...9.30...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...the Bar Mitts are finished...and I'm happy with the way they turned out...

...a couple of notes about the pattern...it calls for felting DK weight yarn...and since I'm vegan and I don't knit with wool...I just decided to follow the pattern but use a thicker worsted weight yarn...it seems to work well...and I think they will be thick enough to block air flow...

...the other thing was...I was blindly following the pattern...as you do...you know...and she leaves one end open for a mirror...so that's what I did...and since she recommends that you insert elastic on that end...I decided to tie mine up with string...so I crocheted a couple of lengths of chain stitch...

...and wove that into the ribbed ends...

...it was a little bit tedious to do that...

...but I thought I'd have a nice drawstring to keep things snug...

...but when I actually took them out to my bike...you can see that my mirror is not on the end the way hers is...so I don't need either end open on mine...haha...you'd have thought that I would have remembered the placement of my mirror on my 25 year old bicycle...haha...

...but I didn't...no bother though...I just removed the drawstrings and sewed up the ends...they fit nice and snugly around the brake mounts so there's no need for elastic or drawstring there...and they also fit nice and snugly around my hands...I'm just trying them out here...I always wear biking gloves so the top of my hand and wrist will be covered anyway...these mitts will just keep my fingers nice and toasty...

...so...I decided to use the extra yarn and make a bike seat cover...

...because you can see...my seat is not in the best of shape...

....so I took some scrap paper and just smooshed and molded it around the seat...

...and cut that shape out...

...then I laid that flat on some more scrap paper...I keep any odd bits of paper that is not printed on the back just for such a purpose...

...and I traced around the shape I'd cut out...a little bit larger...I'm going to be sewing this seat on over the old one...

...so here's the pattern...it looks huge...haha...

...then I measured a gauge on the Bar Mitts...and just measured every inch up on the seat...I'll use that as a "pattern"...and just knit freehand to those dimensions...it should work...wink...

...what's in your workbasket?...

~Have a lovely day!

...9.28...Over the Weekend...

...let's see...what did we get up to over the weekend...

...we had some of that egg-y vegan toast dipping sauce leftover from Tuesday's with Julia...

...so I just made some toast...

...and that was an easy and delicous little breakfast sorted...

...I had soaked a bag of chickpeas overnight as we were out of them in the freezer...

...cooked those in the intant pot...and froze them in muffin cups...

...but first I turned some of them into a delicous homemade hummus...

...and made some pita bread...

...and veggies to go with that for lunch...

...we got another box of homegrown tomatoes...maybe the last this year...so we'll definitely savour them...

...and another bag of squash and okra...

...Jack got a bath...he doesn't look too happy...

...I made a black walnut pound cake...

...Mom's recipe here...it's so delicious...

...we noticed more pretty fall leaves...

...I cleaned the dirt off of the little concrete pad beside the back steps...

...I'll sweep it good once it's dry...and then we'll park the grill there...

...while we were at it...we swept the steps and ramp to the basement...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...9.26...Dinner and a Movie...

...for dinner I made some delicious "Mom squash"...so called because this is the way that my Mom always made fried squash when I was growing up...the Man's mom kind of scrambles and smashes her fried squash...and you'd be amazed at how different the two types are...

...and then I had a little bit of leftover okra with that...and some black beans and salsa and sweet potato...and a whole plate of tomatoes...we have been so blessed with fresh homegrown veg this year...

...and the movie was The Bird People...and it was such a surprise...not at all what I was expecting...which was I guess a sort of romance film...the two people involved in the 'romance' don't even meet until the very very end of the film...oh...and it's pretty long too...

...so basically...it's about these two people...one a successful businessman who decides to leave everything behind...and I mean everything...wife, children, home, country and job...and start over in France...a lot (but not all) of the film is in French...and it's pretty understandable French too if you want to practice your French...

...and the other character is a young maid at the hotel where this businessman is staying...she turns into a bird...far-fetched I know...but it was an interesting perspective...and it was a very pretty film too...

...I liked it...but the Man did not...quelle surprise...haha...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely day!

...9.25...another Birthday...

...not mine...of course...but we celebrated the Man's birthday this week...

...I had gotten him a few things that I knew he wanted...the brown box is actually a footstool/seat/storage box...and the green Amazon gift bag is from Our Airman...

...I put a couple of other little gifties in the box...

...Our Airman sent the Man a Frywall...which is a really useful and reusable gift...it will come in handy when the Man fries food...

...and to go with it I got him a strainer and a crinkle cut fry maker...so Happy Birthday and happy frying to the Man...

~Have a lovely day!

...9.24...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...Breakfast was my usual bowl of cereal, fruit and almond milk...

...and that didn't last for long and I had an early lunch around 11...I got a bag of frozen individual servings of brown rice out of the freezer...

...and then I just cut up some tomato and mixed that into the thawed/heated rice...

...many years ago when we lived in South Carolina...we had an African-American friend who had grown up poor...and she once told me that they often had rice with tomatoes for a meal when she was little...sadly...she is no longer with us...but I remember her telling this story and how good she thought this was...

...this is actually the first time I've ever made this simple dish...and I really like it...it's just rice and tomatoes...she called it 'Maters and Rice...

...I had that with some defrosted garbanzo beans from the freezer...and some Bread and Butter pickles...after I took the photo I stired some crumbled Nori into the garbanzos too...

...I know I said I wasn't snacking...but I was hungry after noon...so I heated up this little bit of leftover edamame...it was not much of a snack but it was good...

...for dinner...the last of green tomatoes had started to ripen...but that didn't stop me from 'frying' them up in the Foreman Grill...

...made a small cake of vegan cornbread...

...sliced into a slice and filled it with Earth Balance...

...steamed some squash and onions...

...and heated up a couple of muffin cups of beans from the freezer...

...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!

...9.23...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...as it's gotten cold enough here for me to need a sweater to ride my bike in the evenings...I decided to get ready for cooler weather by knitting some Bar Mitts...they'll be perfect to slip my hands into and still be able to work the gears and brakes...

...I bought the yarn before the pandemic...it was an impulse buy...but it was only $1 per skein for some reason...and I liked the bright colours and bought it even though I didn't have a project in mind for it at the time...

...what's in your workbasket?...

~Have a lovely day!

...9.22...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made the delicious VEGAN OEUFS SUR CANAPÉS...OEUFS EN CROUSTADE...two titles on this one...

...it was so good...I'll definitely be making it again...

...and all of th eparticulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!