Diligently Writing

I have been diligently writing up the pattern for my journey shawl. I am not sure how others do this but my method is to track what I do as I knit the item, then write up what I think I did and finally create the item again from the written pattern. This method has worked fine for me up until now because the items I have written patterns for have been small. The shawl is a slightly larger task though. But I am making progress. I am through the shoulder increases and half way to the end of the side cables. Once I get to the bottom lace I will be home free since then I can knit it anywhere as the pattern get repetitive at that point. My goal is mid-November to have it ready to go in the Etsy shop.

Recent Projects

Finished a couple of projects recently. First was a swap busting project. I took the yarn leftover from the shawl I was test knitting and made a capelet following the Chanson en Crochet pattern. I had to finish without the picot edging around the neck because of lack of yarn at the end but I like how it turned out even without this.



Project number 2 was new yarn purchased for the Monday night sock group at Sip N Knit in Ithaca. Cary provided us with her new pattern to test knit. I really enjoyed this pattern and may even be converted into a sometime sock knitter. It was much more enjoyable than the first pair of socks I made. Probably because of the heavier yarn which was used. If you look closely you may just be able to make out the coffee cup pattern which runs just below the ribbing on the sock. Hard to see in the variegated yarn I chose but some of the other yarn combinations being used have shown the pattern off beautifully.

New Desk

My sister was hitting garage sales last week and found me the perfect desk. Since my husband has taken over the office for his work I have been relegated to a corner of the dining room on an old tv table that came with our house and a chair we used to use in the kitchen. There was barely enough room to set my laptop on the table and the height of the table did not correspond with the chair. My new desk fits well in my home and in the tiny corner I have carved out for myself. I doubt I will get any more done but at least I look good while sitting at my desk.

Harvest almost complete

Fall is here in full swing and hubby and I have been harvesting and preserving in every free moment. The final big push happened this weekend when we added 15 quarts of salsa and 11 jars of pizza sauce to the spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, grape jam and myriad jars of other items that can be found on the basement shelves. It gives me a good feeling to walk into the basement and select a jar from the shelf or an item from the freezer to set on my table which was grown in my garden and prepared in my kitchen. The final batch of grapes have been cleaned, smashed and is currently draining in the kitchen. The juice will become jam sometime in the next couple of days and I will again have time to devote to my other hobbies.

An update on the cotton...
The plants continue to flower and produce pods. All the rain we have gotten in the last couple of weeks seem to have encouraged a new flowering season. The things I have read say I should be plucking off the flowers so the plant can concentrate on the bolls but they are too pretty so I will be happy with less cotton and enjoy the flowers while I can. We covered the plants once a couple of weeks ago when we got a scattered frost. Other than that they are still doing well and I am waiting patiently for my first boll to pop open and share its soft bounty with me.