Felt Like Knitting

Dinner and a magazine

Okay, so Dinner and a Movie I'm not.  You'll have to use your imagination!  :)

Here's dinner:

                                       

Patti shared the recipe for Italian Zucchini Pie with me the other day.  (Thanks, Patti!)  I made it tonight and really enjoyed it.  I was so hungry that I forgot to put the Dijon mustard on the crust before I filled and baked the pie.  It was delicious even without the mustard.

And here's the magazine:

For the Love of Yarn 

This is a new online knitting (and crocheting) magazine to which I subscribed today.  I enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to the next issue.  It's a professional looking magazine with clear, stylish photos.  There is even a Classifieds section where you can post free ads for yarn, books, finished projects you don't want, etc.

The feature article, Confessions of a Reformed Pattern-Slave (Freeformer), was interesting and talked about something of which I had not heard - freeforming.  (You have to see the author's projects because I can't adequately describe them.  They are very creative, colorful, and beautiful.  There are more samples on her blog.)  In the article, Claudia Dunitz mentions being inspired by Prudence Mapstone.  Wow!  You have to see her creations, too!

Well, reading about freeforming wasn't enough.  I ran upstairs to my sewing room to try it.  (I really need to rename that room since I rarely sew in it.)  Freeforming is really lots of fun.  I can see the need for more stash if I pursue it!

Green Gable sizing

I've been knitting away on Green Gable and today I got to the point that I could take the sleeves off the needles and try it on.  It seemed fine, so I proceeded to knit two of the next six inches the pattern calls for.  Now I think it's too big.  If it wasn't made of a cotton blend, I wouldn't be worried.  But if this thing grows any, it will be too baggy on me.  Right now I can stick two fists under the sweater without stretching it out at all.  (Does that make any sense?)  Here's a picture, but it's not a great one.

I don't want to rip the whole thing out and I think it fits fine in the shoulders.  So I may rip back to the sleeves, put them back on the needles, then "unknit" six rows.  That would take me to the next smallest size.  (I guess I could try it back on and see how many stitches worth of extra fabric there is.)  I won't be doing anything tonight.  That's one thing I've learned about knitting.  Don't do anything with a project when you're tired!  Any observations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  (Note:  The neckline looks funky.  Estella said that her Green Gable neckline improved after blocking.  I'm hoping that's true for me, too!)

Instead of knitting, I should be getting ready for a little vacation trip we're taking next week.  We've decided to go to Huntsville for a few days.  Our plans include visiting The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the Huntsville Botanical Garden, and the Huntsville Museum of Art.  Of course, I also want to go to Yarn Expressions while I'm in town.  It's a 2000 square feet store - I should be able to find something great in all that space! 

"I thought since you're a country girl you might know what to do about these raccoons."

That's what my neighbor said to me last night after showing me two young raccoons she had in a crate.  I had seen the raccoons earlier and did what a city girl would do - I called Animal Control.  (There's just something about a wild nocturnal animal roaming about during the day that scares me.)  My neighbor also called, but nobody ever called back so she got them out of the street.  We think something happened to their mother.  Poor cute little wild, rabid, ferocious guys. 

But her comment got me to thinking.  It's been so long since I grew up in the country that I haven't recently thought of myself as a country girl.  I mean, I live in the suburbs of Atlanta. 

I grew up in rural northeastern Ohio.  Our small house was back a 1/4 mile long lane.  The front of our house faced our neighbor's cow pasture, the back faced another neighbor's horse pasture, and two fields were on the sides.  I guess that's pretty much "country" even though it's not a farm.   We had a huge garden, just to help feed our family.  We could run and play outside without worrying about "strangers" nabbing us.  Our favorite summer meal was fried potatoes, corn on the cob, cucumber salad, and sliced tomatoes.  We didn't wear shoes in the summer and we spit watermelon seeds from the front stoop as we ate.

