has anyone seen my countertop?

Posted on Posted in projects

with no work from my day job this weekend, i made plans on friday to knit ALL weekend long. ahhh . . . it would be great. i pictured all the catching up i would do.

well, i have done some (coming, i promise), but i was hit with a reality check yesterday morning.

(cue in music from psycho here)

an overabundance of produce staring me straight in the face. i tried to deny it by running out to the porch to knit and relax. i sat down and started my swatching (tell you about that in a minute). i reached for my iced coffee (now aspartame free, thanks to prodding from juno) but what do i see on the table?

i ran to the fridge to get a snack and avoid the truth (that’s what snacks are for, right??). searching for just the right thing i found

i whirled around before my eyes began to burn and there they were

ok, okay. hint taken. like many working gardeners, i tend to pick stuff all week long for cooking, and leave most of it to ripen so i can “take care of it when i have free time”.
i am in complete denial that “free time” does not exist for me, and that even if there were any extra time, it would not be “free”. nor would i be “free” to use it any way i wanted.
there was no use for it but to get to work.

i spent most of the rest of the day in the kitchen and cleared away almost all the extra tomatoes, eggplant, and squash lying around. i dried two pans of pear tomatoes. i made a huge pot of ratatouille and put some of that along with tomato purΓ©e up in the freezer.
i took a quick nap and then made vegetable broth and a big batch of macaroni and cheese (i didn’t grow that in the garden, but it sounded good and the day was cool).

i still have peppers to stuff and bake, and greens to deal with, but i felt good about it.
til this morning

all these ripened since yesterday. i need a drink

mmmm. and it’s pretty too!

i have been plugging away on the second half of my honeybee stole and i think today i will get into the bee swarm section (that might be my favorite sectionβ€”of course it is; it’s the smallest one . . . shoot).

it has become a river of gold, a waterfall of honey goodness. it is luscious.

and i worked on the pattern for the big secret project in an effort to quell my nervousness about it. it’s a good-sized chunk of knitting and the yarn has not yet arrived. it has to be done in a couple of weeks. can you spell A-P-O-P-L-E-X-Y?

it’s not that i can’t get the knitting done. it’s the pattern i worry about. and all the stuff that has to go on hold for the marathon knitting. i’m trying to use my time wisely now to get a jump on non-knitting chores like cooking, pattern-writing, and preserving my sanity (what little there is left of it).

but still . . . yarn calls to me and my imagination never shuts down. now i have that red-speckled yarn from kim that has manLace written (dyed?) all over it and i have the BEST idea for it . . . which will have to wait a bit.

and then there is debbieKnitter, who is tired of knitting the japanese feather stole over and over, and wants a similarly pretty, fairly simple stole, with maybe one or two new skillbuilding features.

so i was like, yeah, let’s do it. i have some fearless fibers merino laceweight in a heartbreaking pinky-orange color that i have been anxious to see in a delicate-as-all-get-out stole. i have a stitch pattern i have been dying to use in something like this. let’s put it together real quick.
i swatched it

and love it. now i just have to find a pretty li’l edging and we’re done. simple simple simple. we can even do this in the slightly-heavier briar rose bamboo/merino i got the other day for a larger version. one pattern, two yarns, two sizes.
suh-weet.

now if only the big secret project was that easy . . .

46 thoughts on “has anyone seen my countertop?

  1. That is a lot of vegetables! You need a tortoise for your vegetable garden. Mine eats anything in reach before I can get to it. Fortunately, he’s only a few inches high and can’t climb, so that’s not too much.

  2. Ah, Anne. Just when I thought I could relax a little bit, your ever-expanding list of goodies-to-come gets me excited all over again. That’s ok. I’ll deal with it. I’ll. deal. with. it. But, could you just hurry a little bit? Just a wee bit, maybe? Does your family really have to eat? We knitters need, nay crave your patterns. lol and ;o)

  3. You’ve got veggies out the wazoo!! My countertops are covered too, just with clutter and dust. Not nearly as fun.

    The knitting looks lovely, as always, and you’ve got me very intrigued with the new replacement for the Japanese thingie. I’ve got about 250 yds of worsted cashmere sitting in my stash…any brilliant ideas for that? I was thinking lace scarf, just since lace would make the most of it and get me a bit more size (huzzah for blocking!)…

  4. Both the vegetables and the swatch look like promises of very good things to come! And that makes for quite an eye candy-esque post!

