I just got back from an amazing week spent on a lake in Maine with my family—canoeing, swimming, and nightly fires—and have successfully beat the post-vacation blues. I usually spend a couple of days, after coming back home, wallowing in the banality of my daily routines, lamenting the fact that I’m no longer carefree or adventurous. This time around, though I missed waking up early with my parents to work on puzzles or jump into the lake and paddle a canoe, I was excited to get the house ready for the fall semester. I immediately began tidying, packing things away, and baking and cooking up a storm. Time for proper meals becomes sparse once classes begin, so it was imperative that I look ahead and do some batch cooking and ensure that we had food in the house to get us through busy days and long evenings. It also meant that, while pots of soup simmered and cookies chilled in the freezer, I had plenty of time to knit.
I started the pumpkin-hued socks while in Maine, using up a skein of my hand-dyed. The cuff is a sturdy broken rib stitch, and flows into plain and simple stockinette: the perfect vacation stitch. That lump of gray tweed beside the sock yarn is some lovely Berroco Blackstone Tweed, slated for a Wordsworth. I swatched on several different needles, as I am a perennially loose knitter, and have finally settled on my preferred fabric. The yarn was sort of odd to work with—it felt smooth in the ball with occasional nubs of tweed, but as I knit with it, it felt increasingly lumpy, which made it difficult to manipulate. The fabric looked good before blocking, with great drape and stitch definition, and became exponentially better looking after a good wash. We’ll see how I make out with the actual knitting, and hope that I get over the feel of the wool. In any case, I’m excited to be working on sweaters again, and fully blame the desire to do so on the 45 degree nights we had in Maine. Of course, the moment we got back to Boston, the temperature was back in the 90s. Alas, such is life in New England.
And finally, part of my cooking-marathon: curried zucchini soup. If you have zucchini to use up (as I’m sure many CSA subscribers do right now!), and like a bit of a kick to your soup, MAKE THIS. It’s quick and easy, is relatively healthy, and, most importantly, simmers long enough to make a swatch for a sweater. I think it would be incredible with some raita on top, or perhaps spiced or candied walnuts. I look forward to exploring the possibilities for experimentation with this soup base.
I’ll be back soon to share some more knitting and some cookies that are perfect with afternoon (or morning!) tea. Happy Monday!
crafting a better life. 
oooh — that soup looks fantastic. adding this to my cooking queue — and i love the way you describe how long it simmers. long enough to swatch for a sweater is my type of temporal unit…love the photos in the this post, and looking forward to seeing those knitting projects progress. welcome back. hope the semester starts off well for you guys!
I ate some more of the soup for dinner with a dollop of fresh sour cream on top—YUM. It’s really a wonderful dish, very hearty and filling and perfect for the psychological shift towards fall. Thanks so much!
oh, yay for fall, with soups and wool and such. i am having returning to my own routine after a few days away – i’m not sure that it’s necessarily missing the carefree vacation days, but more feeling unable to focus and unsure how to settle back into the projects i was working on before leaving. i’m sure it will come.
i think that wordsworth is going to be beautiful. you’ve kind of got me wanting to cast on for my own.
What a perfect way to capture the essence of fall: soups and wool. Perfect!
And Wordsworth has been a very enjoyable knit. Surprisingly fast, too! I would definitely recommend the pattern, as it is completely mindless, which allows the brain to wander to places beyond the needles in your lap.
I’m so glad you got to take a break before the beginning of classes! This is your last year, right? Hang in there, just a little more school stress, and you’ll be done before you know it.
That soup looks and sounds delicious! And your holiday sounds wonderful – and, to me, so authentically American! Hope you’re nicely settled into soup-and-sweater weather now.