FINISHED SOCKS

Every year I write some variation of "summer is kicking my butt" and I guess I should stop thinking of it that way. Summer is a time for me to be present with my kids (and they are 14 so you know that if they want to hang with me, I should take that!), and just enjoy not having to be up at 6:30 and rushing around until we fall into bed at 10:30.

Summer is also a time when I think many people don't want to knit sweaters or blankets, because they are so big they are hard to drag places, and also it is hot and you don't want a huge blanket ON you when it is 90 degrees. A few summers ago, I declared it to be sock summer--in which I was going to darn and knit only socks. Last summer I finished sweaters.

This summer--I'm just taking things as they come. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Last summer I knit all summer on a pair of socks and boy howdy. The first sock was too narrow. So I knit the second sock a bit wider (and it is still snug), and I ended up ripping the narrow sock out. Then I um put it aside.

Then in November, I started another pair of socks. And this one gave me such fits. After, I finished that I also set it aside...

So with the last two sock projects ending up as single socks, You can understand why I was super excited to actually FINISH a whole PAIR of socks!

Finished #socks swipe for a closeup.

A post shared by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jul 8, 2017 at 7:33am PDT

I actually finished them on the drive to our vacation destination. And was doing the bind off as we decided every morning what we were going to do. But of course that meant that we still had an eight hour drive home (which turned into a lot more because of traffic). Things had been so hectic in us trying to get going on vacation (a mere week after school ended and children were still comatose from the stress relief after finals--and right in the middle of a short strawberry season) that I simply had no time to plan a new project. So I grabbed the ripped sock, needles I thought I had used and went with it.

And I spent 4 hours knitting a sock that was way too big.

So, another rip, another start (which thankfully was all in the car so no options for starting something else) and now I actually have most of a sock. No pictures though because again summer...I'm living it not photographing it. Plus, I have to save something else to write about maybe while girls are at camp. I'm actually thinking about digging out the OTHER pattern for the OTHER single sock and perhaps this can be second sock summer.

So, I also mentioned strawberries. I made 6 batches of strawberry jam this year. And a double batch of strawberry lemonade because I accidentally bought enough lemons to make that happen (go me). Today I picked up sour cherries at farmers market so, cherry jam is happening today! Sour cherry jam is one of the grossest things for me to make, but also it is one of the tastiest.

June update

So so much has happened since I last posted so I'd better get right to it.

1) My mother in law: Better. She's home now after 3 weeks in the hospital and 2 weeks in a rehabilitation center/nursing home. Yesterday they gave her permission to walk without a walker or a cane, so progress continues!

2) Strawberry season: Underway! I have purchased 2 flats, then we went and picked yesterday and I picked 6 pounds--and I was trying to go light. Here is what I have made so far from all this strawberry goodness:
Jam of course. So far I have made 4 batches. I might be done. Last year I made 6 (plus 1 each of cherry, peach and peach vanilla) and I ended up with extras. I may make one more to be safe. Hey future me--5 might be the sweet spot!

Strawberry lemonade concentrate. I've made this the last few years. Ball's recipe. I find the squeezing of lemons to be the biggest pain in the butt, but worth it. I never get 7 pints out of it though. 5 full canned pints and about 3/4 of a pint that you need to use immediately. This year was no exception.

Strawberry Marshmallows! This was my first year making these and here's the verdict. They were delicious the first day. Then not so much. They got soggy REALLY fast. I can't decide if it was the advice to grease the pan with cooking spray (IF I make this again, I'll use butter) or the humidity. I still am toying with freezing the puree and making this in the winter.

Strawberry marshmallows #yum

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jun 16, 2016 at 12:47pm PDT

A fresh Strawberry pie! No verdict on this yet as I JUST finished it. This is my mother in law's recipe, as she is the one who usually makes it. She's better, but not THAt much better and I would have hated to say--ok, now that you are up and about could you make me a pie? Instead I said--I'll make the pie, where's your recipe. Since her eyes lit up at the mention of pie and she smiled big when she realized I'd make the pie I knew I'd made the right call. Then when I told her on the phone that it was dinner dessert she told me she couldn't wait--this from someone building their appetite back so good news all around.

3) Sweater knitting!

I've been plugging away (in 90 degree heat at a baseball game even) on the Central Park hoodie for my daughter. I am ready to pick up the ribbing stitches (minimum 300) and because that sounded so exciting, I decided to sew in the sleeves first. Picture? yep:

Octo-sweater.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jun 23, 2016 at 8:21am PDT

Yes, it looks like it has 3 arms, because the sides aren't sewn in and so the sides look like arms. MUST MAKE MYSELF PICK UP STITCHES. The pattern claims 300 will do it for this size, but I made it a little long so the plan is to Pick up as many stitches as it takes to get through one side, try for the same number on the other and be sure it is divisible by 4--easy peasy! (eyeroll) Ask me in a week how that went.

