She's a dance, dance, dance, dance dancing machine!

I like routine, sometimes a bit too much.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy the past couple of months with knitting and canning. Like I'd said in an earlier post, canning has become an obsession, and it's a time consuming one: recipe research, trips to farmers' markets, schlepping to the hardware store for jars, sterilizing said jars, cooking up the goods and cleaning up the resultant mess. The more I do it, the easier and more routine it becomes; I know what to do and learn what to expect, get my timing down. It's been super fun, but looking back, I see how much of my free time it's taken. I like that; I like being productive. But I think I've also really quieted my social life quite a bit. Which is also OK; I like concentrating and concentration requires other things to take a back seat. But sometimes, enough is enough. The other night I felt like Diana Ross, singing: I'm coming out!



Really, who has more style than her? Too bad about those DUIs a few years back. Back to me:

I got to change things up the other Friday at a super fun party. The older my friends and I get, the fewer parties crop up, but this one made up for the dearth. What's better than a house party with a DJ playing funk and soul music? Stayed out past 4, so my a** was dragging the next day. But it felt good; even waking up this morning looking like road kill felt good. It was a reminder that I'm not just this canning, knitting shut-in.

That being said, I do love to knit.

Pattern: Viking Hat
Needles: US8s/5mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solid
Started: September 12
Finished: September 14

So cute! And fun. Intended for a duo of babies to be, the sexes of which are still unknown. When they reveal themselves, I will add either little braids (for girls) or ear-flaps (for boys) to the hats. The yarn is 100% acrylic, but soft and washable, which I consider to be of paramount importance when knitting for children. I made two hats, each of which knit up in about 4 hours, including making, stuffing and sewing on the horns. The horns are a bit wonky, because I'm not the best seamstress, but I don't think the recipients will mind.

I've also finished Sylvi, save for sewing on the flower petals. Pictures of that next time!

You are an obsession, You're my obsession*

When I get into something, I really get into it. I know in my heart of hearts that it's a good idea, a good plan, a worthwhile use of my time. I want to know it, understand it, really experience it. The obsession may not last forever, but while it does, it is glorious. It's how I was with knitting, how I was with cake baking and how I've become with canning. Witness:

The product of my first week of putting up food. So far I've canned cherries and plums, made dill pickles, dilly beans, apricot jam, bourbon cherries and sour cherry preserves, and enjoyed every sweaty (it is August, after all) minute of it. I have to say that this has made me feel incredibly productive. What I mean is that I'm not a lazy person, but the projects I usually work on are small and discrete: knitting a child's sweater, sewing a set of napkins, crocheting a lapghan, baking scones. With canning, the volume of the end product seems so much more significant and takes so much less time to produce, that it's rather gratifying. I'm a little late to the game this season, so I may be doing more pickling than fruit canning this year, but I'm excited about it nonetheless. The Ball Blue Book has lots of intriguing recipes that will keep me busy for the next few weeks at least.

Last week I did manage to do a bit more than simply go to work and preserve foods. I also watched Season 5 of Entourage in it's entirety, met up with the Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill Kitting & Crocheting peeps for some crafting and bingo:

and went to the Flea with Alex and Matt.





Fun! They just moved to Brooklyn from the UWS and have done a commendable job of integrating themselves into the 'hood.

That's the lobster roll they bought for me. It was delicious! Not too much mayo, toasted bread and some green onions, rather than the celery more typically found in a lobster roll. I could not have asked for a better summer lunch.

Details:
Pattern: Springtime Bandit, by Kate Gagnon Osborn, from Kelbourn Woolens
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed
Needles: US7s/4.5mm
Started: July 6
Finished: July 16

It's a gift, but for a non-blog reader, so I think it's safe to show. I started this on the plane to Stockholm and had grand plans of finishing it on my return flight. Those plans were disrupted by my viewing of 17 Again, Duplicity and something else the title of which escapes my just now. This yarn is incredibly soft and cozy, requisite qualities for something that's to be scrunched up against one's neck. I've wet blocked it once, and it did open up quite a bit, but not quite enough for my liking. I'm considering another go-around, as I'd like the pattern to be a bit more visible.



