Canning

Today I canned my first strawberries. It was a wonderful success sort of. I was hoping to make a thick strawberry spread but ended up with a syrup. The girls and I did come up with a list of things that it would go well with like homemade ice cream, angel food cake, & homemade cheese cake. The wonderful part for me and what makes it such a huge success is that the jars sealed and the syrup has a great flavor. Luckily too I am pretty sure what I did wrong and it will be easy to fix. The good thing is it did make quite a bit. I guess I should write down what I did just in case it is a big hit. I am really going to have fun this summer playing with different recipes and foods. I can not wait!!!!

The Stash Well at least Most of it

The bags and boxes are yarn. I have other areas that are just to hard to get pictures of. The good news is I have not added anything new to the stash since my last post!! Yeah for me.

Stash Busting

Okay I have to admit that my storage area for both yarn and fabric is full. As of this very moment I am on a yarn and fabric diet. I will not be buying either until I put a significant dent in my stash areas. (Yes I have several.) I tried to convince myself that I was just insulating my house really really well but Cleopatra I am not and I can not longer be the Queen of Denial.
I have of course already committed to some goodies in some buys and I will follow through with prior commitments but no new stuff!!! Now I just have to figure out if vintage fabric counts. :-)

Hemp and Wool Dishcloths

I have been looking for an alternative to those yucky sponges and plastic dish things that simply do not work. Well I got myself in gear and actually knitted some dishcloths out of my hemp and wool yarn stash. I should have done this a year ago when I got the yarn because let me tell you my dishes are actually clean. My glasses do not have that film on them at all anymore. It is so weird because all this time I thought it was my dish soap that was causing the problem but it wasn't. It was my sponge. The great thing about hemp and wool is they both have wonderful antibacterial qualities occurring in them naturally. Not to mention you just throw them in the was and hang them in the sun to dry. I have recruited my oldest into helping me make more because this week I am throwing out all of our sponges. Great thing too is my new dishcloths are environmentally friendly. If you are in search of some hemp/wool to make your won I suggest going here. Stacey is great to work with.


Edit: Forgot to mention Wool felts so if you use 50/50 Hemp/wool there will be some shrinkage if you wash it in the washer.

Knitting OCD

I have to admit that I have a little bit of OCD going on off and on in my life and it is interesting to me to see how it will manifest itself in the different areas of my life. With my kids it is their names. My first child's name has 5 letters and each child after has one more letter than the previous. There are other number things that I do but that would take a book to explain. :-)

I have recently noticed the OCD creeping into my knitting life. In my knitting bag I feel the need to have on the needles something for all the parts of the body. What this means is I currently am working on a hat, sweater,mittens, shorties, and several pairs of socks. When I finish up a sweater it is replaced with another sweater project. I am currently trying to figure out if a shawl is in the sweater category or if it will fall into it's own little area. I am thinking it will have it's own special place but if that is the case I need a bigger bag. :-)

Hmmm I think I will make myself a new knitting bag. I have this bag pattern by Amy Butler that I have been wanting to make for a long time. The question is do I use my current stash of fabric for it or do I wait for my Midwest Modern to show up. I have an idea for a little bag for my sock projects. I keep losing my tape measure and my extra DPN's in my bigger project bags. When I start digging around for them I end up with a big ol' yarn mess. So I hope to have that pattern worked out this weekend. Well looks like I have a lot on my plate so I better get going.

FO

I have a finished project!!! I ordered a charm pack of the Ginger Blossom line of fabric from Hancock's of Paducah. I really love this line but could not decide which fabrics to get so I got a sampling. I made a bath mat based on this tutorial. I am very pleased with how it turned out and plan to make another one for our kids bathroom out of some Heather Ross fish fabric that I have here. I must say I am completely addicted to charm packs. I have all kinds of ideas floating around in my mind for them now. I picked up a few more at our Local Quilt Shop yesterday. They have an absolutely amazing selection of fabric. They have Japanese Imports!!!!! I love all things Japanese and this was the first time I was able to actually see them in person. I am very excited about my sewing future. :-) Okay off to get some knitting done before running errands.

Went To My LYS Today

I am terribly excited. I went to my Local Yarn Store (Knitwicks) today and sat and knitted for a while with some wonderful ladies. It was the first time I have ever done anything like this. Since becoming a mother I have had a horrible time connecting to other women. In the mommy and me type groups I was always too crunchy. In other groups I was not crunchy enough. Then when the kids got older I started looking for a nice homeschooling group to join but found it very difficult to connect to any of them. In some we were to religious and in others not enough and then there was the crazy one where we were too poor.
But here age did not matter, religious preference not a problem and money not needed. All were welcome and knitting advice shared freely. It felt a little surreal at first because I have not felt this welcomed in a long time. I was so excited to see a group of women of all ages come together in such a positive environment. I have been looking for something like this for a really really long time. I am so excited about getting to know all of them better.
We just recently learned of the passing of a close friend that had suffered for many years from MS. She was very close to my age and it made me realize that I have become isolated from other women and I need to reconnect. I had to make myself go today and at first I just looked at the yarn in the store and felt like I could bolt at any minute. After a few minutes I realized that they were not going to bite me and it is okay to be afraid but not okay to not try. I am very glad I did. Well now I had better go save my husband from the kids.
Peace