Don’t surround yourself with yourself

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move on back two squares.  We watched a documentary about Bobby Fischer last night and it revealed how devastating mental illness can be.  World champion chess player ends up as a raving, psychotic, paranoid anti-semite/american who actually cheered on 9/11.  Horrible.  The soundtrack included this old song by Yes.  I could identify and sing most of the words to the song but couldn’t correctly identify the artist.  I realize this is largely due to my switch to digital media and this is a group whose works I only had on vinyl and then they slipped away.  To repurchase or not?  That is the question.

I am lucky enough to only work one day a week and that day happens to be Monday.  So I  experience the somewhat universal “oh it’s Sunday and I have to get ready for work tomorrow” but by Monday evening it’s Friday and the weekend begins! I think I may be living the theory of relativity, time dilation or the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction.  My week’s relative length may change.  Does it pass more quickly or more slowly?  Am I aging more quickly, like the brother who is left on the ground, while his brother circles the earth (or more slowly)?  Or do I just have too much time on my hands?

Move on back two squares.

Works in process

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I am a work in process.  I have started physical therapy, actually put a sneaker on my foot and used an exercise machine!  Yeah.  I was given permission to throw my crutches in the Lake and am walking about on my own two feet, with the aid of a walking cast.  This goes in the Lake in three weeks.  My mobility has enabled me to tackle and almost complete a myriad of projects and now I can cook and bake in the kitchen without the aid of a chair in the middle of the kitchen.  I am still not getting out too much due to the layer of ice over everything so all my recent adventures have taken place at home on the range.

On the knitting front, I am working on two Santa Cruz hoodies as an overdue gift for two young boys.  One is taking up a ton of yarn and I ran out of one color on the sleeve so did a sleeve-sleeve transfusion.  I used the yarn from the long sleeve as I ripped it out, to knit the short sleeve.  So while one shrunk, the other grew until they were even, then I had to add a stripe.  As soon as I finish them, I have given myself permission to begin work on a Aran sweater for my son.  He has approved the pattern and yarn and if I can stick to the pattern and knit the gauge, all should go well. (ha ha ha)

Circle of Loki

 

 

 

 

 

On the quilting front, I finished the cat quilt and Loki spends a lot of time sleeping on it curled into a tight ball.  Once that was finished, I tackled the machine quilting of my kaleidoscope quilt.  I had to   wrestle the queen size quilt through my sewing machine but now have only the borders left.  I devised a quilting pattern that avoids dragging the whole thing through the machine again.  I am having mild panic that the marker I am using – now like an artist’s paintbrush all over the quilt- won’t come out as easily as the manufacturer says it will.  Why do I always ignore the suggestion to try a test patch first?

 

 

Quilting

Weaving has had mixed results.  I was able to use my walking cast to work the treadles of the floor loom but felt a bit like Herman Munster.  So my twill scarves remain on it.  I have been weaving with my rigid heddle loom and am trying to master a table runner for my daughter.  The first was a disaster.  I used rayon, which looked so pretty and shiny, but didn’t stretch – at all – and wasn’t able to hide my weaving errors.  Now I am using recycled cotton and applying the lessons learned from the rayon disaster.

Weaving in progress

 

 

Baking is going well.  I used my new crumpet rings with great success, make sandwich rolls regularly, have found a source of rennet to continue making mozzarella cheese and think I may have perfected the art of bagels.  More about that later because it involves broiling, boiling and baking.

Crumpets

 

Rolls

Best seat in the house

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Rutland
Tim sang with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) this weekend in Burlington and Rutland, VT.  I was his VSO groupie  and traveled to both locations and enjoyed the performances.

I hobbled along Church Street in Burlington and shopped.  There’s a great cooking store, where I found crumpet rings. Today I’ll make a batch of crumpets, which I had stopped making due to the pain of making little tin foil rings.

I had to move my seat 3 times in the theater: first I was in the wrong row; then I offered my seat to a couple who had been split up and finally I found a nice settee behind the seats where I could stretch out and set my crutch against the wall.  During the first half of the performance I had to sit with my crutch propped between my legs where it could double as a chin rest.

I hit the jackpot in Rutland, though, and it rivals Andre’s plane seat.  Although I had to climb three flights of stairs, when I arrived at  the top of the theater, my seat had ample leg room and a spot to store my crutches, which freed my hands to knit.  What more could I ask for?  An elevator!

