The Year Ends as well as The Christmas Knitting Project!

Today is the last day of the year 2011.  It is hard to believe the days have flown by so quickly.  The weather is rather nasty, and unsafe for driving, so I am enjoying a morning at home...though there is no milk in the house and I feel edgy thinking of getting through a weekend without milk...so a little later I hope the roads are better (no ice) so I can go out for milk.

Yesterday I finished the final part of The Christmas Knitting Project (which was actually a crochet project) and this morning boxed them up for shipping.  Janus told the girls on Christmas Day that their sweaters were imminent, so I will get them in the mail on Tuesday.

Lauren's Sweater with blossom buttons

Lauren's sweater (and Grace's white sweater) was knit with Caron's Simply Soft yarn on the Bond Incredible Sweater Machine though I knit up all the ribbings on all three sweaters by hand.  I learned a good deal while doing this. I hope the girls are not too shocked by the variety!

The next part of The Christmas Knitting Project was a blanket knit in three panels on the Bond ISM and seamed as I went along.  It was fairly simple and the learning curve on the "seam as you go" was pretty narrow.  I cast on 80 needles for each panel.  I had thought that I had lots of scraps of the Bartlettyarn that I purchased from Hilda Yates at her farm yarn sale over the years, but you can see the central panel has very few scraps after all.

A big concern of mine had been the roughness of the yarn, which was rather harsh on my hands as I handknit the garter stitch ribbing around the blanket but I threw the completed blanket (including weaving in the yarn ends!!!) into the washing machine on gentle cycle with warm wash and cold rinse, then into the dryer for a few minutes on gentle low-heat drying and the blanket turned out really soft and pleasant.  I hope it is about the right size to cover legs and lap while sitting on the living room couch.  We actually tried it out on our bed as an extra blanket the night is was finished. I thought it was great, but being 100% wool, Bob found it too warm and too heavy.

Intended for Janus.  Notice the nice seams.  I like the way they turned out.

Once the knit blanket was completed on Wednesday I took up the crocheted blanket project.  I needed to finish edging the Granny Rounds, having about 20 left to crochet, then I started sewing together the strips. I made 5 strips of 15 Granny Rounds and 4 strips of 14 Granny Rounds.  On Friday while Bob was gone to help at Ben's house with Jonathan and Owen,  I turned on "A Touch of Frost" on the Netflix TV screen and started crocheting the strips together.  It took most of the day but by the end of the 4th "Frost", I discovered that I had crocheted two 15s together! Argh-h-h!

To solve the problem I remembered that I still had a few of the Granny Rounds in the satchel downstairs so I brought up the satchel, chose some Granny Rounds and sewed them into place so the blanket was all 15 Granny Rounds long.  After one last round of single crochet around the outer edge I called it a day, wove in a few yarn ends then clipped off the rest and headed downstairs to do some actual housework, something that has not been seen in the house for two and a half weeks!

Granny Round blanket meant for Laura. 

By the time Bob got home I had swept the floor, brought in a cartload of wood from the woodpile, dealt with the sink vanity delivery man, given away the warm loaf of bread and gotten another loaf of bread risen (and cooked, too), emptied the table, scrubbed it, wiped it dry and then put on the horrible but new clear plastic tablecloth to protect it until we can get a glass covering made (I say this as if it is a done deal...having no idea at all of the cost of such a thing and how stable it might be...), and I even got three days of dishes washed (a real pain with our current set-up. I don't know why I wait until there is a tremendous pile to do...dumb...) and some really tasty "refrigerator" soup made.  When Bob asked about the soup, he thought I said "garbage" soup.  Some people may think so, but I thought is was really delicious.

Bulging box containing The Christmas Knitting Project 2011 ready to be shipped on Tuesday

Inside the box I threw the leftover yarn from the three sweaters and the Granny Round blanket.  Laura crochets beautifully and she may want to fill in the holes at the conjunction of each of the Rounds.  If I waited to send the box until I had completed that it would be the end of the next Millennium, I am sure!  I am not sure Laura will even want those pretty diamonds filled in, though. I thought they looked fine empty.

Happy New Year to All!  May your next year be healthy, happy, prosperous, and one of continued enlightenment and service, which will bring real joy.

Merry Christmas! and sweater update

It is a beautiful snowy Christmas morning here in Vermont.  We hope each of you finds peace and joy as you celebrate the birth of our dear Savior which happened so far away and long ago, but which is fresh and new each Christmas season.  With best wishes to you all!

