I’m coordinated

February 5, 2014 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

While on or off the slopes. I finished my Malabrigo mittens to match my upside down, tumbling block hat.

Tres chic. Very warm and soft. Now I’m thinking of using up all my soft scraps in stranded hats and gloves. Worsted weight knits up so quickly. Only 42 stitches around for the mittens!

The winter weather is finally turning in my favor. By that I mean, we have a decent snow cover and I have a chance to use my season ski pass. I admit it. I’m a princess. I enjoy skiing midweek, early (snowboarders are either still asleep or in school and I won’t fear them scraping behind me at breakneck speed on the hill); when there’s enough snow covering crust or ice so I don’t hear myself scraping down the slope, and when the temperature is at least a balmy twenty degrees. It’s a lot easier keeping warm these days and not because I’ve switched to anything high tech. As a teen, I skied in cotton(!) thermal underwear, probably polyester or cotton socks, leather mittens and often went hatless so my hair could flow in the breeze. May have looked cute, but I froze my tuchas off!

Now I wear wool from head to toe and am warm as a sheep.

On a final note, my stunning red bathing suit was a smashing success. Looked stylish and felt great, while I continue to be the worst, but most improved, swimmer in the pool. And you can bet I am the only one in a homemade bathing suit.

No idle hands here

February 2, 2014 / one2travelfar / 1 Comment

I seem to have a lot more time now that I am no longer running a cat hospice. Sad but true. I wallowed for a day, maybe it was just a cold coming on, then got back to work.

Who wouldn’t be cheered up by three little fair isle hats knit for my friend’s daughters?

I played around with twined braids, stranded colorwork and thoroughly enjoyed the design process. I was surprised to find how well small fair isle motifs work up in worsted weight – and fast too.

Then I decided to finally knit something for me again. It’s a hat made with combination of tumbling blocks stranded and twined knitting made in super soft, smooshy Malabrigo worsted yarn.

The optical illusion didn’t really work though. The shadows seem off, I think I have to swap out my lights and darks. I tried flipping it upside down and they still don’t really look like blocks. But the stranded color work keeps it warm and even pretty on the inside as well.

The yarn was so soft, I had some leftover and I’m tired of my old mittens so I designed a non-delusional mitten to match, with the palm lined in alpaca. Luscious.

Conditions have been good for skiing, skating and playing indoors. I finally tried a no-knead bread recipe. It couldn’t have been easier and made a country style, hard crust bread, sturdy enough for sandwiches. I had to stir it once and fold it once! Hoo boy. I highly recommend it for a day when you are hanging around the house.

My digital VHS movie conversion was a huge success. I laughed, I cried, while watching them all. Plus I found inspiration. Tim’s been looking for comfortable skates, since the ice is so good this year, to no avail. Then I saw a movie with my brother at 4 or 5, at Christmas, wearing an army helmet and strap on skates, skating around the basement. So I looked up strap on skates for adults and they exist! There are two types, shown here. One can be latched onto any hiking boot and the other uses cross country ski bindings. Just like Hans Brinker. He ordered a set of the cross country ski type. I just have to find him an army helmet.

A tribute to my feline friend, Shirley

January 26, 2014 / one2travelfar / 7 Comments

Or as Tim likes to say, you can call me Shirley, just don’t call me chubsy-ubsy. She was a member of the family for 18 years, really a lifetime, as evidenced by how my kids have grown since she arrived.

Chelsea and Shirley, 1996

She outlived many companions. Her sister, Oreo, was lost in the woods years ago.

Shirley and Oreo

She survived an encounter with a moving car,in the 1990’s, with perhaps a little loss of mental capacity but as the vet said, “It’s not like she has to go to work. She just has to find her food and litter box”. And she did.

She (and her adopted brother, Loki) lived aboard our catamaran and held up in all weather conditions. When the weather was bad, they crawled into their bunk and slept. At night, we would hear them scurrying along the deck and waited for the dreaded splash. It never happened.

Shirley on watch on Water Lily

Both cats traveled with us to several lighthouse caretaking gigs, until Loki resisted travel.

Shirley and Loki on Seguin

Shirley, Seguin

Shirley, Baker’s Island

Shirley, whiffle ball outfielder

She loved all sorts of knitwear and projects and was a frequent model.

She enjoyed a drink now and then, bird watching and squirrel hunting.

And relaxing in front of the fireplace.

She purred until the end, lying on one of her favorite scarves. She’s been my companion, child surrogate, travel buddy, knitwear tester and will be sorely missed.

