Monday, September 27, 2010

A Beautiful Rainy Morning

And I wish I could stay home and enjoy it, but there's pear chutney and apple butter that need my attention, and I know I'm going to enjoy the rainy day almost as much in my kitchen alone.  No one is in the larder on Mondays, and I will have a peaceful, serene, spicy-smelling day.  My boss is out of town, killing deer, so even he won't be calling.  My blueberry farmer brought me eight cases of freshly-picked apples yesterday afternoon, and I know when I walk in the kitchen this morning, their fragrance will have filled the air by now.
  Melanie and I spent the past week chopping multi-colored peppers and sweet onions and hot peppers to make the pear chutney.  Yesterday, we peeled and chopped all the pears, some local ones that are hard as rocks, with peels like coarse sandpaper.  We cursed and whined our way through that job all day, until we didn't have time to make the actual chutney, which is what I must do first thing this morning.  I'll smell like an Indian pickle for the rest of the day!  But we'll be done with all the 12 ounce size of that for the year.
  We talked about that yesterday:  Just when we think we can't stand making something one more day, it's done!  There's always something new to do in the larder, with the changing of the weather and the seasons and a new farmer showing up.  I'm also anxious to get some hot pickled green tomatoes done before it's too late.  Where can I find six bushels of green cherry tomatoes?  Hmmmm...
  As for fiber, I've been working on the turned overshot project.  I've made some progress, but I figured out that I'll have to do some un-threading.
I guess I didn't actually count the threads when I measured them, or gremlins stole some or added some.  This project is kind turning into a free-form kind of thing, which isn't bad, it's just not what I usually do.  I threaded the green single, the purple double and started the yellow double.  It appears that I didn't document how many threads of each I have.  There are some numbers scrawled on the plan with words like "purple," "yellow," "green," next to them, but I am pretty sure now that those numbers have no connection to the actual threads in those colors.
  So, I've decided to un-thread the yellow and make some of it single and keep some of it double.  I think that will make the pattern have some texture.  The design is a big daisy, so in my mind, that will make the edges of the "petals" rise above the inner parts and look more three dimensional.  We'll see!  I'll keep you posted!
  Have a lovely rainy day!
Maggie

3 comments:

LA said...

Ah-ha....one more time that I would love to have "smell-a-puter." I could actually smell the apples in your kitchen after reading about it! I love the smell of apple butter cooking up in the oven!!! As for re-threading...I'm with you sister! After spending Sunday threading and sleying, I changed my mind about the pattern and pulled it all out. I'll be threading the new pattern today.

Tina J said...

I have been sleying and re-sleying for the last 4 hours. I am still not done! The sample I isn't as wide as I would like it, so I am trying to go from 12 epi to 11 epi. If I can pull it off I can gain almost 4 inches in width! Well worth the trouble.

Bonnie said...

Very interesting concept on the overshot. I hope that it works. Anxious to see it.
Must be the change of the weather, everybody having to redo. I am having problems with thread breaking. Not too happy.