It’s about time

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Light green trees

Jay Mountain is snow capped but not the rest of the terrain. We’ve had a warm spell, which turned anything wet to ice, and more rain and sleet is expected tonight. I think the good snow will come when I am ready to ski again this season. Today’s outing was a trip to Lake Placid, where I had to make sure the road surfaces were fairly clean so I wouldn’t go flying –  crutches, walking cast and all. I had to go out because I needed more material to finish a quilt I started two days ago. That’s right, two days ago! And I think it will be done by tomorrow. This could be very bad. If I can make quilts faster, I will finish them sooner and will have to buy more fabric. Oh these addictions.

This is the first time I made a quilt with a “jelly roll” and it was amazing. Jelly roll strips are pieces of material which are precut. I sewed a few together, cut them into triangles and sewed them together again. I never knew! My last quilt, which isn’t finished yet, took five months to piece together. This one will be done tomorrow. It’s going to cover the back of the couch to protect it from the cats. I sewed it together as it was below, but then decided it needed to be long and narrow, so took away one row and made it longer – 2 x 6 blocks. I combined it with the backing and batting when I got home, did a “quick turn” and am almost done machine quilting it. The cats are very happy with it.

One day quilt

Almost finished

On my way to town, I was reminded of the stellar athletes who come from this area and give me a sense of pride. I pass the Olympic cross country ski trails, the luge and bobcat runs, the ski jumps and the Olympic Training Center. I would like to say I contributed to the American Luge team winning a silver medal in Germany this January. I would like to say it but it’s not exactly true. I had to reschedule my follow up visit with my surgeon who traveled with them as the team doctor.

I will have to climb this peak again when I recover. The first time, I made it almost to the top – but not quite. Next time.

Snow Cascade

Did I cut a steek or just steek?

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One major barrier I was reluctant to tackle in knitting was the concept of steeking.  To steek is to knit an item, then take a sharp scissor and cut the knit fabric (which may have taken months to create).  I had some practice when I cut an old sweater sleeve  for Shirley to make a cat coat.  But there was no risk there.  The sweater was already rejected by all who came in contact with it.

Why would one want to steek?  There are lots of times in knitting when it is easier to knit something in the round – in one big circle.  Fair Isle garments, with their colorful patterns, are knit in the round, which is fine for a hat or a pullover, but if you want a cardigan, or even sleeves in the pullover, it has to be cut.  In my case, I wanted to knit a cardigan with a striped yarn.  So I added a few extra stitches in the middle, knit the whole sweater in the round and then stitched two protective seams just off the middle and cut between them.   I fiddled around with adding a button band and sewing down the cut edges and voila, a cardigan knit in the round.

I’m off to cut up all my knit items.  Or to learn how to knit backwards.

 

Mementos

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Everything around me has meaning or memories.  That’s why I keep them.  China in the cabinet is from my aunts, grandparents and parents.  Although I don’t use the pieces often (mostly because I have inadvertently  juggled stemware while washing), I can remember using them when we were younger.  When I became single again as an adult, I chose to use my heirloom silver forks, knives etc., daily, and continue to do so.  Better than keeping them in a box stored away where they have to be polished before use on special occasions.

I have feathers and rocks, which used to be organized by where I collected them.  There were  Pacific and Atlantic collections.  Somehow over the years, and endless moves, they’ve become jumbled together into a couple of baskets but they still remind me of where I was when I found them.  I think I can still tell them apart if I had to.

Most of the handknit items I made for myself have distinct memories.  I have the Pi shawl,  started when I was near death in the Grand Canyon (well I felt like it anyway) and finished while we were living on our sailboat. I can still remember getting anchor mud on it when I went back to knitting it after I acted as a windlass and hauled the anchor off a muddy bottom.  I have at least two pair of socks, knit while caretaking Seguin Island in different seasons.  And a summer top and tee shirt as well.

Deal Island produced a cowl, headband, socks, vest, stuffed penguin and socks. Many of these items were knit from yarn I spun through the generosity of a fellow knitter I met in  Tasmania.

And now I have polished nails.  I traveled south to New York City last weekend for a reunion with some of my dearest friends from medical school.  We were celebrating a significant birthday for one of us and had a spa day.  I had a facial, where at least 20 creams were applied to my face in thirty minutes.  Or perhaps one cream was applied 20 times in thirty minutes.  Who could tell?  Once the first coat was applied, I had to keep my eyes closed.  I also had a manicure, which is a novelty for me.  Now I can look at my polished nails and remember good times with friends.

