I’m feeling quite domestic (ha ha).  Last night, I made my first attempt at making home made jam…

My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother have always been talented when it came to canning things and making jellies and jams.  I grew up watching them make it, but till now I’d never had any interest in trying it myself.

I discovered wild blackberries growing in the field next to our apartment.  The bushes were just loaded with berries, and over the last week they’ve ripened from bright red to a rich, dark purplish-black.

I had no idea how to go about making these berries into jam.  I knew I needed to get jars, and some sort of “stuff” (Sure-Jell fruit pectin, it turns out) to make it thicken.  Thank goodness for the Internet, and mom’s phone number on speed-dial!

I made a small batch — eight half-pints worth — and it actually appears to have set up  properly!  I’m hoping to get a chance to make homemade biscuits this weekend because there are few things tastier than warm biscuits with sweet, fresh jam on them.  Mmmm!

Now I’m thinking about making some blackberry pie, if I can collect enough berries.  I’m also thinking about trying to get some strawberries to make jam with too!

For anyone who was wondering, my first experience teaching a knitting class went very well.  The picture (click to enlarge) is the baby socks I designed for the class, and I taught the students how to knit them two at a time (simultaneously) on two circular needles.

I was supposed to have four gals in my class, but only two made it.  (The other ones had family and health-related problems and couldn’t make the first class.)  My two students did very, very well and are both finishing up their socks.

Pat (the owner of my local yarn shop) already booked me to teach this class again.  She said that the girls who missed the first class want to take it, and she thinks there will be others also.  I’m also teaching other sock knitting classes, a shawl/wrap class, and a free workshop/Q&A session on using Ravelry.com (a popular knitting-related website).  So now I’m teaching classes almost every Monday evening and two classes (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) on Saturdays!

I almost feel guilty getting paid to do this.  I even told Pat as much.  I really enjoy knitting, and I enjoy helping people learn to knit.  It’s getting paid to do something I really love.  And even if I weren’t teaching, I’d probably be at the knit shop for sit-’n-knit anyway, so I might as well be helping out!

I’ve really met so many wonderful friends through the knit shop.  I don’t think I’d have ever gotten over my homesickness without them.  They’ve become my “Tennessee-family”.

Speaking of homesickness, I’m going home next month!  Actually, I’ll be leaving a month from today - on August 8th.  I’ll be flying from Nashville to Detroit, then into Erie.  Nick has to work, so I’ll be flying home by myself.  Hopefully we’ll be able to make another trip in the autumn so he can go too.

I’ll be spending the week visiting with family.  My grandparents have both recently had some health problems, and I just felt like I really need to be home right now with them.  Unfortunately, I can’t stay, but at least I can visit for a while and spend as much time as possible with them.

We have good work-related news!

Nick was promoted at work!  He’s now running the install-bay and in charge of car electronics.  He also earned his MECP Advanced certification and is currently studying for his Master certification as well.

As for me… I’ve been asked by my local yarn shop to start teaching some knitting classes!  I’m really excited about that.  I’m teaching a class on how to knit two socks at the same time on two circular needles.  I wrote up a pattern for a pair of plain baby socks to do for that class.  Then I’m also teaching a class on knitting a pair of simple lace adult-size socks.  The sock in the picture is the sock we’ll be doing in that class.  It’s the “Monkey” pattern designed by Cookie A.

My first class is next Monday night.  I’m nervous and excited!

Nick and I decided to go check out the Tennessee Renaissance Festival this past Sunday.  You can see some pictures that I took in the gallery here.  Unfortunately, after a run out to the car to put away our umbrella and drop off some things, I left my camera there.  So I didn’t get to take as many photos as I’d like.

We watched the joust and the live chess tournament.  We also got to tour Castle Gwynn.  We ate lots of great food — giant turkey legs, roasted German pecans — yum!  And I got to buy a pretty sterling silver Celtic knot ring to remember our fun day.

Nick and Gracie at the Dog Park

Nick and I took Gracie to the dog park today.  Grace had lots of fun.  (Technically, Nick and I did too — it’s a heck of a good time to watch all the different breeds of dogs running around and playing together.)

This is the second weekend in a row that we’ve gone and there were some familliar faces there already.  There’s even another puggle (a brown one, named Chloe) that Gracie can play with!

I just had to share this adorable picture of Gracie and her “Daddy” taking a break from their playing.