Today is Labor Day and we’re having a quiet day at home with no picnics or barbeques. It’s just enough to be here at home and celebrate the workers. I want to particularly celebrate the migrant workers who pick our food when nobody else wants to. I am so grateful to them. In Maine our blueberry barrens have been battling drought conditions and a lack of rakers (it’s backbreaking work when harvesting by hand) and I love those little berries! So, thank you to the farmers and rakers for our blueberries!
I took a walk around the yard this morning and found this big cicada on the garden post. Our vegetable garden has suffered from the lack of rain and we’ve stopped watering to conserve our well water. We have some tomatoes still on the vine and that’s about it. Soon we will pull out the plants and ammend the soil and get ready to plant our garlic. (I got smart and ordered it early this year!)
The daisy is the last one to bloom and then they’ll be ready to cut back and I want to transplant some (the bunch has gotten HUGE and is getting in the way of some iris) to my “new” garden that the kids made when they were here in July. I’ll be putting daisies and some wildflower seeds up there and we’ll see what grows! We still have plentiful black-eyed susans and the wild roses are needing a big cut … they really are invasive if they grow so well here on our lake shore. I’ve got to move the remaining blueberry plant, too … we’ll see if it will actually grow if it has some space.
Make Mine a Double
I stopped knitting the body and have wound off the chocolate brown colors in the second hank of yarn. I really wanted to see what it would look like on the sleeves if I made them more “consistent” by going back and forth with the blue/brown/beige part of the yarn. Because sleeves are a much smaller circumference than the body of the garment, the colors change much more slowly but I am pleased with the results so far. I have been knitting 14 or so rounds (it’s a seven round repeat) on one sleeve then I break my yarn and knit 14 rounds on the second sleeve to keep the colors sort of the same. I may have to wind off some of the blue/brown to get to the brown/cream to end the sleeves. I’ve even thought about knitting the ribbing in the chocolate brown but I haven’t decided for sure (yet.) I will be trying it on this morning before I get dressed to see how it’s fitting and how much longer the body needs to be. The pattern calls for two inches of ribbing on the hem and the sleeves. I’m getting close!!!
Yesterday I worked on my Jaunty again for a bit. I’m about half-way through the third ball of yarn and the decreases are happening pretty quickly! I am excited to finish this shawl/scarf and get it blocked – I think it’s going to be even more squishy than it already is once the yarn relaxes in its bath. I also machine washed my cream colored Lane’s Island sweater for the first time. I’ve always washed my hand-knits by hand but this one really needed a good wash and the yarn, Berroco Remix Light, says it’s machine washable. I’m impressed at how well it washed up on the gentle cycle. This is a sweatshirt-y sweater and I love wearing it on the cooler days between seasons. I may have to wash the pink one as well.
It may be Monday but I’m calling it Sunday. My day of rest. Last week I was in the store four out of six days, twice my normal schedule and I could feel it on Saturday afternoon. I’d also been awake since 4:30am when my hubby left to head out to Denver for the arrival of grandchild #2. I’ve been feeling “off” ever since. Partly because it’s lonely here without him and because I’m just weary, I think. Today it’s gray and threatening rain and I sure do hope we get some. Our gardens are so dry and I’m trying to water with great conservation because we have a well and you know what happens to wells in droughts, right? So we flush less frequently (TMI?) and do fewer loads of laundry and water only when really necessary.
I finished my second pair of shortie socks for my August SISC (self-imposed sock club). I thought they’d fit me but they don’t so they’ll be gifted to someone with slightly smaller feet. These have an afterthought heel and having made them, I am reminded why I like a heel flap heel when I’m knitting socks. I’ve cast on a new pair that will be top down and with a heel flap. Photos will be coming soon.