As far as sweater update:  two sweaters are completely done and the smallest is only missing part of the ribbing and the buttons.  With good fortune it will be completed before bed tonight.  Then the blanket ribbings....

Here is a picture of the two completed 'new' sweaters (meant as Christmas gifts) and three other items that I never handed out then decided to hold until today:  a wool colorwork hat,  my first Bond sweater with flower buttons on the front, and a pair of requested armwarmers.

Hat, armwarmers, and button detail

Merry Christmas  and Happy New Year to All!

Sweater Number 1: Done!

At Thanksgiving Megan took some measurements from Grace, Anne, and Lauren so I could make them sweaters since we drew their name for Christmas.  What with one thing or another, I was not able to start knitting (on our Bond Incredible Sweater Machine) until last Monday.  I have finally put the last button on sweater number one.  I knitted them as as pullovers with 5 extra stitches at center front so I could do a steek to make them cardigans.

Here is a picture of the inside detail of the crocheted steek:

Here is the front of the sweater:

OK, so it is not fabulous, but I think it will work for a jacket/sweater for a while!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

The last few days have been quite busy in our house as in most other houses.  This year we are having bread bowls and soup for Thanksgiving dinner...a first, but a royal treat as we LOVE Alissa's soups and you cannot beat a good bread bowl.  We are trying the "Farmer Wheat" bread bowls this time (from Price Chopper).  Their artisan bread bowls are great.  We will see about this flavor!

Yesterday I made a Layered Toffee-Pumpkin Cheesecake which recipe I found either on "Our Best Bites" blog or "Mel's Kitchen Cafe" blog, or maybe another blog.  It sounds good, and it actually looks pretty good, too.  The only glitch in the system is that I did not have any ground ginger available...out in the garage in a box from the move in April...and no reasonable way to get it...so it will not have the same tang to the pumpkin part of the cheesecake.  Oh, well.

Pie crust was made and refrigerated yesterday.  This morning I was up at 5 to make the blueberry pie.  It is now cooked, but there was almost certainly not enough cornstarch in the recipe. I am likely to give up on blueberry pies, at least ones that are cooked in the crust. I did see a recipe that advocated par-baking the crust, cooking the filling, then putting the filling into the crust, topping with more crust and baking for a shortish period of time.  I didn't plan to do that so I did not save the recipe.  Bummer.

Yesterday I also made some very cute Oreo cookie/Peanut Butter cup/Whopper/Candy Corn turkeys for plate decorations for dinner.  They really are cute, even if the execution wasn't very good!  "Our Best Bites" has them perfectly executed.  I loved their Pilgrim hats, too, but didn't notice them until too late to make them for our local grandchildren.

In the meantime I have gotten out the Bond Incredible Sweater Machine and set it up in the addition to work on while Bob watches "24" and other blood-pressure-raising programs on NetFlix.  I had thought of making some simple sweaters for the grandchildren on the machine.  As a warmup I made a Christmas stocking in white for the temple.  The short row heels and toes on the Bond are likely to make me bald.  No lie!  They are a nightmare.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why the stitches drop off the needles.  Not every row, of course, but pretty often. I am getting better at re-seating them, but it is REALLY aggravating.

This is the first sock, knitting done and ready for sewing up, for the temple for people who have casts or need to wear their street shoes for some reason rather than white temple shoes.  The Matron asked if I would make some.  I will gladly make them.  More gladly after I get the short-row heels and toes together!

 At Halloween I found some cute mummies on "Our Best Bites", I think.  I thought they were so cute that the children would love them.  If I think of it, I will put some mustard eyes on them.  The top photo is after baking them.

Leg Warmers

Leah has sweet little legs which can get cold in winter so I knit up some leg warmers for her.  I could not find any legwarmer patterns handy so I made up my own.

Using Galway Chunky yarn and size 8 and size 13 needles.

Cast on 28 stitches with the size 8 needles.

Knit 2, purl 2 for about an inch.

Switch to size 13 needles and knit all rounds for 10 inches.

Knit 2, purl 2  for an inch, then bind off in rib.  If you think the little leg is too small to do the final rib using the size 13 needles, go down to a size 10.  For chubby legs, knit the knee ribbing with the size 13 needles.

Hopefully Leah will allow me to photograph her legs in the warmers, but that is not a foregone certainty.  She has a mind of her own at age 2-plus!

The Cat in the Hat hat

James is not yet two years old but he LOVES The Cat in the Hat, according to his parents.  Megan asked if I could knit him a Cat in the Hat hat.  Of course I thought I could, so immediately I went to the internet to find what The Cat in the Hat's hat looked like.  OK...red and white stripes with a white brim.  Finding a pattern for a toddler's sized hat was more of a challenge.  Eventually I found a website that had such a hat here.

