I was canning those pie cherries the other day and decided to make some tri-berry jam at the same time, I figured I might as well since I was in the kitchen already and the kitchen was "canning clean" so I dug around in the freezer and pulled out the organic black berries that came from my mother in laws garden last year, the frozen organic blueberries I bought on sale in bulk a few years ago, and then the frozen strawberries I keep on hand for smoothies.... I threw them all in the pot and made jam....
I think a lot of people believe that you have to live in a rural setting to put food up, they think you have to live down the road from a farm, participate in a CSA, or have the space and time to grow yourself.... I guess what I am trying to say is that though all those things are ideal for canning, they are not totally necessary.Find your closest bulk food store and buy a big bag of frozen fruit to put up. When there is a good sale on seasonal produce at the grocery market, take advantage and use that... just use whatever is available to you in your area.... Go on...give it a try, you know you want to...

Now would you all humor me with some advice please? I have a quart of local raw honey, I had only dipped into it once.... the ants got in, UNDER THE LID... Would you scoop out the dead ants, and put the honey in a better jar with a better lid, or would you chuck the whole jar??

Yesterday I completely gutted this room that was once a nursery, then my office, then a storage/junk room which is now being transformed into a room for the boys... I ripped up the carpet and padding, took a crowbar to the nail strips, and got all of the staples out with a hammer....I had all 3 of the kids wipe down walls and baseboards so I can paint today... the color is not going to be the turquoise you see, that was one of those things I started then had second thoughts about before completion.... the color will be the faintest sky blue and I am hoping that I can create a space they can take pride in caring for.

Mr. Clean magic erasers truly are magical... I am thinking about buying stock!

Nurturing Threads

I have these friends with a WAHM dyeing business.... their stuff is seriously, utterly beautiful. You know me, I love to throw around adjectives (a lot)... but the words that come to my mind when looking at their yarn and fiber are.... luscious....delicious....juicy.....scrumdidlyumptious... and O.M.G love!..... these ladies have a serious handle on color. The base yarns and fibers they dye are top notch quality... and this superfine merino I am spinning is so oober soft it is almost addictive.

These ladies have 11 children between the two of them which in itself is pretty amazing. Like a lot of indie dyers their stuff is not always in stock so you have to wait for it to come available, but I think it is well worth the wait.
The colors speak for themselves....
check them out!

they also have a ravelry group which is a good way to keep up with stockings, see colorways and what other people have made with their yarn...

Since I am on the topic of yarn... I should share with you the rainbows that leapt from my imagination onto this wool stripping.... Something about summer makes me want to work with bright vivid colors, I didn't give this pendleton wool stripping a second glance when I passed it in my LYS.... that is until a strip of it was included in the dye class I took....So I bought all of it.... brought it home and skeined it.....

and this is what came about....I haven't decided whether it will be a rug, or a shaggy knit comfort shawl...

filling our days

We had a very nice fourth spent with family and friends...

mud fights.

I harvested in the garlic the other day, we planted it last fall and I am so excited about how big our bulbs got... We are going to plant another crop today so we can harvest more right before winter. You know your garlic is ready to dig when you have 3+ stalks coming up... though the really big bulbs had 6 or more.

a friend brought me over two bags of cherries the other day, they have a tree that is producing more than they can handle... sounds like a good problem to have to me wouldn't you agree?

I have been doing a lot of work in my house, I realized that my focus keeps going back to those goals I set at the start of the year, but it feels like more of a natural progression rather than a forced checklist.... I feel like I am liberating myself from my self imposed slavery to stuff...I have the back of my car completely packed with donations, and the trash cans are filled to overflowing. So much of this process is slow psychological ongoing work, yet I feel like I am taking giant steps.
I am letting go, accepting myself, releasing good things to others, being mindful.

BIGSOCK, littlesock, sock, sock, sock....

The BIG SOCK is coming to my house.


The BIG SOCK is coming to my house.


The BIG SOCK is coming to my house.


The BIG SOCK is coming to my house.


The BIG SOCK is coming to my house!!!

Sometime in the next month it will be arriving for it's tour of Idaho, and trip with me out to Sock Summit 2009, I am so excited about the summit and all of the people I get to meet, but most of all I am happy I get to meet my long time friend fickleknitter and we get to take a spinning class together....

check out the flickr group for the big sock!

well hello, deep end....

It's good to be here.

The pattern is here.... the yarn was handpaint from a swap, and the needles are 0000 available at yarndogs

and just in case you were wondering... yes they are smaller than toothpicks.

oh yes.... and look who's grown.

fun with dye

Yesterday I took a wonderful dyeing class from my very favorite Lonna Steele, I cannot say enough about how fantastic I think she is. I have done my share of experimenting with colors and dyes over the years, but I learned a TON from her yesterday. I appreciate the way she approaches her art. She always fits as much technical and historical information to her classes as well as the hands on learning. Most of all, she always maintains a sense of fun, adventure,and play which I have come to learn is essential to this craft.
I have some pretty pretties to play with, and some mohair fiber which will be spun just as soon as I free up my bobbins..



this week I plied a 3 ply wool silk yarn which came out so pretty.It felt like it took me a long time just because the singles were so fine to come out with 230 yards of worsted weight yarn.


so now I am working on my fair entries, and have crazy wool woven stripping soaking in the bathtub with dreams of rainbow colors....

lazy summer

We have been spending a lot of time outside on the blanket.... at the park, watching kids run around, under the shade tree...

We spent one day taking Kahlan to the doctor... she had a runny nose, that just wouldn't go away, it got green and really really stinky (TMI I know) so I took her in to see our wonderful pediatrician, and he quickly discovered she had lodged something up her nose.... so in with the tweezers.... can you guess what she had stuck up there?
wool.
yep wool.
she took a fluff of my spinning wool from the floor and shoved it up her nose... I think we will be talking about this one for years to come.


I cranked out this barn raising square from Regia Fafe Fassett (Rainbow) sock yarn, it is going into one of the quilts that will be raffled off at SS09 for doctors without borders.

The other thing I am working on right now is teaching the kids how to care for what we have... by getting rid of the bulk of it- making them help clean it and care for it... and taking most of their possesions away so they appreciate what they have..... this has to be one of the most challenging aspects of parenting for me.