  5. Can you please fedex some of those lovely reddies to me, pretty please ?!? πŸ™‚ or maybe you should open a veggie stand at the corner of your property? let David take care of it. The swatch is magnificent, love it!

  6. I was going to work on phd AND knit, but so far neither πŸ™ and it’s too late now for the phd, so it’ll just have to be the knitting! πŸ˜‰ good luck with all that lovely produce!!

  7. I was going to work on phd AND knit, but so far neither πŸ™ and it’s too late now for the phd, so it’ll just have to be the knitting! πŸ˜‰ good luck with all that lovely produce!!

  8. words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words
    NEW MAN LACE words words words wordswords words words wordswords words words wordswords words words wordswords words words wordswords words words wordswords words words words………..
    : )

  9. Wow. things just never stop at chez knitspot do they? Your vegetables look scrumptious. And the Man Lace? Ooooh.

  10. Anne, the produce is mouthwatering! Gardeners are indeed slaves at this time of year, but it’s worth every minute come December when you can still taste summer in your sauces and soups!

    I want to thank you for your links to Fearless Fibers. I recently bought the Honeybee Stole pattern and I’ve been looking for the right yarn for the project. I found the Notorious colorway in laceweight merino on the Fearless Fibers website today and knew I had to have it. Those luscious amber tones remind me of the many jars of honey I keep in my cupboard for tea time. Thank you so much for introducing me to the site!

  11. I truly adore the color for the stole!!! It’s so rich and smooth and wonderful that I’m beginning to wonder whether I might not actually like yellow πŸ˜‰
    I love the produce pictures too… I’m just home from Greenland and fresh produce aint easy to come by (whereas the fish was splendid!).

  12. Noq I knoq you never sleep! You just take naps. You are so busy! The vegetables look so delicious, enjoy ever mouthful. The new yarn is looking lovely, my favourite combination at the moment, pink with a hint of orange.

  13. Anne, for a really yummy drink, take some of those tomatoes (peel first). Run them through the blender with some basil, bit of celery and some ice. Summer in a glass.

  14. Okay, I got a plan for your veggies: I will mail Sam out to you and he can do your roadside veggie stand. He is quite good at knitting patiently at his own eggstand….waiting for customers….

  15. Wow, just look at all your veggies! Free time is just a saying…..

    Your swatch for DebbieKnitter looks really pretty, boy she’s demanding πŸ˜‰

  16. Heh. We live to browbeat our friends into submission. See any change?

    This is why – other than no yarn – I don’t have a garden. I miss fresh stuff though – just found an organic delivery place I’m going to try next week. Door to door fresh veg, yum.

  17. What wonderful produce! Tomatoes do ripen quickly, but frozen puree is a wonderful and quick thing.

    Very intrigued about the swatch for debbiknitter. The yarn is so pretty too.

  18. You are one busy lady! Loving all the new things, especially the honeybee stole. I received notice that my kit for the beefields shawl will be coming this week…..can’t have too many bee shawls, huh?

  19. Do you freeze your dried tomatoes? I love sauce out of oven-dried cherry tomatoes and have been wondering if they’d freeze.

  20. Your garden produced very well this year. I love all the beautiful colors of all the vegies.

    You were one busy woman for just planning on knitting. πŸ˜‰

  21. You were very productive this weekend, maybe not so much with knitting, but definitely with putting away your vegetables.

    I am laughing at the thought of DebbieKnitter knitting the Japanese Stole over and over again!

    Good luck with getting other things done so you can hunker down on the secret project.

