life during wartime

You know, I have a darn lot of bloggy spots on the 'net.  I suppose I could cross-post to all of them, but considering 75% of these blogs' ONLY readers are people who read me on OTHER blogs, that's kind of... redundant.

I really like the idea of having an account here, so that I can participate in communities and NOT have to comment anonymously on posts, but you know... it's all about simplifying.

I'm not deleting this account.  I am, however, not going to blog here, and if the powers that be decide to delete me for being "inactive", then so be it.

You can find my *permanent* and completely public blog at http://floofle.wordpress.com.

See ya there!

~Casey

Canning season, that is!  I mean, of course, I did up strawberry jam months ago, but that was just a one-shot deal, out of necessity.  By the time September evenings are starting to really feel like fall, I've started picking apples roadside, buying tons of Pomona's pectin, and wiping stores of their stocks of half-pint jelly jars.

I usually start off my holiday canning with blackberries, because that's what's ripe at the end of August, but life got in the way and, long story short, I hardly got any berries at all this year.  So I'm starting with apples, which are in abundance in various stages of ripeness right now and for at least another month.

Last night's project was "Chunky Spiced Apple Butter", made with 3 varieties of wild apples.  Today I skipped the canning, but still made some of the harder apples into applesauce for immediate consumption.  (Homemade fresh applesauce?  YUM.)  Tomorrow, unless Adam and I think of something better to do, the plan is "Apple Pie Jam".  I do plan to move on to other, non-appley things, but for right now, where finances are so stretched, I'm mostly going to work with what I can get for free.

The bug's really bitten me, though, as it usually does this time of year.  I spent my waking hours today mostly googling for jam recipe sites.  So if you have any favorites, do feel free to share!  I've already bookmarked more recipes than I'll have money or time to try, but I'm definitely up for new ideas anyway.

...because, so far, it's not working out any better than August did.

My boyfriend lost his job yesterday.  Suffice to say that this is a tough blow.  I absolutely cannot manage to keep this house afloat on my own piddly income, and especially not now that winter is just around the corner.  If we lived in a normal area, I'd have faith that he'd find another job pretty quickly, but this is a really economically depressed rural area, and the chances are really slim.

On top of that, his mother is coming to live with us - she moves in on Saturday.  No, she isn't paying rent.  No, this isn't a permanent move.  He and I are both hoping she finds a place of her own very quickly... and that's all I can really say about it, because this is a public blog.

Adam losing his job really is a bummer.  We had so many plans for little home improvements.  We were finally caught up on bills, and finally enjoying a comfortable life - not constantly anxious about paying shit and buying food and bouncing checks.  And now this.  Seriously, I could take a gun to that pathetic shit of a CEO.

I'm trying to look on the bright side, though - admittedly, it's really hard, because it was a good job, it paid decently, the benefits were great, and all his coworkers adored him.  So there isn't a bright side to the loss itself, but I guess there's a few to the timing:

1. It happened before I cashed out my CD and spent my entire savings on a new couch, paint, curtains, rugs, and other things for the house, because that WAS my plan, and it was only a couple weeks away from happening.
2. It happened after a glorious carefree summer, full of entertaining and doing things and having fun, because we could afford to.  Good memories are a good thing.
3. It also happened after I bought a hell of a lot of yarn... I don't regret those purchases at all, because a lot of those will now become holiday gifts, instead of spending more money.
4. It happened before I spent the ridiculous amount I was going to spend on Christmas presents.
5. And, you know, we've been down this road at least twice before in the past 5 years... at least this time I'M working.
   

Yesterday morning, around 4:30 or so, my paternal grandmother passed away.  I'm ok - it's nothing like when my father died a couple years ago, and I was (still am, in some ways) absolutely devastated.  I loved my grandma, and she and I were pretty close when I was a teenager, but advancing years made her difficult to even hold a conversation with, so... I admit it, I was terrible at keeping in touch with her because of it.  Anyway, the wake is tomorrow night, the funeral is Wednesday morning, and I'm driving back to New York to pay my respects.

So I was talking to my mom tonight, making trip plans, and she pointed out something bizarre:  Grandma died on the same day as my grandfather, her husband (except 27 years later).  As if that wasn't weird enough, both of my maternal grandparents also died in August.  August 2006 is when my father found out he had cancer.

August: THE MONTH OF DEATH.  But seriously, that's a pretty weird coincidence.

