So many hobbies!

Decisions, decisions

So, I've been in a funk lately, not really feeling like doing anything.  To get myself out of it, I decided to try some retail therapy.  I don't do it very often but I just couldn't resist this fabric:

 

Yes, I'm going to make myself a Halloween quilt.  Right now the hard part, besides waiting for my fabric to show up, is picking a pattern.  So far I've come up with something similar to this one or these two.  What I like about each pattern is they both have larger pieces so the fabric shows through in all it's glory (or should that be "gory"?  Bwahaha!)  (Sorry, it's been a long day.)  I'm open to any other suggestions.  Or tell me which is your favorite.

Once I get this quilt made, I'm going to bind it with this fabric:

 

I haven't been excited about Halloween since I stopped trick-or-treating and this fabric is making me want to go carve a pumpkin.  Those little bats are freaking adorable!  Hmm, I think I should make a different quilt for each month of the year.  (Really going to need Grandma's cedar chest, Mom.)  I've already got three done so hey, I'm on a roll.

So this weekend, the plan is for some quilting, some apple freezing, possibly a movie and, if I'm feeling really industrious, dyeing some roving.  Fortunately, the weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend here in Michigan.  What's on your agenda?

More swatches

 

I found my stash of yarn from the sheep breed classes I took a few years ago.  I had completely forgotten I still had them.  Clockwise from the upper left we have Romney, Coopworth and Border Leicester.  These are all long wools which means longer fibers, generally a nice shine and usually coarser than wools such as Merino and Corriedale.  (Click here to see the various breeds and read all about them.  There is a HUGE variety of sheep!)

 

I've been occasionally surprised by how some of the yarns has knitted up.  These, clockwise from the upper left, are Blue-faced Leicester (BFL), Romeldale, Polypay and Texel.  The two on the left are long wools and the two on the right are fine wools.  All of these would make wonderful sweaters.

I'm contemplating making Pumpkin Butter this weekend.  Here's my issue:  I've always made my preserves/canning from fresh picked fruit.  This time, however, I'm considering using canned pumpkin instead.  It just feels like cheating to me to open a can instead of going to the local Farmer's Market and buying a local pie pumpkin, even though taste tests have shown that canned pumpkin is just as good as the fresh made stuff.  I've even got a can in my pantry (my Pumpkin Cranberry bread is to die for!) ready to be used.  So is it cheating if I pop open the can or should I just suck it up and go buy a pumpkin?

Apples

 

Let's hear it for apple orchards... and fresh cider and donuts.  Alice and I picked apples at Erwin Orchards Saturday.  This is our haul.  Half of those apples are mine.  One of those bags is half a bushel.  I don't know about other states, but it seems as though every apple orchard and cider mill in Michigan also makes donuts.  And those donuts seem to be more moist and tender than any bakery donut you could find.  Man those were good!

The fresh picked apples are great, too.  I've already had 4 apples today and the day isn't over yet. 

 

7:30 this morning and I was peeling and coring apples for apple sauce.  See that yellow bowl?  Two of those full of apples was 12 pounds worth.  It took about four hours from start to finish but I ended up with 10 pints of chunky applesauce:

 

Chunky applesauce is my favorite.  I like my food to have texture and smooth applesauce just feels like baby food.  I filled a couple jars too full and they leaked in their hot water bath.  They still sealed but I need to watch them to make sure they stay sealed.  Those three that leaked will be the first ones eaten.  Mmm, yummy chunky cinnamon apple sauce.  I somehow managed to get to the end of summer without freezing any fruit so I'm thrilled to have fresh applesauce to eat during the winter.  My mom has already requested a jar.

There's still a half a bushel of apples left and I can only eat so many.  I'll take any suggestions on what to do with them.  I think I'll freeze a few quart bags to make apple crisp during the winter but that's still only going to cover a few.  So tell me, do you have a favorite recipe that uses apples?  Muffins?  Cake?  Coffee cake?  I'm not so much into pie, partially because it's way more work than I want to do.  I prefer something cakey and crumbly.

 

She helped when I was peeling, too.

Saturday

 

Saturday was Worldwide Spin In Public day.  I drove to the Spinning Loft in Howell to join the crowd of spinners.  The original plan was to sit out on the sidewalk in front of the shop and spin.  Unfortunately, it was too cold so we were inside in the hallway between the Loft and the restaurant next door.  We all had lots of fun.  I spun up some Texel to add to my breed book.  Friday night I spun both yak and camel.  They were hard, at least for me, to spin alone so I blended them, separately, with some lovely soft Merino wool.  The knitted swatches are going to be wonderfully soft.

Today was the Spinner's Flock Fleece Fair in Chelsea.  I went to keep my friend Alice company and ended up buying a couple of ounces of gorgeous angora fiber.  It totally wasn't my fault!  I blame Alice who made me go and Jan who owns the angora rabbit who gave up his fleece.  It's possible I was affected by the wool fumes as well.  Besides, it's really beautiful fiber.

