Archives for August 2009

This is what happens when you leave the garden untended for a couple of days while sitting inside feeling sorry for yourself recuperating valiantly from hand surgery. The zucchini morph into inedible, super-size proportions, making them suitable for use only as lamp bases, baseball bats, and the like.

Meanwhile, the hand that was subjected to the surgery on Monday is super-sized in its own right, and not just from being swathed in yards of bandaging. Bruising and swelling and aching, oh my. Only ten days until the stitches come out and I can begin physical therapy. Which means there is hope that I will be able to return to knitting bliss before the fall weather turns really cold. Yay!

Of course, it’s my left hand, and I am left-handed. My right hand has been often and derisively maligned as a “useless appendage,” but now that it is the only one I have that functions, it’s suddenly worth its weight in gold. I’ve discovered that there are all sorts of things I can do with my right hand that I never would have thought possible as recently as last weekend. And most of them are even fit for polite company. Typing with one hand is painfully slow and surprisingly inaccurate, but at least I can do it.

Tomorrow is the big day: DD heads east to her first year of college. And pressing questions remain unanswered:  Will she make her bed even once over the next four years? Will she get along with her roommate? Will she do laundry more than once a month, or only when she runs out of clean underwear (and turning it inside out to get another day’s wear out of it doesn’t count!)  And more important issues: Will she make lifelong friendships? Will the intellectual lightbulb switch on the way it finally did her senior year of high school? Will her higher education help her decide what she wants to do with her life?

But enough about DD. What about me? How will I cope without her, my only child? Will I be one of those nauseating “helicopter” parents we’ve all read about? (No) Will I be able to delay my high-fives and gleeful “empty nester” happy dance until after we leave her on campus at the end of move-in day? Will I be able to contain my tears of maternal sorrow until she is just a waving speck in the rear view mirror as we drive away from the campus? Stay tuned.

I know for sure that Shadow will miss her, but not as much as I will…

All I have to do is go out of town for a few days, and the harvest happens – behind my back, as it were. In about five minutes this morning, I was able to fill a basket with assorted deliciousness.

Finally, enough ripe tomatillos to make salsa verde – which I made for the first time last summer and quickly determined it was my new favorite condiment. Finally, enough ripe tomatoes to make a caprese salad, and still have some left over for bagels and lox this weekend. Finally, enough zucchini go throw on the grill and have plenty for everybody.

Right before leaving town, I peeled and diced a grand total of 14 pounds of peaches and 8 pounds of Satsuma plums, put them in freezer bags, and tossed them into the freezer to be dealt with in a variety of delectable ways upon my return. I came home to discover there are still probably 10 pounds of peaches remaining on the tree AND the Bartlett pears are ready to pick. There were several dozen on the ground when I went outside this morning, and right this minute I am heading outside to pick more before they can drop off the tree. No rest for the wicked.

Like to knit lace projects? Find yourself in need of a simple garment that covers just enough but not too much? You’re in luck! I’ve added a new pattern to my store, available both here and on Ravelry. Here’s a close-up of the lace stitch:

Say hello to the Molokini Shrug! It’s just the thing to wear over your sun dress into that restaurant where the air conditioning is always going full blast.

It’s the perfect antidote to a hot summer day that cools down unexpectedly when the sun goes down, and you find yourself wishing for a little something to wear around your shoulders.

The Molokini Shrug is so named for two reasons: during our trip to Maui earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of snorkeling in water that was as clear a blue as this Sundara Yarn Aran Silky Merino. This was water so clean that it felt luxuriously soft against the skin – as does this yarn. And, our snorkeling adventure took place in the shadow of the Molokini atoll, where the zigzag peaks were strikingly similar to this lace pattern.

For my sample, I used not quite two skeins of the ASM. But even the largest pattern size calls for only four skeins, so this is a quick-knit project that won’t break the bank. You can read more about the pattern here.