I remember helping with the garden and canning and freezing the produce from it.  The kids (four of us) carried water in buckets to the young plants.  My brother and I picked tomatoes.  (I am still a bit freaked out by tomato hornworms.)  My mom and I shelled peas and beans, pitted peaches, and sliced corn from the cob.  The corn stayed in long strips that I could pick up and pop into my mouth.  My mom would put food coloring in the canned pears and let us pick what color we wanted to eat for dinner.

Gardening and canning feels like something I have to do.  "Have to" in a good way - like I'm driven to do it each year.  Maybe it makes me feel like me.  I never really thought it would identify me as being a country girl, but I guess that's okay.  I consider being called a country girl a compliment.

Can't think of a snappy title for this post...

E and I did some serious house straightening and cleaning today since a friend of hers is coming over tomorrow.  Since I have no new knitting (or really anything) to report, I'll talk about what some other folks are doing!

First, a meme.  You can play if you like, but I won't tag anyone officially.  Pooch says "Take a look around you. Other than your computer, peripherals, a desk/table, and chair--- what are the five things nearest to you right now?"

Here are my answers:

1)  A stack of receipts

2)  A folder of patterns and recipes to be filed (that makes me sound a bit more organized than I really am!)

3)  A stack of index cards

4)  Exploring Creation with General Science (one of the textbooks from which I'll be teaching this fall)

5)  A piece of paper with movie times written on it

Exciting, huh?!  :)

Also, did you know the new MagKnits is out?  I guess I'm a bit behind, because it's the June issue and it's almost July.  But, Leslie wrote about knitting the Saturday Market Bag.  I really want to knit that!  Maybe I'll let myself indulge after a few rows of Green Gable.  "I'll knit 10 rows of Green Gable then I can knit a little on the Market Bag."  Do you ever bribe yourself like that? 

23 pints

A grateful thank you for the "get well" comments and e-mails!  I'm feeling much better, but I'm still a little tired and watching what I eat.

Yesterday I canned 23 pints of applesauce for S and E.  They love homemade applesauce, so each year I try to make enough to last the whole winter.  These are the first apples of the year and they're called Pristine.  They cook down very, very well so I try to make as much sauce from them as I can.  (That's 48 pounds of apples, in case you're wondering.)

I finally feel like knitting again, especially after Lynne encouraged me by making such great progress on her Green Gable (and giving me a friendly little challenge to be able to wear our sweaters to church next Sunday!).  The lace part is finished and I'm working toward taking the sleeves off.  E keeps trying to convince me that it's not going to fit me, but it will fit her. 

We had rain last night and today!  This is the first time we've had rain in so, so long.  What a relief!  We'll still have watering restrictions, of course, but it's nice for the grass to have a drink.

Not an easy way to lose 6 pounds

On Monday night I was hit with either a stomach bug or food poisoning from a bad salad at a swim meet.  I'm starting to feel better, but haven't felt like knitting.

I have pre-sickness Green Gable progress to show once I'm back to feeling 100%.  I used a twisted German cast on which looks much prettier than the backward loop I was trying.  The next thing I'd like to try is this.  I'll probably make it a little larger and wear it as a vest this fall.

And thanks for all of the zucchini ideas.  I'd love to have some of those recipes!  I'm wondering what's lurking in my garden since I haven't been out there in several days...

What do I do with this many zucchini?

                       

Each year my garden looks a little different.  This year I planted things in groups instead of rows and put a path through the middle.  (Right now the path is made of grass clippings.  If I want it there for good, I'll put in stones.) 

And each year some plants do better than others.  With all the rain we had last year, I had loads and loads of cucumbers.  I would go out each morning or so and come back in with a huge popcorn bowl full of cucumbers.  This year the abundant crop is zucchini. 

