Year: 2012

Small amusements

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I continue to repurpose the old handknit sweater. The body is in the process of becoming a cat cushion. Shirley, my little old lady cat, always seems to be cold so I decided to try to make a cat coat out of one of the sleeves for her. It fit handsomely. Unfortunately, I was reminded of why we couldn’t use little harnesses when they lived aboard our sailboat with us. Pressure on their neck or shoulders, I am not sure which, causes them to slink and fall over. While she looks pretty cool lying here, she didn’t look so cool when she toppled over when she tried to stand up. i tried just snugging it around her waste and still no good. But it provided an afternoon’s entertainment. And she was warm.

Warm, cool, Shirley

I received a sweet tea set from my daughter and have been brewing all sorts of teas: apple, strawberry, pineapple and blueberry and drinking them hot or cold. They taste good, are already sweet and are pretty to look at.

Teavana

My little aran sweater is taking as long as a full size one. I decided to make a flap on one shoulder with a button to prevent the old head squeeze. One and a half sleeves to go. This is getting me in shape to try some serious cable knitting. I have a full size adult one in mind and a blanket. I may not have enough time on the couch to accomplish all this.

Baby aran

Celebrating the Epiphany

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Today is the Three Kings Day (or the twelfth day of Christmas) and while I didn’t eat cake, I still received a gift. I am wearing my own sock! Due to a minor complication, my cute little candy cane cast was sawn off today and replaced with one that I can take off briefly ( I’ll be good, I’ll be good). This means I took a shower and put my own hand knit sock on my foot to cheer me up.

I had a lot of down time and managed to design a sweet little baby aran sweater. It’s coming along fine except the pointy circular needle I am using has poked a hole in my finger, which I manage to find time and time again. I found the cable patterns in Alice Starmore’s book of Aran knitting.

When life deals you lemons…

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Make lemonade. Or in my case, when the sweater you made your son six years ago is too big, it’s been felted and is still too big, repurpose it. The body of the sweater has become a cat bed, it just awaits some sort of pillow stuffing. I cut off the sleeves and lo and behold they make nice legwarmers, especially since it was 3 degrees F this morning.

Repurposed sleeve

In the case of the CSA,when the farm deals you kale, make kale chips. It’s our new, favorite snack food thanks to a suggestion from a friend. Rip it into little pieces, spray it with oil, salt it and roast it in a 400 F oven until crisp. Delish!

Baby sweater

And I needed to make a few baby sweaters and found some baby yarn in my stash.

Hopping along

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For those of you who have never needed crutches, I hope you stay that way. Whenever I meet someone who has already used them we are instantly bound by a common ground of resourcefulness. Everyone remembers how hard it is to carry a drink from one place to another. People have devised various bags and even carts to help them along. Ice is treacherous. I grow tired of being dependent so I am trying to do more and more on my own. I even went back to work yesterday for a day.

There’s an advantage to a small kitchen. I can cook by keeping a chair in the middle of the work area to rest ingredients or myself on, while I hop around using the counters on the perimeter as support. Oddly enough, I can’t clean up! So far I have tried two batches of mozzarella cheese, much easier than expected. The night nurse in the hospital shared his fascination with it and I found an easy recipe on the internet. Ingredients are simple: a gallon of milk; two teaspoons of citric acid; and a rennet tablet. You also need a thermometer and the whole process only takes about 90 minutes. Somehow both batches were eaten or used before I took a final picture, but the last step is magical. You heat and knead the lumpy mess a few times and it becomes silky, stretchy delicious mozzarella cheese. One gallon of milk makes about a softball size ball of cheese.

Mozzarella 1

Mozzarella 2

Mozzarella 2

My view from the house has improved because Tim’s project to remove the overhead wires was completed this week. The wires are down, we still have phone service and electricity and all went well. I have a video of a very cool piece of machinery yanking the pole out of the ground and may include it at some point.

Getting ready to take down the pole

Our unobstructed view of Jay Mountain today. I hope the birds don’t mind in the spring.

We continue to eat well and colorfully. A couple of days ago, I made a batch of mashed potatoes from blue potatoes from the farm. They were very an interesting shade of blue but not as creamy as the white ones.

Blue potatoes

Tonight I made a chicken pot pie entirely with farm ingredients. This is the way to eat.

Chicken pot pie

Pot pie minus one

I’m knitting and weaving and plan a big adventure tonight – I’m going to go downstairs for the first time in almost a month to be near the wood stove, my weaving and quilting. The temperature is going to go below 0 degrees F tonight and it should be cozy there. If it wasn’t for the kitchen, I might never come back upstairs.