Visions of sugar plums

Ladies and gentlemen, sugar plums are for real. I'm aware that this might seem obvious to other people. But I'm the sort of person who was shocked to learn that marshmallows didn't come into the world in the perfectly cylindrical, tasteless, styrofoam-ish form we all know and love. Really, despite being nearly-vegan I sometimes forget that certain foods didn't originate in cellophane wrappers and plastic bags. Granola bars fall into that category too, now that I think about it. Of course, that was before I started making my own granola bars and marshmallows. But I digress.

Sugar plums are for real. Here I am, in the 28th year of my life, and I had no idea what visions of sugar plums actually look like. Well, it turns out they're balls of chopped up nuts and dried fruits. Yep, that's all. On the one hand that's a bit of a let down, as my young imagination had come up with something much more colorful and magical. But on the other hand, they're easy to make and wicked tasty.



I found recipes here and here and adapted them. Basically, I used the ingredients and measurements from the first recipe and added the spices from the second. Mine are rolled in turbinado sugar. Right now they're a bit on the moist side, as my dried fruit was really fresh. (Ahem, and I might have been a tad heavy handed with the Grand Marnier.) I'll leave them out for a bit and roll them in more sugar. Total working time - about 10 minutes. Let me reiterate, they're really good. Yay for new Christmas traditions!

Brrr

I realized today that I hadn't shown you my fingerless gloves. (Pardon the grainy pictures, we haven't seen the sun in days.)



I made them in September, and I've probably worn them every day since. You'd be surprised how warm a pair of fingerless gloves can be! Something about keeping a pulse point warm, I think. Of course, I managed to not photograph them then when they were all clean and pretty looking. (Or when the sun still came out.) Now they're kind of pilly and well worn, but I love them all the more. Well, I did until today.

See, I just wore them to the post office. (I had to drop some elephants in the mail. Did I tell you that I've sold two of these guys in the past week?) I knew it was cold out - we had our first snow yesterday! But somehow that didn't register.



Apparently it's 20 degrees outside. My thermometer would have told me to wear real gloves, but I didn't consult it before I left. Well, let me tell you, I hustled my tail those three blocks to the post office and back. And it was somewhere along said chilly hustle that I decided I needed to blog about my awesome gloves. And then dig the real mittens out of the closet.



I adapted my pattern from this one on Knitty. Mine are a smidge longer, with a few more cables. They were actually my first cables, worked without a cable hook, and I'm quite proud of them. The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, as I recall. I'm a fan. Inexpensive yarn + free pattern = happy me. Yeah, I'm sure I'll still wear them every day. But maybe just not outside.

Just checking...

...to see if anyone was still here. I am, at the very least, albeit sporadically in recent weeks. However you've gotten here, I hope this finds you well :)