Three-day weekend

Well, Tepoztlán is almost done! I finished the second sleeve on the plane home from San Francisco; I was so short on yarn I had to cannibalize some ends I was getting ready to weave in. Max, take note: if the bodice on a sweater is too short and you decide to make it up on the peplum, not that you're contemplating ever knitting a sweater with a peplum again, understand, but if you do, please know that increasing length on a ruffled part knit side-to-side is going to use up a whole lot more yarn than what you'd have used going top to bottom. Just so you know...

So anyway, if I had any compatible yarn, I would only need to sew it up, and I'd be done! As many of you know, this can only mean one thing: I'm going straight to hell, aka Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra Vest:


Started: 18-Feb-07
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra (85 wool/10 silk/5 cashmere) in Tamarind. I am crazy for this color. And such a springy, lovely yarn!
Needles: US 10.5
Gauge: 13 st and 18 rows/4"
Pattern: From Jo Sharp Knit #1

Finished the front yesterday evening while the kids took turns reading chapters of Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy to me - a ripping yarn about a boy who goes to a school for magically endowed children, only it's not a nice school like Hogwarts. Not at all.


Then today I got up early and started making the Swedish Tea Ring (yummy cardamom!) from the Tassajara Bread Book, which I picked up in San Francisco. I've been deacquisitioning this and that ever since moving from Kendall, but I've also been replacing some of the lost objects from my hippie childhood. That book was on everyone's shelf, and when I see it, it feels like home.

After we ate most all the tea ring, I started making Meyer lemon-and-grapfruit marmalade - my first attempt. I used a recipe from the Times magazine article about June Taylor, a jam witch (I mean that in the most respectful way, Stacie!) from Berkeley. My sister used to have the stall next to hers at the Berkeley Farmers Market, and she would give me free preserves, kind of like an evil drug pusher, until by the time she quit working the farmers markets I was totally hooked and prepared to pay June's prices, which, after spending the afternoon chopping everything just so and freaking out over whether my marmalade was right yet, I can understand. The worst part was trying to sterilize the jars, and pouring the hot marmalade in, which Joe kindly did for me. Anyway, if you don't hear from me for a few days, maybe come over and make sure I haven't died of botulism.

So, what'd you guys do with your three-day weekend?