4) Landscaping. We had this hairbrained idea to replace the backyard pond we ripped out a few years ago--ok a dozen years ago. I'm attempting to spend at least 30 minutes on pulling up rocks, and weed barrier fabric every day. Failed yesterday. Trying to get the kids to help is hard because they are more scattered than I am. Stay tuned though as I have been taking progress pictures.

socks, strawberries

Summer is officially kicking my butt. But the socks progress! Actually I knitted so much more than I darned this week, in part because I needed to catch up to the season finale of Game of Thrones, and sometimes I just need to focus on my knitting instead of the tv. So I turned a heel. Even though I can turn a heel while watching, let's just say I watched this heel turn.

I also got out my skein of Modeknit sock yarn

(in "no Spoilers--Merry Maids") and tried to imagine what it would look like knit up as Neldoreth. And sigh. While I could easily imagine the green ("no spoilers Sherlock's kitchen") in this pattern, I'm feeling that this isn't quite right for me in this colorway. And I hate to even say anything like this at all because I LOVE this yarn, and would love to have about 6 other colorways in my "collection" (ie stash) Merry maids is not quite the color I thought it would be. I looks pinker and muddier than I had thought it would be. I'm sure I'll find the perfect pattern for it, but Neldoreth isn't it. hmmm I may have to buy Lyanna blue and/or Daenerys Eyes if they become available in the sock yarn. Red wedding would probably also be good on Neldoreth. And I can not say enough about how lovely this yarn is to work with.
So, I guess the quest continues to find a yarn to go with that pattern, or a pattern to go with my modesock....
Meanwhile, the darning project continues.

So many of the socks in my darning pile are from Knit Picks. Either I knit them too loosely or the yarn is weak, but man they get thin fast, although according to ravelry I finished these in Feb 2012. At any rate, both socks needed heel and foot work. Because summer is kicking me you know where, I have only 1.5 of this repair complete at the end of the "week."
Looking at my to do list shows that while the list was long there are still three items on it--only two I'll try to finish today (as I start next week's list). And in case you are wondering--Change the little frogs' water and darn the socks get the attention while cut off capri's does not. Although to be fair, I did one pair of the 2 pairs of capris I promised to make into shorts for my daughter. After weeks of the "how short do you want them?" question, answered by a shrug, I cut measured a pair of shorts I knew she liked, asked if that was the right length and hemmed them to a 7.5 inch inseam. This is evidently too short. So second pair is on hold.
One item I did not put on the list but should have is: make Strawberry jam. Because boy did I ever. I made 4 batches of freezer jam this week--and 2 last week so 6 total. I'm done with (strawberry) jam (will make cherry and peach and have been asked for blueberry --yuck), and now moving on to strawberry lemonade concentrate this week. Maybe strawberry marshmallows. We keep eating them (the strawberries) though. And I can't imagine a scenario where we eat a whole pan of strawberry marshmallows. I may just freeze the puree needed for them and make them at Christmas when I can give a bunch away.

letter to my blog

Dear poor neglected blog,
I have missed you so very much this past month. But you know how summer is around here. Kids are home all day demanding things like lunch and snacks. Unless they aren't and we are running all over town. But let me see if I can try to catch you up.

We went on vacation and very nearly missed strawberry season. I did manage to make a batch of strawberry lemonade concentrate and two of jam before we left. Then I made three batches when we got home. (so 5 total) We never got to make the strawberry marshmallows or strawberry ice cream. And we never did get to eat enough that kids declared they were "kinda glad the season is over." Next year.

Cherries have started to come in, but not the sours yet. I still have a ton of sour cherries frozen from last year and so tried to make a cherry limeade concentrate thing like the strawberry. It was successful, in that it was good. It was not, in that when I plugged my recipe into a recipe calculator it turned out to be 410 calories a serving. I'm going to try it with less sugar next time, but here is what I did:
2/3 cup lime juice (I squeezed many limes)
1 cup frozen sour pitted cherries
2 cups sugar
Place everything in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved and then bring to a slow boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until cherries are all broken up. Remove from heat, and blend with a stick blender. Strain and cool mixture in the fridge.
This made a pint of syrup. To serve, I used about 1/4 of the pint, and filled the rest of the glass with club soda. It was super sweet, so next time, I want to cut the sugar in half maybe.

Oh I know blog, you want to know if I did any knitting this month! Well of course. We went on vacation, and I was almost done with some socks before we left, so I started a new project for the trip. I started another hoodie from the top down this one in the same yarn as my green one--but in white. Here is me int he green, in case you don't remember

I did finish the socks when we got home. Oh how I love this yarn.

The pattern is a toe up pattern from Ann Budd, with a heel I had to improvise from Socks from the Toe Up. The yarn is Mode Knit in Sherlock's kitchen. It is a tonal green, but every once in a while there was a tiny speck of red. It may have been an error in dyeing, but I kept feeling like it was a mysterious blood spot clue in the kitchen. It was a dream to work with and I loved every minute of it. I knit these on my size 1 DPNs. I can't wait to knit the other skein I bought. Although this yarn begs for cables, so I'll have to wait and find a good pattern.

