Strawberry Season

This is what 14 pounds of strawberries looks like.  It took me less than an hour to pick this tray.  My back was killing me when I was finished.  From this I made 5 pints of freezer jam and a strawberry cake.  Ed and the kids ate a good portion of the berries also.  They were fantastic!

The strawberry cake was my maternal grandmother's recipe.  I had to ask my siblings for a copy of the recipe.  My sister took a photo of the recipe and emailed it to me.  It was written in my grandma's own handwriting.  My sister has the original.  I think things like that are family treasures.  The last line on the recipe is 'It's Delicious!'  Grandma was absolutely right.  I did something wrong with the icing, but it didn't detract from the cake.  Somehow it was more like a glaze when I made it, but it is supposed to be a frosting.  I might have let the butter get way too soft.

I have a long car ride coming up soon.  I dug through my bins and pulled out a couple hibernating projects.  I can't decide which one to take on the trip.  I can't remember when I started this Print O' The Wave stole.  I remember buying the yarn one summer to make a mystery shawl.  I fell behind on the clues.  Once I saw a few of the finished shawls, I decided I didn't want to continue so I frogged it.  Sometime after that I started this but it hasn't gotten very far.

Another candidate is the Pi Shawl.  This has only been hibernating a few months.   

I also have a couple socks on the needles.  They probably need frogged because I don't remember where the patterns are.

I finished spinning half of the alpaca (I think) - mohair that I got from the fiber festival a couple weeks ago.  I'll spin the rest onto another bobbin and ply then together.  Hopefully I'll get about the same yardage.

I love the halo that it has.  I'm already thinking about making a cowl out of this.