Basil

I love basil. I grow a lot of it on the island and eat pesto all summer long. I also love my cuisinart, which is actually my neighbor's cuisinart which I am more or less permanently borrowing. Here is my pesto recipe:
A bunch of basil, so that it fits comfortably in the food processor
A lot of garlic, less than a whole head but more than 5 cloves
some salt
a 2" or so cube of parmesan cheese
a couple handfuls of walnuts (yes, walnuts)
Pulse all together and drizzle olive oil into the hole thingy until it looks like pesto.
It's different every time.
There is essentially a basil shrubbery growing around our screen porch, which is where we spend a lot of time. It is also said to repel mosquitos, which are a problem on the island (which is essentially made up of warm shallow pools of water) and I am horribly allergic to mosquito bites. I get giant welts. Did you know that 20% of the people in the world get 80% of the mosquito bites? So they do love some people more than others. NPR told me so it must be true.
Basil is also a baby blanket. A really lovely one knit out of Dale Baby Ull on not tiny needles! It's done on #5 US/3.75 mm. Nice. It is done from the center out, like a square shawl might be done. It's knit in a really simple lace pattern that is mostly k3, p1 with one yo pattern row. It is bound off with a hemmed picot edge which kinda mimics those satin blanket bindings I liked as a child.
I knit this in the early summer, hence the name. And, on a crappy night like this I thought it would be nice to remember what a lovely summer we had.

Hmmm... I had more pics but it won't load them. One was really cute with my cat basking in the sun on the blanket. But, here's a pic of one I just started.

STITCHES

So here I am at Stitches East Convention and I am truly grateful to everyone who has sought out my patterns! I am almost completely sold out of Maude, Beatrix, Parthenope and Geyl. I think I underestimated the demand a bit. It really seemed like I had enough patterns but I am starting to doubt that entirely. I am trying to reserve enough for when Knitty D and the City are in our booth on Sunday (at 11:00 by the way!). I know I owe them both mad patterns!

And by the by, my love to Keith from DC who came to the booth (310-312, by the way) to buy a copy of each of my patterns! Kisses to you, my friend!

PS--I think they put drugs in the Socks that Rock, I now have a problem and was so convinced that it was somehow overrated. How wrong I was. I don't think I'm getting anything at Stitches except for a ridiculous amount of Black Bunny Fibers and Socks that Rock. The baby hoodie that Ed knit out of the Black Bunny Bulky makes me need to have even more yarn, and I really thought that when the yarn had it's own bedroom that I maybe had enough. I was horribly mistaken.