Dark November

Well, it looks like this fall is just going to be crazy until the end. Or at least until December 13, when I finish working for over a month! I haven't been in vacation for more than a month since I was a master's student, over a decade ago. Meanwhile, I am paying for not taking much time off this summer, because I'm just exhausted. But hey, that's one last month to go, and given all the work I have, it should go by very quickly, and I've got lots to look forward to at the end!

Somehow, despite the running around of the past months, I still managed to do things.
I went apple picking and made apple sauce with a LOT of cinnamon. We made candied salmon and we got a slow cooker that we used a few times.

Salmon in the dehydrator. It's sincerely the best thing in the world. 

But that's it, I have not canned tomatoes, nor made jams as I had started to do in the past years.  Too busy, too tired, and still working on our grape jelly and plum and strawberry jams from last year.

On the weaving side, good news. The blankets have both been sent and received by their new owners, Emoke and Aron. After I finished hemming the blue one, the hem frayed when I washed it, so I had to do it a second time. I decided to hopefully solidify it by adding and extra blanket stitch. The final result looks like this (not super nice, but I was learning):

Picture taken in the car, because that's where I finished the hem, while my friends were waiting for me to drop it at Aron's place. I like the red with the blue. 

I had taken the blankets off the loom before the whole warp was completely woven (I hope to have 2 more blankets on it). I used the 2-stick heading tip from Peggy Osterkamp's weaving blog.  I re-attached the warp last week, and it looks good, although I have a few things to fix.

Sticks attached to the apron rod. 

Another thing I did was this (see picture below) with knitting markers, to keep the treads in the right sections as I re-warped the loom. It worked pretty well, and I'm happy I found a use for those markers I never use!

Knitting is also pretty good. After the last booties, I had time to knit another pair, this time red, for a future baby named Florence.

This pattern was so easy...but so cute! I knit it in about a week and gave them to the mama this morning.

Tomorrow is our weekly knitting meeting at the local coffee place. My heart is bursting with pride when I see people who started knitting a few weeks ago finishing scarves (and not any scarf, this one!), and starting baby sweaters. As much as I am proud of all these girls who are learning and running with their needles and yarn, as much as I am realizing that I am a bad knitter! It took me so long to finish my first few pieces, and even now, I can't make anything without having to knit it at least twice, if we consider all the mistakes I have to fix as I go...Anyway, I try not to get to depressed by that though, and try to feel better by telling myself that I must be a not-so-bad teacher:-)

Also in the knitting news, last week I went to Montreal with 2 friends for a yarn shopping day. We visited 3 stores, dropped the blue blanket, and stopped at my favourite Indian restaurant for a yummy lunch. I had just received a new book I ordered with baby patterns, and I bought yarn for a few projects. I'm ready for any other friend who is planning to procreate! I also bought yarn for this project. I can't wait to start it!

So this is it for now, have a great week!