back in the city means busy

a week at the cottage, a week on the road, a week of back to school, here we are back to the city routine.

there never seems to be a moment's rest! we got a lot done this weekend, in between hosting and going to playdates.

first off, just for fun, the kiddo and i are working on a science project: the classic baking-soda-vinegar volcano! here's the papier mache shell:

we got the first layer of papier mache done early, so it could dry while we went out to get supplies for all of our planned activities. and i got a hairdo! (warning: terrible blurry pic)

then we made cookie dough (as yet unbaked, sacre bleu) and brownies:

(don't tell the kid they have black beans in them, he doesn't know they have any health benefits.)

then it was time to tackle the dreaded grapes.

i had swept up and tossed a good deal of detritus, but after friday's storm, there was more of that work to do. then, the harvest. harvesting grapes is harder than it sounds. they're above your head, which gets tiring for your arms, neck, and shoulders, and it's hard to see what you're doing. and they are a favourite of wasps. we have three varieties of grapes and at least that many kinds of wasps, all buzzing around angrily. the kid got stung the other day, so i was a bit more anxious than usual, and he, in the role of "basket handler," was extra-anxious. can't blame him.

but, we got all the concords. after washing, picking them over, and removing the stems, we had about 10 lbs.

then came the tedious work of separating the skins from the blobby middles. boring nasty work! watching the muppet treasure island made it a bit more bearable.

then the straining, the re-weighing, the cooking. ugh. 7 jars of jam, but that giant jug of juice tells you that i only got half the grapes cooked. the rest will just have to wait. i need more sugar and jars.

while waiting for the jam to climb those final few degrees up to the jelly point (about 221f), i got a few rows done on my canadian kal cardigan:

we finished off the weekend with veggie lasagna (sweet potatoes, spinach, and ricotta):

here's a side-view shot:

and for dessert, apple crumble. we picked the apples with our neighbour, from a tree growing in the alley behind our houses.

finally, we put a coat of paint on the volcano:

he wants to add a few more details after school, and with his teacher's permission, he'll take it to school on tuesday.

a trip to the fair, or, how to block your knitting without any pins or anything.

just back from another lovely week at the lake, our summer tradition. swimming, knitting, baking, eating, and re-reading evelyn waugh (a new obsession since re-watching the amazing 1981 production of brideshead revisited).

this trip, i pioneered a couple of new methods for blocking!

with no blocking boards, or pins, or any tools at all really, i came up with two methods. for a washcloth: wet it, smoothed it out on a cutting board, covered it with a tea towel, and flattened it with a stack of magazines. later i set it out on a picnic table in the sun to dry completely.

method two, for an alpaca scarf: i was already sitting by the lake when i finished it, so we went for a swim together. then i laid it out along the length of one of the boards - it was the perfect width! - and weighted the corner down with stones, to make sure it wouldn't blow away and be lost forever.

then i treated myself to my annual pedicure while it dried in the sun!

with that done, it was time to get all of our fair entries together. there were many tags to be filled out - i made sure to bring a pile of blanks home, so that next year i can write them in at my leisure. my hand was sore after filling in all the tags.

i did have quite a few entries.

but all's well that ends well. the blocking techniques seem to have worked okay - the designed-in-canada knitalong dishcloth came in second, and the scarf won first prize.

my gloves came in first, too!

here's a better picture:

my pyjama pants won, too! haven't made the top yet, no rush on that as the category is "ladies' sleep pants."

the kid has a full set of prize-winning pyjamas. these will go under the tree on xmas eve.

the argylette cardigan took top prize as well! one of the women accepting the entries joked she might walk off with it!

my "ladies' pullover" was also a hit.

i finished this tea towel at the cottage... a year after starting... can't believe i didn't get a better photo of the finished object! and i left it up at the cottage to fulfil its destiny as a dishdryer, so no photo is likely to be forthcoming. ah well.

i also got a couple of seconds in baking - brownies and shortbread - but no photos.

my mitts took a prize as well.

not everything did though! this hat to go with the mitts? nothing.

and my strawberry jam and pepper jelly were a bust, too.

honestly though? that was entirely expected. i usually overcook jam; this time i overcompensated and undercooked it. and the pepper jelly? well, have a look - the pepper bits are all at the top instead of evenly distributed throughout!

none of my photos won either. but, i did achieve my goal of spreading my wings and entering categories i hadn't tried before. maybe next year!

humble beginnings

the designed in canada group in ravelry is having a knit-a-long (details here), so i am finally casting on something i was going to start years ago: a red cotton cardigan.

i have a sad scrap of twisty mesh that i had started working on, before the entire thing was abandoned a million years ago. seriously i think i bought this yarn almost fifteen years ago. it was one of early trips to romni wools not too long after i moved to toronto. the idea was to make a feminine, maybe even lacy but not grandmother-lacy red cardigan, like something amélie would wear. it was that long ago.

anyway, i goofed around with thinking i was going to improvise something but i could never quite settle on what it was i wanted, so when this kal came up i thought it was a good opportunity to search through the canadian designers on ravelry and see if any of them had the answer.

and laura chau did! the cardigan is markdale.

so now, after more than six months of not buying yarn, and working on old yarn and old projects, i'm digging into another oldie from the stash. about time, too. i also managed to get two prize-winners from previous years at the fair sent off to deserving recipients. o happy day! maybe i am not a hoarder after all.