Day Off! Violet Jam and Transplanting.

It has been more than two weeks since I had a day off to myself.  I've spent a most relaxing day getting lots of things done and catching up on chores, hanging out with Tavşan.

He's so pretty now with his fur all grown in!

(Yes, he CAN see)

I made more violet jam.  I had more than enough violets picked from Jon's parents' and his Gramma's yards.

Absolutely beautiful, tastes of flowers.

And then I transplanted tomatoes, ground cherries, huckleberries, peppers, and eggplants into larger pots with Coast of Maine organically approved potting soil.  I also did some replanting and planted a container of lettuce.

 My awesome indoor greenhouse!

 Cherokee purple tomatoes

 Carmen, jalapeno, chocolate beauty peppers and one rosa bianca eggplant

 Principe and roma tomatoes

Lettuce box: one side Freckles lettuce, the other an heirloom blend

I hope to have time later this week after work to hand cultivate the garden plot here, and then sometime soon I will start planting at my parents'.  For now, after all this and washing every dish in the house, I am ready to eat some chocolate and take a nap.  Work is hard.  I have 'ice-cream-elbow'.  I really hope that they hire more people soon so I don't have to work at such a frenzied pace!  I'm also looking forward to Thursday, when it is supposed to rain...even though I still need to walk there and back...

Springtime knitting projects

Spring is a good time for knitting.  It isn't too warm to handle wool, and it is the time of year that I like to do a little extra 'spring cleaning'.  That includes working on my fiber stash.

I have trash bags full of fleeces, boxes of roving, bags of yarn...its a major space problem.

Jon asked that I make some convertible mittens for him with some of the 'sweater yarn'.  This seemed like a reasonable request.  I used a pattern from ravelry and Jon made the buttons.

 With the tops flipped up, his hands are still warm but he can grip his measuring tape!

 With the tops down, Jon's hands stay warm when picking up cold stones.

 One flap up, one flap down.

 Good hammer grip.

 Hammer in motion.

Jon also loves that he can reach into his pockets without taking them off!

I'm thinking of modifying this pattern with a few design changes and selling some.  Let me know what you think!

My other ongoing project is a mug cozy.  With such a small amount of yarn needed, how could this not be a good idea to use up my scrap box of handspun yarn?!  This is also a chance to use some of my awesome buttons from Northampton Wools.
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I haven't been doing much baking lately.  My tomato, cherry tomato, huckleberry, and ground cherry seeds have all germinated and some are over an inch high.  I just replanted peppers, hot peppers, and eggplant seeds because they never germinated.  I hope to put some early greens in the ground the first week of May.  Jon is back to work repairing a wall and might get a job doing some terracing garden beds.  Translating has been slow again.  I'm really looking forward to warmer weather...I have plans of reading a large book in the sun.

Demise of the sweater. Hunger.

I finished the sweater-thing.

And my face of awesomeness and joy quickly faded as I realized that it did not fit me, and absolutely would not fit Jon.

The sleeves were too long.  It was too tight.  It was shedding like crazy.  I must have known all along that it wasn't going to work, but I was just too stubborn to admit it and so I made myself finish it.  Jon was really nice about the whole thing.  He told me stories about how he had to take apart art pieces, and nothing is forever.  I threw it down on the living room floor and stared at it for a while before stashing it in the basement for the night.

Yesterday, I unraveled the whole thing.

It took me nearly an hour just to pull all of that yarn out.

It is done.  My mistake was not paying attention to common sense, and gauge.  Now I am knitting Jon a pair of convertible mittens.  They are quite nice.  Jon made a couple of maple wood buttons for them.  The good news is that I now have enough of this yarn to make a bajillion pairs of mittens!

In other news, it snowed.  AGAIN.  I love snow.  I do not love how it keeps pushing back Jon's work season.  And keeps our funds extremely low.  Here is another Day of Food, reflecting our situation (Jon needed extra because he is working).

Breakfast:

Bacon- 1 pack of bacon can last all week for protein needs!

Jon also had French toast

Lunch:

Jon had leftover chicken soup

I had a free sample organic protein drink mix

Dinner:

Leftover chicken soup, stretched out with beans

Homemade bread

I'm soaking some chick peas to make hummus tomorrow, too.  Some days, you're just hungry.  Is it really better to eat a little food well, or eat more junk food?

Things will get better.  It is hard when translating payments come 45-60 days after invoice and it just keeps snowing.

My tomato seeds started to germinate.  Spring is coming.

Apr 17th, 2011 1:42pm

I'm waiting for yeast to rise.  Today is bread day, and I'm using http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/our-favorite-sandwich-bread-recipe.  I'm also watching The Office.  I planted dill, parsley, and cilantro in some old yogurt tubs, and I went through the tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings and took out the empty peat pods.  Quite a few never came up, but I guess that's what I should expect when getting seeds from Ocean State Job Lot!  Enough came up to make this project worthwhile, though.  Jon's mom and I were talking about changing things around in the backyard to make more space for my veggies where there is some strong sun.  I'm excited to watch my seedlings grow.

I had an interview this morning for a second nannying job.  The boy is 7 years old, and has special needs.  He seemed very sweet and his parents were very nice.  They said that they just needed to check my references!  The hours would be in the morning before my other job, so this would work out perfectly.  I can definitely use the money for wedding expenses.
The sun just popped out!  Today, I'm going to clean rabbit cages and trim Yardley's nails.  I might also get another bobbin of mohair done and start plying!