Jung At Heart

My husband lived for the first 51 years of his life in suburban Detroit so moving to Maine has been and remains a big adventure for him. So you can imagine he was psyched when the word was we would get hit by hurricane Kyle. Now before you get all upset about someone excited by a hurricane, you need to remember this is Maine and we have unnamed storms in late fall and winter that are very nearly the equal of hurricanes and by the time a hurricane reaches here it is nothing like Katrina. So we laid in our ride out the hurricane supplies and got ready. But... yesterday afternoon, Kyle turned further east and made landfall in Nova Scotia. Nowhere near us. We didn't even get much wind at all, though for the weekend we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 inches of rain. It's been 17 years since the last hurricane so he likely has a long wait for the next one.

 This morning the clouds are clearing out --

And across the harbor, you can see the leaves are turning now 

As promised I started the center motif on Eve last night. I am doing the teeny circles and I like them but I am not certain they will stand out enough. They're a bit of a challenge to make, more fiddly than difficult, but a lot of fun. Here's a look at the start of them --

Can you see them, the little donut-like circles?

Six years ago my wonderful husband and I got married. I was married before for 2 years and had been single for 5 years before we met. I wasn't certain I wanted to be married again and I was quite content to remain single. But he entered my life and marrying him was the easiest choice I ever made. It has been a wonderful 6 years. 

I completed the chart for the center motif of Eve yesterday. I am almost finished with the first skein of DiC yarn -- it looks like it will take the full 3 skeins, at least for the length I like stoles.

Oh I am so embarrassed! You were here but I inadvertently deleted the little thingie the stat counter uses to identify me so you weren't counted.

Here -- have a piece of this yummy caramel apple cake that I made for my knitting group -                        

And look -- here is Eve as she is today -- about 24" long so far. This doesn't show her even finger blocked so you can't get the full sense of how she looks, but I love how she is turning out.

Yesterday my husband came home from our local greengrocers with these 

Aren't they beautiful? Who knew there was purple cauliflower?

Now I have a long-held passion for purple, though as I look over at my collection of Colourmart yarns, I am wondering how I ended up with so many aquas and pale blues but that's another issue. But I think I may need to find some rich purple yarn for something.

And maybe that something is a warm cardigan? My beloved brown knock around cardigan is just not fit to be worn any longer -- after 10 years of faithful service it is time to retire it. I love Oblique from Fall 2007 Knitty and it does have some lace, but if I get the yarn and start it, will I finish it? That's my big question. And there is Twist and Shout in the current issue of Knitty but maybe it is the purple I am responding to? More deliberating to come.

When I got up this morning, it was fogy but the sun was there too making a soft misty look --

 Still green but not for that much longer.

You know how you just love your children so much you could almost eat them up? Especially when they are babies? Well, I am feeling almost like that about Eve's Temptation. I don't have anything excitingly new to show you as but I am so enjoying knitting it. I love the color. I love the beads. I love the way the edge curves so sinuously.

 I love the little snakey heads and the little trees. 

And I am so going to love the center. I have about 5 more repeats of the little trees before I start the center. Are you excited? I am!

For those interested in the specifics of the beads and the yarn:

Yarn is Dream in Color Baby -- color Spring Tickle

Beads: Whimbeads 8/0 seed bead mix -- English Garden Mix

Today it's kind of gray and cool --

I caught one of the boats leaving this morning and a little while later the small cruise ship that comes here every week through the summer sailed out too. We'll be seeing fewer and fewer boats moored in the harbor in the weeks to come until we are back to the 2 or 3 that stay there all winter.

So I am making a small batch of tomato sauce from our bounty of tomatoes. Now I know some people peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds and all but I like every part of them so I just crudely chop them and set them to simmer with some wine, olive oil, salt, basil and oregano.

And on the counter are just a few of the many many cucumbers waiting for me to make pickles. These are Boothby Blondes -- they turn orange when they are mature. A nice mild cucumber that I really like.

I got some nice French canning jars for them and will be making sweet and sour refrigerator pickles of these guys.

Now Eve is calling. I hope to have her out to be test knit in a month to 6 weeks. I debate with myself over whether I need to have completed half of it first and so far, the side that says yes, I do is winning out.

The remnants of Hanna showed up yesterday -- look how brooding the sky was already in early morning

It rained hard all night but had stopped when I got up today. The clouds were still thick, but have pretty much moved out now.

It's warm and windy, but the color of the grass and leaves speaks of the oncoming changes of fall.

I have been working away on SlowBee II -- what a pretty pattern! And this conweb weight cashmere/cotton is lovely to work with and touch. I have just finished clue 4 --

And Eve's Temptation is coming along. I think I have a pretty good idea about how I will make the transition into the center motif and plan to work on charting that this week. 

I love the sinuousness of the edge --

And the play of the bottom and then the main pattern with it's suggestion of trees

Last night, I ran across some interesting possibilities for scarf patterns and maybe next week I can play with them a bit to see if they will work. So the knitting and thinking about knitting continues unabated.

We don't get our CSF fish this week -- they called yesterday to say that because of the remnants of the hurricane the boats were not able to go out so we end up getting one more week of fish (this was to be the final week). This is such a terrific program! We have already told them we want to have a ful share for shrimp season -- the tiny Maine shrimp that are caught in the winter are absolutely sublime and we always buy a lot and freeze to enjoy the rest of the year. And certainly next summer we will sign up for a full share on the ground fish as well. As it is, we have had marvelous fish and have been able to make fish stock to freeze, plus had extra fish to freeze so we will be able to enjoy it into the winter.