I passed my board recertification exam with flying colors and my thoughts turned to the food list. I prepared it today, heard back from the market, and we are good to go.
Here it is.
I’m having trouble with the link to Google Drive. It seems to work if you download the document. Here is the butcher order on Google drive. Did I forget anything?
Now I’m winding 3000 yards of merino cobweb yarn into balls so I can knit a shawl so fine it will slip through a wedding ring.
My all time, favorite expression. It beats “don’t get your panties in a bunch”, hands down.
Plans are under way. I worked my last day, took a board certification exam and all eyes are turned to Australia.
Before we go, however, I’ve been compulsively tackling projects.
I knit my own pair of knickers on the knitting machine. It took about six hours (including ripping out and redoing) and I love them. I used wool sock yarn and plan to wear them as one of several layers, tomorrow, when we will watch the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival parade in temperatures below zero.
Tim gave me an inkle loom for Christmas,
We’re (thinking about) preparing for our next caretaker adventure, back to Deal Island, Tasmania. I’m glad I read this Wikipedia articleWe will be on the island during their fall, March-June, and it may not be as cold as I expected. It’s tempered by the sea and 40 mph winds that frequently buffet the island.
We’re definitely going but are a little lax in our preparations at this point. Qantas tells me there are about 40 days until we travel. I AM winding down at work, have arranged for Loki’s cat sitting and learned there’s no longer a butcher where we shopped in 2010. I kept my shopping list from last time. It’s an important list because we bring all our food for 3 months with us. No shopping in between. I’ll try to arrange for the bulk of my list by email with the market on Flinders Island, our staging point.
So my mind turns to food preparation. Last time, I kept a blog called 300 meals on a deserted island and will probably do the same again this time. It helps me remain creative with my food when I know every meal will have a photo shoot.
Here’s last night’s apple pie on the mainland of NY.
Or for me it’s really play, play, play.
I had several days to work with my knitting machine. I made the transition from thin acrylic yarn on cones ( where did I get this anyway? I would never knit with it) to wool in my stash, And I’m off!
Plus another knitter in the machine knitting universe sent me a spare part I needed. So I tried my panda hat.
It’s a pain to knit, by hand or on the machine, because a lot of it has a 3rd color on some of the rows. It’s a little clearer by hand but I have to knit the white backwards every other row.
Next time, I’ll add the white at the end with a duplicate stitch. I’m timing myself now to see if the machine actually saves time because fair isle is a little fiddly. Just like John Henry, and as Tim says, we know how that worked out.
Then on to baby things. The little tike needed a pair of mittens. Done up in no time.
The question is, “Does he need thumbs?” I opted for no.
But he does need leggings. I modified these from an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern, added short rows so the back is higher than the front to accomodate his diaper bulge, but they still may be low risers.
On the weaving front, I measured 480 threads, 7 yards long, to tie onto the warp I used for beautiful towels. The pattern was complex so I thought I’d save time by tying the new ends onto the old. But..with one misstep, the old warp literally flew off the loom and I have to start from scratch again. ; (
I’m dragging myself up the learning curve on my knitting machine. Plenty of opportunities to learn with all the mistakes I have made.
I did make a hat in a fine gauge yarn that is basically an adult version of the hats worn on newborns in the hospital. I may still have my kids’ old ones. Here’s mine.
I practiced and practiced and wasted lots of yarn. Luckily, I’m known locally as a fiber enthusiast (nut) and receive yarn when people destash. No loss.
My colorwork kept having problems but I finally figured out why. I had jury -rigged a yarn feeder from a bic pen cap because only one of two was included with the machine. This was creating just enough drag to botch up the tension and cause minor disasters. I put a request out to the machine knitting world and a new feeder is in the mail to me.
Once I relegated myself to only one feeder, things came together.
By jove, I think I’ve got it!
On an old halyard line and tied to our loft railing. And it worked. The line was lowered to loot the stockings then raised again out of our way. I may store the stockings on the line so they are ready for next year.
We celebrated early, so everyone could be together, and had a blast. Early, meant I had to finish projects by mid-December, and as a true procrastinator, things were down to the wire. I spent some late nights at the loom.