So, blog you can see that it has been busy, and I haven't even mentioned all the fresh vegetables that require endless seeming hours to prepare (seriously, it takes me 20 minutes to get green beans ready--as opposed to 3 minutes tops from the canned variety). I have been knitting, nearly every day at least after the children go to bed. I took the sweater to the park evem on Saturday as we went to a picnic to honor the lives of our former neighbors (deceased going on three years now) and had a small child run up to me and we had the following conversation:
Little kid: Is that knitting you are doing?
me: yes.
Little kid: cool! My grammy does that. She made me a whole dress, it went from here to here! it is pretty.
me: I bet it is, you are lucky to have a grandma that knits for you
Little kid: I am!
And so there you have it blog, I'm either a hipster or a granny whose loved ones wish desperately I'd knit for them. Next time, I may even tell you about all the yarn I bought on vacation. So stay tuned.

Love, me.

strawberries!

I am having a super emotional day for some reason that might have a little to do with my babies finishing elementary school tomorrow. What better way to get past it than with a little craftiness. Or food.

Strawberries first appeared at the farmers market today! I am hoping to make at least 3 batches of jam this year and 6 pints of strawberry lemonade concentrate. Other plans include strawberry ice cream and strawberry marshmallows. So you can imagine that I'm hoping for an extended season. The berries I bought today though will just be eaten. Well ok, I'm going to try a puff pastry napoleon, but I'm guessing we'll probably demolish the two quarts in a blink. But I am hoping for a batch of jam next week.

I got all my sweaters washed for the summer before June 1, and it made me realize that what I really need is a white sweater. Maybe something a bit lacy so I can wear it in the spring. So far, all I've done to fix that deficit is to say--hmmm I have no white yarn. I can't decide the best plan: buy yarn and then look for a pattern, look for a pattern and THEN buy yarn, or buy yarn and use one of Ann Budd's books to create something. I can see pros and cons to all three approaches.

In the meantime, i am still plugging away on my green socks. I am finding that I will knit forever on the plain rounds, and knit just a few rows when I have something like the heel that I have to think about. So I'm stalled in the heel for the second sock.

Usually I use the short row heel described in Ann Budd's article "Working Socks From the Toe Up" Interweave Knits Spring 2007. However, sometimes my Mary Janes rub funny on the back of my heel. In order to make the socks last longer (maybe) I decided to try a different heel. I've used it before in these socks, although for whatever reason I didn't say what heel I used. It is from Socks from the Toe Upby Wendy Johnson. Just one of her "generic" heels. But the problem I have is either my gauge or my shoe/foot size means that I can't make socks with 64 stitches, they come out HUGE. I use 52 usually, although that's what I like about toe up socks, just keep increasing until it fits!, So I have to fiddle with the numbers, whereas Ann's pattern is really simple to do over any number of stitches (and I was so used to it, that at one point I could do it in my head). Anyway, I am nearing the homestretch of the second heel, so I should be zipping along really soon on those.

I am too lazy to take a picture of those socks, so I'll leave you with some old socks. I was getting blood drawn in May when a lady told me she LOVED my socks. I was so tickled, I had to share it on facebook, so I took this picture.

sock dilemma

I didn't realize it had been nearly a month since I updated. I spent a lot of theta time dithering about what to knit next. (And I made some mango jam, for my future self)

I decided fairly early on that I wanted to make some sort of sock, that had been sitting in my queue for a while. So, I pulled out my book with the waving lace socks, and some brand new Modesock yarn in one of the 221b colors that I think has been discontinued and started swatching.

Oh my is that pretty yarn. And I got a good fabric, but I wasn't quite reaching gauge for the project. Then I realized the finished size for those socks in a good inch smaller than what I usually aim for (2 inches smaller than my foot). It was starting to feel like an Algebra problem. And I wondered if I would have to publicly apologize to my freshman algebra teacher for dissing her notion that we "use Algebra every day".
As a side note, I liked math very much. I was very good at math. I hated word problems, until I got the hang of them (although why anyone would shove 50 watermelons in their car to travel 50km an hour east is beyond me), but I still enjoy math. However, I do not enjoy this kind of math. I just want to have someone say to me, yes, you are supposed to get 9 stitches to the inch, but you are getting 8.5, but you need the sock to be an inch bigger (I don't know--do I need this bigger with my 9 inch round foot?) so go for it.

In the end, I thought I'd try a different yarn. And I did and I think I am closer to gauge, but I still am worried about the sizing issue. Cue pretty yarn picture:

I know the swatches aren't big enough, but hey I swatched!

In the end, I decided to make a plain sock with the Modesock yarn because I love love love it. But I kept feeling like it was needing a little something. A cable maybe, but just something little. I started my toe up and had about 3 inches knit when the knitty surprises came out. I think I am in love with neldoreth. In fact, I think it will be perfect for this yarn. I am having trouble making the commitment and ripping. I am too lazy to try to figure out how to convert that pattern to a toe up. In essence, I am stuck. I should get over it, remind myself that my 3 inch sock is a true gauge swatch and even though it isn't washed (that swatch above is) I can probably still derive useful information out of my work.

What would you do? Would you rip the sock? Would you put the sock on a holder and start on the other end, to see if you liked the knitty pattern? Would you continue making a beautiful but plain sock? Tell me in the comments!

summer update

I have a short 15 minutes before I need to get lunch together for the children. That's how summer has been. One long meal prep followed by cleanup and then meal prep again.

