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

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.