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I try and make all my gifts during the course of the year and after each Christmas I tell myself I am not going to wait until the last minute. The next thing I know it is October and I am frantically knitting, quilting, crafting every night – taking a lot of the enjoyment out of it. This year I did get ahead of the game and want to stay that way. Yesterday I started my spread sheet of gifts, decided I would do it a little differently this year. Since I make all the gifts I attach a tag saying what it was made of and how to launder, but I have to admit a lot of times I forget. I also tend to forget what color and pattern I used for the gift – just making a list of the name and type of gift. This year my list consists of the pattern, color, material used, care instructions, name and photo.
I hardly ever make anything for myself, but last fall I really wanted to make myself a poncho. After the Christmas gift making I started a poncho for myself, finished knitting it in the spring AND just yesterday finally put it together. I am now ready for the fall weather – I Love It!
Poncho Pattern
Yarn: 100% merino wool (136 yards, 50g ball)
Amount: 10 (12, 14) balls
Needles: US 10.5
Gauge: 4 stitches = 1 inch; 16 stitches = 4 inches
Size: S (M, L)
Knitted Measurements: Width = 18″ (20″, 22″); Length = 42″ (16″, 52″)
Yarn is worked doubled throughout the poncho, this means you are knitting with 2 strands of yard.
With 10.5 needles and 2 strands of yarn, cast on 72 (80, 88) 
stitches and work in pattern stitch until the piece measure 42″ (46″, 52″). Bind off all stitches loosely and sew in ends.
Row 1: K1, P1 to end
Row 2: Purl
Finished piece with ends
Sewing in the ends
To finish the piece off, lay the piece on the floor or other flat surface, take side A B and line it up with D E. So A will match up with E and B will match up with D. Sew the seam up.
D E A
B
Matching up the sides
Sewing up the seam
Finished
The poncho is very warm and I instantly heat up when putting it on – great for the fall and early winter days! Love the photo taken by Stella from below – oh, so flattering!
I keep all the remnants of my skeins and looking at the bag it may be time to start another remnant blanket – but that will have to wait until all the Christmas gifts are done.
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1. Combine the flour and sugar either in a food processor or using a pastry cutter, sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour and pulse a few times with the food processor, or cut butter into the flour with the pastry cutter. Finely chop the lavender and add that to 
Not even a full jar, just under 3 cups! They are a sweet, tart tasting.
6. Place several plums into the boiling water. After about 30 – 60 seconds you can take them out with a slotted spoon. The riper they are the shorter time you will need to keep them in the boiling water.
8. Now comes the fun part – you need to peel the skins off the plums. This should be easy they should just peel away – a warning I always have a few that are not so easy and I have to use a knife.
had about 1/2 pound of raspberries left so I cut up about 1/2.
Great day! Before 7am I had watered the gardens, walked the dog and had 2 loads of laundry on the line then it was out the door a little before 8am. Drove an hour and a half north of where we live with the Hudson River to our west, the sun behind the clouds and temperature at 65 – perfect day to pick some fruit. We picked up a friend along the way and we were off to Weeds Farm.
We arrived at Weeds a little after they opened and we were one of the first people there. I love it when there are very few people around – the peace and quiet and being in nature on a beautiful morning is magical. We made a stop at the squash garden – wanted to get some bigger zucchinis to make zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini bread – YUM! And then it was off to the peach trees – where of course we all had to taste the fruit, the juice
was dripping from our lips and fingers – we picked and picked – actually we picked 14 pounds. I wanted some white peaches and they said that the only white ones they had were the donut peaches – so I picked a little over a pound of those. As we were walking the farm we came across some other peach tree s- and believe it or not they were the non-existent white peaches! Heaven! We went up to pay and I told them that I had called yesterday and was told that they did not have white peaches and out I pulled a white peach – then I was asked where did I find them – I wanted to keep the secret but knew that I could not pick all of them so I told them.
