It was sort of a dull weekend around my house. Saturday was Purdue Football day, and Tim took Victoria to the game. I stayed home and made salsa. We (and by “we,” I mean Tim and the kids) planted a garden this summer. Mostly peppers and tomatoes, with a few varieties of squash thrown in as well. The squash didn’t make it. Some kind of bugs got to them before we did. The tomatoes fared a little better. We had a fair harvest. Nothing crazy, but enough to keep Tim eating fried green tomatoes and BLTs for a couple of weeks. The peppers, on the other hand, went nuts. We had tons of peppers this month. Salsa and sun peppers, jalapenos, and habaneros, along with a few bell peppers. They were beautiful, green, red, and yellow.

Aren’t they beautiful?!  This is only about 1/4 of our total pepper harvest. We had a few more tomatoes than those shown here, but not many. So, in order to make salsa, I had to go to my dad and ask him for some. Fortunately, his neighbor planted something like 60 tomato plants. If you’ve ever wondered what a 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes looks like, all scrubbed clean and sitting on a counter, wonder no more.

So, I figured I’d start making salsa around noon on Saturday and be done by 4:00, when we were supposed to go out with Tim’s parents. Did I mention I didn’t have any help in this salsa-making mission? Tim and Victoria were at the football game, remember. I started chopping the onions. I figured it would be best to get the least pleasant part out of the way first. Then, I started on the tomatoes. Contrary to my estimates, by 4:00 I had only just finished chopping the tomatoes! I still had peppers to chop and garlic to smash. So, Tim and the kids went out with his parents. I persevered in the kitchen, slaving over a hot stove for hours making salsa. My last, smallest, hottest batch looked like this:

This was the batch containing a habanero and a few salsa peppers. I was afraid to put my head over the pot to smell it for fear the heat would singe off my eyebrows and eyelashes! But, by 7:30 pm, I had made and canned 2.25 gallons of salsa.

I enjoyed the rest of the evening, sitting quietly in the living room. Knitting on Victoria’s skirt and watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Here’s Victoria’s skirt (yarn: Berroco Keltic; pattern: I’m making it up as I go):

She wants me to make a One Skein Wonder to go with it. I need to get more yarn to finish the skirt anyway, so I might as well get enough for that. Sunday morning, I was knitting the skirt, and FOUR rows from the end, I ran out of yarn. Grrrr. Oh well. I’ll grab a couple more balls when I go to River Knits tomorrow evening.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I started the Lift and Separate from Big Girl Knits. Well, here it is, on the needles:

The yarn, Berroco Ultra Alpaca, is heavenly! Really wonderful stuff. And the color is not quite as dark as it appears on my monitor. Anyway, it’s nice stuff!

I had a nice morning today. Elizabeth, Michelle and I (you can see a pic of the three of us on the River Knits homepage) got together to plan some wonderful upcoming events for River Knits! Last year, we put together a Yarn Rave (or, as some shops call it, a yarn tasting), which was a huge success. So, we’re planning another one for November 3. And, we have another River Knits Retreat in the planning stages! We’ve reserved the location and have contacted a possible instructor. It’s very exciting! 

Sadly, I can’t think of anything else to talk about right now. Which means, I suppose I should go in the family room and spend some time with…the family. Lord, please tell me “Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses” is almost over!

I have startitis so bad, my head is going to explode. In the 3 days, I’ve started 2 new projects. The most recent is a skirt for Victoria. It’s knitting up so fast, though, that it will probably be done before the weekend is out. I hope it turns out as nice as I think it will. I’m using Berroco Keltic in Thistle (or, as my lispy son says, “Fithle”). Anyway, the pattern for the skirt is easy peasy. If it works out, maybe I’ll post it here as a free pattern.

I also broke down and started the Lift and Separate from Big Girl Knits. I’ve had the yarn (Berroco Ultra Alpaca) for a couple of months at least. Waiting. Patiently. Finally, when the Big Girl Knits Yahoo! Group announced that this was their new knit along, I couldn’t resist! I had to start. It was just the push I needed.

