Monday, August 20, 2012

Jelly fail. Oh, and TWO winners!

The winners first: MemiNature (first place) and Winnie (second place), send your snail-mail addresses to me at shrinkingknitter AT gmail DOT com and you can add to your stash. I found eight more balls to add to the fun. Congratulations to you both!

So I made apple jelly yesterday, with a combination of fruit from the farmer's market and the supermarket. I didn't have any apple jelly at all last year, and my trees didn't produce enough this year for a batch. Rather than steal down the road in the dark of night to fight with the deer for the neighbor's apples, I figured I'd just, oh, you know, support the farmer's market and add to the local economy and BUY FRUIT.

I love apple jelly. It's beautiful and tasty and fairly easy to make. I've made it successfully and I've had it turn out too runny, as this batch did.

I used liquid pectin, but the recipe was supposed to make eight eight-ounce jars and I ended up with a total of 78 ounces of product. So not enough pectin to make it set up. Not a problem, though … Google to the rescue! Here's how I'll be spending my morning.

All in all, I enjoyed my weekend. Sleeping Saturday away and taking it fairly easy yesterday (laundry, a little bit of convention work, knitting, dinner, jelly-making) were just enough, not more, not less. It rained (and oh, how I wish I could share the rain with those of you who are parched), so I couldn't do anything outside. And, honestly? I was fine with that. Sometimes I'm in the mood to work on and in the gardens and, well, sometimes I'm not. Mother Nature knew yesterday was one of those not-in-the-mood days.

Well, the Summer of Yarn Giveaway has ended. School starts here this week, and the start of school truly marks the end of summer, no matter what the calendar says. There is, however, still Too. Much. Yarn. Stay tuned for another giveaway sometime in the future. I'm thinking a Dead of Winter Yarn Giveaway, maybe. Because knitting is one of my favorite things to do in the dead of winter.

And I bet it's one of yours, too.

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