Ok it isn't quite that bad, mostly, we do a lot of stuff in the mornings, including prep stuff for supper, and then head out to the pool for the afternoons. But it does feel like I am spending a lot of time on food. And these next few weeks it will go into hyper overload with corn to be frozen and peaches to be dealt with in addition to the very regular meals. I've already tackled strawberries (5 batches of freezer jam and a half batch of strawberry lemonade), and cherries (one batch of jam, and I lost count how many quarts frozen for crisp)

In the evenings after the kitchen is tidied (doesn't that sound domestic), I've been chilling with my knitting. I finished the lace panel for the Dahlia sweater:

And as expected from someone who didn't "take time to check her gauge" it is a bit bigger than the pattern suggests. I have a 16X17 inch "square" instead of the 13 inch they recommend. I did check gauge (by knitting up the next two pieces) and turns out that I really need to do some reworking. If I continue and make what the pattern says, I'll end up with a sweater that is 29 inches long on the back. So, I need to make the pieces shorter. At least I think I do. I need to read a little more ahead and see if I can figure out the construction.

I'm hoping that I can get it worked out because I really want this sweater.

In the meantime, I leave you with the turkey mama and her two getting bigger babies that wandered through the backyard today. They live somewhere in the neighborhood, as this is about the 3rd visit we've had.

Finished socks

 Here we are the end of June and full into all the regular summer stuff: kids fighting, kids claiming to be bored, and being sick.  What? Your summers aren't filled with this?

I did manage to catch a cold timing it just so that I was most miserable the day the pool opened for the summer (a mere two days after school got out) and ended up at Urgent care over the weekend because, after 10 days, I just could not stand one minute of being sick.  Three hours after starting on antibiotics I started to feel better.  Seriously.

It is strawberry season, and so I have begun the freezer jam.  So far I've made three batches.  I want to make 2 or 3 more.  I mention this because I can't find anywhere, how many I made last year and that number was nearly perfect.  I also delved into canning although not with strawberry jam, but rather Strawberry lemonade.  I made half a batch, and had a little leftover after filling three pints, and so we got to try it and YYYUUUUMMMM!  I've been doing the jam over time, so as not to get tired of it, but with being under the weather, well let's just say I have spent more than my fair share of this "vacation" feeling tired and overwhelmed.

We also took a small trip, traveling to a concert venue in Grand Rapids that has outdoor concerts.  I sat and knit my way through the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.  It was quite perfect for me, to sit surrounded by my happy children, listening to excellent music and knitting a sock.  And it was a LOT of knitting time, so much so I finished the socks.

So of course now it is too hot to actually wear socks, but they will be a nice surprise when the weather turns in September.

I knit these with Lorna's laces Shepherd sock, I thought Lake view but the tag says Icehouse.  I used size US 1 needles and a basic toe up pattern, with a heel flap, short row heel.  I finished with Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy bindoff, which  I found I liked doing.

Now I am debating the next project, as I finished the socks before I had plans for anything else.  I have some ideas though, so now that I am on the mend from my cold, and nearing the end of strawberry jam season, I'm sure I'll have something soon.

gray sweater and jams

Well I certainly didn't mean to take a month break on blogging. I did however, spend most of March really struggling with knitting, in a way that I have not ever done.

I did start the India Print Henley I mentioned in the last entry. I struggled so much with it too. Something about adding stitches at the increases (raglans) and still trying to follow a chart. Sometimes you added stitches on both sides of the chart, and you didn't start at the beginning of the chart, all of which made me confused.

I finally did get it going though, and realizing how to read the simple pattern in such a way that I could figure out where to start pretty easily. And then we went on a trip and I took it along. So I should be showing a you a progress picture with a lot of progress right?

Well, let me tell you about the mid-winter freezer jam I made instead. Although I don't have pictures of that either.
I had a bunch of peaches in the freezer that I put there to make smoothies, Lassis and crips with. However, our Indian food consumption is not what it was last winter (we are trying to eat in more, get the kids to eat what we eat and the Indian take away place has consistency problems that I don't feel like dealing with). Meanwhile, I was running low on jam. So I decided to make peach jam from my frozen peaches. And it worked.... sort of. I generally don't worry about browning in the freezer peaches, so I didn't put anything on them. So they turned a delightful brown. So yeah, I have brown peach jam. Tastes good though.

I also was able to finally find the mangos I like again, and even though I am the only one who appreciated last year's mango jam, I decided to make it again. Wow, when I went back to look I see I made that jam in late April last year and here I thought I was late! I had it in my head that I made that in February. Anyway, I did have the last minute UGH I don't have enough Certo moment when it was time to add it and had to run to an unfamiliar grocery store to get it (baking aisle!)

Ok the reason I wanted a jam interlude is this, when we got to my mom's house on our spring break trip, it was time to "divide body and sleeves" and I discovered that I had done two things a) made an uneven number of increases so my fronts had the right amount of stitches but the sleeves and backs were all 4 off and b) missed the set of instructions that have you NOT increasing at the raglans every RS row all the time, but rather 21 times and THEN every other RS row 3 times or something. So I ...

ripped. it. out.

