I'm still alive! I've been a little bit busy...I got married and we're getting ready to have a baby in a few weeks. Picking out names has been challenging, but as of yesterday we finally narrowed down the first name to Jagdeep. Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? I think so too.
I've done a fair amount of knitting this summer and fall. Here are two of my summer projects, both birthday presents for friends with August birthdays in Japan:
The hat is made according to the Noro Kureyon One-Ball Wavy Gravy Hat Pattern found on Ravelry, but I used Paton's wool instead of Noro. The scarf is one of my favorite patterns, the Lovely Leaf Lace Scarf, also on Ravelry.
My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to visit us in September and we wanted to show them a bit of New England, so we took them apple picking in New Hampshire. I had never actually gone apple picking in the formal sense of the words, where you pay someone and they give you a bag to fill with fruit. There was never really a need to pick apples because our grandparents or uncle always just gave us bushels and bushels of them from the local orchards every fall. Strawberry picking, sure- I had paid to do that a couple of times before, and once with my mom, who took great pleasure in pointing out to me and my sister how slow and inefficient we were compared to her. It was true. We did not have the advantage of a childhood filled with rock-picking as a form of entertainment or character building. Also, I have picked countless pies, buckles, crisps and cakes worth of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. It's really unavoidable when you grow up in Vermont and the bushes are literally in your back yard. It turned out to be a fun new experience to pick apples in the fall-even though it was over 80 degrees outside and the prettiest apples always seemed to be far out of reach.
We picked Sansas, McIntosh, Cortlands, and Jonagolds. We also bought a pumpkin to make a jack o' lantern.
The ladies brought half of the apples back to India with them, and the remaining apples turned into this:
Pumpkin became this scary dude.
Unfortunately, he rotted into a pile of mush on our dining room floor by the beginning of October. It's okay because we're not celebrating Halloween this year-we are Diwali people. "What is Diwali, you may ask? Well, to have Kelly explain it [girly voice] it's aah blah blah blah, it's so super fun and it's going to be great. [normal voice] Lot of gods with unpronounceable names. Twenty minutes later you find out that is essentially a Hindu Halloween." [Michael Scott, The Office] Next post: Diwali!
