Crafty Saturday

Why have a plain old bulletin board....

 

 

when there is ribbon in the house and you have some time to spare? 

 

 

 

 



 

You could go with stripes but there is still ribbon left.  Let's see what else can be done.

 

 

So here it is already in use.  Yea.  I know.  It matches the violet.  I guess I ahh, kinda planned it that way...  Can you say ummm, what's the word...obsessive?

 

And now just for the fun of it, a couple pictures of Teddy.

 



Hey!  I'm sleeping here!

There's a vinegary smell in the air

A few weeks ago, I was at the Farmers Market and thinking about making beet pickles.  The people at the stand said if I came back 2 days later they would reserve for me either a 1/2 bushel or a full bushel of beets instead of buying several small bunches that day.

Assuming, (BTW, never assume.  It doesn't usually turn out.) that the beets would come with their tops on, I agreed to a 1/2 bushel of beets.  I gave them my name and my phone number.  No backing out now!!

Well, as it turns out, the beets came with their tops off.  Way more beets that way. 

If you have ever wondered what a 1/2 bushel of beets look like...here you go.

  

Yup.  A lot of beets.

 

 

I thought I was taking step by step pictures but I guess I didn't.  It probably wouldn't have been that interesting anyway.

 

 



I made a trip to the store and so did DH to get enough vinegar for the job.

Can you smell the beets, vinegar and spices? 

It's like a sauna in here!

So for future reference:  A 1/2 bushel of beets will make 14 pints and 5 quarts of pickles.  And take 3 trips to the store.  2 for vinegar and 1 for quart jars when you run out of pints.

They sure are pretty though...

And then maybe 2 weeks later, again at the Farmers Market, there are the last cucumbers of the season.  I've been trying to find a good Bread and Butter pickle in the store but haven't come across anything that is nearly as good as homemade.

I guess 2 weeks is long enough to have forgotten all the work involved and so I bought cucumbers, onions, green peppers.  And in the big box store right there, I got more pint jars.

Here we go again!

 

 

I was going to do step by step pictures again but didn't manage to this time either.  So here are the veggies sitting in salt for 3 hours.

 

 



And here is the finished product.  9 pints of Bread and Butter pickles.

Now we just have to wait a few weeks for them to get that good pickled flavor throughout.  They should be ready to start eating at Thanksgiving.

Yum!

Autumn

While reading everyone's posts about fall and leaves changing, I've been thinking about how much I like fall.

The air changes.  It's cooler and fresher.  And some mornings and nights there is a hint of winter in the air.  Crisp.  Like an apple.

The light is different too.  Summer is bright and almost harsh.  But fall is a softer light, more mellow.  And with harvest going on there is dust floating around that gives it a hazy appearance and makes for the most amazing colored harvest moon.

Fall is a time of cleaning out the gardens, canning the extra produce and generally battening down the hatches for the next season that is quickly approaching.

I haven't been in school for decades but I liked getting back to school in the fall.  I was a caboose child and in many ways an only child and starting back to school was a time filled with seeing friends again.  Basically I always enjoyed school...Literature especially but math was fun too until I got to high school.  I'm looking at you, theorems.

And so I like fall.  Or at least early fall.  I like fall until we get to the days like today.  Grey.  Raining.  Cold.  Windy. 

Yea.  Fall just lost it's appeal.

Actual knitting content

Yes.  I'm sticking with the blogging.*

Since the name of this blog is Marilyn Knits I thought I might need to prove it....

And so...ta da...here is the latest Iceling Sweater Set.  Ravelry link. 

Cardigan.  Size 6 months.

Mittens with a cord to keep the new mom & dad from losing them.  Infant size.

Iceling hat without the turn up band.  Baby size.

The baby's dad is a nephew on DH's side of the family.  The baby is a sweet little fellow.  Already wearing a Viking shirt to go with his Dad's for those football watching sessions.

In other knitting news, I just have to bind off the shawl mentioned in this post.  I'll be so very happy when it's done.  As it turns out, unless I fall completely in love after I block it, I don't really care all that much for this shawl.  To small and no lace.  I knew that going in but I was in denial and I'd struggled to find a pattern to start with so I was happy just to find anything that the yarn agreed to be. 

 *After visiting with a couple dear people that explained how search engines work, I decided to continue but just keep in mind everything and I mean everything that goes into a post goes on to the great big www.

Dilemma

I'm debating what to do with my blog.

I was messing around with G**gle one day and found pictures from my blog...just out there. 

I'm quite upset by that.  I really didn't think they'd just be public property.  And I don't know what to do about it.  I think I can keep the blog from being found by search engines but that totally shuts me off from the world. 

I just don't want my photos out there.

I kinda don't want to stop blogging either.  It's my way of having a little diary of what's going on.

Dilemma.

It may be dry...

but we have frogs!

I've been watering trees and flowers and that's where the froggies are hanging out.  I think it's a smart plan.  It's about dry as a desert everywhere else.

This guy froze in place and I was able to get a close up picture.  Wasn't that considerate?

And on another dry(ing) subject....dish drying to be exact.  This is the towel I embroidered for myself.  An cross stitching duckie.  Cute?  Yes?

Sorry about the wrinkles but I've been using it. 

Harvest 2013

Harvest has been going on for awhile now but I just went last evening for my first ride of the season.

I took a few pictures.

It's wheat.  And has a number for a name right now.  It's something that is being developed and so this is seed increase.  Next year it will have a name.  And the company that owns this seed usually names their wheat seed with Norwegian/Scandinavian names...so we'll see what they come up with this time.

3rd DS rents this land and the owner is a cattleman.  In the distance you can see a few of his hay bales that have been stacked and are waiting to be moved closer to his operation.

I've always wanted to get a picture of the motion of the reel and this is the best that I've ever done.

Actually I tried doing a video but it didn't turn out so hot.  Maybe another time I'll try again.

The weather has been cool the last couple days and the grain got tough when the sun started going down for the day and so they had to call it quits.  Of course you have to line up the equipment at the end of the day!

1st DS, 3DS and DH each own a combine.  That's what we call heavy metal!  ;)

This is a North Dakota harvest sunset.  Pretty.  Yes?