In the autumn garden

Ready or not, I came back from my trip to Philly to find that fall has truly befallen us! The morning air has a chill to it. I'm wearing a scarf and jacket to work. A jacket people! I'm wearing tights and arm warmer to run. 

But in a way, it's so nice to see the seasons changing. I like when the leaves are bright red, orange and yellows. I like pulling out the part of my wardrobe I haven't worn in months.

And I like new garden veggies. Autumn means winter squash! I hadn't looked in the pumpkin patch in weeks, and to my shock when I looked on the weekend we have 7 (yes. I counted. seven!) pumpkins. And they are turning orange already too! Last year our pumpkins stayed green and were useless.

 Do you know how excited I get about pumpkins? Very! This year I've already had amazing pumpkin soup, and less amazing, but still really good, pumpkin brownies. (I'm still not exactly sure how I messed them up.) Next? Maybe a pumpkin latte. Or perhaps pumpkin ice cream.

But there are other things I'm excited about: butternut squash.

And kale! A second crop of snow peas. And, surprisingly, potatoes. I never realized just how different potatoes right out of the ground taste compared to the ones they sell in the store in the middle of winter. 

So autumn, now that you are here, please stick around for awhile. Because I'm not sure I'm ready for winter yet.

Better late than

When it comes to gifts, I tend to think people would agree that it's better on time than late, but better late than never. Right? Well, I was just over a month late when I delivered this gift to the incomparable steph chows. That's not too late, right??

By now everyone should know how I feel about taking reusable bags when shopping, so when I saw this great idea for using an old men's shirt to make a bag I knew I had to do it! I pretty much followed the directions exactly. I went and got a $1 shirt from the Goodwill, bought some straps, did a little sewing. Voila! Reusable bag! 

Thanks so much for a great idea!

And luckily I had a chance to give Steph the bag when we met up for dinner a few nights ago. I spent the weekend in Philadelphia visiting some old friends (they aren't old, we've just been friends for awhile), so our visit was right on the way. Too bad we don't live closer, but I'm so glad we get to hang out.

Here are some of my favourite pictures from my trip:

Uncanny Jam

Jam!! I love it! On toast. On pancakes. On ice cream. In my oatmeal. Need I go on? 

That is just one of the reasons I make sure to participate in steph chows' annual jam exchange.  Last year I got some amazing jam, and this year was no different. 

Thanks so much to Uncanny for the great jam she sent my way! I tried some of her red currant and raspberry jam as soon as I took it out of the box. Yum! It tasted just like my grandmother's raspberry tarts. It was so good I almost cried! 

Okay. Maybe I didn't cry. But maybe I did have another 2 slices of jam toast!

Deirdre

I'm done! Phew. I thought this shawl would never be done, it's been hanging around so long. And now that it's done I really like it! I bought this yellow yarn mainly because it was on super sale, and while I've never seen myself as much of a yellow person I kinda like it. 

Knitting details:

I got the pattern: here.
Unfortunately I made one little mistake. Totally my fault. ... I didn't increase on the WS rows and because but I still knit until the 195sts before starting the lace pattern. And because of it the shawl is the right length, but about twice as wide as it should be. Oops? It makes the scarf almost unmanageably big. (When I was showing it off I heard: (quote) "You could make a new style. Like wearing a afghan around your neck." Great.)
And the lace? I really like it! But it totally threw me for a loop until I'd done about 4 rows. For once I found the written pattern a lot easier to understand than the chart.

And in case you were wondering, this is what happens when you don't focus your camera correctly. Oddly enough, I kinda like this shot. It's kinda like what I see when I take my glasses off. 

Pranks 101

When I was in University, my housemates were probably the best pranksters on the planet. No joke. For my birthday in first year they filled my room with enough balloons that they were up to my waist and came tumbling out when I opened my door. I don't even want to think about how much hot air that took. They also once miniaturized everything in another roommate's room. Another time, I think in fourth year, one of them put cream cheese icing into my toothpaste tube. Yes. He actually used a toothpick to push it in there. And yes, I actually brushed my teeth with the icing. Let's just say it is not something I suggest!

Well, they taught me well.

For the past few months I've been doing an experiment/prank on my family. Every week or so I've been moving around the photos on my parent's walls. Thus far no one has noticed the change. I guess after awhile pictures become like decoration. Background noise. You don't notice them. Because they don't change. Or do they!? They do in HP. And then do when I'm around.

This past week I stepped up my prankster ways by adding mustaches to my older brother and I. Mine isn't so great, but I am in LOVE with his.

I cannot wait until someone notices. I figure if a week goes by I'm going to start adding more stuff, like cartoon thought bubbles. Any suggestions? I'm thinking my bro's should be: "Mamma Mia, what a meatball!" or maybe "I'll save you Princess Toadstool!"
So many options. So few mustaches.

Garden Update 3

In case you didn't know... it's tomato season! And we have hundreds of tomatoes to prove it! Look at 'em all!!

For weeks I've been having eggs and tomatoes for breakfast. Tomato & cucumber salads for lunch. And bruchetta with dinner. Tomatoes are so great! I think of them as the ice cream of vegetables - everyone likes tomatoes. (And yes. For you purists I know that tomatoes are actually fruit.)

I bet you are wondering what we did with ALL of the tomatoes above. No we didn't feed an army. But we did make a lot, a lot of tomato sauce this weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday. At one point on Saturday we had 4 big pots and one crock pot all cooking tomato sauce. Pretty awesome, eh?

Although it may seem impossible, there are other things growing in the garden. Most notably: Musk Melons! I don't love them, but it is pretty exciting that these grew. Every other year we've grown them they've never matured enough to eat.

This lone yellow pepper. Not sure what we're going to use it for yet... It is the only one out there.

And there are things still to come. Like acorn squash!

And butternut squash, kale, a 2nd round of beans and peas (as long as the temperature holds) and if we are really lucky, maybe even a pumpkin or two!

One last pic. On Sunday night I was walking from room to room in the house when it was suddenly lit by this amazing light. I looked outside to see the most amazing twilight and just had to take a picture of the amazing pink and purple clouds.

My Snow Blue

OMG. Is that a (bad) picture of a knitted item? Me? Knit!? It's hard to remember a time when I was truly knitting. It's been soooo long since I've finished anything. But even longer than that, I haven't done anything fairisle since these hats over a year and a half ago!

Is it a coincidence that this was also made as a gift? (Prolly not, if you know me.)

One of the nicest girls ever, who I've played soccer with for the past two years, is moving to a place more North than Ottawa. (She's an amazing soccer player too. I'm very much going to miss having her on the team!!) I think the direct quote from her is, "It's a good thing I like winter!" Yes. Good thing. But another hat can't hurt right?

I made one slight modification to the pattern. Instead of having the contrast grey colour along the decreases on top of the hat, I kept it in the main colour.

I was worried I was going to run out of the grey. But I also thought that the hat would look better with blue along the ridge. Either way, I think it turned out pretty good. Hopefully it keeps her head warm.