Starting something new…

Hello!

The posting here has gotten a bit slow/sporadic/light on the crafting, I know, I know.

The thing is, I have a million and one ideas and projects that I'm excited to work on and share, but somehow this space didn't feel like the right platform. Additionally, I was starting to feel a bit stale writing here by myself. Taken together, I started to crave a fresh blog space with another writer, somewhere and someone that would encourage ideas to bounce around and become much more interesting and developed. What I'm trying to say is, it's not you, it's me, and it was time to move on!

Together with my sister, Sarah, we've created a new space called Seasoned. As they say in Thailand, the new space is "same same, but different". It's a richer version of the interests I shared on Winter Foliage, sharing crafts, recipes, lifestyle and travel posts with a focus on seasonal variations and living a full life throughout the year. I'm so excited about the new adventures, and I'm hoping you'll come over for a visit!

In addition to the new blog, we're also posting on Instagram (liveseasoned) and Twitter(@liveseasoned).

Thank you for following along all these years! xo

Snowshoeing in the Rockies

Cranberry Love

Let's call cranberries the bookend fruit of 2013. I started the year with a cranberry buckle, and I think I'm going to end it perfecting the bars below.

On Thanksgiving day, along with the perfectly jelled cranberry sauce from a can, we had some homemade sauce. Some years I dress it up with citrus and rosemary, but this year I kept it simple : cranberries, sugar and water. Either way, I love it!

With our small gathering {and their even smaller appetite for cranberry sauce}, we had plenty of extra for playing with. I added a layer to our cheese plate's bucheron ::

And a cup of the leftover sauce was used to make these Cranberry-Nut Streusel Bars ::

They were delicious, but just like my photographs, with a little experimenting, we can do better! The recipe asks you to use the same crumbly streusel topping for the top and bottom of the bars. It made them very crumbly and almost impossible to pick up {but delicious}. I was excited to make them because they reminded me of a raspberry bar in our local coffee shop, but that bar as a more substantial cookie/shortbread type bottom, which should be easy to make with a bit of experimenting. I'll let you know how it goes, but in the meantime, we figured out that these are just perfect crumbled over a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Before and After : First Snow November 2013

Fast, warm, and {amazing} hats!

Just when my Christmas elving was hitting high gear, Calder made a request for a new winter hat. A request for anything knit can never be denied, especially when it's something as fast as a hat, and especially when he's still wearing a hat that I knit for him seven years ago (7 years without misplacing it, wow!).

The hard part about knitting for Calder is that he's slightly very picky when it comes to color, fit, level of "itchiness" etc. So really, it's amazing that I was able to knit him a hat that met all of his requirements for seven years. Can I do it again?

When it came to color, he asked for something that was "mostly grey with pops of pink and green", but then he also mentioned that there could be other colors too. He has also complimented the colors in Alex's circle blanket numerous times.

So the yarn choice was obvious, I went directly to Lion Brand's Amazing yarn. Usually I don't love yarns with an acrylic base, but I love this yarn. The color combinations and variations from one ball to the next make it a lot of fun. It's a frustrating love, because I only use the yarn once in a while, and when I'm not using it, my fingers are crossed that they don't discontinue it!

The one problem I had when thinking about this hat was that I wanted there to be some consistency throughout the hat, and the balls that change color really jump around {which I also wanted to give me the "pops" of color for pops}. Sooooo my bright idea was to pick out two skeins : one that was "mostly grey" and then pair that with one of skeins with brighter colors. Long story long, I went with Olympia for the greys and Arcadia for the colors. Knitting the hat with both yarns held together produces the hat you see in the first picture.

Here's the basic pattern on size US10 needles with the amazing yarn held double:
~ cast on 72 stitches using either the magic loop or double pointed needles
~ knit 2 purl 2 for seven rounds
~ knit straight for 36 rounds
~ decrease round : knit 1 knit 2 together all the way around (48 stitches remain)
~ knit 2 rounds
~ decrease round : knit 1 knit 2 together all the way around (32 stitches remain)
~ knit 2 rounds
~ decrease round : knit 2 together all the way around (16 stitches remain)
~ decrease round : knit 2 together all the way around (8 stitches remain)

~ cut your yarn, thread it through the remaining stitches, pull it tight and close up your hat!

I was surprised at how much the Olympia skein toned down the colors in Arcadia. Honestly, I think C would have liked it a little brighter, but I like the muted look.

Since that first hat was so easy and the results such a fun surprise, I picked up two more skeins another  Arcadia and a Rainforest. Notice how different this Arcadia {on the left} is from the one above.

I think there's time for one more hat, but then it's back to the elving… I'll just stock up on amazing combinations in case we need a last minute gift :-).

More elving

Learning new stitches and knitting in white with wooden needles is making this project fun!

The Christmas "elving" has begun!

Experimenting with some new projects!