Today I took the rather reckless step of attempting to make jam while caring for a toddler and an infant. Naturally the crucial, timing-required steps occurred right around the start of that very tenuous event known as the baby’s nap time. Thankfully the hubster not only works 100 feet away, but is also a very good sport and quite understanding of my current difficulty in putting together a cohesive thought, let alone a good plan.

In truth, what with the pregnancy and ensuing baby I didn’t really contribute much to the making of this jam.

I selected and purchased the seeds for the Gold Medal tomatoes at our local Seedy Sunday this spring.
My mother sowed them and supplied me with the small plants.
I planted them in soil tilled by my step-father, and prepared by the hubby, who also did the majority of the weeding all summer, as well as the watering.
My mother picked the ripe tomatoes.
I did have the idea to make the jam, found a recipe and assembled all the required ingredients and supplies.
I cut up the tomatoes and plopped them in the pot over heat with the sugar and lemon juice, but after that the whole mess got turned over to the man, who finished cooking the jam, jarred and processed it.

But I’m still going to say I made it…

Isn’t it pretty?

So I‘m making have made another quilt!

After lurking around Cluck Cluck Sew for a few months, ogling pretty quilts, I landed on the Raw Edge Circle Quilt Tutorial and thought Im going to make that for the Munchkin.

Two things attracted me to this quilt; first the colours, which those who know me will recognize as some of my favourites, and second that it looked non-fiddly enough that I might actually get it done before he leaves home.

I spent some time perusing my favourite online fabric stores, bought much more than I’d need for this quilt (gotta build the stash somehow…) and got started.

I won’t bore you with every single step, just know that it involved doing this about 35 times.

(I say “about” 35 times because I did a few extra, just in case.)

After quartering all those squares I ended up with this

which I then had to arrange into a quilt-like composition, like so;

all the while attempting a reasonable distribution of different colours and tones and pattern types.

The day I did the layout, I didn’t quite finish before the wee beastie awoke from his nap, upon which I blame the fact that there are a few places with matching fabrics touching each other. Oops. I didn’t even notice until I had the front all sewn together (another logistical joy, keeping all those pieces in order), and I sure as hell wasn’t going to redo it then. He’ll just have to live with it. Hopefully it won’t shatter him to discover at an early age that mommy isn’t perfect.

I wanted this to be a cosy warm quilt, not just a pretty throw, so I went with Thinsulate for the batting, and tufting instead of real quilting to keep it nice and lofty. (I used leftover variegated green sock yarn that a certain someone should recognize.) I never think far enough ahead to plan the binding, but luckily I had some green fabric that I think works well, helping balance out the warmth of all the oranges and browns.

For the backing (also not planned ahead of time) I picked out some fun flannels at the local fabric & craft store, and ended up with this:

I love it, but the little boy hasn’t exactly warmed up to it yet. This may have to do with the fact that he is quite opposed to the use of blankets in general, and for himself in particular. But I don’t mind. I figure we’ll just keep it around so it insinuates into his subconscious, and by the time he leaves home he won’t be able to imagine not having it.

See, I do plan ahead after all.

Even living next to a junk yard has benefits.

Yesterday, I preserved myself a bit more summer.

Well, late summer. Harvest time, to be exact.

It was a busy morning, but it ended well, with five pints of applesauce (apples from my mom’s Lodi tree), five pints of pickled green beans (from my garden, improvised recipe, have no idea if they’ll taste any good), one pint of garlic dill pickle spears (garden cukes, unfortunately failed to seal so they’ll be early eaters from the fridge) and a half-pint of pickled jalapeños.

The pints of August

Whew. It was a bit of a learning experience, but I think I did pretty well for my first water-bath canning run. Now I have a bunch of jars of stewed and pickled sunshine, waiting for the shorter days when I can pull them out and think of how clever I was.

Also loving the rampant rudbeckia and zealous zinnias, seen in the corner.

Because the beans, man, they are producing like it’s the end of days. And I, well I just don’t quite know how I’m going to keep up…

Just now, while the munchkin is napping, I thought “I should probably go pick a few beans” because I haven’t picked the bush beans since the day before yesterday, and at that time I started to notice a few wee ones on the Purple Rattlesnake pole beans. It took about five minutes to fill a 4L basket. I glanced at the lone broccoli plant and saw the green bunches leaning towards blooms so snipped off the little florets for tonight’s dinner. And of course a few Swiss Chard leaves from the thriving 8′ row for my lunch. The cukes I’ve been keeping up with and seem to be between blasts anyways, so I just got the one little mutant that was loitering on the bush, but I did spot 4 or 5 more that are at least double the size they were yesterday and will surely need to be culled tomorrow. The four golden cherry tomatoes didn’t make it back to the house for the photo op. Not sure why. I know I picked them, nestled them in my palm… oh yeah, because they are like CANDY. Mmmm, sweet sweet vegetable (I know, fruit, but it’s not as impressive sounding) candy.

Now the fun part comes; processing the beans. Fortunately freezing beans is pretty quick and easy, the most time-consuming part is trimming them. It’s just that between having to test a website migration, do laundry, research chicken-keeping and, oh yeah, care for a toddler, my free moments are few and fleeting.

