August crafts

My first ever canned peaches, from an excursion to Smolak Farms in North Andover with the girls:

In process, European Hearth Style bread, following a King Arthur flour recipe and using the Artisan flour I just got from them:

It's a time-consuming recipe, and makes only one loaf, as opposed to the two it claims, but the bread is EXCELLENT and it's well worth the time. I'd have a picture of the finished loaf except, well -- it's gone.

Below, R's socks, using Tuscan Grove Bellagio yarn in the "Mint Ganache" colorway, with Louet Gems at heels and toes (I was worried I wouldn't have enough of the Mint Ganache --- as it turns out I think I would have JUST made it, but it wasn't worth stressing). I used a variation of the Green Mountain Spinnery pattern I.B.H.'s Toasty Socks, and Harmony size 3 dpns.

I think the last shot shows the colors better than the pictures of the finished socks. Now what?

Time to organize the study, read the book I am supposed to be reviewing, and maybe, just maybe, sneak in a small project before my yarn arrives for the project I am counting on to keep me sane through multiple faculty meetings this fall. I am going to try Deborah Newton's Clasica Coat (on the cover of the recent Interweave Knits), and I've found a KAL on Ravelry to help me stay focused --we'll see! I think it's going to be an interesting enough knit that I'll actually stay with it, though I'm a little concerned about the sheer size of the thing. I'm going to use Cascade Eco wool, which was on sale at Stitch House this month (I can't even think about what it would cost to knit this thing in the yarn featured in IK); Annissa has ordered me a great color and I can't wait.

I forgot to show the Swim Meet Socks

In Noro Sock!!

Blog: what is it good for?

Well, those of you in tune with this particular pop culture reference will not hesitate to respond "absolutely nuthin'" ... and truth be told, I've been wondering about this a lot. I spend time now on Facebook and Ravelry, and reading Twitter feeds (yes, I follow Lance Armstrong, what of it?), and I've been wondering about keeping this space open (?) or active (?) -- I'm not quite sure what the terminology ought to be. What was once a knitting blog now clearly isn't, and I have other blogs for my classes, so that material ought not to be here ... and the handful of you who did make time to read my posts have no doubt gone on to other more rewarding sites (I hope so).

There's no denying that a blog of one's own is a good spot to rant about the Red Sox, celebrate FOs (my summer of socks!) or muse about the possibility of opening an etsy store for R's photos, or to make a partial list of summer reading:

A Mathematician's Lament, Paul Lockhart
Nickel and Dimed. Barbara Ehrenreich
It's Not About the Bike, Lance Armstrong
Nice Try, Shane Maloney
The Big Ask, Shane Maloney,
Borderline, Nevada Barr
A Duty to the Dead, Charles Todd
Lance Armstrong's War, Daniel Coyle
The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer
Who is Conrad Hirst? Kevin Wignall
The End of the Chapter, John Galsworthy
A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass


Here, fye, an egret series, from the pond down the street (I am reminded that in Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country the character of the Vietnam vet uncle, Emmett, spends lots of time looking for an egret ....)





Here you see Tessie still having to be convinced that cows (heifers) are not scary. By the end of our 2 weeks in Vermont I think she had decided that they are a strange variety of large dog; she got to the point, one night in the barn, of touching noses with a particularly brave cow.

So, I'm still thinking about all of these blog matters. Clearly I'm not quite done yet. So I'm going to borrow Garrison Keillor's Writers' Almanac send-off:

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Oh, and those of you in metro Boston? Try to keep cool.