The lace socks are coming along nicely. (Sorry! No pics of patterns I’m in the process of designing!) Considering I have no attention span for fingering weight socks, it’s going well. Both socks have heels and the gussets are complete. I just need to finish the feet. That’s kind of the boring part. Sigh.

I’ll post more tomorrow, with pics of current projects and….a very very old project that finally found it’s way out of the yarn closet.

On this, the unofficial last day of summer, I’m thinking about fall. I love fall. The only thing I love more than fall is winter. But, fall is a really close second. Kids are back in school (thank God!), the air is less humid, I can wear jeans again. It’s great!  Today, I even put on handknit wool socks as soon as I got out of bed. It was 52 degrees! That’s cool enough for socks. And I still have them on, even though it is now 71. I’ve also been knitting quite a bit today. I finished the rib/lace cowl/gaiter/dickey thing that I started in June. It really only took about 4 hours to knit the entire thing. There’s no reason I shouldn’t have finished it much sooner. But, it’s done now. It’s very warm and soft and wonderful. I can’t wait until it’s cold enough to wear it. I have just enough of the wonderful Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre left to swatch for Hush. I want to start that sweater soooo bad, but I just don’t happen to have $200 for yarn laying around right now.

For the first time in my knitting life, I have three pairs of socks on the needles. It took me a very long time to come around to sock knitting. I just plain didn’t like it at first. I liked the socks, just not knitting them. Now, clearly, I’m addicted. It only took me 6.5 years to get there. I’m working on a new pattern. Lovely lacy socks. Fingering weight yarn. I haven’t decided what kind of heel I want to use. I usually use a short row heel, but I think these socks might need something a little fancier than that. Anyway, once they are done, they will be available in three sizes, in two or three variations. The first pair has been really fun to knit. We’ll see if the following ones keep my attention as well. Maybe I need to find some test knitters.

On that note, I’m going to go make sure my children aren’t grinding play dough into the carpet. And then, barring any play dough accidents, I’m going to knit. Imagine that.

I know, I know. Just what the world needs. Another knitting blog. Well, get over it.

I won’t bore you here with an intro. If you want to learn more about me, you can check out my Meet Amanda page. For now, let’s talk knitting!

I’m currently working on several projects. Wait…I’m always working on several projects.  But, the projects I’ve been workingon most the past few days are these.

This scarf

is for my mom. It’s unfinished in this pic, but I completed it this morning at about 5:30 am. (No, I don’t usually get up that early…) It’s from Scarf Style, using Rowan Cashsoft and Lantern Moon ebony needles. Talk about a luxurious experience!

Speaking of luxury, I’m also working on this shawl

using a Lorna’s Laces sampler bouquet. The colorway is Tuscany, and the shawl is a triangle knit from the center out. More on this in another post.

Finally, I’m working on this Market Squares bag for a class I’m teaching at River Knits.

It’s a gift for my sister Jessica.

Future projects: On Tuesday, I went to River Knits, as I do every Tuesday evening, and was met by a wonderful surprise. The new RYC Classic Style book had arrived! We first saw some of the designs from this book at TNNA in Indianapolis, where I fell deeply and passionately in love with Hush. It has lace, it has beads, it has ruffles. It requires 10 tons of yarn. Really. 10 tons. Okay…26 balls (more than 2800 yards) for the largest size. YIKES!  So, I’ll be saving my yarn money for a while until I can afford to knit this sweater. But, I WILL knit this sweater. I’m leaning toward a different yarn, though. Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre. I first saw this yarn at TNNA as well. I even received a ball of it to bring home with me. I’ve been knitting a little lace cowl, and it’s absolutely heavenly. You can’t go wrong with alpaca, kid mohair and merino. Yummy!

I also want to talk for a minute about podcasts. I realize I’m a little late jumping on the podcast bandwagon. But, I can’t get enough of them!  My absolute favorite is Lime & Violet. I love love love them! They are a riot!  I also really enjoy Cast On, Eureka (not knitting), and some others. I need more time to explore the podcast world.

Hey, this blogging stuff is kind of fun! Who knew?!