And without further ado...

Thank you so much for all of your thoughtful comments!  I am overwhelmed by your kindness, and I must say that I am so happy to be able to send a copy of Fairy Tale Knits and the yarn for the Flower Fairy Cloche off to one of you.  We had way too much fun with this little contest.  I got a big charge out of writing your names on the little slips of paper.  As I wrote them I couldn't help but think how much fun it would be to sit and knit together, talking and laughing and sharing a little something yummy (you do know that all calories ingested while knitting don't count, right) and a cup of tea or coffee.  What fun that would be!

Anyway, I tossed all of those names into the pretty silk bag usually reserved for my current sock project...

And then I waited for this character to come home from school and play his part.

He actually wanted me to film the proceedings and include a video clip here, but alas, I am not that technically savvy yet, so the pics will have to suffice for now. 
First, shake the bag to make sure that everyone gets an even chance, then reach in and pick a piece of paper...

Try to read Mom's pathetic scrawl...

And now without further ado...

The winner is...

Congrats Tonia, I will be sending you the yarn for the Flower Fairy Cloche and a signed copy of Fairy Tale Knits!  Please send me your address and email so that I can send your package off to you!

Right before my trusty assistant ran off towards swings, he announced that, "This was really fun!...we should do it again sometime!"  I couldn't agree more!... I will be hosting another book and yarn give away in the coming days!...stay tuned, but in the meantime I would like to share a little something with everyone who stopped by...

Sorry it's not knitty, but this is my family's hands-down, all-time, favorite chocolate cookie.  Even the non-chocolate eaters in my house (weird, I know) love this cookie.  It is that good.  Filled with little pieces of toffee and so fudgy, almost like a brownie, but not, it is absolute perfection with a cup of coffee or a tall glass of milk.  To give credit where credit is due, this recipe is a modified version of an ancient Bon Appetit recipe.  These cookies have been the main attraction at many parties, picnics and after-school snack fests, thankfully everyone loves them, so they don't hang around long enough for me to eat them all.    

The Shopping List—
       1/2 c all purpose flour
       1 t baking powder
       1/4 t salt
       1 lb. bittersweet chocolate chips
       1/4 c unsalted butter
       1 3/4 c (packed) brown sugar
       4 large eggs
       1 T vanilla extract
       1 bag of Heath toffee chips (or toffee bars chopped—about 7-8 oz total)
       1c toasted, chopped walnuts—you can toast walnuts in the oven on a cookie sheet or in a pan on the stove)

The Making—

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt   
Mix the chocolate and the butter together in the top of a double-boiler over
simmering water (or a stainless steel bowl placed over a small pot of simmering water) until melted.  Once the mixture is completely melted and smooth, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool until lukewarm.
With a mixer set to medium speed, beat the brown sugar and eggs until thick (about 5 minutes).
        

Beat the chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract into the egg mixture.

Stir in the flour mixture, followed by the toffee chips, and finally walnuts (can toast them in the oven on a cookie sheet or on
the stove) to the above mixture.

Chill the batter until firm (45-60 minutes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment and drop
batter, by 1/4 cupsful (an ice cream scoop works well for this) onto the
lined baking sheets.  Space cookies 2-3" apart—they will spread to about
3-4" across

Bake until the tops are dry and beginning to crack, but still soft to the
touch, about 15 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets and then devour!

Being new to blogging, it can still feel a little odd at times—like a new pair of shoes (shoes I like muchly, but new all the same), it feels sort of self-absorbed, typing the little projects and happenings of my life out into the ether.  My dream for this blog is to create a place of sharing, a place that will encourage me live more intentionally, with more presence to those near and far and with more consciousness of the choices that I am making throughout my day.  It will grow to be, I hope, a place for me to explore new ways of creating and new ways of reaching out of myself, even if that means getting a little outside of my comfort zone sometimes.  But I like the stretch here,  the opportunity to grow in new directions with something that simultaneously gets me out in the world and encourages me to look inward.  I am finding that chronicling the little moments that make up a life is a good exercise in observation and reflection, and I really want more of that in my life.  It is so nice to know that there are others out there, typing and reading, on their own journey.  I truly appreciate the time that it takes stop in, so once again, thank you ever so much.  Enjoy the cookies and happy making!...Alison

Hang in there...

My able bodied assistant (aka Robin Hood) will be getting home from school in a jiffy.  He is looking forward to being my random name selector for the contest.  So please bear with me...the big announcement is just around the corner (definitley before soccer practice and dinner)...

Happy Friday!...

Hello Friday...when did you get here?...that seems to be the way of things lately.  Where does the time go?...all of a sudden I am so aware of how fleeting these days are.

This afternoon I am taking off with my girl for the first on our list of fall college visits...how can that be?  This is such an exciting time full of anticipation and  joy and, of course, a little bittersweet too—we aren't even going to get into how much I am going to miss having her around next year.  No, I am not going to go into that—not now anyway.

Before I head out the door, I thought I would leave a little something for your viewing pleasure...a link to a wonderful video (for some reason they've disabled the embed link on YouTube) about the gorgeous knits of Oleana and designer Solveig Hisdal.  I have long loved Hisdal's book of, Poetry in Stitches—a collection of hand knitting designs, sadly out of print.
 

The video is about the work of Oleana, how the company was founded, what their ethos and aesthetic is, their designers and workers, and it is full of color and inspiration.  The scenery is jaw-droppingly gorgeous—I want to go—and music and the Norwegian make for lovely listening.  This short film gives me a lot to think about, both about knitting and about business practices in this country and beyond.  I could watch it over and over, trying to soak up every little detail—beautiful!  I hope you enjoy it!

