The summer heat has finally broken and it is starting to cool off. Air conditioners off, windows open. Here is some more evidence that fall is finally here.

My confederate rose is starting to bloom. It is the last thing that blooms at my house. The spectacular blooms are definitely worth the wait. I think I will root a couple more for other places in my yard.

My friend has tons of these lovely ripe pears on her tree. She let me pick some for canning.

I used part of pears to can 14 pints of yummy pear butter. Found a great recipe that uses the crock pot. I am beginning to wonder how I managed to cook without the crock pot.

The cooler weather has had me in a serious knitting mood. This is a good thing since we are entering the holiday knitting season. So for the next two months I am going to be working on WIPs and holiday knitting.

My latest completed project is another copy of Raindrops on Roses.

With the help of my wonderful test knitters, I have finally gotten the pattern completed.
It is available now as a Ravelry download.
Later this week I will have hard copies available through my Etsy store.

Now to tie up a few loose ends. I forgot to announce the winner for my blog contest for the Ravelympics. Since I am feeling generous today I have chosen two winners with the help of SmallFry. I had him choose my random numbers. The winners are kadezmom and Tabitha (not me but the other Tabitha). If you will send your email address to tabitha AT tabithasheart DOT com (substitute symbols for the uppercase words and delete the spaces), I will email you a copy of the pattern in pdf format. If you prefer a hard copy to a pdf file, send me your snail address instead. I have discovered that the sweater pattern is going to take a while to get it into usable format because it was sized for my oddly shaped body. I will send that one when I have it completed. Thank you all for sharing your recipes.

To get myself in gear for holiday knitting, I joined the fun at the Carefree Holiday-or-not KAL. They are having a number of contest. If you sign up before October 1st, you are eligible for the welcome prize drawing. If you tell them you found out about the KAL from me, we both get our names entered a second time. Information on the welcome prize drawing is here. Did I mention that the prizes are Crystal Palace yarns. So come on and join us for the fun.