I asked for some time to can on Mothers Day. That's strawberry-kiwi freezer jam and cherum freezer jam in all the plastic containers. About as easy as a jam will ever get to make. And forget the fancy containers. I froze the cherum jam in recycled cream cheese containers.

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What's On My Hook/Needles/Spindle:

The list:

Finished:

Office throw: Doesn't it look so demure and calm, folded neatly over the arm of the loveseat in my office? An easy, satisfying afghan, if ever there was one.

Easy, easy, easy. I just LOVE this pattern. The Simple Scallops Shawl, in fingering weight, 100% merino Pele's Fire from FiberPhile yarn. Great pattern, superb yarn.

Still in Progress: wristers: I just need to sit down in a quiet place and devote a few happy hours to these.

Dizzy Blondes: The wheels are silent this week, as I get my sinuses back into working order.

Strategy: About Passive-Aggressive People--Work on believing that people really are not specifically trying to hurt you.

Something I Really Like: Freezer pectin. 4 cups crushed fruit of any kind + 1 cup sugar + 1 pouch freezer pectin+ 30 minutes to sit on counter and gel = freezer jam. Wonderful stuff!

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today

Okay, other podcasters are talking about knitting plus: gardening, homesteading, sewing, quilting, spinning....I guess I am that one who goes on about home preservation of foods. I'll try not to make you crazy.

Blather: We are very quiet here this week. Not yet back to running, not yet back to work, canning and freezing away. And the Amish Friendship Loaves that became a sort of curse...

Yep. That's right. Home-made and canned strawberry jelly.

Because if you live where I live and you have the incredible annual crop of GORGEOUS and HUGE, TASTY strawberries at hand, and you are not using them wildly, you need to get canning! Jelly from strawberries is as easy as it gets. You clean and hull the berries. Then you stick them in the freezer for 24 hours. Then you thaw them in the fridge in the same container. This breaks them down most of the way into juice. Mash those babies up with a potato masher for a few easy minutes until you've really destroyed the solid bits. Pour into a strainer lined with a few layers of dampened cheese cloth. Let drip until you get the right amount of juice for your recipe. Now you have strawberry juice, and the recipe from here involves a little boiling and a LOT of stirring.  Easy easy EASY!

Oh yes, the podcast...

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What's On My Hook/Needles/Spindle:

The list:

Finished:

Here it is: Another reason I love doing the odd project in crochet thread: The Thread Version of a Simple Scallops Shawl. The perfect summer lacy scarf around the otherwise-unappealing neck of a t-shirt.

Dragonsbreath Cowl: This thing came out amazing! I love it; I love wearing it. A variation on the braided cowl from the last Winter KnitSimple Mag. I am using some very uneven bulky handspun to hide the uneven-ness.

Argante: At last! And it came out dreadfully tiny, and then I blocked as the designer recommends and it GREEEWWWW! Now it is wonderful.  I may take a while to try another side-to-side shawlette, as I found the vast expanse of garter stitch a bit tedious and the inexact row counting makes me a little nutty. But you cannot argue with the product, and this designer-- Corinne Ferguson, I believe--has made a pleasing array of this type of design. And sells them at a terrific price as a PDF book.

Still in Progress:

Office throw: 1 row of border left to do. ARRRGGHHH!!

Oh wristers, why do I love thee so? Because this yarn, dyed by an excellent designer, looked like vomit in any other project I tried with it. As wristers, it looks fantastic! Talk about the yarn knowing what it wants to be...

I can never leave scraps alone. Especially scraps of baby alpaca in laceweight. So here's a scarf designed by our own FickleKnitter, trying to use up my laceweight left from the Ishbel. Except right now, my sinuses are so sensitive that I cannot work in this yarn.

And I started a very satisfying Simple Scallops in the amazing colorway from FiberPhile yarn called "Pele's Fire."

Dizzy Blondes: I finished the lovely Carolina Homespun 20/80 silk/merino sliver, the single of FreckleFaceFiber's Tehachapi Too in merino, and I plied the Sweet Tortie in superfine merino from Fat Cat Knits of Etsy fame. And my sinuses were attracting wee slivers of the finer fibers, and it was hellish. But they are done and quite good-looking, I must say.

Strategy: About Passive-Aggressive People--Why bosses like them.

Something I Really Like: My new food dehydrator, a Nesco 500 watt, 4-tray beauty, who is even now faithfully drying a load of organic chocolate mint. ($50 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) Here's the glam shot of the first load dried, alongside the delightful iced tea made from it and being consumed from, yes, a Mason jar. We canners get to do down-home and farmy things like this.

A listener recommends: Summer in a Jar for small-batch canners. Like moi! Thanks!

Blather: Now I have bronchitis. For the last 6 weeks. I think I have taken every medication known to humanity. Personally, I like the steroids best, as they completely dry up my sinuses. But I don't sleep any more; I just can food.

Stalled on the book because I cannot sit still that long. Blankety-blank steroids.

Blankets is still with us and is rapidly becoming a fairly normal dog, although she has her feral moments. Worker's Comp evaluation by psychiatrist: 4 hours of hell. I hope he enjoyed it. I got to Week 3 of the c25K program before the brochitis just shut me down. I am hoping to start it over

yet again when I finish the antibiotics. Run on, team CogKnitive! I'll be back with you all shortly!

Blankets actually grins and smiles when we are running together. Most of the time, she is quite as serious, as below.