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.

What some people will do for local beer

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By including this photo, I think I prove I have no pride. That’s me, after a slip on the ice, on the shoulders of my son. I even lost my cast cozy for a moment, phew!
We made it safely into the pub and up the flight of stairs with 3 turns, where we could enjoy a wide variety of locally brewed beer. I missed hitting my head on a swinging sign and 3 walls by an inch.
The walk back to the car was much easier for me (and my son since the car was a lot closer)!

Me being hauled into the pub

Holiday happenings

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We’ve had a dusting of snow most days and enjoyed the holidays with family and friends. Visitors boosted my recovery and I knit a toasty cast cozy in mohair to match my candy cane cast. I’m getting about fine on one level in the house. There’s been ice outdoors so yesterday my son carried me, fireman style, from the parking lot to the pub! It was quite a site, especially since we had to go up a flight of stairs.

Cast cozy

We built this sweet little gingerbread house but found the small colored candies to be lethal. Tim will need a little dental work after the holidays.

Delcious Gingerbread house

The exciting news of the day is the linemen have arrived to finalize the process of burying our power lines, which we began over two months ago. Might as well wait until its 17 degrees F outside to do it. Soon we’ll have unobstructed mountain views and hopefully ongoing electrical service.

Orange men

Cheering up

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go.  Especially since my everywhere includes the bedroom, where an amarylis is growing and the living dining area, where the tree is up and decorated and my little swirling candles and chimes are up.  Tim put the tree up and hung the lights then I tossed what I could from a relatively standing position.  I put together and cleaned my little angel chimes and am always amazed at how flimsy they are. Today I tried to find a replacement but apparently it’s difficult.  The original company went out of business when the market was flooded with cheap imitations from China and now supposedly the production has moved to Turkey, but I am dubious. They are very sweet because when the air heats up from the candle flames, the angels spin around and ring the brass bells.  I bought a much more substantial version this year from Germany made of wood.  But alas there’s no sound.  There are instead, choir angels who circle around a pipe organ and it is so authentic that the sheet music is actually a traditional carol.

We’re ahead of the game this year though because I went back and read what we were doing on the Winter Solstice last year.  We were on Deal Island and had just found our tree on a day when we also saw a double rainbow!  Then I started thinking about people we met last year and went to read about the Sydney – Hobart race, which begins on Boxing Day.  We met more racers from Victoria who participated in the Tassie Trio, and they many stopped by for a barbecue and good night’s sleep before heading home to Melbourne.

As an end note, sometime over the next couple of days, there will have been 20,000 page views of this blog!  Whodda thunk?

I finished my shopping and are waiting for final gifts to arrive.  Everything else has been wrapped and we are ready to celebrate.

I like caregiving and caretaking better than care receiving

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Why is that when you take care of people you are a giver but when you take care of islands and lighthouses you are a taker?  Maybe the answer lies in the question itself?  Anyway, I am tired of being a carereceiver.  I’ve been in a cast for a week and crutches are more limiting than I imagined.  First of all, I should have done upper body exercises in the months preceding the surgery to strengthen my arms for the real work of crutching.  And practice lots of deep knee bends on only one leg.  Surprisingly, my bad leg’s hamstrings hurt the first couple of days from raising my knee and carrying my foot around like a dead weight.

I get around on one level adequately but the real trick is eating!  Well not exactly eating but getting the food to where you would like to eat it.  We received casseroles from friends and neighbors but the real challenge is getting the food to the table.  I’ve managed to make tea in a thermos with a handle and get that to my perch but a plate of food is too tricky. So I either have to eat standing up in the kitchen or ask Tim to cater to me.  And unfortunately, I’m still like a two year old–I want to do it myself.

But I am being very productive.  I shipped off my mittens and a hat yesterday, finished a pair of clogs that I plan on letting the recipient felt and am now well into another hat, a pair of legwarmers and mittens and ordered wool for an Aran sweater for my son.  Can you say, “bouncing off the walls”?

Different couch, same guards

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Couch guardsI think they may be using me as an excuse to lay around on the couches. It works for me. Neither one has come close to my cast or foot. Very strange how they seem to know. Tim’s taking good care of me but also said he’s ready (after one day) to invest in  long term care insurance for me!

My knitting is progressing. I finished the lining for the Fiddlehead mittens in the hospital and the Pinstripe Slouch hat is well underway.

Fiddleheads

Pinstripe slouch hat