this sock I had to learn Japanese twisted cable stitches.

But this weekend, I didn't put it back, I sat down with the all knowing interwebs and my pattern determined to learn how to do this.  I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again, sometimes being really stubborn turns out to be a very handy personality trait.

And voila - here it is, I messed up a bit at the beginning, but I certainly wasn't going to go back and fix it.  I am loving it, it requires complete concentration and it is insanely fiddly, but it is FUN.

I hope you can see the detail, it is much clearer in real life, I'm not sure why it is so obscured in this picture.

A random recipe:  Pecan Pie Muffins.  I think they're only called muffins because they're not iced.  They would be amazing with cream cheese icing.

These are soooo easy and sooooo good, like somehow someone poured pecan pie into a mini cake form.  Totally YUM.

Thanks for your feedback regarding book blurbs/reviews, I will start to post them here as well. 

I will leave you with some beauty from our snowstorm this past week.