Soup, Pizza and Knitting: It's Fall!

As I am full swing into Christmas knitting, I will have limited FOs to show until post-December. However, there are a few other non x-mas projects I've completed that I will spread out over the next few entries, interspersed with cooking shots.
Oh, here's one now! (I salivate just remembering this meal) Both are variations of recipes from the October 2007 Real Simple issue. For the potato and leek pizza, I used my usual Barefoot Contessa pizza dough recipe with the suggested toppings. Sooo good, and a nice variation from the norm. With the rest of the leeks I made soup. I used canned pumpkin with fresh squash and added a cut-up apple and some fresh grated ginger, too.

While the pizza and soup were warming me up from the inside out, my recently finished project has been keeping me warm from the outside in. Here's an in-office shot thanks to the MacBook. I really love this pattern: The Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert. I actually really like a lot of her patterns, and one of my Christmas patterns to someone is another of hers. You can get the pattern in .pdf format at the Interweave Knits free pattern page. The sweater is knit in three pieces, starting with the back. Then you start a sleeve and continue increasing until you get this fabulous half circle shape. Besides the ingenious construction, or maybe because of it, it fits perfectly. I did make the longest sleeve length in the pattern and for once they actually cover my wrists- mental note to do that for all upcoming sweaters of mine.
Nicole, you asked me at one point if it was felted, and no, it isn't, though it may look this way in the picture. If you want this sweater to really be a jacket, though, I would use a thicker yarn than I did. Mine was Elisabeth Lavold's Silkly Wool, which as the name implies, is made from silk and wool, so it has a little more drape than 100% wool would. This sweater went very quickly and I really enjoyed the whole process from start to finish. (Which reminds me, for you anti-finishers, there is a lot of sewing for the turn-down hems)