A bit of this 'n that

So something is eating my beans! I have a few more beans coming up from the second sowing that I did but they first set of true leaves are either missing or seriously stunted on the beans. I've read that slugs can do a number on them so that might be the case but I haven't seen any other signs of slugs and I have my copper tape up but perhaps they've breached my defenses already. On a positive note everything from the second sowing is up except my potatoes! Even the cilantro which for some odd reason takes longer to germinate than my carrots do. Hmmmm.

I have another almost finished knitted project. They are super cute slippers for my little H (15 months old now). They are basically socks without a bottom of the foot that are sewn to a fleece lined suede bottom. I used some yarn I had leftover from a poncho I made. Chunky weight so went very fast. The yarn is self striping with large stripes so the slippers don't exactly match. But I had some reservations about the slippers and as a result didn't want to a) buy a whole ball of new yarn when I had a plenty big stash that needed paring down and b) didn't want to waste my stash by going through the self striping yarn to find the right starting color for the second slipper and just started where I left off. The reservations I had about the slippers were that they were going to be too small or rather too small very shortly (partly why I tried to hurry up and knit them) and also that H wouldn't wear them. I've tried the one slipper on a couple of times now and each time he pops it off quickly. I still need to sew the second one on but what with my reservations and my new temptation (see below) I'm in danger of not finishing it. Ack! Must stay on target...

What is really got me going right now is that I've cast on my first sweater! It's for H and is a snap tape cardigan by Mac & Me. Its in an organic cotton that's super soft. My previous encounters with cotton left me longing for my nice resilient wool, but I couldn't imagine making a toddler a wool sweater when I have to do the laundry. Of course, now that I've started I can't imagine not washing the sweater by hand no matter what its made out of, but at least with cotton I feel like I can keep a few of my options open. Its going smoothly so far and the advice I've heard about doing sweaters for the first time (besides test gauge swatch - check) is that you just break it down into pieces. So I've done the ribbed waist portion of the back and have moved on to the stockinette portion of the back before I need to start doing some shaping for the arms. And really that's going to be the most monotonous part, I believe. In other words the largest chunk of stockinette without anything special to do. It's so much fun I wanna wrap up this blogging nonsense so I can get back to it.

Finally, I've got another exciting diversion. I purchased a baking book that I'm so in love with at the moment. King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. Its a basic how to make everything book - from breakfast stuff (oatmeal, granola, pancakes) to yeast breads, sourdough, cakes, quick breads, flat breads, cookies and pies. This is an area where I feel like I have a lot to learn about the chemistry of cooking and this book seems to deliver all that but all of the recipes include whole grains from spelt and barley to oat and wheat. But they claim to try to not sacrifice taste. So not every recipe includes 100% whole grains if it messes with the functioning or taste of the food. Gonna be making a shopping list when I head to the grocery store to get me some fancy flours!

However, I've only made one recipe so far and considering I've only had the book for a little over 24 hours that is actually saying something about how excited I am about it. Its a Banana Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar. I know. A little deja vu. Results: yummy will probably make again. Called for spelt but I only had whole wheat so used that. Called for letting it rest over night but we're in a hurry around here so ate it all crumbly from the pan. I was aware that it was whole wheat but not distracted by it. So success in my book. Yummy!

Finally, if you follow the current events in the side bar, I mentioned that Tortilla Soup was on my radar. We tried it. H is making a mess of it here. Not bad, but honestly, I think I'm not a soup person because I got more excited about the idea of it than my execution of it.