That was not exactly what I had in mind so I looked a little farther.  I found this great website in Nova Scotia.  Since this hat was a nice sturdy hat, and the Seuss one was floppy, AND since this hat was meant for a child, AND MOREOVER since I had purchased a skein of red and a skein of white Galway yarn, the very yarn the Have A Yarn Shop used for their hat, this was an omen that I should make this hat and felt it.

On Saturday I spent about 20 minutes knitting up the main part of the hat on our Bond Incredible Sweater Machine.  So exciting to get all that knitting done in no time at all, and so much easier on my hands. I had sent for an upgraded carriage...the one that goes with the Ultimate Sweater Machine...which has a little outgrowth on the back so the row counter would work, and it really did work!  Made life so much easier.

On Saturday evening I knit the top of the hat according to the Samedi/Seuss pattern and finished the brim Sunday morning before Church.  Last night after a few long hours of errands which included picking up a Freecycled end table for the living room, I sat on the couch with Bob while he watched a harrowing episode of "24" (though they are ALL harrowing in my opinion.  My blood pressure can't take that show!) I mattress-stitched the seam and wove in the ends then put the hat into the washer with a small load of clothes.  I let it wash for about 8 minutes, found it was felting nicely but was not done, so I set it back to the beginning of the wash cycle...14 minutes, and just let it go.  Since I was still awake when the washer turned off I retrieved the hat and began pulling it into shape.  This morning it was still not dry so I pulled and pulled some more then found a container that used to hold mozzarella balls from the Coop Food Store to use to shape the hat.

Here is a picture of the hat as it finishes drying:

I hope James will like it.  I hope it will fit him.  After showing it to Elsie and Sharon I will mail it off to James.  I hope I can find a good box to ship it in.

Well, the plumber/heater men are here to install the baseboard hot water heaters in our bedroom and upstairs.  If I was the type to be humiliated at the state of our house, I would definitely be humiliated.  The place was NOT READY for the men, but here they are so...I had better help a little on moving stuff away from the walls so they can work.

International Space Station fly-over

Just as I was dropping off to sleep last night Bob asked me if I wanted to watch the International Space Station pass over above our heads. I leaped out of bed (in a rather slowish way-- because I was almost asleep...), threw on a warm dorm shirt and followed him out to the porch where we both sat on the top step scanning the sky.

We watched for fifteen minutes or so, looking for something big, bright, and moving fast.  We had seen the Space Station a couple of years ago on another clear starry night, but, even though Bob checked the path and the timing again on his computer, we still did not see it fly over.  Eventually he went back in to bed.  On his way by the computer he checked again and found the ISS was then flying over Europe, so we missed it by perhaps half an hour.

It was such a glorious night and I was so comfortable sitting out on the step that I stayed on for a bit.  The moon was a gorgeous giant ball in the sky.  There were a couple of very bright stars which I took to be planets, but which I could not identify.  There were lovely constellations and individual stars.  The peacefulness of the night was beyond description by my poor words.  There were occasional tiny cracklings in the trees in front of the house and to the west of the house in the neighborhood of the swamp.  These cracklings were not loud enough to think of deer or (Horrors!) bear, but more in the line of small rodents or quiet night-flying birds.

Such a lovely time, and just before I went in there was a special bonus: I saw two falling stars!  Robert Hamlin, at Dartmouth, has a Blitzmail bulletin called Stargazers.  He lists various star-related events in the sky.  It turns out there are some small meteor showers in October!  I knew about the Perseids in August which we totally missed this year, and there are the Leonids, I think, in November, but October was news to me.  So lovely to see these celestial bodies streaking across the sky.

A great prelude to a good night's sleep!  Thank you, Heavenly Father!

Another unpleasant adventure in the life...

Please take my advice and DO NOT attempt to smother a small fire with your hands!  Under NO CONDITIONS!  It has very unpleasant repercussions, and you cannot count on the attempt to complete the job.  Best to have a clearer thinking person around to rescue you.

This is the story...probably not as short as it could be.

Bob asked me some months ago if we couldn't have candles on the table for meals like Alissa puts on their table.  Well, that seemed like a sweet idea so I finally found some tapers for the table and put them in the glass candlesticks that my grandmother Mary Marjorie Read McIntosh gave us for our wedding, candlesticks she received for HER wedding, so they are precious to me.  I found some lovely sage green ones at Joann's before they were flooded out after Tropical Storm Irene.  So, we have lit candles on our table most suppers.

