halloween past

me (1987?)

We're not doing too much for Halloween present--I've got a pile of reading to get done and a bowl of candy corn to get me through it--so I thought I'd share some photos of my sister and me growing up. My mom made most of our costumes. I remember being most excited about the sparkly green dress she made the year I was a movie star. Don't I look glamorous? 

Me and Julie (1989)

Dad, Julie, me (1990)

What is your favorite costume from your Halloween past? 

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Happy Halloween to you all!

Doily Sweater

Hello and happy Friday! This week has been so busy, but I'm glad to have a little bit of time to visit with you this morning. 

I thought I'd share my Doily Sweater today. It started as a plain khaki-colored cardigan that my mom handed down to me. Whenever I wore it I just felt kind of boring. So last year when I saw this lovely, jazzed up cardigan I knew I had to make one of my own.

I gathered my supplies: a couple of motifs crocheted by me, some lace and doily from this crafty blogger (thanks, Deb!), and a thrifted mini-doily. I hand-stitched all of these lacy items onto the sweater and then left it hanging in the living room for months, waiting for inspiration to strike again so that I could finish it. Hey Inspiration, where are you? I'm still waiting...

Now, this cardigan still doesn't feel finished to me, which is why it has only made a brief appearance on this blog. It needs more doilies, bits of vintage fabrics, and a swap out of buttons. But...it's cold out and I've been reaching for this sweater on chilly mornings despite its unfinished status. I'm kind of a work-in-progress myself, so this cardigan fits me well.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! You still have time to enter my giveaway!

weekend snippets: fall doings

concert

another hat using the divine pattern

college football

 pancakes made by k 

coat rack hung and put to use

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what did you love about the weekend?

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be sure to check out my stone blue cable hat giveaway below!

Stone Blue Cable Hat Giveaway [Giveaway Closed]

This is the giveaway I have been so excited about! I want to spread the crochet-cable love and say thanks to all of the lovely people who stop by to read my blog.

I'm giving away a stone blue (blue-gray) cable hat that I crocheted using Rheatheylia's design. The hat is made from 100% wool and will fit most heads. The cables add a layer of thickness, so this hat will keep you very warm come winter.

Here are the giveaway details:

1) To enter, simply leave a comment on this post answering this question: What's something you love about your life?  Be sure to include your contact information so that I can let you know if you are the winner (email address or link to a blog is fine!).

2) For an extra entry, become a follower of Field Wonderful. Leave a comment on this post letting me know that you are a follower.

3) For another extra entry, post about this giveaway on facebook, twitter, or your blog. Make sure to leave a separate comment letting me know you did this. (Feel free to use these three photos here in your posts.)

This giveaway will end on Monday, November 1, 2010 at 8 PM EST. Giveaway is now closed. I'll pick a winner at random.

This giveaway is open to everyone. I'll ship anywhere in the world.

Good luck! 

csa day: red hot heart

This week our CSA vegetables include:

sweet potatoes

bok choy

radishes

sweet peppers

tatsoi

red hot peppers

Weekly Menu:

Navajo Stew from Moosewood Simple Suppers

Vegetable Fajitas

Austrian Garlic Soup

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread (scroll to page 100)

Brownies

We are doing a great job this week of eating up all those peppers. We used some in the stew and lots in the fajitas. Our CSA subscription with Finger Picking Farms lasts for a few more weeks. I'm hoping to make some sweet potato biscuits before we finish off all of our farm-grown sweet potatoes.

I hope you're eating well this week! Have you come across any good recipes lately?

weekend snippets: autumn wedding

leaf prints

snickerdoodles

a bride in ray-bans and birkenstocks

stars, sunset, and trashcan fires

chandelier hanging from the barn rafters

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what did you love this weekend?

Goldenrod Cable Hat

I wanted to give Kristie something for letting us stay at her house in Ann Arbor. Since Michigan gets so cold in the winter, I thought I'd crochet her something to keep her warm. I'm on a bit of a hat kick and I can't get enough crochet cables at the moment, so this cable hat was the perfect pattern for me.

Kristie told me that her favorite colors were "goldenrod and a sort of mauve-ish color." The latter eluded me, but I easily found some goldenrod wool at my local yarn shop, The Knit Nook. 

This hat crocheted up really quickly, and it was so fun to watch the cables materialize. I enjoyed making it so much that I've already made another one, which will be making an appearance in this space soon.

I was really pleased that Kristie immediately tucked this hat into her jacket pocket, so it would be handy when during cool night outings. I snapped a photo of her in the goldenrod hat, but she made me promise not to post it on the blog because "it was too early in the morning" to take good pictures. 

This is a great pattern to use if you'd like to try crocheting cables. It definitely isn't a beginner's pattern, but it also isn't as complicated as it might first seem. If you can figure out how to do front post double crochet (fpdc), you can make this hat.

Here is the free pattern: Rheatheylia's Cable Hat 

Ravelry link: Cable Hat

Details on my version: Goldenrod Cable Hat  

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Look for a crochet giveaway around here soon! I'm pretty excited about it! 

csa day: three weeks in one post

[this week]

Our CSA subscription is still going on despite my lack of posts about it. K and I still stop by my dad's house once a week to divvy up our box of vegetables. We have been getting lots of peppers (ideas welcome!), radishes, and sweet potatoes. We've also found squash, salad greens, and little pears in our weekly box, too.

