He likes his bath.
He likes his tea.
He’ll talk to you (for hours) about Sartre, de Beauvoir and Camus.
Yesterday he moved to the big city to live with some friends. Au revoir, Henri! Enjoy your new home.
(Pattern by Rachel Borello. Although, Virginia made the tiny scarf and beret).
Yes, I know there is only one finger left to knit, but the light was fading fast (for a decent photo) and she was was finishing these up to deliver the next day—as a shop model. Pattern by Sarah Dallas from Vintage Knits, and yarn used was Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply.
For obvious reasons our gardening plans this season were thwarted. But, we are super fortunate to live close to a great farmers market. So, we’ve been taking advantage of the people who have been able to farm and garden this year, providing us with access to delicious, local produce.
In previous years, we made the market a regular part of our food buying, going once a week. This year, again for obvious reasons, we’ve only been able to go two or three times. Today was one of those times, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. For, you see, we had pickles on our minds, and there were cukes a plenty, dill and garlic, too.
We made a simple, but fantastic recipe last year, but ran out of them about half-way through. This year we hope to not make the same mistake.
Behold, 11 jars filled with over 13 pounds of pickled cucumber goodness. Of course, I should mention that my role in the process was greatly reduced due to low energy (thanks to my slow-to-recover hemoglobin), so I’m very glad Virginia was up to the task of washing, slicing, dicing and canning. (I did help a wee bit, though. I took some pictures.)
My numbers are finally starting to come up (mostly on their own—there’s probably a small bit of Neulasta in my system that is helping out), and I’ve now gone 4 days without needing a transfusion. I don’t know, that to me seems like I’m finally moving out of the side-effects phase of my last chemotherapy treatment. So, last night I decided to “crack open a cold one” courtesy of a gift from my uncle and aunt in Oregon (Thank you! I’m saving the barley wine for when I’m feeling completely 100%).
And, yes, that’s a veggie burger with homemade sweet potato fries in the foreground. Life is indeed returning to normal. So, cheers to that.
After this post, I believe I will have caught up with posting all of Virginia’s scratchcrafty goodness that she’s made over the last couple of months. There are three sweaters, two from patterns, and one of her own design. The following sweater was designed by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes for the French Girl Knits book. Virginia knit this using Rowan Kid Classic.
Next, this original sweater was knit using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed yarn.
And, hot off the needles, this cardigan, called Muse by Martin Storey (from Rowan Classic Reminiscence), was knit using Classic Elite Soft Linen.
I think I’m all caught up, for now. Now that life is beginning to return to normal, the focus of this blog (thank goodness) will return to its original purpose. I hope to post less and less of illness and more and more of all the things we like to make… and, hopefully without cramming so many projects into one post.