A Hot Day in June
10:04 a.m. - 2004-06-27


I was looking at my old binder full of knitting designs this morning while he and she are off on their 17 mile bike ride (better them than me, I say). I still have the diagrams for the duplicate stitch names I put in baby sweaters all those years ago. This makes me think of the excellent sock and sweater yarn Red Heart used to make, in lots of colors. It was like the baby yarn, only not pastel. It really worked well on the knitting machine, and I used to turn out the baby sweaters in nothing flat. Then I would decorate them like little letterman sweaters in the colors of the school the future father went to. I have certainly made a lot of sweaters for children over the years. Because I do a lot of duplicate stitch work on these sweaters (kids love a red fire engine or duckies on their size 2 cardigan), I figured out a way to have all my yarn colors available. I got a laundry basket and filled it full of all the skeins, standing on end, with the yarn coming out the top. That way, I just pull on the yarn and snip off the color I need. I also like to work in lace patterns, with a panel up the fronts, lace borders on bottom and sleeves, or lace collars. Experience has taught me that it is hard to find a nice girl's white sweater that is a little dressy for parties, communion, weddings, or other dress-up occasions. Some of the white yarns they make for babies work nicely in the machine and look very good for this. I have drafted out some lace patterns in large print format so that I can just post the paper up and read it as I work on the machine.

Another hot day has presented itself, but we are going to see Harry Potter, so that part of the day will be cool. I finished the plums yesterday by just making a simple syrup and bagging them up for the freezer. I decided that we just do not eat all the jam I used to make, but we do eat the fruit plain or cook it into things, plus it is sooo much easier to freeze than to can. I bow down and give thanks to the inventor of the zip lock baggie, boon to all mankind.

Abby's peach cobbler was kind of strange. She followed a recipe I printed off for her, and it turned out with the topping on the bottom, all soggy and weird. The rest of it, however, was absolutely delicious. We served it over vanilla ice cream and ate it all up in one go. Today he is going to pick the rest of the peaches, and this week Abby and I will freeze them up.

Melissa called to tell me that the Tuesday Morning store in Texas had yarn very cheap, so I may go over to ours to check it out. Because, you know, Abby has been quilting and has used up a few of my batts, leaving a blank space in the sewing room that is just crying out to be stuffed full of yarn.