Spinning tool box

 

I got tired of having all my spinning stuff scattered around my condo, so I corralled it.  I now have my hand cards, mini combs, flick, extra bobbins, small and large niddy noddies, a notebook, pen, wheel oil and diz... everything, all right where I can find them in this nice big tool bin.  And there's extra room for future stuff.  The handle rotates so I can easily get to anything inside and it's padded so it's nice and comfy.  Also, there's a shoulder strap which is good, since I usually have a lot of stuff to carry and not enough hands to carry them.  Of course, now I have to find someplace to store this thing.  Urm... I think I'll move out of the coat closet the little storage unit, buy a milk crate to store the few things in the storage thingy and then set my new tool box on top.  Perfect.  It'll be out of sight but still easily accessible which is good because I do all my spinning in the livingroom.  Hmm, or I can just flip the storage thingy over so the feet are sticking up and put my tool box in between the feet.  Yes, I think that'll work just fine and I won't have to go buy anything.  And so I did just that:

 

The cats were very helpful.

You won't believe this one

 

I found a five-leaf clover!  In the same patch as the four-leaf clover I found a couple of weeks ago.  I hope this means my luck is going to change.  I could use some beefing up in the luck department.

Potatoes!

 

This is from four of my pots of potatoes.  I've got two more pots and the two potato boxes to harvest. These aren't a lot of taters in the grand scheme of things but it's just enough for me to enjoy before they start to sprout.   Unfortunately, my tomatoes didn't produce as well as the potatoes did.  I'm considering not planting anything next spring; there's a awful lot of work for not a lot of produce.  Of course, I say that now but things will likely be very different in six months.  It's hard to resist planting in the spring after a long, cold winter.

 

This is mostly what I've been doing this weekend.  When I finish spinning onto this bobbin, it'll have 3.5 ounces of singles.  Plied it'll give me enough for the second color for Catkin.

Saturday I scoured a couple ounces each of Texel, Romeldale and Cotswold wools.  Sadly, the tips of the Cotswold were VERY dirty and while trying to clean them, I managed to felt it.  Rats!  Don't let anyone tell you that you can't felt long wools.  Texel is a new breed to me.  I'm looking forward to adding it to my breed book.  The Romeldale and Cotswold are wools I've played with before but I don't have a knitted swatch to add to my collection.  I've still got a few ounces of wool from three other breeds left to scour and spin up.  I'll try and remember to take pictures next time.

 

This is mostly what the cats have been doing this weekend.  That is when they're not stealing my yarn.  I'm not sure how they do it, but somehow these small creatures manage to take up the entire darn couch!

 

 

Rain, rain, go away!

It's been raining since I got back from Pennsylvania.  If you've been listening to the news, you'll know that PA is experiencing record floods.  Whatever weather we get here in southeast Michigan, my sister gets in PA a day or two later.  Their town is a mess.

I had a great time in PA with my sister and BIL.  I got to snuggle the cats as much as they'd let me.  This is Tuxedo.  Tuxie loves me.

 

And this is Snookums (also sometimes known as Cartman).  Tuxie and Snooky are half-siblings.

 

My sister and I both worked on quilts, watched some TV, went to a couple of stores and talked a lot.  I can't wait until Christmas when I see them again.  I finished up two quilts, using a new foot to sew down the bindings.  It works pretty well and I may be doing all my bindings this was from now on.  It certainly will cut down on the time it takes to finish a quilt.  I'll get pictures as soon as the weather clears up and I can take pics that aren't total garbage.

I'm jumping on the What is the Yarn Harlot Knitting Now bandwagon and moving Catkin (sorry, it's a Ravelry link) to the second place on my to-knit list.  I'm spinning the yarn for it now.  I'll work on Catkin after I finish the Spring Awakening shawl.  Of course, in there somewhere I have two pairs of socks to finish and at least one pair of mittens to start and finish.  I think I might be ready to take a break from quilting for a while.  I'm kind of in a slump right now what with summer ending and the constant rain and clouds.  I don't do well with excessive cloud cover.  I don't know quite what to do with myself.  Plus, life has caught up with me and I've had to cancel my last camping trip of the year.  It was supposed to be a couple of weeks from now and I was really looking forward to it.  I'll have to plan something fun for that weekend.

I was hoping to pick up peaches this weekend but I've been warned by the owner of the orchard that if they get the crowds they're expecting, there won't be any peaches left by Sunday when I need them.  I'm not terribly happy about that.  If the rain lets up, I may pick raspberries instead.  If. If. If.  Gah!  I hate uncertainty.  It makes it hard to make plans.

What are you doing this weekend?  Hope your's is rain-free!

I'm such a sap

 

No matter how many times I watch Lord of the Rings, I always cry at the very end when Frodo sails away.

I'm heading to my sister's this weekend (yay!).  I'll spend Friday driving there and Tuesday driving back.  Thank goodness for books on tape.