Yes pause for a moment and consider that. I ripped nearly 200 yards of yarn because I knew the mistake was near the top. And I started over--5 days ago.

The good thing is that this time around I didn't struggle with the lace pattern and it actually looks much much better.

Still no pictures though.

mango jam

I think over the years I have made so many batches of freezer jam that I could probably do it in my sleep.  But yesterday was a first for me.  You see every batch of freezer jam I have ever made has been with fruit grown locally. Well sort of locally.  Strawberries and blueberries both within 10 miles of my house and peaches and cherries purchased at farmers market from a farm that is a few hours away. 

 Yesterday though, I decided to make mango jam. Mangos are not local to Michigan.  But I love mangos, particularly Ataulfo mangos (and actually didn't realize that all winter I've been looking for the champagne mangos I had last year and had been seeing them all along under a different name!).  They are for me, easier to tell when ripe, easier to peel, and easier to cut.

I've been buying them every time I go to the store, usually to use in lassis. Although at times they've been getting too ripe too fast and then I've been freezing them.  (cut and peeled) And they've been getting cheaper as the season wears on.  They are delicious in smoothies and lassis. 

If you've been reading a while, you know that I love Certo brand Pectin. And I happened to have some leftover from last fall's peach jam fest. The certo recipe book says mango jam should take 4 medium mangos, 6 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and two pouches of certo.  So when I saw mangos at the store on sale for 2 for $1, I bought 6, hoping that would be enough and knowing if it was too much I could freeze the leftovers.  Well, Ataulfo mangos are smaller than the "normal" (Tommy adkins?) mangos and so, this jam really needed eight to get to the 3 cups mashed. Thankfully, I had enough in my freezer stash.

Mangos on the counter all lined up ready to be peeled and chopped.

I did one cup fully blended, as I do sometimes with peach and strawberry.  I like my jam chunky but blending 1/3 of it makes mashing manageable. (you could blend the whole thing, but then your jam won't be chunky)

Six cups of sugar later...

Ok a note on sugar here.  I have friends who have literally gasped out loud and looked like they were going to fall over at the amount of sugar required.  I don't worry about the sugar because first it is jam and the definition of jam is sugar preserved in fruit and second I don't eat huge globs of it raw, I mean what do you put on a PBJ a tablespoon?  two maybe.  Ok, I do love me a huge glob of jam on greek yogurt but even then I think I max out at two tablespoons.  If the sugar thing bothers you, you can buy a different brand of pectin that calls for less sugar.  I know they are out there and a facebook friend posted a recipe that used some insanely tiny amount of sugar.  So go for it!  Personally I like the sugar, but if I ever started eating jam straight out of the container, I'd probably switch too.

I didn't photograph the pectin step, because I was getting my kids ready for bed and got distracted, but I added it and dealt with many many complaints about teeth having already been brushed as I was ladling jam into containers (mango jam and toothpaste not really being compatible tastes) preventing kid tasting.  

We had mango jam for breakfast this morning and the verdict is mixed, but basically everyone who likes mangos to eat plain liked the jam. And I thought it was especially tasty on my strawberries and greek yogurt. 

food

I'll get back to yarn and knitting soon. but one reason I have not been writing so much is that I've been really busy with food! I made the peach jam of course, then froze enough peaches for a crisp and for several peach lassis. I still have another week of peach season, so I may freeze more--or maybe make some fresh lassi. Or you know I do actually eat fresh peaches. Liz, friend of mine told her facebook friends that she was going to cook every recipe in Jamie Oliver's food revolution. A friend of hers said she should blog about it. Like every day! Like Julie and Julia! Sure, let's make both cooking and blogging a chore. But she did blog or maybe just note on facebook two recipes she'd made, and they both sounded really good. So I checked the cookbook out of my local library. Let me tell you, I love this cookbook. I love that the steps are laid out. I love that the recipes are easy. I love that every recipe has a picture and STEP pictures. My kids gravitated towards a shell pasta dish which also happens to be on his website. My kids actually do eat a lot of vegetables, (and one lists quinoa as a favorite food) but since they were so gung ho (it was the shell pasta) that was the first one we made. And oh my was it good. First off, it took less than 30 minutes to make. then it was good. THEN it made a ton so we had leftovers. My girls had 2 helpings each. I managed to snap a picture of it: Then our farm share has been giving us a lot of winter squash. While I have a few butternut squash recipes I like, I am usually stumped when it comes to acorn squash. I don't like them except in soups. Enter Jamie Oliver and his sweet potato and chorizo soup. My husband made it substituting an acorn and a butternut squash for the sweet potatoes. Again. Oh my. My children thought it a "little zippy" and only had a spoonful. so we have a ton leftover. Which is ok because YUM. I didn't take a picture and he doesn't have the recipe online, but trust me on this. It was good. I have 2 or 3 more recipes I want to try from there. I have no need to cook my way through it, but I am enjoying it. Back to yarn next time.

summer knitting

Jam update for posterity: 3 batches of strawberry, 1 batch of sour cherry, blueberry to be determined. Peaches just coming in.

sock update: I'm tired of making plain socks

Back in April, when my LYS had it's annual sale, I picked up seven skeins of Rowen summer tweed in denim, thinking that I would make a summer short sleeved tee. Then summer actually hit and the thought of wearing yarn, even cotton/silk yarn, repulsed me.

