Crafts!

Sometimes, despite my best intentions and my love of homemade bread, very little baking happens in this house.  When I'm not baking, I'm often working, but I'm also in the middle of a number of other projects during my free time.  Lately, my main projects have been knitting and crocheting.  Individualized arm-warmers are so much fun to make, and typically only take a few days.  Over Christmas I made a fabulous pair for my best friend:

The pattern is easy - 36 stitches across, knit until they're long enough, then sew up the edges, leaving about two inches for a thumb hole.  On this pair, using a hunter green tweed yarn, I got a little creative with the cabling in an attempt to bring out the flecks of color in the tweed.  Every time I see my friend she's wearing them.  I recently followed this up with a lovely pair of teal, cabled arm-warmers for myself that button all the way up the sides, with a matching hat!

I have also been hard at work on a long-term crochet project - started in July 2010:

This afghan was meant to be a wedding present for two of my good friends who were married in August, but now it's March and I'm only about a quarter of the way finished.  I really hope they don't repaint their house anytime soon!