Home improvements

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Our rustic bench

I asked for a porch bench  to change my boots and Santa delivered.  He had his elves working in the garage and basement while I was incapacitated and couldn’t peek.  I heard chainsaws, hammers and smelled lots of varnish.  It’s perfect.  It’s very stable, even on crutches, and the right height.  Now I can change my salt covered, muddy boots outdoors and the other elves won’t have to wash the floor as much.

Our inner chill may be resolved.  We have a ceiling fan, which we keep on all winter with the blades rotating counter-clockwise.  This always seems counter-intuitive to me.  Hot air rises and I thought you would want to send it back down.  Using the trusty right hand rule, I can tell that counterclockwise means the force is heading up.  But by drawing it up, the warm air hits the ceiling and then slides back down the walls.  If you sit near the wall, you can feel the warm air pass by.  So, even though we turn the heater way down at night, we have kept the fan on the last couple of nights and we awaken to either none or much less ice on the inner windows.

We’ve had lovely weather, first some light snow, then it warmed up and rained and then the temperature plummeted and now most parking lots and driveways, including ours are sheer ice.  I’ve been using one micro-spike (mini crampon) on my good foot.  I haven’t seen any on the market for crutch tips but there’s another item to add to the inventory of the new store, specializing in items to make life with crutches easier.  Maybe I should call it, “Hopping to Happiness” or “Crutch Cache”.  It will include thermoses with handles, oversized mugs and bowls to reduce spillage, micro-spikes, an all purpose carry bag and a crutch holder to prevent them from crashing to the floor any time they are propped up.  Oh yes and the cast cozy!  Plus there will be an exercise tape for pre crutch training – upper body and good leg strengthening.  I can see the video now.[category adirondacks] [tags crutches, rustic furniture, bench, ice]

Iced tea

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It was so cold the other night, we awoke to ice on the inside of the windows! It’s the perfect storm of a propane fireplace heater, which creates moisture, a new, well insulated house and arctic temperatures. We’re trying different combinations to prevent it. I guess the easy answer would be to simply turn the heat way up but noooooo.

Inside Ice

To keep warm, I just keep brewing and drinking tea and photographing the pretty reflections.

Reflections on tea

I saw tracks outside and was convinced two snowshoe hares must have been exploring the field with a duck-footed hop. I don’t think we actually have snowshoe hares but it was a better thought than tracks of a bear awakened from its winter sleep. On closer inspection, Tim told me they were left by humans.

Tracking

The absence of electric wires continues to pay off.

Jay from inside

Brrrrrrrrrrr.

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Shirley's quilt

The temperature dropped to minus 11°F this morning, and in anticipation of the cold, I finally resumed work on my kaleidoscope quilt. It’s perfect for cold weather because most of it sits in my lap while I quilt.

 I ran into many obstacles yesterday.  I hate to give my sewing machine human qualities (too lazy to figure out how to spell anthro…morphise), but I think when it is left alone for an extended time she gets angry. And takes it out on me.  

When you start playing around with bobbin tension, you know you are in trouble.  I couldn’t get the needle in right, kept misthreading it and after a full day, had quilted one long seam.  But with all the attention and adjustments yesterday, today she’s purring like a kitten.

Shirley decided she didn’t want to wait for the finished quilt.

Snowed in

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Not exactly but it does make crutching more challenging. We had about six inches yesterday and expect the same today. It’s quite pretty but I’m disassociated from it since I won’t be able to play. Loki enjoyed sitting on the porch to watch it come down and Shirley sat by the fireplace or in my lap in her new sweater based upon a few design modifications from my daughter and her friend. Who knew that hairless cats like to wear sweaters?

Loki and the snow

This picture tells me Loki enjoys watching the snow but not walking in it and my windows need to be cleaned.

My latest cooking adventure was pasta. I happened to have some semolina flour, mixed it with white flour and a few eggs and voila! I don’t think I rolled it thin enough because it was pretty chewy and I wasn’t sure if I should refrigerate it or let it hang dry. I opted for drying because it made a prettier picture.

Rolled pasta

Pasta highway

Just hanging

Lastly, I am enjoying my adventures in tea and have a made a variety of the flavors. The strawberry lemonade is a mild, already sweetened lemonade and so pretty!

Strawberry lemonade