Molly's Headband

This semester is shaping up to look like a doozy. We'll see how much knitting I get done this spring.

My most recent project as a quick knit; I'm still recovering from the hoodie. I chose "Molly's Headband," a pattern from Interweave Knits. It was my first attempt at lacework and I think it turned out splendidly. I had to better acquaint myself with ssk's (slip-slip-knits) and yarn overs, but it was good practice.

The headband was also an opportunity to use up some sock yarn that I've had sitting around for a while. I used probably one-third of it up. I'll have to look for a couple more similar projects. One of the reasons that I realized perhaps this particular sock yarn shouldn't be used for my socks is that it's 100% wool, which would make for a sad story if I ever absentmindedly threw them in the wash. (For non-knitters: Wool turns into felt when agitated.)But a headband? Man, there's so much pleasure in blocking wool and seeing the stitches of the final product relax into what they're really supposed to look like.

Avocado corn muffins

As you can see, my avocado-mashing abilities leave much to be desired. But again my ongoing interest in mixing veggies with baked goods spurred me on when I spotted this recipe for avocado corn muffins. Given that the muffins are, indeed, green, I can't help but wonder what else I didn't do properly in following the recipe, since the ones in the original post are decidedly not green. Whatever the case, these muffins aren't bad; they have a nice crumb to them. I feel like you can taste the avocado in them and that's not necessarily a bad thing; it just depends on what you feel in chowing down on in the morning.

Knucks

Presenting my Knucks! Rather than making each of the fingers the same length as the pattern calls for, I made each proportional.

This was a fun knit -- obviously much quicker than the hoodie, which nearly did me in. It turned out to be more doable than I thought it'd be, most likely because I left out the optional embroidery (although if I did embroider text, the fingers would most likely read DEAR BLOG.

Johnson City Lights Spectacular

Our day trip to Enchanted Rock took us through Johnson City, Texas, which in our brief drive through it seemed like it would merit a more thorough visit. So when my mom came to Austin to visit just before Christmas, I went with her and my sister back to Johnson City to try its chicken fried steak and check out its Lights Spectacular.

Why chicken fried steak? Because as you're driving into town, the Hill Country Cupboard has a billboard reading "world's best chicken fried steak." Bold words. We needed to investigate. I split the dish with my mom (sorry, forgot to take a pic) and indeed, it was excellent. The outside coating was done to perfection: seasoned, crispy, crunchy and not too salty. The rest of the meal was okay. It took a good half-hour for them to bring our food out, though.

Still, the town's light show made up for it. We weren't sure where we were going but as we slowly made our way west on 290 through the town's center, I spotted this crazy mass of Christmas lights out of the corner of my eye. We pulled off the main road over to what turned out to be the local electricity co-op, which had strung pretty much every tree outside its building with long snakes of lights. I'm not gonna lie -- it kind of put the centerpiece of the light show, the county courthouse's display, to shame. Still, the county courthouse lights, though quaint and actually kind of weird -- they looked like this weird curtain of lights -- weren't bad, either.