greens from the garden

I went to my local local grocer's to buy local cucumbers. Of course, we canned them! I find that pickles are one of the easiest things to put up, although the vinegar smell does linger in the house. This is my most requested canned good item, from friends and husband, and BFJ opened the last jar of last year's pickles a week or two ago. I don't want to have a disappointed spouse for the next year so I stopped and got some cucumbers. I actually planted what I thought would be a bed of cucumbers, but it turns out that only two or three of the plants are actually producing cucumbers, while another two are producing what appear to be mutant pumpkin hybrids. And I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the plants I thought I had. Sad. The lemon cucs are doing better but are in the corners of the other beds.

The jalapenos and other peppers and goodies did come from my garden, though, and I did make a couple small jars of home-grown stuff. I'm not sure how the lemon cucumbers will serve (bet you can tell which one that is!) My mother-in-law brought a jar's worth of cucumbers last week, as well.

We had pesto and grilled chicken last night - a family favorite, yum, yum. It goes fast!

Shown: basil pesto, dill, tomatillo, two zucchinis, lemon cucumber, three jalapenos, two pablano peppers, and one runty cucumber from the garden. Even runty, the homegrown cucumbers are delicious!

reasons I knit

I haven't posted a lot of knitting on here in the last few years. Not much to say about it but I still knit. I knit because I love to create. I knit because I love sweaters. I knit because I grew up with a mom who is artistic beyond the acknowledgement she receives, and it's in my blood to do something creative. I knit because I love the good things God grows, like sheep and wool and muskox and cotton. I knit because I love colors. I knit because my boys wear what I knit. I knit because I like the rhythm. I knit because it has a beginning and an end, and they are achievable. I knit because when my hands are busy, my mouth slows down, and it gives my brain a chance to make better decisions. I knit because I'm really, really good at it, and it's one of the few things that others acknowledge, and we all need that. I knit because I love to knit. I'm working on a colorful shawl in alpaca.

modular knitting

On the plus side, modular knitting gives one interesting options for colorwork and color blocking. Sometimes the dye process can give the yarn its own commentary, like this changing of scales. However, there are often many more ends to weave in. This one is not too bad, but there's at least four ends on every row - 14 rows. Still, interesting to try something new! Details on my Ravelry page , if you are interested!! Have you tried modular knitting? Thumbs up or down??

Spring Means Baseball!

I've had this idea for a knitting pattern in my head and it's finally come to fruition! I am still polishing up the pattern, but here's a quick peak: PS: There's more than one size and this one is too big for me but it was the only one I had "stitched up."

Stephanie DAugust 25, 2013 at 7:56 AM
I've never put up pickles, but then, this is the first year I've planted cucumbers. They did okay for a while, but we had twice the amount of rain in 6 months than we had all last year, so even in my raised bed garden, they petered out for lack of sunshine. And let's don't even mention the tomatoes and peppers.

However, the Greek columnar basil I planted has far surpassed the regular basil, so I'm planning on making lots of pesto this year!
CandaceAugust 25, 2013 at 7:20 PM
Nice haul, Karen! I can't seem to grow cukes here for the life of me and how I love dill pickles! Hmm...wonder if you can carve the mutant pumpkin hybrids - you'll have the scariest house on the block!
Cheers!
ThimbleannaAugust 26, 2013 at 7:01 AM
Such a fun GREEN picture! It looks like you've had good garden production this year, in spite of the lacking cucumbers!

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