Knitting

I am happy to have finally picked up my knitting again now that we have cooler weather.  I left a sweater 3/4 finished last spring - I just can't bear to knit in the summer.  I know some people can, but I would rather have a book in my hands in the sunshine!

This is the second sweater in the second Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan I have knitted.  Its an easy pattern that knits up quick -- and there are no seams to sew together! You can check out this project - Tea Leaves #2 - and the others I have made recently at Ravelry, which is an amazing resources for any knitter/crocheter!

After a few hours knitting in the teaching lab (my students seem to get a kick out of the fact that I will sit there and knit while they are busy doing scientific drawings), I finally finished in December.  Gladly, so, because I had a whole list of things that I wanted to make over the winter.

Unfortunately, I got a bit bogged down with other things, and hadn't got started on another new project about a month ago - a leafy baby blanket.  I love the pattern - very easy once I got into it.  But we are reaching that time of the year when I am more likely to go outside into the garden and less likely to pick up the needles...so hopefully I can get it finished soon!

What do you have on your needles these days?

Book Reviews: Put 'em Up & Canning for a New Generation

I love books.  I REALLY love books.  To the point that I have stacks of books stashed everywhere in my house.  Most are novels, but between us we have a good collection of cook books, gardening books, and quilting books.

Up until last year, I had been mostly relying on the old Bernardin cookbook I bought when I first started canning.  It is an excellent resource - but it just has basic recipes.  I like to step out of the box a bit sometimes.  So last summer I bit the bullet and ordered a couple of new canning books:


Put 'em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning by Sherri Brooks Vinton

Canning For A New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors For The Modern Pantry by Liana Krissoff


My local bookstore does not have a big variety, so I tend to order those I am interested in online
through Chapters and return the ones I don't want.

After flipping through both of them, I have decided to keep Put 'em Up, but returning Canning for a new Generation.  Both are excellent books with interesting recipes and beautiful pictures, but the one difference between the two is that the recipes in Canning for a new Generation is based on weights.  I hate having to weigh everything...and based on that alone I prefer the other book better.

That being said, I love the organization in Put 'em Up - but fruit.  It just makes sense to me.  And there are quite a number of recipes I already have dog-eared to try this summer as local produce becomes available.  Now I just have to figure out where to purchase Pomona's Universal Pectin so I can try out a few more recipes!

Are there any canning books that you can't live without?

Starting Seeds

Sorry for the very long hiatus!  I had meant to blog throughout the winter but a few things came up heath-wise and I never did get around to posting any of the things that I did.  But with spring seeming to finally be here in Southern Ontario I have finally found the motivation to start my seeds!

I prefer to start them later than some people - I don't like to put anything in the ground until the Victoria day weekend, so starting at the beginning of April gives me plenty of time!  This year I am scaling back a bit on what I am planting as I have a busy summer coming up.

I don't do anything special to start my seeds - just mix up some good quality soil with some water to make sure its nice and damp, and pop the seeds in!  This year I have started:

cucumbers

purple basil

green basil (because we use more of this!)

yellow zucchini

Aunt Ruby's yellow cherry tomatoes

green zebra variegated tomatoes

Tasmanian chocolate tomatoes (our favorite from last year!)

Now I would have preferred to do a more Tasmanaian chocolate and less green zebra, but apparently I had a brain fart while labeling my seeds saved from last years plants - and had 2 labeled Tasmanaian chocolate when one of the packets was definitely from green zebra!  So we will have to wait and see which was which.  I will likely give some of these tomatoes away as I really don't need that many plants - since I will still be stopping by the local nursery to pick up some seedlings of other heirloom varieties that I would like to try out.

I cannot wait for the warm weather and to be back out in my garden again!  And hopefully this will lead to posting more frequently now that I am out and about doing fun things rather than hibernating like I did all winter!