OTN: What's not?

I really got involved with swapping on a knitting site this year and I'm having so-o-o much fun I highly recommend it to everyone. For one of the 1st swaps I signed up for I had to do a Victorian Lace scarf. I so loved that pattern...and yarn...it was a silk blend I found in my stash...that I made several. Sent one to the swappee, put one in the shop, changed the yarn and made a scarf for another swap, then used the lace pattern in a bookmark for still another swap and last night used the lace pattern again, this time in a jewelry pouch. I finally knitted with beads this summer doing a necklace I found in 101 Designers One-skein Wonders...but of course, I changed the yarn and needles and strung the beads differently than instructed. In fact, I did 2 necklaces...with pouches...for the swap, and another set for the shop. (Last night I did the pouch for a 2nd set to go in the shop.) Found a doll size table that I had done back when I did American Girl doll stuff...we did chairs & sofa and table as a set. I took the table apart and now it's a necklace display rack. I'm having so much fun knitting with beads...once I get them on the yarn, that is. (One of the group moderators gave me a link to a video that showed how to string beads using dental floss. And another member told he how to use double-faced tape to keep loose beads undercontrol. Both very easy!)

In the mean time, I've done some baby sweaters for the shop, just regular-raglan- from-the-neck-down with novelty buttons to spruce things up, and a couple of hoodies. One was a 'varsity' jacket (white hood & sleeves on navy blue body) with baseball button s (what else for Cooperstown, huh?) and the other was a pumpkin...a orange hood with green stem on a green body with pumpkin buttons. Now that one went quickly so I did another one!

In the baggie in my purse a sock for Jeff is slowly growing. I got several inches done on it when we went fishing last week and another inch or so when I did laundry this week. He may end up with another pair yet!

Tomaotes tomatoes tomatoes....

Monday morning Jeff went up to his sister's to help her with some yard work. He cleared off her garden and mowed her lawn (mowing his new cell phone in the process!) He came home with 7, yes, 7 grocery bags of tomatoes, a bag of green beans, bag of potatoes, a few peppers, a zucchini, a couple of onions and 1 pathetic sweet potatoe. Tuesday after I got out of work we cleaned, chopped and cooked the tomatoes...3 big soup pots of sauce! Last night we proccessed canned 27 pints of tomaotes...sauce, with green beans and as a soup stock. I don't care if I ever see another tomatoe... until next year! Next in the pressure canner will be apples...sauce and pie filling. Somewhere along the way we've got to pick the last of our purple beans and peppers...hopefully some will be hot! ...and dig up our sweet potatoes. Jeff wants to get some pears to dehydrate and I'd like to can some. And I'd like to do some peppers and onions together, too. Jeff dehydrated some of the green beans he brought home and has another grocery bag of tomatoes lined up for the dehydrator. I guess you can say we're getting our money's worth out of the dehydrator and big pressure canner. We were disappointed that we didn't get that much from our garden...all the work he put in to it...but because of having our garden we were ended up with the fruit from Peter's and from Sherry's gardens.

GONE FISHIN'

We went fishing yesterday. It was such a nice day for late September...80 degrees, sunshine, almost no mosquiotes! This is Jeff along the banks of the Mohawk River at Lock 18. Actually, Lock 18 is on the Erie Canal which is behind me or the camera. You can walk across the closed lock and down the lawn-like expance to the river. The 1st time we visited the lock the lockmaster told us how good the fishing was down on the river but Jeff didn't have his poles with him. When I suggested 'drowning some worms' yesterday morning Jeff checked what he had in the 'fridge (all dead) and we went to Philipson's to get a dozen before heading out. The river looks very calm in this picture but the current is actually quite strong in this area and 'civilization' is closer than you'd think. The railroad tracks are across the river but curve away from the river back toward Rte 5 about at the 1st tree directly across from Jeff . The NY Thruway is just out of the photo frame to the left, too. There is so much undeveloped area...wooded and farm fields...that the sounds are muffled. Jeff got 2 white fish but threw them back and something in the river claimed his dozen worms one by one. We spent almost 4 hours on that stretch of river bank him fishing and me knitting. It was a very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The Season Ends

Today's the 1st day of autumn and the garden looks sad. The tomatoes and corn have been pulled up, the white potatoes dug up. The summer squash has had it too. The beets are doing good, peppers are still flowering and are full of fruit. There are 8 eggplants, 2 butternut squash and 1 zucchini getting bigger every day. The lemon cucumbers (yes lemon) are still growing. The sweet potatoes vines have just started to dry up and will be ready to dig up in a few days. We've canned corn, potatoes, beets and tomatoes...when our tomatoes were wiped out by the blight in 2 days we picked over 2 bushels at a friend's and kept canning. Jeff has plans to enlarge and rearrange the garden next spring. He's been looking at seeds on line and plans to order early. He is a little disappointed with the crop size but the weather and our health caused some early problems. But, every time we cook and eat the veggies from our garden we are both proud of our efforts. Better luck next year! It has been fun!!!

