Yarn and Books

I've been slowly plugging away on my Sunset Mitts.  I am working hard to stay patient as I stretch myself into this new skill area... color work is fun but definitely not mindlessly easy for me.  I think I might have gotten closer to figuring out how to eradicate the gaps I have at the start of every round but I'm not thrilled.  I was trying out using woven floats using this video and it worked the first night and then second night I tried to replicate what I'd been doing I was unsuccessful.  Guess I'll have to keep working on it.

I have still been listening to Dracula on CraftLit and have to once again recommend you check it out.  One of Heather's taglines is "If your hands are too busy to pick up a book, at least you can turn one on..."  And I do, especially when the girls are down for rest time and I am picking up or putting away groceries or folding laundry.  Books are good company but I am so tired by the evening that I have to admit I zone out for the five minutes I stay awake in bed playing "Candy Crush" on my phone - a game that is new to me and helps me turn my brain off a little.  But Dracula... OOOhhhh, it's spooky!  And fun - I knew it was creepy but I didn't know if I would be able to "handle" it... but I am really enjoying it.  Poor Jonathan Harker locked in the Castle Dracula... Bram Stoker is an excellent writer, and the fellow who has been reading Jonathan's diary is excellent as well.  

The beautiful plummy yarn is for a Sugared Violets wrap.  I fell in love with this pattern at first awhile ago and then the other day it was offered free and I was so thrilled to download it!  The yarn is Canopy Fingering from the Fibre Company and was purchased with birthday gift money from my mother-in-law.  I can't wait to cast on and get started but I've been so busy!  Tonight I was finally attempting to "do SOMEthing" with all the garden tomatoes that have been trying to spoil on my counter for some time.  I slow-roasted some in the oven, and I processed a couple jars of whole peeled tomatoes as an experiment... the quart jar made it, but my little pint jar, poor dear, burst in the canner.  The process was easy, though so I think I will do it again as the rest of the tomatoes ripen in our root cellar.  

Last but not least, Jesse is going to carve pumpkins with the Kingdom Kids at a little Halloween party and scooped out some of the insides to make it go smoother.  So I have 14 sugar pumpkins worth of seeds now separated, washed, and drying in my dehydrator.  Maybe this is all a waste of time in the end ... but I'm quite sure it's not because it really is something I enjoy playing with, regardless of the turnout.  Not that I want to be wasting my time, but I am enjoying myself and learning, and with the pumpkins, at least, Lyddie and Millie had fun helping me sort the seeds from the juicy squishy insides.  

What are you reading and knitting these days?  Joining Ginny for her Yarn Along and looking forward to peeking at your blog too!  Say hi in the comments so I can know you stopped by!