Repurposed

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This may be one my best ahas. I made a pair of mittens a few years ago while on Seguin.

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They were a problem from the get go. They were different lengths and one thumb was in the wrong place. I wore them for a couple of years but decided it was time to find them a new home. I had them in the back of my car and drove around with them for a few weeks before inspiration struck.

I brought them back home, cut the palms off both, cut the wristbands open and sewed them together into one band. This is what steeking is all about – cutting up your knitwear with abandon- or with caution, depending on how much you love the item coming under the blade. I didn’t even stitch the raw edges because they were going to be sewn in a seam.

I still needed a top for the hat. I cut open the palms in the middle and preserved the side decreases. I discarded the thumbs, sewed the opened palms together, then sewed them onto the band and voila!

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My knitwear finds a new use.

Center of my universe

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I learned something new about my 360 photo app today. I was reading leann cole’s blog where she provided a tutorial of how to use photo editing software to make a sphere image.

I remembered seeing something like that in the photo app.

Indeed I did and turned this

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Into this with merely a screen tap.

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My home is the center of my universe!

Nice view from the top

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We had a bonus day today and took a hike. The temperature was in the 50’s. The only problem was I dawdled leaving the house and we didn’t get to the trailhead until 12:30. In all fairness to me, we were waiting for the clouds to clear because we wanted a view. We had a beautiful view.

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We walked the new trail to Jay Mountain and it was great. It is unlike many here, which are basically up stream beds. This was a walk in the woods, pine needles, fallen leaves and a little mud which I managed to slither down. Just the way I like it – the trail not the mud.

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I have to confess, however, that at some point I felt as if I was on a death march. We started late and the day is short; sunset at 4:15. Early into the hike, I realized I didn’t have my headlamp and my trusty guide wasn’t sure he had one either. So I picked up the pace and kept at it. Well he did have one and we made it back with time to spare.

A low pressure system was moving in from the south and the wind nearly knocked me over. But I found a nice spot to sit and scarf down my pb&j sandwich before we headed back.

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A good time was had by all.

The Polar Express passed by

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I tore myself away from my weaving at dusk (3:30 pm!!) to go to the farm to pick up our share and then to see the Holiday train pull into town.

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It’s Canadian Pacific’s annual tradition and, even though the temperature was 19 F, we bundled up with our cans of food for the food pantry and waited with all the kids for the train to arrive. I have to admit, I was pretty excited when I heard the whistle down the tracks.
Here’s a panoramic view of the train in the station. Pretty exciting. Santa came by and handed out candy canes. Surely an event not to be missed.

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Words get the best of me

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Not spoken or written words – the game, Words with friends. As I write this, I have 6 games in progress. Several just get a word a day.

It’s sort of like Scrabble but its not. Nonsense words are accepted. There’s no opportunity to challenge an opponent’s move; if the computer doesn’t like it, they can’t play it. And the computer likes crazy words – luv, bens, jape, om, bo. These are desperate times. Z and Q words remain limited.

I’m sure this game leads to corporate waste because I see a few moves made during working hours. It’s a nice way to stay connected but I don’t want it to interfere with baking

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bread making

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cooking

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The first photo is the most amazing nutmeg and black pepper popovers from Bon Appetit magazine.
They went perfectly with short ribs cooked in the crockpot and kale and leeks. Hoo boy that was good!

Ship on a bottle

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We finally wrapped up the boat last week. Well, Tim did while I walked around muttering to myself and him. It was a fairly frustrating day but the boat didn’t mind. Tim rescued our olive oil from the galley.

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I thought one of the benefits of a monounsaturated oil was it remained liquid. Not so at below freezing temperatures, apparently.

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We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and all that train travel came in handy. Actually I spent more time than usual repairing errors while I knit on the train but it kept me occupied.

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Yesterday I began the task of working off the turkey and fixings by taking a walk and working on the wood pile. Nice to be home.

Bonus Fall Day

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The weather was perfect yesterday and since I didn’t have to cook, we went for a walk in the woods.

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Icicles hung from the shady side of rocks but we hiked without jackets.

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It was a short walk. We probably spent as much time at the summit as it took us to get there. I have a new panorama app, 360, and played around with it. Here’s a conventional pic,

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And a self portrait

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Here’s the link to my panoramic view

For an interior shot, here’s my house
Now I’m off to knit!

Sympathy Labor

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I am lucky to be heading out for Thanksgiving. As much as I love having the holiday at home, I live too far away for most of my family to travel here. So I will spend most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday knitting while I ride the trains for at least five hours every day. May as well look at the bright side; there could be delays, which would allow me even more knitting time. Plus there will be family and food at the end of those tunnels.

Here’s what I will be working on.

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I am modifying Alice Starmore’s St. Brigid. It may be sacreligous but it was too big and boxy as written. I’m using Cascade Heather on 5’s, eliminated the first chart and using a set in saddle shoulder. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m cooking in sympathy with all Thanksgiving hosts. I’m putting up more farm goodies. I have brussel sprouts to feed an army until the cows come home. And the brussel sprouts are making more brussel sprouts right before my eyes!

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Next I’m blanching three types of winter squash – acorn, delicato and butternut. The delicato is amazingly sweet. So sweet I put them in my pancakes. (Don’t tell Tim)!

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The finished product.

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Strings and strings

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I worked on an overshot pattern I had on my floor loom for as long as I could tolerate it and then decided it was time for something else. Since I still had a lot of yarn warped, I decided to rethread it. It went easily but I made a bunch of mistakes in an 8″ warp!

Two threads were in the wrong heddles and I couldn’t just slide the right ones over because the area was closed in by threads. I needed to insert a new heddle and I remembered reading about string heddles. So I improvised and made a couple and saved the day – or at least the hour.

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They work quite well and now I’m off weaving some huck lace from Judith Davison’s book of patterns.

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There’s still a mistake, which is way more obvious in the photo than in real life but I couldn’t figure out, so it remains and becomes a design element.

My Ashford reed holder, double weave wall hanging is progressing slowly but nicely. It’s probably a good thing the lower layer will be against the wall.

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I got a chance to use my yarn swift and nostespinne and wound a few balls of cascade 220 to begin Alice Starmore’s St. Brigid. I went down a needle size and eliminated the first chart to make a more fitted sweater.

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At this point, I’m very proud of the ball of yarn. I’m not sure if the sweater will be done by Christmas but certainly by winter’s end.

Who turned off the color?

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There was a definite chill in the air this morning with ice on the windows. Although it was clear, it was as if someone had sucked all the color out of the landscape and replaced it with grey scale.

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I put my snow tires on just in time. I guess we won’t see any more Monarch butterflies on the milkweed.

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Hopefully the cluster flies will go to sleep for the season-or better yet migrate south where it is always warm. Cluster flies are new to me since I moved north. I should have been wary when the person who built and sold us our house had a handout. The good news is they don’t spread disease. The bad news is they swarm inside the house on sunny, cool days. They play dead, or are just sleeping, when you scoop them into a dustpan and then miraculously reawaken and fly away just when you thought you had them. Now I only use a DustBuster and put a sock in it.