On Monday I had come home from getting construction materials and whatever else I was doing which included taking along my knitting bag (actually a Hannaford market re-usable bag that I really liked fr the flat bottom and the large capacity--perfect for knitting, and other, projects).  When arriving home I had put the knitting bag on the end of the table though I did take care of the other stuff I brought into the house.

After making supper and setting the table I lit the candles and called Bob to eat.  We were just sitting down to eat when he looked up, noticed that the hole where the light fixture is going to go that will illuminate the table was off-center.  Well, not really.  It was the table that had been moved to make the sheet rock project more convenient.  The upshot was that Bob said we needed to move the table into its proper position. OK.  Good idea.

The table is a heavy table.  We got it at Pompanoosuc Mills when they had their Memorial Day sale this year.  He got on one end and I got on the other end.  As we started to move the table, the knitting bag started to lean with the action.  Sadly, it leaned into the candle and INSTANTLY burst into flame.  Just as instantly, because it was a small fire and right in front of me, I clapped my hands over the flames to smother the fire.  BAD IDEA ALTOGETHER!!! DO NOT DO THAT!! I won't do it again.

The bag is a plastic bag and instantly embedded very hot plastic in my fingers.  Fortunately Bob was able to kill the fire somehow, though I cannot tell you what he did to stop the rest of the flames.  I went into the dinette and sunk my hands in cold water for a while.  It only helped some.  It was a bit more challenging to eat supper but I had somewhat lost my appetite so that was not as much of a problem as you might think.

It was somewhat unnerving to look at my hands and see the insides of the fingers all black and crunchy looking.  Bob suggested that I put ice on them which seemed like something positive to do.  I wrapped an ice cube in a linen napkin and held it there for the next three hours, changing the cube as it melted and changing hands when the right hand, which was not so badly damaged, reminded me that it, too, had had a bad experience.

Eldon and Leah had  come up with an armload of books for me to read to them while their dad helped with electrical work.  I was only able to hold the books with the heels of my hands and turn pages with the tips of my fingers, but it worked.  Leah sat beside me happily on the couch once I had removed the pillow that was behind her back and annoying her....she could not sit  with her legs out in front of her which she prefers to having them hang over the edge!  Eldon was on the eliptical trainer for most of the reading time.

Anyway,  it is now Friday.  The plastic has all worn off my fingers and there are only are few blisters left and they are kind of sinking in and will probably have disappeared in another week or so.

End of adventure.  Never to be repeated, I hope!

Here is a picture of what is left of the offending bag.  And no, the knitting was miraculously not injured...which is a very good thing because it is a beautiful lace blanket Brenda was making but handed over to me to finish.

Saturday is a special day...

It is the day we get to do lots of work!  It was General Conference weekend but still we did a lot.  Bob left very early to get a flu shot as well as to help with a deck demolition project for  some church friends.  I stayed home and finished canning/bottling crushed tomatoes.  I finished 23 pints.  I am so pleased with our nice new widemouth pint jars!

While listening to General Conference on the computer turned up quite loud, Bob, with very little assistance from me once in a while, finished all but the last two sheets of sheet rock in the pantry!  That makes me happy.  This house project is really coming along.  When he left for General Priesthood I thought I would get rolling on the green tomato relish, but after reading the recipe again, decided to wait until Monday morning...don't like to do things that seem like work on the Sabbath.  Went to bed, read a bit more of "Your Endowment" by Mark Shields, then a bit of "Sweet Revenge" by Diane Mott Davidson.  Bob came home sometime....!

LIGHTS!! Yay, lights, lights, lights!

Jonathan and family came over for supper and to work on lights in the kitchen.  We had a nice-ish supper...used some of the lightly seasoned tomato sauce from the Fogg's tomatoes, added a can of tomato paste, rosemary, basil, and a bit more salt.  Because I had a presidency meeting in the morning, a hundred errands to do, and knitting at Elsie's this afternoon, I did not get fresh onions sauteed to throw into the mix.  It was ok, but not great.  I pulled out a big bowlful for Bob then chopped up some Johnsonville Bratwurst to the rest of it for the carnivores among us.  Immediately after eating Jonathan jumped up and continued working.

Before going home he checked not only the lights but all the outlets to see if they were live, AND THEY WERE!!  There is nothing like having light enough to work in.  We pulling the plastic topped table we got at BJ's several years ago over under the hanging lights to approximate the island, and to keep the unsuspecting from smashing their heads into the lights while walking over there.