Before that happened though, I picked a copy of Summer 2011 Knitscene, because it had several top down raglan style Tee patterns.

A few days ago, I threw down the sock I was knitting because my goodness was I bored and I started contemplating something different. A sweater maybe. I dug out all my stuff from the dollar and a half cardigan and decided that would be too hard. I need something simple but not mindless. So I dug out the summer tweed and started envisioning a shrug. I have a pattern I want to make someday, but twice now I've gone into it with yarn, swatched and missed gauge by enough that I don't dare attempt it. But something funny happened while I was swatching, I started seeing not lace, but a raglan style shirt/cardigan something.

And so, last night instead of reading before bed, I flipped through Knitscene looking at all the patterns, looking for one with the gauge I had and the amount of yarn I had (because sale =none left I'm sure). I'm reasonably close on both gauge and amounts on the Lodi Cardigan . I'm only 75 yards short--surely that's the difference between 3/4 length sleeves and short ones?

Please somebody get ready to say I told you so, in a month when I complain about being too short to finish.

state of the jam

I've made my last batch of jam for the summer. And in the interests of memory here is the listing.

3 batches of strawberry--with berries prepped by my husband. Very easy, very fun. Made a facebook offer to make jam for others, and so made a batch in exchange for sock yarn.

1 batch of sour cherry. Sour cherries are a pain in the side to prep. All those pits! But not only did I do a batch of jam, I froze two small batches of cherries for 2 small batches of cherry crisp.

2 batches of blueberries. Blueberries are about the easiest to prep for jam, as they have no tops to cut off or pits to cut out. So essentially I throw them in the bowl and mash away. Sadly, I don't care for blueberries (don't say it too loudly or I think they will take away my Michigan Drivers license). I don't mind them if they are frozen, but let's just say the jam was not my idea. Other people in this house got a taste for them. I made the second batch to give away (and I have 4 of those left!). I'd offer them here, but freezer jam really doesn't mail well.

1 batch of peach. I love peaches. I could eat (and have) peaches every single day. I hate the skins (fur--yuck) but as I say here: I'm a grown-up and know how to use a knife. These are about the hardest to prepare for jam--you have to peel pit and chop. But yesterday I did the 6 containers that now make up my peach jam stash. What happens to me is that I buy a large quantity of peaches because I love them, then they all get ripe at the same time and I get overwhelmed because not even I can eat 6 peaches in one day. So one year every time the peaches started to get overripe I'd make peach jam. I think I made three batches. That was the year I gave everyone at playgroup peach jam--someone might still have one of my tupperware containers (for the record, tupperware is the only container I'd want back). Now, I have a different strategy--I freeze them for peach crisp. This year I have a container going and I chop one or two that are just ripe but can't be eaten into the container--when it is full, I'll stash it in the downstairs freezer. I'll probably make a fresh one too before peach season is over.

vacation!

We went on vacation! We drove a grand total of 22 hours and so of course I needed some car knitting. I know Elizabeth Zimmerman recommends lace knitting for summer because it is light and portable for the car. Obviously Mrs. Zimmerman did not fulfill the same car role as I do (book on cd changer, fight referee, video set-up artist, navigator, and toll change counter). I usually make socks in the car because they really are small tuck anywhere projects. I've done patterned socks in the past, but I've also lost row counters in the car, only to find them months later. This time, fate was on my side. I had no projects on the needles and none of the fancy patterns for socks were coming out to my liking.

I was also in the midst of jam making. I love strawberry freezer jam (well and peach and cherry too) and we were afraid given the warm spring we've had here that if I didn't get the jam done before we left we'd miss strawberry season. Turned out to be a good thing too. I made my three batches of jam and still had enthusiasm left over, so I posted on facebook that I loved making jam so much IU'd probably make some for you. And Cinnamonamon took me up on it. In exchange for the strawberries, sugar, containers and sock yarn, I made her a lovely batch of Strawberry jam. And suddenly I had sock yarn that I was excited about. Because you know--i don't have enough sock yarn of my own? Of course, but mine is boring. behold:



Just a plain toe up pattern, started a few nights before we left just to make sure I was happy with the tension/fabric combo. After we'd crossed our 4th state line I had the idea to take the sock's picture with the state signs so you could see my progress. Sadly, I didn't. But I did finish the first sock on the road and started the second. I had the heel all turned by the time we pulled into the driveway. I probably could have had more but the stars had all aligned. Good movie for the kids, familiar navigation and no tolls for the driver and so I whipped up some lace! Naw just kidding, I had a good book and I read.

We also got home in time to hit the very very short sour cherry season. So The day after I got home, I tackled 7 loads of laundry and 2 quarts of sour cherries. I ended up with a batch of jam, 2 freezer containers of pitted cherries for (small--read serves 2) crisps and a chocolate cherry crisp that was divine! We also ate 2 quarts of sweet cherries, which have a slightly longer season. Although my favorite farm at farmer's market is done with all cherries, so the ones we have this week are kinda eh.