We left Weeds and headed to Lawrence Farm. I wanted to pick plums, which I have never done before. Last night as I was researching recipes for plums I came across an interesting article where they said that prunes were losing market share to other dried fruits and that they were re-branding them to dried plums. Makes sense, when I picture prunes I think of an old person eating them to stay regular. I will be making some dried plums and that is how I will talk them up with the kids when they ask for a snack – I won’t give them too many though – I don’t think their parents would like me too much.
spectacular. I don’t eat raspberries myself, but Stella loves them – so I will be making some raspberry – plum jam for her.
farm on one of my trips to the north country. All in all we picked 9 1/2 pounds of zucchini, 15 pounds of peaches (yellow, white & donut) 3/4 pound of raspberries and 7 pounds of plums. I definitely have my work cut out for me – glad it is suppose to rain for the next couple of days won’t mind staying inside to do some baking and jam making.
It got me thinking that 15 – 20 years ago, the caretakers of the earth were definitely a minority. How times have changed. Or have they? Are there really more caretakers of the earth or is it a fad that has become the chic, in, green thing to do?
more often, but what does it really mean? Yes, many of us recycle and make the trek to the curbside once or twice a week, but there is more to recycling than putting our plastic, cans, glass and paper out on the curbside. Recycling, for most, is what is convenient. If you are out about town and you finish drinking your plastic, bottled water (which I won’t get started on here, but please invest in a reusable water bottle) do you look for a recycling bin, take it home with you to recycle or do you just toss it in the nearest trash can? In New York, where I live it is the law to recycle and we can get ticketed for it if they find recyclables in our trash. However, as I walk thru my town and others, there are very few places where you can recycle your containers. Why is that? If we are all supposed to do our part, why is it so difficult to recycle when we are away from our homes? We have become a disposable society. Have you ever heard the saying “we are going to market to that demographic because they have a higher ratio of disposable income?” That is like saying let’s target this group because they have a lot of money they can throw away. Think of it in those terms and it changes things. You wouldn’t consciously throw away your money, would you?
We moved in in August of 2007 and my neighbor moved in 
September 2007 and both of our yards were not much to talk about or to look at. The summer of 2008 we started re-creating our space to something we would admire and want to sit in and as we found out the neighbors were really wanting things to change too. We are the first house on the block and 
the walkways and garden bed stones. The only thing that I did purchase were the tiles for the patio that I laid.
came putting in the stepping stones and slate pieces for the paths – that was even harder than the garden bed stones – many I had to redo since when walking the path they
weren’t space correctly. Next came digging up some of the weeds that had turned into bushes – with all the rocks in the soil here that was a challenge, but I got good at pretending my shovel was a pogo stick – also brought 
back memories of childhood.
-with 4 of us pulling and digging up the grass. The history of the lawn is pretty interesting, if you want to find out more check this site out:
The soil was not very healthy and as I found out talking to some of the historian neighbors, when they built houses back in the day they used to bury the garbage and
debris from the building site. Amazing what I dug up. It was off to the nurseries to find organic soil and compost, at that time I did not have any relations with the local farming community and therefore did not have any leads on 
getting compost from them. Digging, adding, turning of the soil all came next and many cycles of it. Now the beds and other area were ready for planting. Next came
the research of what were the native plants here for the landscaping? I had lived in Westchester 20 years ago, but even then had no idea what was native and what was not. To the library and internet I went and then I found a local nursery that has a whole section on native plants for the area!
Before the fun part of planting began – I had one more project and that was laying my patio, which I had never done before. I took 
were laid, with a couple of trips to the home gardening store for replacement stones – some were cracked or chipped – it was time for the sand. My daughter and I both had fun doing this part, my
daughter, I think it is time for her name…Stella, had more fun playing in the sand and hauling it elsewhere while I did most of the work, but her company and seeing her playing made the task go by faster.
worm and she would come over pick the worm up and put it someplace else – starting a new family, she did that with every worm that I pointed out to her – lost track of how many worm 
families she started and completed. She will also pick up worms off the sidewalk and place them in dirt/grass near by to save them so they can start a new family! Got to love it.
landscaping is done, it is mostly just doing the vegetable beds, mulching and adding a few plants here and there to replace ones that did not make it through the winter. This had been a long project and now if I mention that we need to take a trip to the 
nursery Stella asked if she can stay home by herself (she is 7) or can she go to a friends – she hates going, finds it boring and if she does have to go – I usually have to bribe her. Stella does still love helping plant the garden, harvest the produce and thanks to Grandma Jo, loves to dead head the flowers!