Saturday night was the latest Rock Dox gig, in Monticello.  For those of you who weren't reading me the last time I went to see these guys, they're a pretty well-established local band - put out a couple albums, throw one hell of a rockstar kind of show - and the lead singer happens to be Adam's brother, John.  So of course when we heard they were playing a little north of Houlton - a hell of a lot closer than their usual gigs - we had to go.

Gods, it was so much fun.  The show rocked.  Brian, also a longtime friend of John's, got pulled up on stage at one point to sing.  We all got absolutely filthy, because it was held in an empty potato house (duh, it was in the County!).  It was Adam and I, Jaime and Brian, and Gerda and Wally;  Gerda had to leave early, so then it was the 4 of us, dancing and rocking out.  I had been awake since 5am, worked a full 9 1/2 hour day, then turned around and went right to the show, danced nonstop till it ended at 1, and didn't get home till after 3.  I don't know how the hell I did it, haha.

I *was* going to post a "what I've been up to for the past year" kind of post - started it a couple times, actually - and then I realized how pointless that really is, because the one person who's still reading me from a year ago already knows everything I was going to say.  The rest of you would have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.  So... a totally fresh start it is!

I got the best package in the mail today: a couple jars of sour cherry jam, from my friends Carly and Art.  Well, backing up, a couple weeks ago, Adam and I went strawberry picking - and the next logical thing to do was make a ton of jam.  Art saw my pictures on flickr and asked if I'd consider a trade;  they'd just gone cherry-picking, and made a ton of jam themselves.  I feel bad that I didn't mail out my end of the trade till today - it's actually really difficult for me to get to the post office - but hopefully they'll forgive me when they see what I stuck in the box other than strawberry-rhubarb.  (Blackberry-lime and cherry-pomegranate, if you must know.)

The really curious thing is that people have kept adding me for the past year, despite the fact that I haven't been updating.  I'm not sure what's up with that, but... um... hi?  :) 

It looks like a lot of my "old" readers over here are gone, but I think I might explore the site again, see what's changed in the past year.  I need another blog like I need a hole in the head.  Like that's ever stopped me before!

how did I miss this?

I'm flipping through an old (Summer 2006) issue of knit.1, and I see this. (It's easier to see in the original, but work with me here.)

That's my womb!

So I read the article, and sure enough:

Knitting "with a twist" was on display in January at the Assemble Gallery in Cleveland, where Shannon Okey, author of the Knitgrrl series and several forthcoming fiber arts books, curated a show featuring alternative textile artists....

In the Alt Fiber show, dozens of MK Carroll's knitted Womb patterns, first published on knitty.com, were displayed loose on pedestals. Originally knit by members of the Wombs on Washington project to be placed on the steps of the Supreme Court as a statement about choice, the "wombs" invited viewer involvement.
etc.

I did make my womb, in screaming-bright blaze orange with a handmade "button", for Wombs on Washington, ages ago. I always wondered what ever happened to it. Now I know. Well, kinda... I mean, that was over a year ago, and I don't know the final resting place of the exhibit. But still.

It's not even the first time I've been in a magazine, but it's still kinda neat.  :)

Hey, did you know I rock?

I - or my knitted shoes, at least - made the Craftzine.com blog!

No, it really doesn't take much to make my day, haha.

(Although, admittedly, I'm already on a high because it's 60 degrees here, and I just got done eating my lunch outside, on the deck, in the sun, in a t-shirt.  Dude, that's enough to make anybody's day, when you're coming off of 52 hours straight of rain and sleet.)

Now I'm wishing I hadn't used such a grungy damn pair of flipflops for those things, but I had no idea that people would like them so much.

Should I point out that they spelled my name wrong?

Thanks to everyone who left comments on my last post, or favorited it, or whathaveyou.  I'm genuinely (pleasantly!) surprised.  I was really just declaring my own independence from fascist beauty standards... the support was a completely unexpected bonus.  Thank you!

Switching gears entirely, I've been crazy busy putting yarn up on my Etsy store... crazy busy only because, for a little while there, it was literally selling as fast as I could get it dyed and listed.  Nuts!  :)  So now I'm on the hunt for a good wholesale source for dyeable/natural wool yarn, because I've almost burned through that entire stash of merino already.  I will order more from the same company for now, but they're not a reliable source - once they sell out of it, they won't have it again, so I really need to find some alternates.  I'd also like to dye yarn that isn't worsted.