Monday, September 1, 2008

Seasonal favorite food




Yum yum, it's time for muscadines!


Now, the best way to eat them is right off the vine, but if you don't any growing in your yard, you have to buy them. They are delicious. I know the skin is edible, but I never eat it. I love the insides, especially after you eat the pulpy middle with the seeds, then squeeze the inside of the skin for the rest of the fruit. They are a fruit native to North America, and they will grow anywhere. Don't throw out the seeds for the birds unless you want them growing there.



Now, on to socks. The first one is a Monkey sock in Claudia Hand Paint. The really interesting thing about this is that I accidentally changed the pattern on the foot, leaving out one of the knit only rows. It turned out this was a serendipitous mistake as I barely had enough yarn to finish the sock. Once I was finished with grafting the toe, I had about 1 yard of yarn left, not including the tails I had left to sew in. I'll know next time to only knit toe up socks with this yarn. Or maybe this particular skein was shorted. Who knows? Yes, I know I can weigh the sock and see if it's around what the label says, and I may do that to satisfy my curiosity. This is the second time I've used Claudia Hand Paint, but the other pair is a plain vanilla toe up sock.



Here on the right is the Spring Forward sock in Socks That Rock lightweight. I'll admit I'm still not in love with this particular sock. Part of me feels I've come too far to frog it, but on the other hand the sock feels stiff. I've already gone up a needle size once on this. It may need marinate in stash for awhile, or the fabric may soften up once it's been washed. I don't think the gauge is too tight. In fact, I think I'm actually larger than what the pattern calls for. As I have plenty of other things to work on, this can sit for awhile and give me time to decide what to do.

I have not forgotten about posting pictures from my trip to India, Nepal and Tibet. I spent part of the afternoon digging through boxes of old pictures to find them. Now I get to learn how to scan pictures and all the things that goes along with that. It was fun looking at all the old pictures when we were young and skinny. I found pictures of when Brownie and Pixel (RIP both kitties) were just kittens. I found pictures of April and Ripper wrestling in the yard and running amok at Mount Arabia (both dogs crossed the Rainbow Bridge years ago). I've been the caretaker for some great animals, and I'm glad that they all were able to live to ripe old ages. Seeing all of them young and vibrant is both wonderful and sad. I realize how much I miss them, and my life is richer for having had them in it.

To end on a more cheerful note, did you go look at the bigfoot website? Have you seen how many sightings there have been where you live? Isn't it odd that Florida is a hotbed of both UFO and Bigfoot activity? Where are Mulder and Scully when you need them?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Remind me of this love for muscadines next year. We have them by the thousands all over our property. If there are still some out there when I move next week I'll harvest a few for you!