Hue Shift Afghan Progress

My hue shift afghan is coming along nicely. I stitched it together late at night a few weeks ago. It is such a perfect easy to knit blanket, albeit one sometimes gets frustrated just knitting tiny little squares, but it does one item I like to favour, you knit the squares together as you go, not sew 100 4" x 4" squares together when you are finished. So here it stands as a half a blanket.

 One of the most fascinating outcomes of this has been an impromptu study of how great two colours can look next to each other, or with each other, and how bad others can look.

I have started on the 3rd set of 25 squares and I am 8 squares in. It does take about 2 hours per square, give or take, especially depending on what I am doing, and how focused I am. I managed to get 4 squares done in one day this past weekend, and I was doing other things that day.

My next debate is what colour do I make the boarder? Black seems to harsh, and yet a perfectly sound colour choice. I was thinking maybe do 2 rows black, 2 rows colour, but that would end up being a 44 row boarder which I feel would be far too large.

I did also show this to my art teacher, who has painted versions of this all around the studio and as much as I would like to make her one, she can knit so giving her the pattern in order to make her own is a logical outcome.

-A

Reading - Gail Carriger

It has been a long time since I have read much, but anything can happen. I just started the 3rd book in a series and oh my it is great. The author of this genius is one Gail Carriger, the books are The Parasol Protectorate and The Finishing School series. I looked at this over a year ago, picked them up put them down, and so forth deciding instead that I should read some of the books I have had lying around much longer. But I am so pleased I finally broke down and read them. So worth it!

If you enjoy a Victorian setting with all the typical corsetry, bustles, and parasols, with the added bonus of some vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and steam powered contraptions, go read them. The characters dialogue is humourous, witty, and well thought out.

You can follow her blog here: http://gailcarriger.blogspot.ca/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50


Go read and enjoy!

Goals

Some minor goals I have for September are"
1) take 8000 + steps every day
2) bike or run for at least 20 min - I got started, but was not triumphant
3) read 20 pages a day
4) leave any space you encounter tidier than you arrived

I am hoping for a streak of 30 days, the issue now is what to do for myself as a reward? Who knows, but I will work it out. I managed 3 out of 4 yahoo!

For October I am going to add:
1) drink at least 2 litres of water a day


My other hopes are that in the Months of September and October I need to finish at least 3 knitting/crochet projects they are:
1) hue shift afghan - so close I can almost taste it!
2) blanket for Kate
3) random blanket for anyone


What else should I add to my streak list for October?

-A

Current Knits

I have been so busy trying to get some projects done that I have not had any time to talk about them. This is a good reason right??? I am also volunteering out at Spruce Meadows and having a blast.

My garlic nail-polish is going extremely well, so pleased with how my nails look. I am also desperate to get my hands on Dance Legend's Termo Trio, if you have not seen these you must Google them now.

Currently I am most focused on the Hue Shift Afgahan by Kerin from Knit Picks, love this. I am using Loops and Threads soft and shiny, which I believe has been discontinued, and that hurts just a smidge.

                  

My first sweater is coming along nicely, would also like to get that done.

I am also working on a selection of other blankets which are beautiful, just stock piling them at this point for future dates when people may or may not be having children.
They are:

1. I Like Lime
2. Illuminated Lines Blanket
3. Opp Art Blanket
4. Tardis Afghan (really want to re-start this with some alterations)
5. Feather and Fan

On my to do list, is a hat called the Ashley Berret, really excited about this one.

-A

Crab Apple Jelly

If you have a crab apple tree in your yard, you will start to notice that they are turning that deep luscious beautiful red that indicates it is time for harvesting.
So, this year I harvested my tree, that makes about 8 jars of jelly, and I harvested a tree down the street, which has more apples on then I could possible pick and turn into jelly.
Saturday came around and a friend and I spent ten hours, yes 10 hours, making jelly and apple sauce. Granted we did end up with around 80 x 250 ml jars of jelly and 24 x 1 lt jars of apple sauce as well as half a dozen 250 ml jars.

Cutting all the tails off was the big job, the rest was fairly easy, and I must say that the grinder and fruit preserve processor attachment for the kitchen aid was a life saver, if you do any form of minor mass (I know I just contradicted myself) production go and spend the money and get one, especially if you already have the kitchen aid, it was a life saver and a god send.

I have one more batch to make, thankfully the juice is ready to go I just need to boil with sugar and pectin and put into the jars that I have sitting around.
   

That is a lot of amazing jelly, can't wait to start enjoying.

-A