Now, I like to eat zucchini sometimes, but nobody else in my family does.  I planted too much and it's coming along really well in the heat.  I've already harvested 10 in one week!  I'm tempted to put up one of those progress things on my sidebar.  Some people count completed pairs of socks, I'll count zucchini.  :)

So what do I do with all the zucchini?  I sauteed some and ate it with pasta one day.  I've given most of it away.  And some of it is still in my fridge.  But the best way I've eaten it is in chocolate cake.  Geraldine has written a cookbook called Not Just For Vegetarians and it includes a delicious recipe for chocolate cake with zucchini in it.  The recipe can be found in a link here.  I'll be making this cake all summer long!  If you have a favorite way to eat zucchini, I'd love to hear it.  Or maybe I'll just sneak by in the middle of the night and leave some on your porch.  ;)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad, my husband, and all of the other dads out there!  I hope it is a wonderful, relaxing day for each of you.  I love you, Dad!

This photo makes me wonder what happened right after it was taken.  I look like I'm ready to pick a leaf or flower at Kingwood Center, my dad looks like he's saying "No!" and getting ready to step in to protect the flower.  Wonder what my mom's doing while she's taking the picture?  She may be calling to my dad to stop me or maybe yelling at me to stop.  Perhaps nothing happened at all...Being the ripe old age of 2, I may have just been inspecting the flower's anatomy for future studies.  :)

Summer Camp Flashback

On MSN this morning, there was a brief article on sending your kids to summer camp and how to keep them from being homesick.  The article is gone now so I can't quote it, but one piece of advice was to pack little notes for your child to open during the week.  Hmmm...that may not be the best piece of advice.

Flashback to the late 70's when I was at Camp Mowana as a 4th grader.  I was on "the big hill" with the older campers and my brother was on "the little hill" with the younger campers.  I was terribly homesick and I kept finding notes from my mom.  She tucked them into my socks so I would find one each day when I got dressed.  I would read one and start bawling!  I must have been pretty miserable because my cabin counselor finally had to go through my luggage to get rid of all the notes.  I did make it through the week.  Once I saw my brother running by and he was having so much fun that he barely had time to say "hi!"  Well, if he could get through and have a fun time, so could I!

Did any of you do better at summer camp than I did?!

This gauge thing is getting to me

All I want to do is knit this sweater.  That's really not too much to ask.  Sigh...

I purchase and print the pattern.  No problem.  I buy the wrong needles.  They actually give me close to the right gauge, so no problem there either except that I need to buy a different length set of circulars.  This doesn't exist at the LYS.  Problem?  No, I just bought Denise needles.  (Gee, this simple sweater is getting expensive.)  I cast on, make mistakes, and frog the sweater...several times.  Not really a problem and rather typical according to my blog friends.  For some reason, I recalculate the yardage I have versus what I need.  I don't have enough yarn.  This isn't really a problem either, because there is always more yarn out there, right?  So last night I bought this:

Cascade Sierra, the new yarn for Green Gable.  Now, I was thinking this was the best thing that could have happened because I had "perfect" gauge of 20 stitches/4 inches and the row gauge was looking like it was right on, too.  (I did have to go to a size 5 needle and the recommended size is 7.)  I got the swatch wet, rolled it in a towel, laid it back out and went to sleep.  (Is this acceptable blocking for a swatch?)

My gauge this morning?  19 stitches/4 inches!  My gauge after I shook the swatch a little?  18 - 18.5 stitches/4 inches!

What do I do?!  Do I knit the size I was going to knit and hope it doesn't grow as I wear it?  Do I knit a size smaller?  I'm hesitant to do that because of some sizing issues some folks at the KAL had.  (Speaking of the KAL, it's a good thing I didn't join.  I feel like I'm never going to get this thing done!)  I could go to a size 4 needle, but I don't want to do that.  I feel like the fabric is dense enough already.  Plus, I don't want to buy more needles!!!  I could order Cotton Fleece (the recommended yarn), but I'd probably have a similar problem.  I'm tempted to just forge on ahead with the original size because I don't like things to be snug.  One thing I do know is that I'm not giving up.