Overall, I'm quite happy with this project, and look forward to presenting it to it's future owner.

*Don't tell me you've forgotten about Animotion!

At long last, summer!

This has been kind of a sad summer, not because of anything that's happened, but because of circumstance. Weather circumstance. We've had a lot of rain here in New York, rain that has prevented trips to the beach, bike rides, walks in the park. In short, the opportunities for outdoor living have been severely curtailed this summer, which is sad. Last summer was glorious! I spent so much time in Prospect Park, running, riding my bike. I wandered about new (to me) neighborhoods, ate lots of frozen yogurt, walked home from work at least three days a week. So lovely. So it was with great excitement and gratitude that I greeted this past Saturday, a bright, dry and sunshiny day!

When I woke up on Saturday, I was was bursting with energy and plans, both novel and mundane. Run? Check. Laundry? Check. CSA? Farmer's market? Check and check. Obligations taken care of, I dove into some fun stuff: Kool-Aid dying:



Wet wool smells so much better when stewing in a vat of grape Kool Aid. I worked on some yarn that was given to me by Oiyi during a destash. I wanted to darken it up a bit, make it a little more autumnal. The yarn is a wool-acrylic blend, and acrylic won't pick up the dye from Kool Aid, so I knew I wouldn't get an incredibly vibrant effect, but I was pleased with how well it worked. The original yarn color was heathered lavender, and I dyed three skeins with grape Kool Aid and one skein with cherry. In the pot above you can see the grape doing it's work (no finished picture, yet), and below is the skein dyed with cherry, drying in my sunny backyard. It's a weird color, but I like it. I haven't settled on a plan for the newly dyed yarn, yet, but I'm thinking striped, cropped v-neck cardigan. Most of all, I'm happy to have picked up a new skill.

While the skeins were a-dryin', I loped off to my neighborhood park with my knitting and a book to enjoy a bit of the blessed weather. The park was as nice as expected, and I found myself a sweet spot on a small slope in the sun. I spent most of the time reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (so good!) and watching my neighbors. New Yorkers crack me up with their compulsive tanning. I'm of the camp that swimsuits should be worn when near water, otherwise one looks at best out of place and at worst like an exhibitionist skeezer, so it still (after 14 years of living here) surprises me to see people in the middle of a city wearing swim trunks and bikinis without a swimming pool, fountain, river, lake or sprinkler in sight. If seeking Vit. D while in a city, there's nothing wrong with shorts and a tank top, but I kind of feel (and it's not a super strong feeling, more of a preference) that if you want to do some serious tanning, tanning that requires a bikini or the like, you ought to get thee too a beach.

The sunny, summery weather had me thinking about canning, something my mother and grandmother used to do in July and August. I'd never canned myself, but decided that given my background, it was high time that I learned. I've been following a blog about canning called Food in Jars for a bit now, and the author's practical posts had me feeling that it was something entirely within my abilities. So . . . I headed off to Target to purchase my supplies, including this, the bible of canning:

There are so many exciting recipes in there, I can hardly stand it! Instructions read and supplies purchased, several hours later, I had these:


Four pints of sweet cherries in a light syrup. I think they're beautiful! And I'm hooked, hooked I say! I've a feeling that friends and loved ones will be receiving canned gifts from me this holiday season, in addition to knitted ones. The only thing that may get in my way is the blasted rain we've been having. It's really limited some of the local crops, and fruit (including tomatoes, which have been hit by late blight), in particular, has not been as abundant as in other, drier years. Rest assured, though, that this is not the last of my adventures in canning.

After four back-to-back gift projects, which I cannot yet share here, I have started a project for myself. Its Seedum, by Canadian knitter/designer Jane Richmond.

After all of my yearning for summer, I go and start a heavy fall sweater, and in seed stitch, no less. Go figure.