A Delicious Post

It’s been a while since my last post about jam and with high fruit season nigh (I believe most people call this season “summer”), it’s been on my mind a lot. So today will be a delicious, albeit yarnless post.

First is my end of apple season re-do of Food In Jars Apple Ginger jam. Last year when I tried this one, I got a delicious, albeit unspreadable result. I ended up chiseling it into bits and eating it with brie, so it did not go to waste. I decided to give it another go and see if I could get a more spreadable result. I was successful!

Kind of.
My results are more… syrupy than jammy. Still delicious, though, and infinitely more usable than my “fruit chunks” from last year. It’s rather nice on waffles or shortcake.

I also spent some time on Mama’s Day making a lovely Apricot Rosemary jam.

It smelled divine while cooking up. A little bit sweet, a little bit savory. I haven’t checked the set of this jam (or the seal of the jars, for that matter. I should get on that.), but I’m hopeful. The leftover bits in the pot were a good jammy consistency.

I think it tastes lovely. Mr. Liu looked… less convinced when I had him try it before I jarred it. I’m pretty sure that due to the hints of green BabyLiu won’t be too into this, despite her insistence on eating ONLY orange colored jams (toddlers are weird). These three might be all mine. Which, considering I got only a taste of last year’s mango and mixed stone fruit jams, I’m not terribly upset about.

Mother’s Day 2013

Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome mamas out there, be they mamas to children of the human, feline, canine, rodent or other persuasion.

I had a lovely day. BabyLiu made me something at daycare:

She keeps reenacting how her hand print got there. Who knew she dipped your hand in paint and then put it on the plate? The plate has a little poem on the back:

Which made me totally weepy. She’s getting so big so fast.

Mr. Liu let me sleep in to the tune of 7:30am. Considering BabyLiu got up at 6am, I’ll take it! It was also a gift to the cats since I stayed in one place for extra long while they were draped on top of me  sleeping.

Mr. Liu took me to breakfast after I finally got my lazy butt out of bed, where I had chocolate cappuccino French toast. It was divine! If you ever see that anywhere, just get it. I also got this lovely bouquet:

It’s a yarn bouquet from Jimmy Bean’s Wool. The flowers are soft, lovely yarn and the stems are needles. There are also patterns to download for each skein. It’s so pretty though, that I don’t want to take it apart. I kind of want to take it to work and look at it when I’m frustrated.

And then there’s my favorite part of the day. The part where BabyLiu wants to hang out with me, no matte what I’m doing. Gotta enjoy it now, because I’m sure in a few years I’ll she’ll be slamming doors while she screams “I hate you!”

(She was very excited about that fork. I don’t know why. It’s not like she doesn’t use a fork daily.)

Imitation

BabyLiu is almost 3. Right now she’s in a phase where she is my shadow and I am hers. If I go to the bathroom, she goes. If she has a bite of sandwich, I have a bite of sandwich. Suggestions of doing something with Mr Liu are met with, “No! Mama!” This frequently works in his favor.

As annoying as this can be (because seriously, is wanting to per without an audience asking too much?), I’m trying to enjoy it. Lord knows she won’t like me this much forever. And sometimes she picks the perfect thing to share:

For the last two days she’s wanted to knit. Or, more accurately, wind yarn around the needles and keep her DPN in her hair like mama does when not in use. (Harder to lose up there. Not impossible, just harder.) She’s so pleased to be involved in something she sees me doing regularly, I can’t help but smile. It almost makes up for having to share the bathroom.

Almost.

Things That Make Me Smile

I know in many places it’s still cold, snowy even. Here, though, we’ve been going from foggy, grey days to lovely, sunny days (not WARM days, however, still much to early for warm). On the grey days you just have to hold on and think sunny thoughts. Admittedly, this is much easier to do without snow on the ground. Which is why I don’t live where it snows. (Living without snow also makes it easier for me to stay out of jail for going on rampages.)

These heralds of spring always make the grey days easier to manage:

What? A junior banana split (I know, right?) from Fenton’s ALWAYS mean warmer weather is on the way.

I Have No Idea

What the purpose of a boot topper is, but I love the pattern on these.

I saw these on BART way back. The pattern is lovely. I don’t suppose anyone recognizes it? Or that anyone can tell me WTF a boot topper is for?

Little Goblin

I knit up a little gobblin some time after Halloween (I’m timely like that) from a pattern from Mochimochi Land. I’ve been meaning to knit him up for like two years now. So I finally got around to it. He’s a cute little guy:

He’s knit from Full O’ Sheep in auqamarine, which is one of my favorite colors ever. I have like five balls of it. It’s just so vibrant and happy!

Of course, I’m not so on top of it that he has his little ghost costume yet (it will be knit from the same yarn in Little Lamb). Part of that is due to BabyLiu claiming him as her own. (Apparently, he’s very fond of milk.) He now lives among all her other stuffed animals:

I’ve added the yarn, needles and pattern to the cardboard box (I’m classy like that) that holds my WIPs in the living room. The box also holds the sweater for my nephew that he has undoubtedly grown out of prior to it’s completion and a scarf I’m knitting for my daycare lady (not my fault it’s still WIP, though!).

So maybe once my mojo returns, my bright blue goblin will have a costume. Maybe by Halloween.

I Buy Random Stuff

I like knitting. Duh. As a result, I often buy really random stuff (particularly stuff on sale) that has anything to do with knitting or yarn. A while back I was hanging in a long line at Barnes and Noble (yes, I still visit actual bookstores, where else am I going to get my fabulous British Knitting magazines?) and I was amusing myself by checking out the little stand of silly stuff in those tiny boxes. You know the ones I mean. Write A Love Letter, Pimp Your Cubicle, Nun Bowling, Grow A Bonsai Tree. I saw the Baby Booties Knit Kit box. And I bought it for no good reason at all. I didn’t even bother check to see what was in the little box.

I got it home, and opened it up:

The box contained a ball of yarn, a wee little book, four ribbons and a set of bamboo US 4 curiculars. I’m super impressed that they managed to cram the circulars in the box. The needles included alone covered the cost of the entire kit. Overall, it’s a decent little kit.

The yarn is acrylic, which wouldn’t be my go-to for feet, since it doesn’t breath, but baby feet don’t really do all that much, so I can live with it. It is quite soft, though. The wee little book is one booties pattern in two sizes. There is a “girls” version that’s a little lacy at the cuff and a “boys” version that is ribbed at the cuff. The lacy one looks more interesting to knit, so that’s probably what I’ll go with. I’ll let the ribbon indicate gender.

Assuming Kali lets me keep the ribbons.