I come to you from the secret land of the Christmas knitter, emerging just long enough to share one of those "what do I do with the last quarter of the skein?" type projects. I had finished up the first gift and was waiting for my next shipment of yarn, but just couldn't put my needles down. I didn't really have a clear vision of where I was going when I started, other than that my goal was to make Indy a scarf. It just sort of came together as I knit and out of neccesity.

The stitch is sort of magnified seed-stitch (I'm not sure it has an official name) with blocks of alternating knit and purl that are two stitches across and two rows high (if that makes any sense). I knit until I had used up the yarn - Shepherd's Wool from Stonehedge Fiber Mills in the berry colorway - and then added a cream cotton crochet border with a scalloped edge.

Also, new porch couch! We spotted this one at a local used furniture store weeks and weeks ago, so when it was still there last Saturday I decided it was a sign. A sign that this couch was destined to live on my porch.

(A view of the apple tree from the kitchen window)

Just like that, one week we were "in the peaches" and then they were gone. A sad day (though we're still munching through the gallon bag of frozen peach quarters in the freezer - Indy especially, who regularly asks for a "frozen peachy"), but fortunately the peaches bid their farewell just as the apples were tipping their hat hello.

They're knobby and a little bug-bitten, especially on the lower branches, but they taste really good. We have no idea about the variety - they're small and round with a balance of sweet and tart. Not as crisp as a Macintosh and not as sweet as a Red Delicious. Any apple experts out there?

Of course we have lots of plans (apple pie, hard cider), and plenty of apples (in fact we've already lost two branches to the weight!) but we'll see what we have time for. We'll still go apple picking this year - it's tradition, it's nice to get some other varieties of apples, and THERE ARE DONUTS (!!!), but it's still fun to have another edible thing back there to harvest and munch on.