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As it turns out, September was a two-pie month. This month’s 2nd pie was Canadian Maple Syrup pie. We recently got quite a bit of very tasty local maple syrup, and I was clicking around the internet looking for recipes to use it in. There are quite a few recipes for Canadian Maple Syrup pie out there, which makes me think it is actually a thing that people in Canada eat. All of the versions of it looked delicious, and I went from never having heard of this pie to absolutely needing one in about a minute. I chose this recipe which worked out OK. I think I would use a different one next time though. The main issue I had with this recipe is that is calls for 1 cup of heavy cream, which I think made the filling way too liquid. It did not bake in anything like the time on the recipe – it took more like an 1 1/4 hours. But in any case, it was delicious! It’s like a pecan pie without the pecans, if the filling was made with maple syrup rather than corn syrup. It is pretty sweet so some nu...

I finished the first of what will likely become several little witches along with her cat: The pattern is the Little Witch Charm Set by Susan B. Anderson. The yarn is random yarn scraps from the scrap bin. I may try to replace the knitted broom with a stick with yarn bristles or similar. It’s a pretty bendy broom. Also, the little cat is not proportional. It’s like a Norwegian forest cat or a Maine coon or something. I may try knitting fewer rows for the head and body parts of the next ones – we shall see. I do like these patterns anyway – they are cute and work up very quickly! I made these as part of a Stitch Along for Yarn Ghouls a knitting and weirdness podcast that I do with Alissa of Snakes& Cranes . The SAL is open to any type of Halloween-related project you’d like to do! What are you working on, and how is it going?

I’ve wanted to try making hand pies (aka mini pies) for a while now, so decided to make them this month’s pie experiment. I’ve also been playing around with a caramel apple pie recipe for years, and thought it might make a good filling for my hand pies. I didn’t use one specific recipe, but read through a bunch of them and sort of amalgamated my own. I cut up 3 apples into small dice (I tried for around 1/4 inch cubes, but nothing about my dicing is exact) and cooked them in a pan with 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and maybe a tsp or so of an apple pie spice mix. The apples I used were Honeycrisp, because they are DH’s favorite so we had some around. Anyway, I cooked the apples until they were somewhat softened and a lot of the liquid was cooked off, then let them cool. I also cut up some caramels and mixed them in for the caramel component Then I got my pie crust ready. Here is where I made a slight tactical error. I wanted to use some hand pie molds I got a while ago: Cute, right? ...

Wow – did this week get away from me! It was busier than I thought it would be, but hopefully things are settling down now. I’m also behind in reading everyone’s blogs, but plan to catch up this weekend. Anyway, this week I have 4 projects going, which may be part of my general busyness issues. First, I started a Spooky Stitchalong with Alyssa of Snakes & Cranes . We are knitting the Little Witch charm sets, and possibly a few other Halloweeny little projects. Here is the start of my first witch. Just the brim of her hat to do and some finishing! I will likely make a few more witches and also the cats to go along with them. I started my Mom’s Worn This Way sunhat , now that mine is done. I did order some of the hat brim wire, so I’ll go back and add it to my hat as well as Mom’s. The top of the crown is done, and I’m starting down the sides. My Open Weave shawl ( Ravelry link ) is continuing along pretty well! Still happy with it, still moving along. And finally, making goo...

I finished crocheting my Worn This Way sunhat yesterday, and was very dubious about how it turned out – all bunched up and kind of ridiculous. Then I did some blocking magic on it overnight, and Hey Presto! Mostly uncrumpled and slightly less ridiculous. It doesn’t fit perfectly, and I would prefer the brim wasn’t floppy. But hey, it will keep the sun off my face and it’s sort of cute. The pattern is Worn This Way , and the yarn is Ra-Ra-Raffia , both from Wool and the Gang. I will say that if you make this hat, you probably want to treat the pattern as kind of suggestions. I did not work to any of the dimensions noted in the pattern, because if I did it would be a Great Big Hat, which I did not want. Next I’m going to make another one of these for my Mom in a different color of raffia. It works up pretty quickly, so I’m hoping to get hers done before it’s too cold to sit outside in the mornings! What are you working on these days, and how is it going?

Traditional Knitting in North Russia is a kind of tough book to review. It is interesting and informative, on the one hand. But kind of frustrating on the other hand. It is self-published by the author, Catherine Maslova, and was pretty clearly written and published on a shoestring. The author is clearly very knowledgeable. She shares a lot of information she has gleaned from both public sources, like museums, and private sources such as family members. There is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book if you want to learn more. There are lots of photos of knitted items from Russian cultural museums, but they are kind of blurry and shaky, like pictures I take through glass with my phone. There’s not much attempt at a slick layout, just really dense words and images. Kind of like a thesis on the topic. I don’t mind that, but it could have been so much more. I think what frustrated me was how good it already is, and the idea of how much better it would be with some funding beh...

This month I am doing two cakes, because August just sort of away from me. So this month – two cakes and a pie. Today’s experiment was chiffon cake . This type of cake kind of builds on the last cake experiment, which was angel food. For angel food, you separate your eggs and use only the whites, whipping them to stiff peaks to give the cake structure. You don’t use the yolks at all for angel food, so you’ve got spare yolks. I used mine to make lemon curd For chiffon cake, you do separate the eggs and beat the whites the same way. The big difference is that the yolks get mixed with the flour and other ingredients, then you fold the mixture in with the egg whites gently. Chiffon cakes get baked in the same type of tube pan that angel food cakes are baked in . And you do the same procedure with cooling the cake upside with the tin standing on its little feet. I was a little nervous about whether I had beaten the whites enough, and then also whether I had folded everything together too v...

All my projects continue to move along. Starting with the newest one, my Worn This Way sunhat I am working on the brim now, and it seems to be working out OK. The top of the crown is a little pointy, but I am pretty sure I can block that out. On my Homage to the Granny Square afghan , I finished the small starburst squares I was working on last week and have gotten a start on the medium starburst ones And finally, my Open Weave shawl ( Ravelry link ) is moving right along as well. There’s not much to say about this one – It continues to be a pretty fun knit, though it doesn’t really change up, just goes on and on. I do love how it is turning out though! How are you projects (crafty or not) going?

One of the many cool things about Wisconsin is that is has a big long trail (1,000 miles!) that generally follow the outline of the last glaciers in Wisconsin. It does diverge in sections to include some other interesting geological features, but the main idea of it is to give hikers a chance to follow along the glacier created landscape. Like the Appalachian trail, the Ice Age trail is being created and is maintained by volunteer groups. Unlike the Appalachian, the Ice Age trail goes through communities. Part of the aim of the organization that runs the trail is to encourage visitors to the towns that host the trail as well as provide hikers with a great experience. Even before we moved here, I wanted to hike this trail. Not all at once, but gradually over time. I don’t have that kind of endurance, or the amount of time off that would take. So we’ve been talking about it and prepping to start for the last year and a half, and today we finally got a start! The part we hiked is the ...