07.12.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 11:05 pm by Shari
Is it bad to pat myself on the back for being all domestic? I’m so proud of myself for getting to together enough to buy the cherries and get the jam all done in the same evening. I even came home after work and had a nap before getting started. When I realized I had fallen asleep, I thought the plan was doomed, but it worked 
I was concerned about the age of the pectin that I had. I don’t even wanna say what the “best used by” date was on the box. But I can tell it’s jelling just fine. I made 6 cups plus a little scraped out of the bottom of the pan. It tastes good too.
I got 3 qts of cherries and used nearly 2 of them. So there’s another qt left. I just ran across a recipe for Pineapple Cherry Jam - hmm… that sounds good too. But then again, just eating them sounds good, so I guess I’ll probably eat them and see what’s available next weekend to do some more jam of some sort. A couple kinds of berries sounds good to me.
The mice apparently missed TWO of the sunflower seeds, not just one. So I decided I’d go ahead and plant the rest of the seeds hoping a few of them will come up. Then I’ll have a planter worth of dwarf sunflowers.
Still plugging along on the 2×2 Sockotta socks. The remaining balls of yarn are about 1/2 dollar sized at the most, and from what I can figure, about 2″ more of knitting to go before I quit. I’m DETERMINED to use all of the yarn on these. Definitely fold down cuffs.
I did some training in the frame shop yesterday and today at JA’s. I thought I was just gonna learn about design and setting up the orders. Umm… apparently not - I did some fit and finish today too. I guess if it means a chance to pick up some additional hours that’s a good thing.
Time to hit the hay. I have a few errands to be run in the morning before working at S. I’m thinking of running to Williamson Hardware to see if I can find some cotton rope, basic wood spring clothes pins and a cherry pitter. They’re good for all kinds of stuff you can’t find anywhere else, so hopefully my luck will hold there.
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07.10.09
Posted in daily life stuff, knitting at 6:35 am by Shari
Sunflower.
Yeah, the mouse missed one of the seeds so I have one sunflower growing.
So now, I’m thinking maybe I SHOULD plant those other seeds. It’s only nearly the MIDDLE OF JULY! What the heck am I doing thinking of planting now?
Works been… umm…. a change of pace. Last week I had some training in doing chat support and got assigned to the chat queue. Some days it’s not so bad, though it does seems slow most of the time. They quickly upped our skill level from 1 chat at a time to 3 chats at a time. The first times I saw a second and then third chat show in my queue I did panic, but now I’m okay with that. Since most of the questions there aren’t terribly complex, it’s manageable. It’s frustrating, though, that there’s so little to work on in just typed words - when a customer leaves a chat you don’t know if they are ticked off, having tech problems or has just realized what needs to be done and is going to do it on their own. And when it’s minutes between their responses, is it because they didn’t see mine? or they are confused or having trouble or they are ticked off and trying to resist going off on me? When I can hear the voice, at least I have some clues and can do something to resolve it.
Oh, well - it’s a paying job with benefits and being able to handle multiple types of support makes me more versatile, right?
I’m STILL working on 2×2 ribbing on the Sockotta socks. Can you tell I’m tired of 2×2 ribbing? But I have enough yarn for several more inches and I’m trying hard to resist the urge to cast off now. They are just high enough now that I could do that, but that leaves me with small balls of yarn that have no use, so I’ll push myself to keep going. They do feel nice on my feet and will be great with jeans or khakis.
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07.04.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 9:23 pm by Shari
I’m sure of it. The birds opened the package of sunflower seeds and cracked them open, leaving a pile of the hulls next to the package. So Barb stops by the store one day and gives me a partial package of dwarf sunflower seeds. I know better than to plant them outside. I plant them in peat pots inside and what happens? I go to look at them and find that SOMETHING has neatly dug into the centers of the peatpots and removed the seeds. Okay - if you have a nice suburban home, you might think that mice are squick. I understand that. I don’t like them, but it’s one of the realities of living in an OLD farmhouse in the country. No matter if you try to get rid of them, they do come back 
So, there will be NO sunflowers at our house this year. I am NOT going to try it again.
I didn’t get a chance to pick strawberries for jam this year, but the orchard guy at the corner has cherries so I bought some today. I’ve gotta make sure i have some jars, rings and lids and hopefully in the next couple of days I’ll get more to make some cherry jam. (You didn’t think I wouldn’t have started eating these already, did you?) I found a recipe using Splenda that I think I’ll try. Don’t know why I’m feeling all domestic, but I’ll take advantage of it while I do, I guess.
Yesterday was a paid holiday - WOOT! Got together with Barb and we went gallivanting. Stopped at Village Yarn and Fiber in East Rochester, then popped across the street to Patricia’s Fabrics, Golden Thread, Let’s Bead and the little restaurant for lunch. My only purchase, besides lunch, was the cutest knitted bunny patten from Plymouth Yarns, but saw some great quilt patterns/ideas and was way inspired by the bead store. I fell in love with some Happy Feet yarn (only $6.00/skein, about 190 yds/sk) in color “16″. After ravelling it, though, I’m glad I didn’t get it - didn’t like it’s look so much when it’s all knitted up. They did have a semi-solid green that looked pretty nice too, but heaven knows I have enough sock yarn to keep me busy this summer and then some.
Speaking of socks - the sockotta ones are about 3″ above the heel, so whenever I am ready to stop, I can. I decided I’ll try to persevere and knit as long as I can so I can fold them over. I’m going to learn a 2×2 tubular rib cast off for these too. I have enough yarn for at least another 6-8″ I believe.
The other pair in progress is Paton’s Kroy Strips (Cyan stripes) and are about 4″ down from the top of the cuff. These started with a tubular 1×1 rib cast on and I’ll probably do just 6″ on the leg before starting the heel.
Baby girl is in the area this weekend. Another whirlwind trip, as usual. She arrived at 11 and we met at Panera’s for lunch today. Then I went off to work and she went off to visit friends. She’ll head back “home” tomorrow morning. She brought me a Mother’s Day gift - a cute “mom” mug and some more drink sticks - cran white peach, I think it was. It’s weird adjusting to everything she can’t eat - she’s found that eating gluten free has made her stomach much better. The summer picnic will be interesting - Grandma will be suggesting she eat all kinds of things that she’s found she can’t. I want to be sure she’s got options to eat that day without feeling that she has to explain it all.
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