An FO, plus UFOs, WIPs and the delivery of yarn

So I actually finished a knitting project. Actually I finished it again. Its Emmaline, from knitty. I finished it for the first time toward the beginning of August, tried it on and subsequently tossed it back into the WIP basket. It was too tight at the underbust and to short. I have since frogged back to the widest point if the bust and re-knit the piece. It fits better now, though I still have to weave in the ends and maybe do a bit of blocking.

My grma was visiting this weekend. We made a point of taking her and her brother (my great uncle) to the Minneapolis farmers market. It was fantastic. They grew up on a farm, but shopping at the farmers market was an entirely new experience. I ended up with the ingredients for salsa- canned five pints. Plus got fresh veggies to make a wonderful soup. Mmmmm..soup.

Any way, while they were visiting, I got out all of my various projects, the quilts I'm working on, and my knitting WIPs. the corrie fair isle vest, skew socks, and others. I even brought out my computer to show them my next big project- the Yggdrasil Blanket. I have some sort of sock ADD. It's not second sock syndrome, I'm working them two at a time on a 40" circular needle. Anyway, I think I need something that knits up nice-straight off the needles.

In stead of doing it in the yarn called for-Nature's Choice by Lion Brand- I got a deal on Comfy, in sport weight from Knitpicks. It will produce a smaller blanket than the pattern specifies, but that's ok. I can't wait to cast on....

...Because I got the yarn yesterday... whee!!!

I've been busy...

Last night I sent my grma (that's how she spells it!) a text. Just writing that was wierd. My grma does indeed know how to text. I can thank my teenage cousins for that development. Anywho, all it said was "I've been busy..."

Oh, and it contained this picture:

From the left: pickles, strawberry jam, peach slices, strawberry-rhubarb sauce, blueberry jam.
Yup. I've entered the world of canning. It's actually kind of fun. As long as you don't mind standing in the kitchen with large pots of boiling water and cooking foodstuffs. Since I don't own a pressure canner, I've only been doing foods with enough acidity to preserve safely in a water bath. I'm kind of sad that I didn't start this sooner- when berries were in season. But as we enter fall, pears and apples will be abundant at the farmer's market. (That's where most of the produce originated, except for the peaches, they came from the nearest chain supermarket, but as peaches don't grow well in Minnesota you can't blame me for not buying local.)

And in the background is my birthday present to myself. A mixer. A five-quart bowl, assembled in Ohio, KitchenAid Artisan series mixer. In willow blue. :)

As I hauled it into the kitchen, I joked with my brother that I no longer needed to get married. I mean the whole point of marriage is registering for gifts, right? And as I now own the small kitchen appliance most requested by future brides, (according to Macy's anyway) what other reason would compel me to get married?

It's gotten quite a bit of use already, banana bread, zucchini bread, rhubarb spice cake... Wait until it's cool enough to bake cookies, or bread. I've been told that the dough hook does really well with kneading yeast doughs...

This might explain why I haven't accomplished much in the needlecraft department recently. Hmmm...