[last week]

[two weeks ago]

Menu Highlights:

Moosewood French Onion Soup

Vegetable pot pie adapted from this book

Fall salad: mixed salad greens, baked sweet potatoes, toasted pecans, smoked gouda, roasted squash seeds, sliced pears

Tofu with garlic mirin sauce, sweet potatoes, green beans

Cincinnati-style chili

Jodi's Pumpkin Chip Muffins

Snickerdoodles

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I hope you've been eating well! If you've got any ideas for using up a lot of peppers, let me know.

weekend snippets: ann arbor

this weekend was fall break for me, so k and i took a little road trip to ann arbor. we visited my friend kristie, who happens to be from the same hometown as k. kristie and i have been friends for going on ten years. i usually only get to see her at christmas or when she happens to be passing through kentucky. this was the first time i'd ventured up north to see her in her natural habitat, and wow...she lives in such a beautiful place.

we stayed in the house where she lives, which is a kind of old-fashioned boarding house. blue bottles lined the windows. 

this large copper kettle sat on the antique stove, ready for making morning coffee.  

i hopscotched on the way to our adventures.

we visited a nearby park to see the beautiful trees. this photo is absolutely not retouched. those are the colors: burning orange, deep burgundy, clear blue, grass green. k and i sat on a bench taking it all in, then looked up to see...

are you ready to have your mind blown?

this couple with their new baby. what's so special about running into them? they lived in the same prefecture as us in japan! we hadn't seen or talked to jessica and dylan since we lived in japan two years ago, and then they just happened to be at the same park as us in michigan. how serendipitous! 

kristie showed us around downtown at night. i snapped pictures of neon lights.

k heard about "the best ramen shop in the midwest" so we headed out to matsu chan in canton, michigan with kristie and her friend catherine.  the noodle shop was a hit!

we also managed to swing by lake erie on our way back home. i dipped my toes in the cool lake water and crunched my way through the dry yellow leaves that dotted the sand.

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it felt wondeful to get away from real life for a few days! i hope you had a great weekend, too. i realize we're already halfway through another week, but is there anything you're still savoring from last weekend? or something you're looking forward to this weekend?

the oh-so-quiet hat

every day this week has felt like a storm of work to do, classes to attend, books to read, homework to write. sometimes just trying to keep up is the best i can do. i've felt barely able to catch my breath, and when i have had time to pause, all i want to do is just that...pause. 

i've needed quiet.

i've craved stillness. 

and so please excuse my lack of words about this hat.

it's simple and black and has the loveliest raised arcs.

i made it last week. maybe the week before. everything is kind of blurring right now.

i'm keeping it for myself because that's the kind of crafter i am.

find the pattern here. it's on ravelry here. my version is here.

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just a heads up (haha), i do have some yarn, a hook, and the yearning to make something for someone else. maybe you. stay tuned for more details.

weekend snippets

things i loved this weekend:

starting a new (cable) crochet project

listening to julia and lucas's record collection

(it includes a beatles album bought the day president kennedy was shot)

playing silly games

learning weird trivia (victor hugo's writing habits were among the weirdest)

spending time with good friends (julia and lucas)

  

eating homemade egg and cheese biscuits

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what's something you loved this past weekend?

the true identity of the upper arm warmer REVEALED...

It's a coffee press cozy! You guys were all on the right track with your guesses and lots of you were spot on. Thanks for playing along.

K (like a lot of guys) is hard to make things for. He doesn't need (or want) more than one hat or scarf, so coming up with things I can crochet for him is hard. Luckily, we had a shivering French press sitting around, which got my creative wheels turning...

Coffee + pizza for breakfast

K and I have been using a French press for a few years now. We love the more intense flavor we get from steeping the grounds, and since we don't drink a lot of coffee (only 1-2 cups each), the coffee press makes the perfect amount for us. 

If you've used a coffee press before, you know that the coffee can cool off pretty quickly, especially on cold mornings. So, I thought I'd make our press a cozy to keep the coffee warm through fall and winter.

The cable design is adapted the Crochet Cabled Scarf pattern. I just shortened it, added edging, loops, and buttons. You can see more specifics on my modifications here.  

The green wool and wooden buttons give the cozy a woodsy, manly feel. I think this would be right at home in a cabin, with water heated on a woodstove and coffee poured into chunky clay mugs. I'd wrap up in a hand-sewn quilt and sip from the steaming mug as I watched the woods outside the frosted window gather snow. That's the feeling I was trying capture with this cozy.

K loves the cozy, and we've been using it this weekend. The weather has turned cold so suddenly! It feels like fall now. We went shopping for wool coats yesterday, and we're hauling up our winter clothes from the basement today. The chill in the air makes me so happy!

this moment: cozy library time

[study]

[break]

{this moment} find more moments over at amanda's blog.

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i'll post photos of the crochet object from our guessing game soon.