Travels with a wayward sailor

January 25, 2014 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

We made it to and fro the cabin in the woods, even though the thermometer dipped below minus 26 Fahrenheit. Tim was dressed as a lost sailor. He loves his foul weather gear and has always worn it in the cold weather: Henry Lloyd red jacket and black overall bottoms. This year he stepped it up a notch. The joy of winter camping (to me especially) is you don’t have to carry all your gear (warm clothes, good food and wine). One (Tim) can haul it in on a sled. I held up the rear on the downhills so it didn’t careen into Tim’s ankles. We used a little plastic sled and had all our gear in an old sail bag. Hence the wayward sailor.

To our dismay, we arrived to a frigid cabin, the temperature inside was below 0. As soon as we spilled a little water, it froze solid.

The gas was off, the pilot light was out and we had to get it going before we froze or it got too dark. And we did. Within a mere five hours, the temperature inside rose to a balmy 50 degrees and remained that temperature throughout the rest of our stay. We were cozy. More importantly, my hands warmed up enough to knit.

Oh yes, and the winter 46’ers hiked a mountain while I remained busy near the homestead.

We ate like royalty and had wine to accompany our meals. I went a little crazy with my seal a meal before we left and had beef stroganoff, sour cream, maple syrup, mayo, and even little salt and pepper packets. I’ll definitely do that again. I was able to reheat the meal in the bag and made clean up (with water from the ice covered river) a cinch.

It was even easy to clean up bacon grease. Here’s what happened to it in sub-zero temperature.

There is nothing as peaceful as the woods in winter. We saw huge ice crystals on the walk in (foreshadowing the cabin) and a polar iridescent cloud on the walk out.

I’m looking forward to doing this again next year and am confident we will be warm.

More hot water please

January 22, 2014 / one2travelfar / 1 Comment

I must be nuts. I am heading into the woods tomorrow with Tim and friends. We ‘re staying at a back country cabin close(r) to a peak they want to climb. The cabin is 3.5 miles in, which shaves 7 miles off the round trip and breaks it up. Sounds like a great plan, right. Well look at this weather report.

High temperature of -2! Low of -23 f!!! We ‘re talking outhouse and haul water from the river. There ‘s purportedly a propane heater but I wonder if it will that keep up with this cold. Time will tell.

I’m prepared. I ‘m bringing hot chocolate and lots of wool; to wear and knit. I ‘m working on several fair isle hats for three young girls. Here ‘s my twisted braid beginning.

I warmed up today by cross country skiing . I saw home from a different perspective.

So warm and cozy looking. Why would I ever leave?

I’m no Barbie

January 15, 2014 / one2travelfar / 3 Comments

No one should be. I know this is old news, but someone figured she’d be 5’9″‘ with a 19″ waist, 35″ bust and feet so small she’d have to walk on all fours.
Barbie’s dimensions

I’m not your average, off the rack size either. Let’s just say my “core” is in the middle of a pear. There’s often a compromise in fit with dresses, coats and bathing suits. I may have the last one licked.

Sometime before the holiday, I went to a sale at a clothing maker’s house. She had a couple of yards of sparkly red swimsuit material and a pattern she said was easy and had good results. Now that my initial baby knitting and weaving is done, it was time for a project for me. One designed for me right from the beginning and not because a potential gift was flawed. The pattern is an old one from Stretch and Sew. It was easy to customize for me: small on top, not so small on bottom. It was a cinch. And it fits like a glove! Now to test it in the pool. I may still be the slowest but I bet I’m the only one in a home made bathing suit!

Someone boil water

January 13, 2014 / one2travelfar / 6 Comments

We got a call Friday night that our first grandchild was on the way. By Saturday morning he was here. Everyone is doing fine.
He’s cute as a button.

In old movies, labor was a time to boil water and cut up sheets. In modern times, I thought about feeding the new family when they returned home from the hospital. I whipped up lasagna (sort of; homemade noodles, however, chile comprised the meat sauce), two small pans of Mac and cheese (Barefoot Contessa version), curried apple-butternut squash soup and brownies. And off we went.

I had already finished the rainbow plaid baby blanket but didn’t get the elastic for the wool soaker until the day of labor, which was almost three weeks before the due date. My baby bunting still has a couple of days before completion.

I managed to soak the soaker in a lanolin waterproofing solution before we left and delivered it, slightly damp. We spent the weekend visiting the new family, holding the precious bundle and dressing greyhounds for walks in the North Country, with 8 booties in total and two jackets. And smiling from ear to ear.

Making lemonade

January 6, 2014 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

Thinking of what to do with that truncated blanket. I thought about a sleeping bag but don’t think it’s PC any more.

Instead, I may make a “sleep sack”. Sort of like a sleeping bag and a jumper combined. I guess that way the material is guaranteed to stay away from the face. I’m thinking of something like this but in wool. I have some blue wool material and thinsulate for the upper body and could attach it to the blanket bottom. We’ll see.

