Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

We’ve come to the end of the harvest and I have tomatoes. A lot of tomatoes. We plucked all the green ones that are ripening on a mat in my garage awaiting. The ones that were already ripe, we’ve been trying to eat them. One of my favorite ways to gobble up tomatoes is in a simple salad.

3 large tomatoes - diced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 TBS Lemon Juice
one good handful of finely chopped basil
3-4 cloves of crushed minced garlic.

Mix it all together and there you go. It’s simple and tasty. If there is sauce left over, I put it in a jar and dice up more tomatoes the next meal.

As for simple in the rest of what I’ve been doing. Well, I can’t say the rest is actually simple but there are simple things. The Forest Canopy Shawl is simple. It really is as Susan says, it’s a great beginner lace shawl. The repeats are easy to remember. I had it memorized after the first repeat. It’s gorgeously simple. Not that you can tell by this:

That’s where we’re at now, the mashed lump of green lace. Pretty. But you all know the potential.

Knitting lace has reminded me how much I actually like to do it. I’ve dyed up some yarn to make 2 more shawls and I might actually finish the 2 that are marinating in the WIP pile. One is self designed and I need to find my notes before I continue. I suppose that wouldn’t be so simple. Now I simply need to get to the shop and start my day.

I had a whole 15 minutes of sitting and knitting in the middle of the day. I won’t say peaceful because 7 going on 20 told me I needed to oversee the construction of a fairy house. The construction was halted overnight in the search of decent fairy beds. Oh, and it’s not just a fairy house, it’s a fairy motel.

So what did I do with my 15 minutes? I sat here:

The swing was an awesome mother’s day gift a few years back. It not only is a beautiful place to sit but it’s great for hanging drying skeins and fibers.

This is my view:

If you had x-ray vision, you’d be able to see that just under the climbing wall there is the fairy hotel. Of course, I have x-ray vision so all was well with the overseeing.

This is the project I was working on:

Yes, that just might be a new project. The Forest Canopy Shawl in SuperNova colorway Soylent. I was just going to link my kit page only to realize it was dead. So I’ll be spending time this weekend reconstructing that. If you want to see what it looks like go to Susan’s blog. She’s the designer. I just package up kits with my yarn.

In my 15 minutes, I was able to get that much done. I know, impressive. But I was able to work on it at knitting group. I had to deliver yarns and I was considering not staying for the knitting group. I’m glad I did though. Those gals make me laugh.

Keep those contest entries coming. I want to leave it open for anyone to sneak something in this weekend. I’ll announce a winner Wednesday of next week. That way you have a whole week to fess up and tell me your biggest sneak. Or if you’re a goodie goodie, I want to hear that too. There are a lot more of us non-sneakers than I thought. But those of you that do sneak you have priceless stories. I plan to share some of them (keeping the names hidden of course) so if you don’t want your’s shared, let me know.

I was just storing it in the trunk of the car…. while I organized, yeah organized
With the receipt dated today?
Um, geez, she must have put the wrong date. I bought this last year.

In reading the forums and talking to other fiber/yarn ‘ho’s I hear lots of stories about creative hiding. People hide things in the trunk of the car or outside or at other people’s houses until they can get it into their house. I find this fascinating. Well, what I find fascinating are all the ways that people come up with to hide their purchases from a significant other.

So here’s the thing. I have some yarn here and I know you all want it. You won’t have to sneak it in because it’s free. Tell me the best fib/sneaking story you’ve ever told. If you don’t embellish about your purchases, I’ll put you in another drawing for more yarn.

I’m really curious about this. I need to know.

Send all emails to gift(at)spunkyeclectic(dot)com with the subject “YARN SNEAK”
There are 3 ways you can win:
If you sneak - tell me the story - the best story wins 2 skeins of super DK.
The other sneaks will be put in a drawing for one skein of SuperNova
If you don’t sneak - I’ll put you in a drawing to win one skein of Skinny Sock.
The winner will get to chose their own colors. Yes I’ll ship international. So come on! Make with the stories. I want hear them.

I know you want to know my story. I don’t sneak. Husbeast isn’t usually home when I shop for yarn or fiber but he doesn’t mind. He assumes that all packages for me are yarn or fiber of some sort. Just the same as I assume all packages for him are for his hobby. I told him the other day I was thinking of buying another wheel and his response was “of course you are”. Although he doesn’t seem to notice when a new something makes it way into the house. It might mean there is so much here already, who can tell.

Occasionally there is a finished item….

That’s the sweater blocking. I would apologize for the odd angle except that the sweater looks really funky without someone in it. I tried it on the second it was bound off and it’s the exact sweater I had in my head. Hopefully I can show you a good modeled picture soon.

But for now, send me stories.

With these ingredients?

You make Carrot Cake of course. Cake for a Baby’s Little Girl’s Birthday

3/4c Cocount Flour
3/4c Wheat Flour
1/2c Rice flour
3 flax eggs
2t Cinnamon
1/2t Nutmeg
1t Vanilla
3c Carrots sliced
1 cup Applesauce
1/2 cup evaporated cane juice
1/2 c oil
1 t Baking Soda

I mixed all the dry ingredients together. Then I blended the heck out of all the other ingredients. This pulverized the carrots to make the cake have a smoother texture. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes. The frosting is simply Vegan cream cheese with some evaporate cane juice. I sprinkle the top with toasted coconut and crushed pecans.

Thank you for all the Happy Birthday greetings last Friday. She will indeed always be my baby even if she’s growing up into a little girl. It happens so fast.

I was able to capture a decent sun rise this morning.

This is why I was disappointed in the sunrise of last week. Our sunrises are often beautiful.

On to knitting news….
I’m binding off for the cable and lace sweater today. In fact I’m in mid bind off!

In honor of that sweater getting done and needing another non stockinette project, I designed something that will be made with my Rustic Silk. The shop has some but the website isn’t listing any. I’ll have to rectify that. This is what that project looks like so far:

I know it’s not exactly earth shattering yet. But you should see the picture in my head.

When Baby Boogie’s (I’m not going to stop calling her baby just yet) mittens were finished last weekend I had immediately cast on for new ones in the latest club fiber.

It doesn’t exactly show the colors off well but I forgot to take a photo before I wound it into a ball and cast on. There should be new mittens soon.

And there is other news but I’ll save that for another day. If you’re a spinner on Ravelry, you might already know what it is.

Now I need to get the homeschool schedule written for the day and get ready to open the shop.