Shoe Polish, Superwash and Strawberry-Rhubarb Goodness

Shoe Polish Socks

Virginia has a new sock pattern available knit with Madelinetosh Twist Light. It’s an asymmetrical pattern that incorporates both cables and lace. Simple, but elegant.

Shoe Polish Socks

Pattern can be found on Ravelry.

Handspun Superwash Merino

And, my spinning has yielded about 230 yards of 3-ply (using the chain-ply method) yarn from 4.5 oz. of superwash merino. It’s a little thicker than what can reasonably fit through my CSM (another thing to be shared later), so this yarn might have to wait to become something else.

In the meantime… we enjoyed “harvesting” some fruit when organizing the freezer, yielding a super simple strawberry-rhubarb crisp. So simple, that a written recipe is hardly needed. Essentially pile the frozen strawberries and rhubarb into a big bowl, defrost for a bit. Add some honey (1/4 cup, more or less depending on desired sugar load), a sprinkling of flour (I use a gluten-free blend) and cinnamon. Spread that into a 9×13 pan, top with some ground-together pecans, oats, olive oil (just a drizzle) and molasses (another drizzle). Bake for 50 minutes at 375ºF (more or less until the bubbling is on the thicker side).

If you’re feeling a little more decadent, top with a little vanilla ice cream!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Brego

This time of year the garden is a great source of pleasure and pain! The weeding seems never-ending, the creeping things creep, the spreading things spread, but there’s also plenty of blossoming and blooming and plants beginning to bear fruit.

Milkweed Blossom

Wee Tomato

When we’re not stuffing our faces with the vegetable and fruit bounty, I have been knitting a bit. I have a new pattern, Brego, which is 25% until July 5 (no coupon code needed). I had the chance to use the lovely 4-ply sock yarn from Ancient Arts in the beautiful color Chocolate Lab.

Brego Socks

Brego Socks

Even with the darker color, this yarn shows the stitch pattern pretty nicely.

Linen Tank

Since I last posted, I also finished my version of Hane in Shibui Linen.

Grilling Veggies

Hope you are enjoying the bounty of the season as much as we are!

Radagast

Radagast Socks

It seems like Radagast would approve of Bunny Acres, we seem to have another bunny nest at the moment! Radagast is the name of my latest sport weight sock pattern, on sale until June 14, 2015, for 25% off.

Radagast Socks

Anniversary Quilt

In other news, although I am not a Quilter, I do like to make one every so often. I finally finished this one with the help of a good friend who is a real Quilter and Dan and I have been enjoying it ever since! With the help of my friend it turned out so nice, much better then if I had been left to my own wild sewing ways. Dan and I bought the fabric for this over 6 years ago on a trip up north. We were there over Christmas and I remember the time exactly as it was shortly after my mother passed away and just before his leukemia. The quilt top was finished last summer, the ties finished last fall and I finally sewed the binding while we were up north this last time.

Anniversary Quilt

Despite not being much of a sewer I seem to still have a lot of fabric! I’m working on using it or passing it on to those that will.

Cloud Flower and a Hat Full of Sky

Cloud Flower Hat

Another busy knitting week here at Bunny Acres. I finished a new hat pattern, Cloud Flower made with Blue Sky Alpaca Sport and Melange. It’s so soft and warm, perfect yarn for hats. I blocked this over a favorite vase to get that flat top shape, but it could just be laid flat to block and would have more of a beanie shape to it.

Cloud Flower Hat

I also finished a sweater, it’s called Sallir, I was thinking it was going to be for me, but now I’m not sure, it’s a little long on me. I don’t know if I am extra picky, but I seem to end up keeping only about half the sweaters I knit for myself.

Sallir

We enjoyed our dinner by a little fire this weekend, getting rid of some small branches and pretending like we were camping. It was lovely, so nice to spend time outside again. I have some tulips peeking up in a few places, but snow is in the forecast, so spring is not quite here yet.

Spring Fire

Terry Prachett passed away this last week and while I knew he was not doing very well it was still extremely sad to me. Dan and I have enjoyed his books so much, often reading them aloud. His sense of humor and wit, his insight into the foibles of folks and his way of seeing and appreciating all the shades of grey in a world obsessed with black and white/light and dark. I guess the sadness is for losing such a wise person so young, a beloved author that feels like a dear friend.

This weekend we also went to an Open House for a home we have walked by and admired many times. We love our house but we really could use a couple more rooms. Seeing this larger house that needed quite a bit of work reminded us of some of the things we like about our place, and clarified some of our wishes for a new house if we were to move.

Kingsfoil Socks and Strawberry Pinot Jam

I had a lovely weekend away seeing my sister and her family and my niece. A bit of a whirlwind trip, which ended with some lovely person asking if I would trade seats with her mother who was flying in First Class. It was my first encounter with the fancier snacks and real glassware, and now I fear I am spoiled for life. 🙂

There has been some knitting around here, first off I am proud to introduce my Kingsfoil socks. These are just the sort of socks I like to knit and to wear. The knitting is interesting, but not too involved that they take too long to knit. A classic style, and one that would look good in plenty of colors besides this basic grey.

Kingsfoil Socks
Kingsfoil Socks

I also finished the latest Kieran Foley Mystery Shawl, which was great fun to knit. Sometimes these mysteries make choosing colors challenging, but it seems like a good exercise.

Kieran Foley MKAL3

We have had some lovely weather this week, unseasonably warm. Dan has been loving being able to bike to work again. It has me in the mind for spring cleaning. In that spirit we decided to make some Strawberry Pinot jam with the last of last year’s organic strawberries we had in the freezer.

Strawberry Pinot Noir Jam
My friend Jean shared her delicious recipe and I can’t wait to try it out!

Strawberry Pinot Noir Jam

This weekend is a poignant one for us here, 6 years and 6 months ago my mother passed away and it’s her birthday on Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day. It’s also 6 years since Dan’s Leukemia diagnosis. We are pretty grateful to be where we are now, happy, healthy and enjoying this good weather.

Almos spring
*These are store tulips, the weather isn’t quite that good yet.