Have a relaxing and restorative weekend!  I'll be thinking about you!...Alison

A quick reminder...the drawing for the book and yarn give-away will remain open until next Wednesday, September 9th!...Just leave a comment on the post from Thursday, September 3rd to enter! 

A walk in the woods and a basket of goodies...

Thanks so much to all of you who left comments yesterday! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your warm wishes and how very much each and every comment means to me—thank you. In addition, I am thrilled to hear that there is interest in a book/yarn give away!...yay!

I just got back from a short walk. It is truly beautiful here right now...love all the shades of green and how the light filters through the trees...

So to celebrate this beautiful day, the waning of summer, and the roses that are still gracing my garden, I would like to share this basket of goodies with you...


This gift will include yarn for the Flower Fairy Cloche and a signed copy of Fairy Tale Knits (to view a gallery of patterns included in the book click on the image of the Cinderella dress in the side bar). This is the hat that Alana and I discussed on Episode 23 of the Never Not Knitting podcast. This hat is knit in the round, has an I-cord hat band and is festooned with roses and leaves.


The Details ~
If you are interested in this offering, please leave a comment to this post by Wednesday, September 9th. On Thursday, September 10th, we will choose a winner at random and send the package!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

ps—If you commented on yesterday's post, you will automatically be included in this drawing : )

New Friends...

Recently I had the great pleasure of chatting with Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. Alana is an wonderfully talented designer, so I was thrilled and honored when she invited me join her on episode 23 of her podcast to discuss my book, Fairy Tale Knits (you can view a gallery of designs from the book on my side bar). Now, I am kind of a shy person (until you get to know me or put me in front of a computer screen apparently—then not so much) and this is my first foray into publishing, so I was kind of surprised by the invitation and, to be honest, a little nervous about it, but Alana is so easy to talk, she made it really fun...thanks Alana!

Well...it looks like the book is officially out there now!—still amazed by that— and to celebrate I would like to host a few give-aways. I have never done this before, so I'm not sure if there is any interest out there, but I thought I would offer a few signed copies of the book, as well a signed copy paired with the yarn for one or two patterns included in the book. If you are interested and would like to enter any of these, please leave a comment and check back here in the next day or two for details!

Happy knitting all!...Alison

Unraveled...

Over the last few days I have gotten to play with two things that most knitters I know have been loving for a long time...Ravelry and Malabrigo...oh what I've been missing.
Raveling...I joined Raverly awhile ago, but I was in the middle of writing my book and just generally busy with the doings of family and such, so I didn't really do much exploring. Plus I'm a little fearful of social media in general. You see I am a bit of a luddite and spending time in front of a computer when I could be knitting just didn't make sense to me, also I was afraid that it might just "take over my life." I'll explain...I'm the girl who had a Facebook account for exactly three minutes. At the urging of friends and family, my dear husband walked me through the process joining Facebook. Within 60 seconds (literally), I had a friend request from a far-flung friend. I absolutely panicked. I think I said something like, "I don't have time for this...this is going to be one more thing I'll have to do and that I'll feel guilty about when I don't...no, no, no...take me off!...now...and tell Nick I'm sorry and I'll call him later!" And so my husband graciously (if laughingly) obliged. And so, I have been wary of Ravelry and protective of the time that it might suck out of my life. But now I am eating my words. Recently I have spent a little time there and I have seen some amazing, truly inspiring things and had some wonderful interactions with knitters (old friends and new) that I am treasuring. I know—duh, it's what everyone has been talking about all this time—but it's new for me and I am loving it! So thank you, thank you dear Ravelers. I look forward to meeting many more of you and playing in the future!

And for now this...
Oh my goodness...be still my heart. I love you, Malabrigo Merino Worsted...love the colors, the texture, the fabric it produces, all of it. Of course, this yarn is not a Johnny-come-lately. I've seen it before and have been hearing about it for ages, but it just never made it into my knitting basket. All that is changed! This yarn is gorgeous in the hank, on the needles and knitted up. There is definitely so much more of this in my future. Right now I am working on a little jacket—a button will figure prominently in this design—and am loving it, so quick, so fun and so soft! I will try to get the pics for this and a pattern up by the middle of the month. Have a great Monday!

Sunday scavenger hunt...

Okay, I know that my post should really look like this...

Alas, today's post has much more to do with creating family memories than it does with crafting or making, but I really wanted to share this with you because it so much fun! Recently my husband and kids discovered Geocaching. Have any of you done this? It is terrific!..

It's essentially a scavenger hunt. It turns out that there are little caches or containers (some of them very tiny), containing a register and sometimes little items that people place in them, stashed all over the place. In fact, according to their site, there are some 886, 671 active geocaches stashed all around the world—who knew?! We have found them at parks, metro stations, roadside rest stops, in the country and in downtown urban areas—too much fun!

Here's how it works...
You access information about the caches in your area using various types of gps devices (we use our phones). You enter your postal code or address at the Geocache site and click "go" to find the caches near you. There are clues that lead you to the cache's whereabouts. Some are easy to find and some are really tricky (you can choose your level). Once you find a cache, you sign the register in the cache and then later put it in your register on the Geocache site on your computer.
We have found that this is the perfect diversion for both adults and kids, and accessing the caches can be as strenuous or as laid back as you want it to be. There have been times when we went out specifically to find a cache—where hiking and some real active hunting was involved, and there have been other times, like when were driving cross country or when my husband was waiting for a train, where we just took a few minutes to check for and find a cache. How cool is that?
Have a great end to the weekend and if you want to give this a try...

happy hunting!