I'm feeling better about knitting and have an idea for a new project. I need to work out the details sometime when I am awake and yet not busy--but given that we've entered the great toy purge season as well as fresh produce that needs to be dealt with regularly season, usually it is all I can do to knit a few rounds of socks before falling asleep. It is lace though.....

felting (and jam notes)

Last summer I whipped up a few things out of a skein of Paton's SWS.


But I didn't felt them because it seemed like a waste to felt so little. So I set them aside.

In my latest eh what to knit phase I had a chance to knit at a playground while my kids ran around with gobs of other first graders and I did not have a sock started. In fact I had nothing started, so I grabbed a skein of Noro Kureyon and some needles. In less than a week I had:



Also not felted because after I finished that, I realized I still had some scraps of purple wool (cascade 220, I think and only realized because I used some to finish the strap) that I could maybe make another flower from. But I couldn't remember where I got this pattern... and I found another felted flower pattern (from 101 one skein wonders which is where I thought the sea urchins had come from.) and started one in purple. THEN I realized I needed one in pink and realized that I happen to have some leftover ultra alpaca in pink. SO I think it will be a while before I start felting.

On another note, I'd like to say that this blog has saved me! Last year I noted that I had made 3 batches of Strawberry jam (and one peach and 1 sour cherry). Well the jam came out perfectly in terms of amounts and this year Strawberry season is here a few weeks early. So after making 2 batches of jam which came out to this much:


I wondered--how much had I made last year because I have 2 containers left and that's about perfect (I like to give away jam too to pet sitters, teachers, etc). I looked in the archives and lo and behold last July I mentioned I had made three batches. So future self--I'll be making batch #3 of Strawberry sometime this afternoon.

quilting, jam, and socks oh my!

When I started this blog I envisioned it to be about knitting. Particularly some of my knitting problems (hence the name disasters with yarn). Then the first few things I had to write about were baby quilts. Then I wrote about jam. And of course I threw in some knitting too. Well today I have all three!
First the baby quilt.
My cousin recently had her second baby, a boy. And since she doesn't read this blog I can tell you about her baby quilt. I decided that I needed something splashy as she is an art teacher and the quilt I made for her first baby was WOW. So I picked finally to do a blue kaleidoscope from M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts. I have never had so much trouble with a quilt. I could not for the life of me get the triangles to lay flat when they were sewn into the hexagons. Fortunately my MIL is a much better piecer than I am and she put all the blocks together for me. I did everything but that. Now it just needs borders.



And needs them quick because we are turning my "quilt studio" into a craft/play room and the new carpet is scheduled to come in in about a week or so. We still need to pick up my sewing things (which is now down to my sewing table and ironing board) and rip up the existing carpet and mop the tile underneath. Whew. I've decided that I'll be putting a border on this afternoon and moving everything after that, I'll get it ready to quilt while we clean that space and quilt it after we move back in.

Hmmmm there don't seem to be any pictures of the jam I made last week. Since we love strawberry so much I should probably only make that, but I like to play. So this year, I decided to make sour cherry jam. Now, sour cherries are not beautiful like sweet cherries are. They are small and squishy and well... gross. In fact so gross that not only did I not photograph them, I also couldn't bear to taste the jam until several days after I made it. The insides are yellow and so I was pleasantly surprised that after I blended them--and I did blend more than I usually like to with fruit jam, I like my jam chunky--that the resulting jam is reddish. ALso, I was surprised to find it tastes like cherry pie filling. The verdict from the family is that aside from the skins that it is good good good jam.

But perhaps most exciting is the knitting that got done this week. And by got done I mean:


These are Lace and Cable socks (size small!) from Socks from the toe up. The yarn is a knit picks bare that I dyed. I took them on vacation and nearly finished the first sock--the second one I took along everywhere for the last three weeks (swimming lessons, playgroup and tv knitting). And for what--socks that are too warm to wear until September! I got so warm posing in the socks that I didn't wait until I got a great picture--just an "ok you can see the socks and tell what color they are" picture.

I also finally got the lace pattern in the dollar and half cardigan sorted out and knit a swatch. The gauge for the pattern is in the lace pattern but I think I may have to go up a needle size for the lace, but I like the look of the reverse stockinette. I'm washing it first though, in case it grows. Ravelry tells me that many people use two different needle sizes so I'm guessing I'm not the first to look at the swatch and decide that. I do need to invest in a circular needle size US 4. I have a denise set and it only goes to size 5 and if the lace gets gauge at a size 6 I may want to bring the reverse stockinette down to a 4. Doesn't make for a whole lot of exciting knitting though.
So for now I have the tongue twister "sweater swatch" that I keep wandering around saying. Try it--say it five times fast.

socks!

When I worked at the yarn shop, they told me summer is a bad time for yarn stores--mostly people just want to knit dishcloths and socks. I don't knit dishcloths, usually, in part because I don't use them. I do knit socks though.

