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I'm starting to get tired of the construction business. I'm up to 10 houses and trying to decide how many I should make. 12? 16? And how I should put the quilt together.
My cousin requested more windows so I guess the next few better have windows. I'm starting to run out of oompf and ideas.
Anyone have anything planned for the Fourth of July weekend?
When I'm at work, all I can think about is going home and quilting.
I'm still cutting the peaks off my roofs. Darn it.
But I'm getting better. And some of my houses even have lawns.
A long weekend is coming and the sun is shining. (This one needs some grass I think. And now that I'm done torturing that poor sun, I've thought of another way the would have looked much neater.)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan doesn't have any real reason to be on my blog other than I think he's gorgeous. I thought I'd share.
I got inspired today. Not for what I was supposed to be doing, of course, but for something else. I've been seeing, and liking, the house blocks some quilters have been making so I decided to make some of my own. This will undoubtedly be an in-progress project that I'll add to here and there. This was the first one I made.
I'm still trying to figure out how to make these. It's not as easy as you might think. Well, not for me anyway.
This one's my favorite.
This one comes in second.
I took the kids to the vet Saturday for a check-up and shots. Dr. White says they're in great shape, they won't grow anymore and I should switch them to adult food. My babies are all grown up. <sniff sniff> Well, almost. Tyr still hasn't figured out that thing attached to her behind and Galen still wants to be held. They're very sweet and that's something I hope they never grow out of.
I did really well for almost 6 months. I didn't buy even a single ply of yarn that whole time. Then I saw this shawl (Ravelry link) and my resolve was completely shot. This is the next thing on my knitting project list:
This is the variation has been knitted by a woman on Ravelry named Tesae. It has more new things for me to learn, like nupps. I have a problem, though. I have two color combinations and I can't choose between the two. Here's the first one:
And here's the second one:
(I know it's more or less a copy of what's already been done but I just love how it looks.) I'm not a sports fan so the resemblence to any team colors are coincidence and frankly, I don't care. I just like them. So which combo should I choose?
Making jam is one of my favorite summertime activities. I'm not that thrilled with the facial I get each time but I love to see the filled jars all lined up.
Nine jars of Strawberry jam. I'm going to love cracking one of these open when the snow is flying. It's summer in a jar.
Four jars of Strawberry Balsamic jam. I'm still on the fence about this one. The balsamic vinegar adds a dark, smokey flavor to the jam. It'll be good, I think, on biscuits or rolls but I'm not too sure how it'll go on a PB&J, which is how I eat most of my jam. Still, I like trying new recipes. I'm sure I'll find homes all of it.
Alice and I had a good time Saturday berry picking. The picking was great as you can see from the pic. I came home with 11.6 pounds of red gold. I've got one double batch of jam done and at least one more planned. I'm also going to try Strawberry Balsamic jam for the first time. From what I've heard, it's wonderful. I'm thinking of entering some of my jam in the Great Lakes Agricultural Fair this fall. I've never entered in the jam contest before so this should be fun.
Today was a day of crossing things off my To-Do List. I managed to get most of the list taken care of which was made easier by the fact that Tyr woke me up at 5:30. Again. I got the week's groceries, called my dad for Father's Day, washed the dishes, the litterboxes were completely emptied and refilled, made one batch of jam, made the binding for one of my quilts, folded the whites and washed the darks, added dirt to the potato boxes, weeded the garden, and finished a quilt top that had been languishing for a couple of months. The cats, after waking me up at an ungodly hour, spent most of the day sleeping on my bed. Stinkers.
Galen had a grand time this morning chasing his favorite paper wad around the house. Nothing detered him including batting it under the furniture.
One of Tyr's favorite hang-outs is the end of the ironing board. I was flat on my back when I took this one with Galen weaving back and forth between and around my legs purring loudly. He was thrilled to have me down at his level.
I really need another day to take care of the rest of the strawberries. I should get two, maybe three, more batches of jam from the berries in the fridge. I don't like the consistency of frozen strawberries so freezing is out. I've made fruit leather in the past (which is awesome if you get the chance to make it) but I don't have a food dryer anymore. That pretty much leaves jam.
Now, however, I'm off to bed. It's been a very long day. I'll have pictures of all the jam once I've finished making it.
Finally! The neverending bind-off is finally finished and the ends are woven in. The shawl got a bath and now it's drying on my new blocking matts with my new blocking pins and wires. Actually, I've had the wires for a while but never had a chance to use them before now. Not a bad job for my first blocking experience. I think I need to tweak upward the right side, though... and shape the bottom point a little better. I'm glad I bought the extra pins because I used all but two of them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this; it's a little big for a neck wrap and too small for a shawl. Doesn't really matter too much: I made the shawl because I wanted to not because I needed one.
Now to bed...
I'm more than half-way done but this bind-off is taking F O R E V E R! It took me a while to get the hang of it but now I'm a pro. Rarely do I have the urge to to knit the same pattern twice but I've enjoyed this one so much I'm pretty sure I'll knit it again at some point. Also, I'm absolutely in love with bottom-up shawls. I found a handful I like on Ravelry but most shawls are designed top-down. The rows on bottom-up shawls get shorter as you go until you're flying through the shawl at the end. It's great.
I'm eager to get the shawl done and start working on quilts again. I have two quilts that need bindings and two I'm still piecing. It's great to have different hobbies to bounce between. As soon as you get tired of one hobby, you can switch to the other. Or in my case, I can switch between knitting, spinning and quilting.
It's strawberry season and the beginning of the summer U-pick season. One of my girlfriends and I are picking this Saturday. The rest of the weekend I'll be making strawberry jam. Yummm! Strawberries are just the beginning. After strawberries comes sweet and sour cherries, then blueberries, peaches, raspberries and finally apples. Oh yeah, and around the first of July will be cucumbers for pickles. I found a farm about half an hour from my house that sells U-pick cukes. I haven't made pickles in YEARS so I'm looking forward to this. I'm hoping one of the recipes I have will give me the sweet pickles you buy in the grocery store. I adore sweet pickles.
I'm looking for some good blueberry recipes. Anyone have a favorite blueberry cake recipe? I've still got berries in the freezer and I need to use them up before the blueberry season starts. Any help would be appreciated.
Tyr has a tendency to steal my yarn when I'm not looking so I put my knitting in this clear plastic tote just to torment her. Revenge is sweet!
I learned a very important lesson this weekend about knitting gauge swatches. I thought, "It's a shawl! Why do I care about gauge?" Well, if you want your shawl to be a certain size, you can't have 5.75 stitches to the inch when you're supposed to have 4.25 stitches to the inch. The shawl you end up with is going to be SMALLER THAN YOU WANTED! The darn thing is going to be a neck scarf and I wanted a wrap. Note to self: Next time, knit the stinkin' gauge swatch!
Galen was very snuggly today...
Tyr was just happy to be close...
This morning, however, she was in a very different mood:
Happy work week. I'm making cookies.
I've nothing crafty or arty to show so here's another picture of the kids.
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