  22. It looks like the attack of the veggies over in your garden ! πŸ™‚
    But nothing tastes so good as fresh piked veggies and fruit ! The plums in my garden are already eaten ( not all by me offcourse πŸ˜‰ )
    The honeybee and the swatch are both looking georgeous. I just love the Fearless Fibers Merino,have some waiting in stash.

  23. Thanks anne for giving me a bit of perspective. Here I am garden-less being jealous of everyone with one, but thanks for reminding me that a garden can be a burden just like everything else (except knitting)! I am still jealous of your garden though, but some of the edge is off πŸ™‚ Looking forward to see mystery project. Quiet the master is decomposing.

  24. What lovely veggies. We are really struggling with ours here, our weather has been so bad. Shame you can’t send some via pdf like your patterns! Thanks by the way for the incredibly quick turn around when I ordered one of your patterns, with all the other things you do I don’t know where you get all your energy from.

  25. This year, I have zucchini. And, beans. Period. Maybe the tomatoes will ripen, my fingers are crossed. But with night time temps back down in the 40’s I don’t have much hope. I still can’t believe what you get out of your “city” garden. You’ve completely exhausted me.

  26. don’t you know ignoring vegetables makes them multiply??? πŸ™‚ looks like a bumper crop – lots of yummies! i wish we could grow mac and cheese – then it would be a veggie and good for us!!! πŸ™‚

  27. Wow! What a harvest! You don’t know how much I’d like to sink my teeth into one of those tomatoes. That’s all I’ve been wanting; I search for them everywhere. I’m still waiting on tomatoes to ripen here (Maine). Our summer season is very short, but spectacular. Everything’s a trade-off. Lucky for me, yarn is always in season!

  28. And with all that you took time out to pattern hunt for me. You rock, Anne. Thank you. I’ll show you what came of it in a bit… πŸ˜‰ Good luck with your secret project. Hope the yarn arrives soon, so you can get it going.

  29. All those gorgeous red tomatoes came from your garden?! They are like great big rubies… I bet they taste wonderful πŸ™‚

    I’m excited about this new stole idea, too! πŸ™‚ I have certain plans involving some Sea Silk and your Ostrich Plumes pattern… but there is lots more handpainted yarn where that came from, in quantities sufficient for a nice scarf but not much more. Bring it on! πŸ˜‰

  30. I love seeing pictures of your garden and all the fresh food that comes from it. It’s my goal to someday have a bit of land to call my own, where I can have a garden myself. My grandfather was a big gardener before he passed away, and I swear that the love of growing things is genetic, because I want a piece of that action too!

  31. I feel your pain…

    because it’s camped out on my doorstep as well.

    October 6th – My husband says, “That’s over a month away! Plenty of time.”

    Hmmmph! Perhaps I shouldlet him knit the sample, debug the pattern, photograph the model, write the pattern, format the pattern, copy the pattern…

    You get my drift here, don’t you?

    Are we having fun yet?

    YOU BETCHA!

  32. The overload of produce is the reward and the challenge of gardening. I have learned that whole tomatoes freeze really well if you are short on time and I then cook them into sauce when i need them. Good luck and enjoy your yummy veggies.

  33. (sigh)
    wish I could help with all that produce! I do miss “putting stuff by” but no longer have the space to grow it all…
    Bee is gorgeous, and that last tempting pink loveliness…can’t wait. Oh no, I can’t wait!
    (((hugs)))

  34. Good for you for dropping the Aspertame! You know a teaspoon of sugar only has about 20 calories, and you definitely seem like the kind of person to be burning that off without any problem…and there are some veryy nice teas out there to make iced tea with – if you want a change from the iced coffee. Numi makes a Chinese Breakfast tea that’s great iced, also a Darjeeling/Berry that’s *really* refreshing and a good source of caffeine. Republic of Tea’s Mango Ceylon is also good iced. Take your pick of the herbals, especially Red Zinger, iced.

  35. Maybe this time next year *I* will be tomato-wrangling? That pinky-orange swatch makes me hungry for tangerine sorbet. Seriously yummy stuff you’re working on!

Comments are closed.