More than Half Way to the End

I have finished my daily sweater!!!! I completed it on Saturday night. I know you are all thrilled to bits! I wore it to work on Tuesday and it was very comfortable and stylish (IMHO). Several people said it was nice. Of course, most of them were fellow knitters, but I will take it as a compliment since this is my 1st adult sweater.
I have completed 3572.6 yards of knitting, which leaves just 1,895.47 yards to finish this summer in order to complete my 5K. I think I can do it. We will have to see.

I have cast on for a Christmas stocking for The Baby; it is the Giant Jester Stocking from “Christmas Stockings: 18 Holiday Treasures to Knit”. The Girl picked out some colors and off I went. I thought there was a mistake because my stocking did not look like the one in the book, so I ripped out several rows. I then went to Ravelry to see what I did wrong and I could not find any errors etc., so I did what I should have done in the first place and read all the way through the instructions. I figured out what the problem was, i.e. that I had not read all the instructions and the picot edge is added at the end. So I ripped out a bunch of rows for no good reason. Let this be a lesson to you… always read all the directions before you start.

Sew What
I picked up my sewing machine on Saturday.


I set it up on Monday and did some practice sewing.

It seems to work. I know this sample is not very exciting, but it has been a LONG time since I used a sewing machine so you will have to take what I can give.

Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie … Who’s Not Ready Holler I
I also picked up peaches on Saturday.


The Hub and I canned them last night (Tuesday). We only did 6 quarts and this is how they turned out.

See how all the peaches are all floating at the top. They all look like they are trying to make their escape. The Hub called the local extension office and they said that we overfilled the jars so the peaches rushed to the top to avoid drowning. Okay, they did not say that last part. But, all is not lost, we can reprocess them. I will see how I feel tonight and maybe we will do it tonight. The Girl complained bitterly about how hot the kitchen was last night. I told her it is nothing compared to how hot it gets when I do jam. Mostly, because you have to stand over the hot jam pot and stir for the entire time the jam cooks.
Next, I am going to try canning cherries. In reality, the reason I wanted to can anything in the first place is because I want canned cherries. My grandmother would can cherries every year. One of my fondest memories is eating canned cherries out of the little plastic yellow bowls at her house.

Movie Review
On Monday, The Hub and I went to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. It was okay. There is nothing technically wrong with it. It moved at a good pace, it had lovely hand knits and it told the story. However, it felt like a Reader’s Digest condensed version of the book. It has been a long time since I read the book, so I could not tell you what was missing, but the movie felt, well, soulless. I can not say it was a bad movie; just that it was not magical. I am going to give it 2 ½ knitting needles. It is worth seeing, but you might leave wishing for more.