Heavenly, heavenly

Oh, I've found heaven on earth! This year I finally caved and splurged on something I've wanted for a while now: a wool fleece mattress pad. Last night was the first night sleeping with it on the bed, and I'm so happy I gave into weakness. Oh, I know, I live in Alabama, for crying out loud, isn't that just a little overkill? etc. No! It is not! I love it love it love it! (Too bad I didn't have it when I was miserable sick with the cold from hell.)

I finished the Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf, other than finding two buttons for the pockets, and am generally pleased with it, although if I had to do it over I'd make the large size (I made the medium size per the pattern), maybe fiddle with the cable pattern some, and do the grafting better. Egg's response when I showed him was that I looked like a teal Jawa (yep, he does have some sci-fi fanboy traits). Sigh. The picture doesn't capture the color very well; I'll try to get a better one later. The Portland Tweed yarn felt a little "crispy" while I was knitting, but when I steam blocked it, it relaxed and softened beautifully.

And this part is going back a little, but to celebrate the end of Thanksgiving leftovers and to indulge the need for comfort food induced by the cold weather, it was time for mac-n-cheese - the good stuff, with three cheeses (none of them powdered or Velveeta), an unlikely but fabulous seasoning, and baked to ooey-gooey goodness with a perfect crust on top. I think this makes Egg happier than anything else I cook.

Entrelac and other favorite things

My sanity-saving entrelac bag is progressing nicely, especially after a very productive Saturday afternoon at the local Starbuck's with knitting pal "T". OK, so the colors could be cheerier, but this is a stash-buster project! Since I figured out how to knit backwards, entrelac is so much simpler - no more flipping back and forth...And an extra special thank you to "T" for the cool button:

This will now adorn my WIPs, or maybe the bag or basket holding them, just to make sure there's no confusion! :)

Or maybe I'll attach it to the needle holder with my newly acquired double point needles from Bryspun. I absolutely love the ones made in New Zealand, especially the 5 inch ones in small sizes for socks (yes, I'm old school that way - no magic loop for me), and this week I went to absurd lengths to build up my stock. I scored a set of US 2.5 ones from the UK - thanks eBay! - and a handful of various sizes from a store in Massachusetts. Here's irony for you: the vendor from the UK charged me half as much for shipping air mail, even with the exchange rate considered, as the vendor in MA did for UPS ground. Gotta love that shipping upcharge - a nice tidy profit center there!

Despite what the distributor's website says, the set I have that were made domestically aren't as wonderful as the NZ ones. The material and the shape of the points are different, and IMHO, not in a good way. Hence the quest for the imported ones. From what I can tell from some internet research, the "original" ones, from NZ, are sold under the brand name "Quills" and maybe "Liteflex" outside of the US.

Today was all about cooking: pot roast with egg noodles and apple pie. Comfort food, and the house smells wonderful as I write. Like the entrelac bag, I didn't use a particular recipe for either. So I probably used too much freshly grated nutmeg in the pie (but it just smells soooo good when it's grated) and maybe too little salt in the pot roast (can always add more when it's done)...