But when I think of January, with snow feet deep all around and the days supposedly getting longer but it’s hard to tell, when I’ll be going bonkers because it takes 10 minutes to put on enough clothes to take out the compost, I know I’ll be so glad I scurried now so that I can open the freezer, dump a bag into a steamer and taste the sunshine of August again.

Husband takes toddler on a run to the store, giving me a 45 minute “break”.

Multiple choice question:
Do I
a) sit back with a glass of wine and that clever book I’ve been wanting to read
b) take a nice relaxing bath
c) call a friend I haven’t seen or talked to for too long for an interruption-free chat
d) plant a shrub, clean the bathroom sink, and write a blog post.

I don’t think I have to tell you the answer to that one…

The Shrubbery pt. 1: Burning Bush.

But man, I do love me some shiny porcelain.

Ah the country life.

First it was rain, making puddles in the future garden, motivating me to stay inside and unpack after the move.

Then it cleared up and just as I was getting caught up on the laundry (it turns out I really enjoy hanging laundry outside – it’s all peaceful and zen and sh*t), the black flies arrived.
Oh the black flies, the little black flies…

Thankfully they don’t last long here, but just as they moved onto their next stage of existence, the rain. The rain came back. And so here we are with the puddles and the grey and the going stir crazy indoors waiting to get out and get the garden established.

So to the clover. We’ve got clover in the “lawn” (hah!), and if there’s one thing this kind of weather does it’s make me look at the little things. So today I bring you clover. Well, just the odd clover. We all know what regular clover looks like, right? Green, three leaves, sometimes with patterns, sometimes plain. Google it if you’re not sure.
Instead I present to you the oddities:

Variegated clover

Nibbled Clover

Albino Clover

Undecided Clover

I know, the Nibbled Clover isn’t really different clover, but I do find it entertaining that all the leaves on one plant will be nibbled around the edges while the one next door is left entirely unmolested.

And in case you were wondering, yes, it is difficult to get good sharp photos in mediocre light with a kicking, 20-something-pound toddler strapped to one’s back.

Once again, Chinese New Year is here, which means another set of CNY prints. This being the Year of the Rabbit, the cards feature a wee family of the critters.

I started several weeks ago with this very loose little sketch,








mulled it over in my head for a while and came up with this as the final product:

Cute, sure, but I have to say that It would have been more complex if I’d been able to take more time for it. As it was I chose the ease and speed of lino (well, Speedcut block to be precise) printing again, and a simple design, just not feeling up to anything more labour-intensive.

When I started this series my goal was to use it to spur myself to learn more print techniques and develop as an artist. I definitely did that in the Year of the Ox, and though I wasn’t terribly challenged by the Year of the Tiger print, it did at least push what I’d done in that particular medium.

This year, however, I felt like it would have to be enough just to get it done. Heck, I even managed it more or less on time. But I sincerely hope that by next CNY I’ll be feeling a little more in control of my time, a little less overwhelmed by just getting through each day, let alone trying to be a better artist.

So here’s hoping for a peaceful bunny of a year, with time to recover from the Tiger.

This is it, the Baby Surprise Jacket.

The real surprise, to me at least, was that I actually managed to complete this in a reasonable amount of time, and it still fits him a month and a half later!

The pattern is great fun: just enough variety to keep one awake while knitting, but with simple enough technique that even a relative beginner could do it with a little bravery and concentration. And of course the surprise bit, knitting up this wobbly warped thing that turns into a jacket with two easy seams. The only modification I made was the addition of a very simple straight collar, just enough to keep drafts off the munchkin’s chubby little neck.

For me, the number of seams in a garment is inversely proportional to my delight in knitting it, so the only thing that could have made me happier with it would have been making it with one yarn so as to avoid all the ends to weave in. Of course the upside of that is the satisfaction of using up all those great little skeinlets of yummy yarns.

The jacket itself is genius: the full arms are easy to pull on over long sleeve shirts and short enough that they stay out of the way of busy, grabby little hands. I only got four buttons sewn on on of the six I made holes for, but it seems like it would be fine with any button arrangement one chose to use.

I love this jacket and am sure I’ll have to make another in the toddler size for next winter.

Coming soon: more finished objects, and this year’s Chinese New Year prints!

I’m going to start this post with an apology for the grotty images: the grey rainy day isn’t providing good lighting, and nap time is no time for turning on lights or using the flash. So there you go. Dim, off-colour photos.

But at least I’ve been knitting! It hasn’t been easy. Somehow it seems that although he can sleep through the industrial sewing machine going overhead, the shush of yarn sliding over bamboo needles is just too much racket for the little one, and I’m seldom able to knit more than a couple of rows while he naps. Which leaves furtive knitting in the dark evenings while he’s properly asleep. And I’m exhausted.

So, I’ve chosen simple projects.

#1: Baby Surprise Jacket in orphaned balls of tweedy wool, because he needs a nice wooly sweater/jacket and I’ve been wanting to make one of these for ages, even before I knew Max would ever exist.

Baby Surprise Jacket for Max

#2: Mid-weather hat in leftover sock yarn, because he needs something between the super-wooly one and the light cotton ones.

Mmm, stripy pooly sock yarn.

#3: Then I cast on for Pebble vest, because I’m a masochist and was afraid I was making too much progress on the BSJ and hat and might actually end up with a free moment at some point. And it’s super cute and way more attainable than Cobblestone.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wrangle a small boy who thinks he can stand on his own.