The San Francisco treat

Someone told me the other day that Rice-A-Roni was first developed as a competitor to boxed mac and cheese. Suddenly, many things became clear. Well, one--the name. Really, I'd never thought of it in that way, although the association is obvious. It was obvious even when I was a kid, because my nickname through much of elementary school was Rice-Aruni, and sometimes Macaruni. Not all of elementary school, mind you--it took a while for the kids to come up with that sophisticated rhyming scheme (I swear, I got "Atuni" at one point, which was pretty poor). On the whole, I think I got off pretty easy. All of this has nothing whatsoever to do with Calorimetry, which I knit up yesterday in an attempt to get the momentum going. It's practical, in that it's a pain in the butt to wear my hair down whenever putting on a hat, and pretty cute as well, I think. It took a little fiddling to get it down to the correct size (despite my relatively gigantic head). I cast on 100 stitches instead of 120 and worked row 5 until I had 22 stitches outside of the markers instead of 38. I was using some plummy Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran left over from Tempting, below, and stuck in a few stripes of black Mission Falls Wool because I was afraid I'd run out of yarn, but I think it works. I also have Ella on the needles, and want to get past the increases before starting the real work (family gifts, etc.):