I'm finishing up a couple knit-and-beaded necklaces for swapping and that's been fun. Thanks to some of the others in the swap I've learned how to use dental floss to thread beads and double -faced tape in plastic CD boxes to control the loose beads...sure beats picking up 6mm beads off the floor! The next batch of swaps I've signed up for are Holiday themed. Should be fun.

This weekend is the Pumpkin Fest in Cooperstown when the giant pumpkins (1000+ lbs) are in competition in the parking lot next to the shop. Attracts quite a crowd. Last Saturday when I worked in the shop I brought in a pumpkin hoodie (orange hood w/green stem and green sweater with pumpkin buttons) I had done with the hope it would sell this weekend. It sold the next day. Got another one just about finished so I guess I'll be going to Cooperstown in the morning.

Swap News

It must have been Christmas someplace yesterday coz when I got home last night I found a note in my mailbox from the mailman telling me there was a "parcel" in the garage for me. WOW! Not 1 swap package but 2! Jeff and my mom had to gather around to see what there was (Magic Ball from Jessica in California and Market Bag from Rachel in Ohio). They were both excited about the candy bars...will I share? Had to explain to Jeff the principle behind a Magic Ball (wrap a ball of yarn around treasure, burying little...or big...things in the ball as you wrap. To retreave the treasures the ball has to be rewound again.) He thinks it would have been easier just to put all the stuff in a box w/o wrapping them in the ball of yarn. Non-knitters, huh? And that ball of yarn! A turquoise peruvian wool that I'm definately keeping for myself. It's so soft!!

The Market Bag is the perfect size for carrying knitting projects, and I may keep the sock yarn that came with that for me...actually make myself a pair of socks. Yea, right. All the little bits and pieces from the 2 packages got mixed up a little with the 3 of us grabbing things as they caught our eye, but everything was oohhed and aahhed over. And the strangest thing: there was a little notepad enclosed in one of the packages that matches excatly one I bought to send with my market bag. Don't tell me great minds don't think alike. Needless to say, A Swap in Time is very popular at my house today.

My next swap project is a beaded knit necklace...but I've never knit with bead...always added them afterwards. I looked in books and on line to get some instruction but it wasn't going well. Ever try to thread 178 6mm bead onto yarn? Not an easy job. I asked the A Swap in Time group for their suggestions and got a link to placing beads from Wendy in England the swap moderator. It is to a video that shows the easiest way to string beads using dental floss. Tried it last night and it works! But I decided to change the weight of yarn (from dk to #3 crochet cotton) for my necklaces. I think they make up much more delicate. We'll see.

Jeff saw his doctor yesterday..1st time since he got out of the hospital. She sure wasn't in a hurry to see him, was she? He's not happy with her. She tried to talk him back onto all the meds that were stopped when he was in Bassett. Doesn't she know you can't talk him into anything??? She ended up cutting dosage on a few and even cutting out a couple of the meds...but she wrote 'scripts for some that he refuses to take. When the meds were stopped, the bleeding stopped. Doesn't it seem logical the 2 may be related? Oh, yeah, I forgot, this is organized medicine.

End of Summer

The end of summer brings many things. This weekend we canned 16 quarts of tomatoe sauce. Using a pressure canner (an overgrown pressure cooker) isn't difficult at all. A lot better, faster and cooler than the old fashion boil-the-bottles-in-the-kettle method that Jeff talks about doing with his mother. We had been picking our chocolate, grape & cherry tomatoes for salads when that so-called hurricane hit and with it came the tomatoe blight. We lost all our plants and most of the fruit in 2 days. We were able to salvage enough and buy a couple pounds of plum tomatoes on sale to make 7 quarts of sauce. Peter, a friend of my cousin Fran, had offered us his tomatoes after he had had enough. Yesterday we went up to his house and picked over 100 tomatoes. Jeff's got about 50 of them slated for dehydrating. It's amazing to see how the fruit shrinks after spending 8 hours being dehyrated! Two pounds of carrots end up looking like wood shavings in a sandwich bag! Zucchini, peppers and tomato chips are great with a spinach dip and the best part is that they are crunchy but not fried!

I sent out a couple of end of summer swaps with 1 or 2 more to mail. It's fun to see how much you can stuff in an envelope! All of the above I got into a 6x9 padded mailer held together with half a roll of packing tape! I hope the power-that-be don't decide to use that size again.

It's Even Worse!

This past weekend has been even worse than the 'hurricane' the weekend before. It seemed as if the rain will never stop! The tomato vines are rotting on the fences and the ripe fruit is splitting before it can be picked. I feel so helpless...Jeff is very philosophical..that's what happens he says. Just doesn't seem fair to me...all that work.

Before the rain started we went fishing...he fished, I knitted...in the canal outside of Herkimer. I got a nice tan and several inches done on his next pair of socks. He got a small fish that he threw back. Sunday we went exploring and visited Lock 18. Now that's a place to see. We watched a boat go thru the lock and scoped out a 'great fishing spot' on the river... according to the lockmaster. Then it started to thunder and lightening and rain...it hasn't stopped yet. If it ever does we plan on going back there, taking lawn chairs and a picnic, too.