I got my vintage Viking sewing machine today and almost burnt the house down. Not really but the pedal definitely overheated and the machine was revving like a race car. It looks like part of a ceramic (I hope) resistor(?) broke off and heat was being dissipated. I fixed it with some electrical tape and it’s back to normal. Just a reminder to watch these vintage electrical items. I never leave them plugged in when I am not using them. I’ll also treat the pedal very gingerly.

I also learned that just because I can quilt, doesn’t mean I can sew. I made the simplest and cutest baby sundress today, reversible with snaps! But I had to cut it out twice, because although I lined up with the fabric grain correctly, the little pattern was upside down. Not something you really think about when quilting
.

I flipped everything around to get the flowers right side up, but still made the little bloomers upside down.

Since I anticipate making lots of baby items I the upcoming years, I invested in a snap installer. Easy peasy and it allowed the little sundress to be completely reversible.

I cut apart the rainbow blankets and tied fringe for the larger one. Looks like it’s time to hit the loom again.

Media handoff

January 5, 2014 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

Tim hiked a High Peak today and I was left home alone. It’s a good thing because it was cold outside and I had plenty to do. I wanted to finish my two rainbow blankets. Naturally there’s a problem. First I didn’t have enough yarn to keep weaving and took a trip to the not big city (mostly small haven) 45 minutes a way and bought one skein of eight colors to finish my project. Oops. So much for my weaving calculations. Then I became so enthusiastic about the first blanket, I didn’t leave enough warp for the second blanket. So the first blanket is 46 or 48 inches long and the second is 21″. Good for a newborn baby for a few days. I now have to bind it to make it. They are beautiful though. One is a twill and the other is plain weave.

While I wove, I had another project to keep me busy (in addition to keep the wood stove going). I am converting my VHS tapes to digital format. To do it, I bought a video converter, the Diamond One Touch.
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After working through a couple of kinks, it worked great. I plugged RCA wires into the VHS player and connected to Tim’s computer with a USB. Not exactly one touch, but close to it. I had a couple of glitches. Tim’s computer kept not quite going to sleep, but would lock down despite power settings, which said never sleep. After a search, I found the solutions. I had to disable the setting which said, on resume, display the unlock screen. Voila. I no longer had to sit at the computer swiping the touch pad every five minutes. There was initially some terrible audio static, which went away, perhaps because I moved the VHS and computer apart.

I had a chance to watch my old family videos in the process. First let me say I have the absolute cutest and sweetest kids in the world. Just sayin’. We were mostly a Christmas, birthday and sports video family. I learned a few things I the process. My kids got way too much stuff for Christmas, or I let them down big time this year with only a white elephant exchange. Audio recording should not be on during football games. I have a 90 minute graduation film, bought from the school, with about 10 minutes of footage I really want to see. My son’s swimming coach critique gave me a few pointers I may incorporate.

What really struck me though, was the responsibility I have to my family. At some point, my father converted all his old 8mm tapes affectionately known as the Lynne Bahlkow story, to VHS and gave the tapes to his three kids. As the oldest, I had the most footage by far. My younger sister was a newborn, next she graduated from high school and then became a parent herself. Now it’s my job to get the VHS to a format that my kids can use and look at in the future and then ultimately convert to the next generation to keep our family film history alive. I’m going with MPEG 4 for now.

New beginnings

January 2, 2014 / one2travelfar / Leave a comment

Ring in the New Year
The new year erases the slate of 2013 and we get to begin afresh. What a perfect day to start a few new projects, the first of 2014.

I’m experimenting with wool soakers: garments to wear over cloth diapers since we’re having a green grandson (not a Martian, just environmentally friendly). My first attempt is a felted design. I like this idea because I can ultimately cut the felted material to fit the pattern. I may attach it with snaps or buttons, not sure. My new snap arrived today since I figure I’ll be making bibs and things which need snaps. They better, I have hundreds.

I knit a duck on the back, which looks mildly creepy. We’ll see how it goes once the elastic legs and snaps are added. I’ve even purchased liquid lanolin to treat the fabric to make it water (and who knows what else) proof.

Next up is a rainbow woven blanket. Two actually but I miscalculated and have to pick up more yarn to make a checkerboard pattern. Setting up the loom made me think of all the hope and dreams associated with a new project. With the yarn laid out artfully along the loom, you forget about the possibility of crossed or broken threads, uneven warps or other problems that may sneak up along the way.

We’ve had a bit of snow over the ice and cold, sub-zero weather. Tim wanted to test the cabin’s mettle so we spent the night in it when the thermometer dropped to -8 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a balmy 30 degrees on the main floor but toasty and warm in my sleeping bag in the loft. I hardly stirred while Tim kept the wood stove stoked all night.

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Island and North Country Life

With fiber, felines and fotos

I’m coordinated

No idle hands here

A tribute to my feline friend, Shirley

Travels with a wayward sailor

More hot water please

I’m no Barbie

Someone boil water

Making lemonade

Media handoff

New beginnings

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