Summer Plans

The clock is running and it's time for today's maunderings :-) I was just messaging with a friend about how things are going and she's busier than ever even though, like me, she's (happily!) unemployed. Luckily both of us are in the situation of having a partner to help out, so the lack of a job isn't much more than a small pain in the behind at the moment. We were supposed to get together last week to go see the movie Chernobyl Diaries but what with one thing and another we didn't end up going and the next couple of weeks don't look very promising either. It kind of sucks because I'm not sure how long it will be in the theatres but oh well, I'll just pick it up on dvd when it comes out if we miss it entirely.

This summer is just filled with movies I really want to see - Men in Black 3, Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus(!!!1!!!!!1!!), The Dark Knight Rises, the list goes on. It looks to be an awesome movie summer, that's for sure. I'm sure I'll be knitting lots of plain or ribbed socks for movie watching :D I still think the best part about knitting at the movies is the looks that I get from other moviegoers - too funny!

I'm participating in the Tour de Sock again this year, and I've finished the first stage of the "race" as of this afternoon - the pattern was wonderful and the socks look just awesome :-) I used yarn from Sheepy Time Knits, the May colourway of the Time Traveller's Club and it's just perfect for the pattern, a lovely pale yellow that showcases the twisted stitches and lace beautifully. Now I'm waiting for stage two to begin, which isn't until Sunday morning, so I think I'll do some drop spindling in the mean time.

I started drop spindling back at the end of April when I took a class at the Downtown Knit Collective's annual Knitter's Frolic - that was a blast, both the class and the marketplace. One of the pics I posted yesterday was of the yarn that I had picked up there - there were so many vendors to look at and so many gorgeous yarns to fondle and squeeze! I picked up some Indigodragonfly, some Viola (which doesn't exist any more as the dyer was selling off all of her stock in preparation to move out of the country), some more Malabrigo and some pencil roving from a somewhat local yarn and fiber shop called The Black Lamb in Port Hope. I have some fiber from a small fiber festival that I had gone to in Port Hope the weekend before and that is what I'm planning to spin up next, in between stages of the TDS.

That's all for now,

Later.

Tuesday's Fun

Today's time has begun and I almost missed it - eep! It's ten past eleven and I only just realised that I hadn't written today's post. I was actually somewhat productive today, as I managed to clear out another half dozen boxes and bags out of the room downstairs. I'm trying to sort through everything ruthlessly as I unpack it due to the limited storage space round here and I think I'm managing not too badly but I'm sure we have too much stuff even without what's left of my things.

Other than that it was a rather ordinary day - got an issue sorted out with my unemployment, thanks to my friend Tammy and her contact at the office and I should finally have a payment coming in by the end of the week. Yay, money!

I spoke to my sister for a little while and found out that she wants to learn to make jam this year :-D I'm planning on going strawberry picking soon-ish for exactly that purpose, though first I have to contact a few farms to enquire about the price per pound for pick your own strawberries - one place has their price listed at $2.10/lb!! yikes!! - and this week I can go get apricots from the grocery store to bottle up some sunshine for future toast. I love apricot jam, especially on a toasted bagel with some cream cheese for breakfast. I'm also planning on making himself some blueberry freezer jam, maybe with a little lemon in there for fun, with the sugar free mix that I bought a while ago. I have some little one cup plastic jars for the freezer jam, and I've managed to excavate my canning jars, the rings and the countertop electric burner that I have for boiling the sealing rings. The outdoor burner is in the shed, and there's already an extra 20 lb canister of propane waiting for just the purpose of making jam and I found the blanching pot for later in the season, when it's time to do up the tomatoes for sauce and perhaps freezing some cauliflower and broccoli. I may take the summer off but I don't plan to be entirely lazy ;-)

Just to finish the post, here's some yarn porn, a small sample of what I've managed to get my hands on in the last few months.

Later :-)

Inadvertent Hiatus

So I was reading Sam of Yummy Yarn Studio's blog the other day where she mentioned how long it has been since she wrote anything and it kicked me into the realization that I haven't written anything in over three months myself. I don't really have an excuse as it's not like I have a job at the moment or anything else really pressing to do, so here I am again stealing borrowing ideas from elsewhere - namely the attempt to blog for fifteen minutes a day for the month of June. Yes, it's the fourth already, so I've already fallen down on this but I'm going to give it a shot for the rest of the month. One thing I will do is actually attempt to write for that fifteen minutes - any pictures I want to show you I will upload after I've done the writing.

I haven't been up to much for the last few months - I've been knitting quite a lot and since mid April or so I've been working on getting the front and back yards beaten into shape and planted with flowers for the front and small veggie gardens for the back. I've been pretty successful which is awesome, and himself helped me out a lot when I got stuck into doing this stuff on the weekends.

I have planted three tomato plants, three cherry tomato plants, two pepper plants, butternut squash, two zucchini plants, two watermelon plants - yellow ones! yay! - cucumber, beans and peas. I've only planted a few of each type, two or three, because I don't want to be overwhelmed by produce so that we end up not eating all of it, plus I have the CSA membership for the summer from Willowtree Farm to supplement our veggie and fruit requirements :-) That starts up in about two more weeks and I'm really looking forward to getting our first box of goodies. I also bought a meat membership from the same farm which we'll get once a month and will contain approximately ten pounds of chicken, beef and lamb.

My zucchini plants are getting huge!!

As for projects, I've finished about three pairs of socks and a huge Clapotis shawl out of SweetGeorgia CashLuxe Fine in last June's club colourway. It is stunning and I can't wait for slightly cooler weather to wear it and just snuggle up in it.

Well that's my fifteen minutes for today, so I'll be back tomorrow with another update :)

Later