New Canning and Crochet Books

 

My birthday was a few weeks back and I got some wonderful new canning and crochet books: 

Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia by Robyn Chachula
- I can never have enough stitch dictionaries, which are basically lists of instructions on how to do different stitch patterns.

Creating Crochet Fabric by Dora Ohrenstein
- This book is supposed to be amazing if you write your own patterns--or have any interest in doing so.

Food in Jars by Marissa McClellan
- Food in Jars is one of my favorite canning websites so I definitely wanted the book.

The Joy of Pickling by Linda Zedrich
- We love pickles around here, so an entire book about pickling seemed like an obvious choice.

So far I've mostly just looked through them and picked out things I want to make--like Gingery Sweet Pickled Vegetables (Joy of Pickling) and Cantaloupe Jam with Vanilla (Food in Jars.)  I also did a little Tunisian crochet swatching from some stitch patterns in Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia for a possible summer scarf pattern.  (And learned I need more practice at Tunisian crochet.)  I'm sure I'll let you know as soon as I get around to making anything from them.

New Design - Felted Bubble Bowls

I have a new felted bowl design available in my Etsy shop that I'm pretty excited about--I'm calling them bubble bowls.  I kinda love these little round, roly-poly bowls.  As is my usual habit, most of the ones I have done so far are in bright colors, but I am working on some in a more subdued color palette.  I'm thinking these should be available in different sizes, so those are currently in progress.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Gardening and Growing Plants From Seed

I have kind-of a love/hate relationship with gardening.  Mostly because I'm not very good at it.  I kill houseplants frequently and I'm not disciplined enough to take care of my garden the way it should be taken care of.  I almost never manage to stake the tomatoes, I let bugs and weeds get completely out of control and I often forget to water.  I keep at it though, because I love being able to pick fresh, organic food from my yard.  Besides, if you are a canner, having a garden is pretty much a must.  It means I can make jars and jars of tomato sauce and pickles for practically nothing.

seedlings about a month ago

One part of having a garden that I definitely do love is starting plants from seed indoors.  It's almost like magic to start with dirt and tiny little seeds and end up with living things.  And it seems especially magical to do that when there's snow on the ground outside.  Plus, growing your own seedlings is so inexpensive compared to buying seedlings.  One package of seeds often costs about the same amount as one or two seedlings so if I want to grow something in bulk (like paste tomatoes), it seems like the only way to go.

tomato plant seedling today

My plants grew so well this year that I now have more tomato plants than I have room to plant, so I hope I can find people who want to adopt some of them.  (The problem was exacerbated by the fact that I couldn't resist a special pack of five different kinds of tomato seeds and so had to plant those along with my pear and paste tomatoes--giving me seven different types of tomatoes to find room for.)