I made tomato juice bread this weekend. (Link is to a recipe - modified for bread machine - that I posted a couple years ago).

I like tomato bread; I always forget how good it is. True, it's not good for peanut butter sandwiches or toast if you're planning on putting something sweet on the toast, but it's excellent just as buttered toast, or with a little cheese melted on it, or as the basis for a meat sandwich of some kind. (It might also be good with marinated tofu on it, or some kind of grilled vegetable. It would probably make a nice portobello mushroom sandwich.)



The finished bread. The top crust often gets a bit "collapsey" - I haven't found the ideal amount of wheat gluten to add to the bread to make it rise enough, but not too much. (I tried just over a teaspoon here and it was better than it often is).

Here it is cut. The Sterns (I originally got the recipe from their book, "Square Meals") describe the bread as "pretty pink" but frankly, every time I've made it, it's looked more orange to me.



As I noted in the recipe, the little 5.5 ounce cans of Campbell's juice that you can buy are just about right for a 3-cup-of-flour loaf.
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I also finished the first of the undulating rib socks (from "Favorite Knitted Socks").

The finished sock looks nice enough:


But then you put it on, and, wow, it comes to life:



The pattern stretches out and you can actually SEE it.



I love it when that happens.

I also love the yarn - it's Shibui "Sock!" and it has a nice feel - it's smooth and soft and actually feels not unlike a slightly "firmer" version of Koigu.

It took almost all of one skein to make a sock - I think the skeins are just a bit smaller than some other 50 g skeined sock yarns.
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And thank goodness for Harry Potter movie marathons. Being able to watch a fun escapist movie (or rather movieS) helps a lot with the Sad. As I've said before (I think), I love these movies because of the whole idea of an alternate world they create - that there's this unseen wizard underground, right alongside us, where things are more cool and more fun and more, well, magical. And I like all of the little touches - the different foods, the idea of the Knight Bus, the mystical beasts. I would have adored Harry Potter if it had been around when I was 10 or 11.

And even as an adult, I can still enjoy it.
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I'm contemplating a bit of yarn re-purposing. I have some KnitPicks Andean Silk in my stash - in one of the discontinued "twist" colors. I had originally bought it for a Clapotis - but I already have two of those. And I've been looking at Teva Durham's "Turtleneck Shrug" in "Scarf Style" (For those not familiar- it's kind of what it sounds like - a turtleneck neck with sleeves attached. It's sort of cute though perhaps not something I'd wear outside of the house). But I sort of want one, because in the winter, I read in bed a lot, and my shoulders and arms get cold. And that would be kind of an ideal thing to have - both for reading in bed and for sitting on my sofa in my drafty living room.

(Here's one example of the shrug. And another. I admit it's a bit odd looking, and perhaps is What Not To Wear (at least in some people's opinions), but it does have a certain charm. And I can see that it would be warm and cozy on a chilly winter evening.)

The original is made of Kid Classic, which is a perfectly nice yarn, but one that I find a bit scratchy for next-to-the-skin (as it would be in the turtleneck part). And it's too expensive for me to justify buying four balls for something I'd only wear at home. But I'm thinking - the Andean silk is a similar gauge, it's nice and soft (and warm). So I might pull it out of the stash and use it for that pattern instead of leaving it to sit until I feel like knitting another Clapotis (if I ever do).

And heck, if the heating in room 209 of my building fails again this winter (as it has every year so far), I could always take it over and use it to keep my arms warm in class. No matter that I think of myself in the thing and think either "Mutton dressed as lamb" or "but the design of it will make my chest look even bigger than it already is" (And yes, that can be a drawback).