I’ve been working on knitting one of the animals in the Knitted Animal Friends book by Louise Crowther. I’ve had the book and the yarn for quite some time and never seem to have found (made?) the time to knit one. This week I decided to change that and cast on for Noah the horse. These patterns are knit on US 2, 2.75mm needles (suffice it to say, if you’re not a knitter, that these are basically toothpicks) and at a tight gauge. My hands certainly feel it but I am making progress. I’ve got the head, mane, tail and ears finished and am working my way down the body. Nothing is tricky in this pattern other than the tight gauge on tiny needles. I’m going back and forth between DPNs, a 40″ circular and straight needles depending on what needs to be worked. The body parts are knitted flat and seamed so nothing looks like it will when it’s stuffed and assembled. I have to remember to buy some safety eyes.
I had to laugh at the line of eleven pieces of i-cord for the mane. They remind me of tampons and once seen, I can’t unsee it. LOL. The yarn is Sheepjes Stonewashed and I am enjoying the yarn for the most part. Some of the increases are difficult to make without splitting the yarn but I think that’s more about the gauge of the stitches rather than the yarn. I have the Catona for the clothes, too, as the pattern requested. I thought I’d like to make the animals in the original yarn this time and see how it works up. So far so good.
Today I’d love to finish the body and get a start on the legs and arms but I also want to pick up the commission piece that I’ve been working on – I haven’t touched it since early last week when I was working on the back. There’s not much to do to get the back finished and the second side shouldn’t take long either. Then a couple of sleeves and finishing and I can send it off to my client in Louisiana. I’ve promised it in the early winter but I hope to deliver it earlier than that.
This morning I was up early and had my coffee before 8am and I decided to bake. Made some granola for our house and a blueberry cake for a neighbor who’s having some health challenges. I’ll run the cake down later today – when it’s cooled. I saw several emergency vehicles at their house on Friday morning on the way to work and heard from another neighbor about what’s happening. I’m guessing a bit of sweet will be helpful in the short term. I have shredded a huge zucchini and if I get some more baking energy, I’ll make zucchini bread or chocolate zucchini bread. Or both. I still have another huge zucchini in the fridge.
Granola, my secret recipe
I’ve been checking out the vegetable garden and have picked our first tomatoes. I only grew two kinds of tomatoes this year – yellow tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. We haven’t had a lot of either but I now have two yellow ones and will have a tomato sandwich for lunches this week. We have been gifted some cucumbers, green pepper, beets and one huge zucchini from a work friend and I’ll get the beets roasted (one of my favorites with tomatoes and some feta or goat cheese YUM!). I’m not eating a lot of meat this week because I am cooking and don’t love it any more so roasted veggies, cauliflower crust pizza and maybe some grains will be served. Cooking for one isn’t a lot of fun and I’m not one who loves cooking anyway. What’s a girl to do? I can’t just eat ice cream … that’s what I might have done back in the day.
Hubby pulled our garlic before he left and it’s time to cut off the roots, clean it up a bit and start using it. We will plant more garlic in the fall since we seem to have the knack of it now. My biggest yellow tomato is palm-sized and we have another Delicata squash coming along. That makes three. The bees are happy in our squash blossoms and without them, we’d have no squash. One more zucchini is on the vine and the peas are over a foot tall now and starting to climb. I love the veggie garden!
I’m loving watching our loon family fishing just in front of the house today. The baby is getting its adult feathers and is acting more like an adult but the parents are both working hard to continue feeding it, too. They were close enough to hear their little “peeps” to each other. And I’ve heard from two friends on other Maine lakes that they’ve had no surviving chicks this year. (Eagles.) We are very lucky to have four chicks on our lake and I haven’t heard that any have been taken. There is a real emotional investment in these special creatures on the lake. Between boats, eagles and snapping turtles the dangers are real.
We’ve also seen a lot of Hummingbirds lately. They’ve been draining the feeders and that means they’re starting to fatten up and gather the energy to start their trip back south. It’s always sad when the hummers leave. They add a lot of entertainment on the porch, often flying into the porch and seeming to just stop mid-air to look at us as we watch them. We have at least three females now, and a couple of males … I can only identify the females (one looks older, one has a long neck and the third is smaller).
And last night we welcomed a new grandchild. I have just seen him on a facetime chat and he’s absolutely perfect. I am having wicked FOMO watching my hubby hold him but we’ll be heading out so I can meet him in person soon. We are so grateful for a healthy mother and baby. A grandson!
