Saturday, October 24, 2009

scarves, sleeves and butter

great adirondack yarn co. and classic elite lush

I just signed up for a class on the Stained Glass scarf (rav link) from Handknit Holidays at my LYS. Woohoo! I'm excited! It will knock a project off my list, I'll learn a new technique and plus, I've never taken a knitting class before. For this project, I bought one skein of alpaca/silk/merino blend from The Great Adirondack Yarn Co. (the variegated yarn) and three skeins of Classic Elite Lush (angora/wool) (black). But but but...you mean I have the yarn right here, and the pattern, but I can't cast on yet?! Classes are weird!

In other news, I'm up to the "split for yoke" part of the body of the Hourglass sweater, and I've started the sleeves.
hourglass, arm

Sleeves with pointy things sticking out of them: a new fashion statement?

I'm really trying to stick with it on this sweater, but the stockinette is as boring as I feared! It's great for knitting while watching movies, but in order to get through the last few rows on the body the other night I had to bribe myself with these...
cupcakes, macro style

Yum, cupcakes! We used this recipe and made vanilla buttercream frosting. The sprinkles came in a package from my mom (hi, mom!) and made me very happy.

Finally, I thought I would show you one of our non-fiber projects: apple butter! One of my friends is skilled at the art of home preserving and we're trying to follow in her footsteps. So far this year we've pickled some jalapenos from the garden and made strawberry jam (with Home Preserving Pal Erin), peach butter (with HPP Erin and a second batch on our own), and apple butter.

Step 1: pick a bunch of apples! We picked a half bushel and there are still a ton in the pantry.
6 pounds of apples

Step 2: Peel, core and slice. The apple butter took 6 pounds of apples, so luckily we have a weirdly James-Bond-esque torture apple machine that does all three things at once:
wheee

Step 3: Say "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S A LOT OF APPLES!"
apple butter start

Step 4: Forget to photograph the rest of the process!
Step 5: PROFIT!
apple butter fin

We used a recipe from the Ball company Complete Book of Home Preserving and it's delicious, very cinnamony. My goal for next year is to can some tomato products!

3 comments:

Sarah {The Student Knitter} said...

Yum yum yum!! And I don't mean JUST the yarn! hehehe!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely post! I want some cupcakes and apple butter and the yarn for your scarf looks perfect for it! Not to mention your hourglass, which I think will turn out lovely - I'm sure you'll get through all that stockinette. :)

Kitty said...

It must be so cool to preserve things! I've wanted to learn how for a while now, but it seems a little daunting! I can't wait to see how the scarf knits up- the yarns look great just sitting there in their hanks. Take care!