Last time I updated I was deep into trying to figure out what to knit. Made in part way more urgent by an upcoming vacation. I like to knit in the car and I like small projects for that so I don't have to pack a ton of yarn. Socks are ideal. I really wanted to work with my Harry Potter sock yarn so I'd have Harry Potter socks for the movie (geek) but after swatching I decided that perhaps a plain pattern would work best with that yarn and by golly I did not want a plain pattern. I did some more swatching, this time with the knit picks yarn I dyed. I figured I was getting about 8 stitches to the inch and took off with the book, knitting socks from the toe up, the yarn and 2 sizes of needles--(my 1s and 1.5s not the zeros which was a mistake). What happened was quite funny. The first day in the car, I started on one pattern and quickly figured out that they would be huge! 8 stitches to the inch at 8 inches around and somehow my sock was coming out way to big. In part because I've learned, my foot is only 8.25 inches around and that means I should be making about a 7.75 inch sock. Which amazed me to discover my size 9 feet are considered small. I did a ton of math attempting to get the pattern to work out and in the end decided to find a pattern that came a bit smaller.
Very few patterns in that book came in a small. If I'd only had the size zero needles, I could have had a few more options.
Instead lace and Cable socks were about my only option.

I like them though.
I finished the first sock on vacation and have been working on the second sock since.


I keep trying to find some space to work on my swatch for the dollar and a half cardigan since I think I've worked out my problem with the pattern. I ended up writing out the lace pattern in a way that I can follow easily with a row counter. Because the lace pattern is written as a seven row pattern but you don't work it in order, instead you work row 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So why not write it that way? I have no idea I don't write patterns. It was tedious copying it out onto a sheet of notebook paper, re-numbering all the rows, but I think it will help. And I'm sure after I get working on it, I'll be able to take it places and talk while I'm doing it.
I never thought I'd be able to do that with the sock, but I not only did that, I took it with me to swimming lessons and had to set it down mid-row on a chilly day to help my daughters into their towels. Go me.

Also for my future self, I ned to find a way to keep track of the jam I make because I made WAY too much peach last year and I have no idea how much I made. I finally got he strawberry right and have no idea on that either. This year I made 3 batches of Strawberry. I'm only making one peach. I'm going to try sour cherry too--I'll try to photo essay it.
Love Farmer's market:

Jam

There is actual knitting being done--I promise. But I'm not going to talk about knitting today, I'm going to talk about jam.
I've only been making jam for two summers. And I was afraid at first to tell my mom I was making jam because when I started knitting she said to me, next thing I know you'll be making jam! As if I was some suzy homemaker instead of just stressed and twitchy with an unhealthy love of strawberries. So last summer, I had a bunch of really good berries and a taste for my husband's aunt's freezer jam. So I called her and asked for her recipe (since she was no longer growing strawberries and probably no longer making the jam). She laughed and said--I just follow the recipe on the certo box. Go buy yourself some certo. She insisted I get the liquid.


I've only had two batches of jam NOT set. One batch was a batch of peach last year in which I used Ball brand pectin and one batch of strawberry this year in which I used a different measuring cup for the berries (it was larger and I think less accurate). The certo is good stuff. I highly recommend the certo!

I thought that I'd actually photodocument the process so that I'd make sure I was following the directions after that first unset batch. So--here is how I make freezer strawberry jam.
First--Start with some good berries, I recommend your local farmer's market or U-Pick place. The recipe says you'll need a pint, but it varies for me--somewhere between a quart and a quart and a half. Usually I buy the flat and we eat and jam and we all are happy.


Then you wash and cut the berries up--discard the stems of course. This is my smaller measuring cup.


Then you get to mash or Blend the berries. You want chunks, but you also want juice. I usually use my potato masher. This year I also tried the hand blender too. I wouldn't do it solely with the hand blender I don't think, but after a cup of berries, my arms were tired of mashing. The pre-mash picture though is my favorite--looks very arty.


At any rate you need to get 2 cups of mashed up juicy berries. I usually do one cup at a time, and pour them into a large bowl. Then you add the sugar. Four cups of sugar. And don't skimp. Like the directions say--you want less sugar use the low sugar formulas--you want no sugar--don't make jam. I add them one cup at a time, and stir it in well. At this point you are supposed to set it aside for 10 minutes. I usually gather up containers and keep the kids out of it. Trust me, this tastes so good at this point--like strawberry syrup.

Then I mix up the certo and two tablespoons of lemon juice. The directions say to use a real lemon. I use juice from a bottle. This then gets poured into the strawberry sugar mix.


Then you stir this for three minutes. My girls help. Sometimes it starts to feel like it is setting before the three minutes are up. usually this step makes me so hungry.

Then you spoon it into containers, cover them and let them sit for 24 hours (or until they are set and you need counter space). I use both 1 cup containers and 1/2 cup containers (that I used to use for baby food when my husband made all the baby food). I call this the "tower of power"



I've found that if it is going to set, it will within a few hours. And I've found that if you follow the instructions, it will set. My only problem using certo was I believe caused by too much strawberry in the strawberry sugar ratio. My biggest clue for that--it took almost 3 quarts of berries.
Anyway, you can freeze this for a year--I usually thaw in the fridge. Use the thawed within three weeks. I've made three batches of strawberry this year that have set. I think I'm done until peach season.