I finished weaving 6 towels (one for me) and never took pictures of them finished. Mine was a sampler and has all the different weave patterns. It’s also a little dirty because it is in use.
I made pin cushions for my quilting buddies with woven fabric I had saved.
The cloth is stretched over a little embroidery hoop, stuffed then glued on a base.
I ended up making three pairs of (to be) felted clogs.
We have a variation on a white elephant exchange with my hand made goodies. I wrap 8 hand made items and then people open and either keep or exchange them. The sock loop rugs were a hit.
I crocheted a fox hat/cowl and made a little panda hat but never photographed it.
Somewhere along the way, I got a Passap single bed knitting machine and now all is lost. I can’t even knit a hat!
It’s not officially Winter yet but we got almost two feet of snow so I’ll call that winter. I cut my trail in the woods next door. I love the first ski of the season when I have to knock the snow off the trees to get them to rise back to the sky and make room for me. Now I can just ski in my tracks in the trail I broke.
Yesterday we skied a part of the Jackrabbit trail, which is a 24 mile trail in the backcountry. I took two face plants but since it was in 2 feet of snow, it was like falling on a pillow. And I managed to get up. The we had lunch at a lovely lodge, Cascade Ski center. The fire was huge, the snow was high and the oatmeal stout was on tap.
Now it’s back to work. I have a warp for towels on the loom. 
Why not? There’s still time until Christmas.
Which way did they go? They went that way!
Your browser does not support the video tag
I think they’re happy they missed Thanksgiving.
We spent a whirlwind week downstate, which culminated in my first born’s wedding. Fun and games.
Some traditions faltered. Since we would feast on Black Friday, we deferred Thanksgiving dinner. We had takeout Indian food on Thanksgiving. I found a new favorite drink, vodka and fresh grapefruit juice with a splash of cointreau, while I helped an old friend prepare arancini, which we ate for Thanksgiving lunch.
I can clean up from beard wearing knitter to proud mother of the groom pretty well.
I wore my handknit mohair cardigan in the church but it wasn’t long enough to cover me when the dress’ zipper, which ran from below my butt to my neck, separated!! I managed to get it back together but then it failed again right when I was getting up for the traditional mother-son dance. So over the course of the day I could be seen wearing various people’s jackets and sweaters. Ah the memories!
The wedding caused Tim to look up our vows. I couldn’t have said it better.
” Do you, Tim, take Lynne to be no other than herself? Loving what you know of her, trusting what you don’t yet know, with respect for her integrity, and faith in her abiding love for you, through all your years, and in all that life may bring you, do you accept her as your wife?
[I do.]
Inasmuch as Lynne and Tim have grown in knowledge and love of one another, because they have agreed in their desire to continue in life together, seeking an ever richer, deepening relationship, and because they have pledged themselves to meet sorrow and joy together, we rejoice to recognize them as husband and wife.”
Ahh, true love.
It’s true. I occasionally buy lottery scratch off cards and have won as much as a new card…and so on. I received a contest offer in my inbox today, I couldn’t resist. Halcyon Yarn is offering the chance to win your “wishlist”.
I think I need an inkle loom, my home grown dyes didn’t work, and, since I have been a Seguin Island caretaker for 5 years! I “need” to weave the placemats they designed for the catalog they shot on the Island when I wasn’t there!!!
So, here ‘s my wishlist I share with you.
I encourage you to enter too, even though that puts you in direct competition with me. What the heck, someone ought to win.
Until then, I’ve been knitting, weaving and even spinning and oh yes, my son got married and had a gala event!
These two hats headed off to my daughter yesterday for two friends who requested an orange bearded hat and a black hat with electric. I think I met the requirements.
For some reason, I had fur yarn and knit the Rather Fun Bearded Hat with a crocheted hat, Chunky Men’s Hat, both of which were free, fun patterns. The other is a variation of Wurm.
I still have yards of warp on my table loom and have been playing with a Swedish weave structure called Krokbragd. I was unimpressed initially until I realized my pattern was actually on the reverse side.
Island and North Country Life 