Another Saturday

It's Saturday and, again, I have no sky picture. There's really getting to be a trend here: nice during the week and rainy and gray on the weekends. How about one from a few years ago?

Since it was cool and windy, I made another batch of apple butter today. I thought I was done with the canning thing, but then DD said, how about applesauce? I allowed as how she was more than welcome to drag the ladder out, climb it, and pick more apples. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I'm done with canning for the season.

More from the Jelly Factory

The canning frenzy continues with today's contributions of 3 pints of peach jam and 8 pints of apple butter. I have run out of jelly jars, so have moved on to pint jars. This bail-top one is just for the left-overs.

Apple butter takes a long, long time to make. If you want to make some, plan on the whole day. The good part is that much of that time is while it's cooking down in the oven.

Knitting has not been completely absent. I've been working away on the Sunburst Sling Bag. The yarn is from Steam Valley Fiber. As soon as I saw the pattern, I thought that it would look very cool if felted, so I'm knitting it on larger needles and plan doing just that.

It's Saturday and Raining Again

I did think of taking a Saturday Sky picture, but gray is just not that interesting, except when it appears on a hedgehog. This is Chester and he likes to knit also.

Remember that red lamp that came to an untimely end a few weeks ago? Well, now it's blue. DH is quite handy and had conveniently come home from an auction with this vase that happened to be pretty darn close to a perfect fit. I like it just as much as the red one.

It's been pretty busy here in the jelly factory. 16 pints, 11 jelly jars of grape; 3 pints, 8 jelly jars of mulled cider. You would think that would be enough, but there have been requests for peach jam and apple butter. I've never made apple butter before, but have found some recipes for making it in the oven, which should be less likely to burn.

I found these socks in a dollar store today. I don't believe that he thinks there is anything happy about the holidays!

Autumn Harvest

Yep, it's beginning to feel much more fall-like around here. We often get many rainy days in the fall, but I think there's been a bit much when you get fungi like this on the top of a hill. The single one is close to 8 inches across.

The good news is that I actually have apples on one of my apple trees. I have six of them; they have been in the ground for close to 10 years and this is the first time there have been apples. It's been so long that I forget what variety they are, but I think these are one of the disease-resistant MacIntosh types. I'm beside myself with excitement. It looks like there are enough on one of the trees to make apple butter.

We've also had grapevines planted for quite a few years. I am quite remiss when it comes to pruning them properly, but they forgive me regularly. I also often forget about them completely and don't get the grapes picked at all. There is currently quite the bumper crop of grapes, but there is a large pest invading them. I had assumed that bunnies had been eating the lower clusters.

Yes, I know that grapes/raisins are bad for your dog, but Gypsy doesn't seem to eat enough to cause a problem. I'll pick those first and get some grape jelly put up.

Saturday Sky at Fingerlakes Fiber Fest

Spending the entire weekend, including Saturday night, at our Fingerlakes Fiber Fest is definitely in my top 10 really good ways to spend a weekend. Maybe even in the top 5. The weather was cooperative for the weekend, although it had rained lots the week before, so there was much muck to be found. This is the sun setting on Saturday evening over one of the barns. There are 2 barns and 3 buildings of fibery goodness. I am a bad blogger as I really didn't take any pictures to speak of the entire weekend.

Saturday night after the gates close is great fun. There's a pot-luck for those staying on the grounds and a spin-in until whenever.

My stash enhancement was minor. For some reason, silk keeps attaching itself to me this summer/fall. I have stopped putting it off and finally spun some. I like it, a lot. It feels completely different than anything else. I suppose I'll keep it as "pet yarn" for awhile until it's project comes along. The green/blue was such a good deal that it jumped into my bag, then I found the nifty purse pattern. It doesn't call for the bag to be felted, but I think I'll just knit it up on bigger needles and go for it!

My, how time flies...

I now have an idea of what retirees mean when they say they don't know what day it is. One day does just run into the other when you're not going to work every day. I decided that it would be a really good plan to just take September off and enjoy not going to work. There is a possibility (however slight) that a job opportunity could come up with my old employer, so I want to stay unattached enough to consider it. Well, enough of that, on to more interesting topics...

Since I posted last month about some of my unfinished projects, I've been busy completing almost all of them. I have finished all of these: the travelling socks, the trekking socks, setting the spun yarn, put the zipper in a small bag, lined a larger one, sewn up a sheep pillow and have redeemed a felting issue.

The felting "issue" was the result of not making a swatch and felting it to see what the different felting rates were on the yarns I used for this bag. Live and learn. To solve the obviously way too small pockets, I knitted up some inserts, cut the pockets and sewed them in. It looks pretty silly, doesn't it? After running through the washer 3 times, the inserts had felted almost as much as they were going to, but were now a bit too big, of course. No picture of that and there is no excuse as the camera is on the table next to me. I cut a couple of darts and sewed the cut edges together. This is just out of the washer, so still needs a bit of shaping, brushing and a bit of steaming to encourage that pocket to lie down and say uncle.

Not only that, but I've done one of those incredibly cute felted hedgehogs, a pair of felted sllippers and knitted a moebius scarf. No pictures of these right now as they were sent off to Fingerlakes Fiber Festival's Fleece, Skein & Garment Competition. This year, I helped out with the judging. This was lots of fun and I know how everyone did (and I'm not telling).

Speaking of the Fiber Fest, and this is a shameless plug: If you're anywhere in the area of Hemlock, NY (south of Rochester, NY), you really want to take some time this weekend, September 16 & 17th to come join us. We have a really nice festival with both local vendors and out-of-state vendors with a great variety of fibers, yarns, critters and more.

I'll be there all weekend, including Saturday night. We have some space right on the grounds that we dedicate to camping for vendors and guild members. I've done this before and it's just fabulous to spend the entire weekend with a bunch of likable and like-minded fiber nuts.

Saturday Sky

Ernesto came to visit today, so Saturday Sky is not much to look at. I am really glad that all we get from hurricanes is the occasional very rainy day. Today, we had the added bonus of the electric going off for about 3 hours or so. We took it as a hint that it was nap time.

I spent the day finishing up the dredging project in the sewing room. Now it looks more like this. How 'bout that? There was a table under all that stuff.

I found this bookend lurking in there. I have come across it before and it makes me laugh every time. Years ago, my daughter accidently broke it and carefully mended it with duct tape. Note that she even managed to tape it on the inside. I have never been able to even get the slightest bit annoyed about it; like I said, it makes me laugh every time.


I even got to the desk itself. Note the large pile of paperwork to the left. I'm pretty sure that I have run out of excuses to take care of that now that the desk is organized and the electric is back on. Wait a minute, no I haven't...I've done enough work today, it's time to get some knitting done.