With the lights now live, and the sheet rock which Bob and Robbie worked on this week installed, the kitchen now is having more of a real feeling!  After the remaining sheet rock is installed in the pantry, entry closet, and the living room, I am confident that the tile floor will begin in the kitchen so Jonathan can take real measurements for the cabinets, then....!

Such a morale booster to have those lights, besides being so handy to work with.  When I have the place in better order I will add a photo.

Here is an email I just sent to a friend to show how the day has started...

This message was written to a dear friend who is a provident living specialist in the ward.

"Just spoke with Bob and he is willing to humor me in getting pinto beans. I really love pinto beans just cooked and top with a little butter and salt and pepper, so we will be ordering a couple 25-lb bags of them when the time comes. I have to go through out buckets in the cellar and see if we have a 'started'/half-full bucket of pintos.  We have red, white, black beans but I think all the pintos are gone.

Were you able to get all your canning done?  Today I am processing tomato sauce which I finished cooking and seasoning and straining yesterday.  I processed seven jars last night...and seven more this morning. One quart leftover went into the refrigerator.  Don't you love it when you hear the last "pop" when the jars seal?!  I like it best when that happens within two minutes of being removed from the boiling water bath.  It makes me more confident that the seal will hold. 

Right now only the tomato sauce jars are on the shelving unit.  It has been holding empty jars and other kitchen stuff from the move out of the log cabin.  Bob and Robbie moved the two canning jar shelves into the new house cellar a month or so ago, then Bob moved the jars into boxes and kitchen stuff to the pantry, THEN moved one of the shelving units up to the pantry. I am so happy it is there, but it is going to make a lot of work when they want to put in the sheet rock and floor tiles. They put the "good" jars of canned food onto the floor in the cellar so today I hope to move them all up to the canning shelves.

Oh, rats!  I just looked over to see how the pot was doing and there was no flame under it!  I shut off the burner and opened up the house.  Now fifteen minutes later I have restarted the flame and was pleased that the house did not blow up because of the free propane. 

Maybe I had better stop my emailing and focus on what needs to be focussed on!  I went in to take a shower, remembered i had not taken my medicine so I rounded up the shopping bag of medicine and supplements I had taken to the temple last week to charge up my little pill carrier.  Finished doling out pills for the next week, sat down and started a grocery list, now am back at the computer.  It amazes me when I ever accomplish anything during the day.  The flitting from project to project usually leaves many things started, nothing accomplish, except the nap!"


You can see from this email that the honey-bee approach to life gives the honey bees a hive full of honey but leaves us with a house full of unfinished project messes!

What a Day! So far...

Today started a little later than usual after a somewhat grim night.  Around 7:30 I remembered that my visiting teacher was coming over at 9. I had not washed any dishes over the weekend and that had to be changed.  I made some scrambled eggs and warmed up some Spanish omelet from yesterday's breakfast and put it on the table for Bob. I swilled mine down with a fresh tomato and continued flying around the addition picking up and washing dishes.  I moved the alpaca fleece and the other bag of wool fleece out into the front closet...to Bob's great chagrin.  He had thought I had actually taken care of it...his words, not mine!  As far as I was concerned I had taken care of it.

Mako  arrived just about 9 and I was just about done the dishes.  I will be SO GRATEFUL when the new house is done and I have a KITCHEN again.  And I say that in the nicest possible way.  It takes next to no dishes to make the little kitchen-y area look like a sludge-pit...and today it did.  It does again now and that won't change by morning, I don't think.

Shortly after Mako arrived Robbie arrived to help with the new house.  Mako and I had the best chat.  I love that girl.  Anyway, Bob and Robbie started working on putting the trellising material around the base of the porch.  I happened out to visit with them briefly before starting my next project and heard a truck coming up Cranberry Hill Road.  It was Owen come to help, so, after a fair amount of discussion, they stopped the trellis job and moved inside to work on sheet rock.  YAY!!!  They put up about 8 sheets, some 12-foot and some 8-foot.  Things are looking up!!!  Once they get all the ceiling sheet rock up we can have the lights and outlets go live.  That will be such a treat to have light in the new house main floor.

Once the ceiling is up I think they will work on walls...then the tile floor can go in and Jonathan can get started on the kitchen cabinets.  Oh happy day!

While the men were working, I made a nice Eggs Goldenrod lunch, though I did use Country Buttermilk biscuits from Wings Market. I  have never used them before.  They were not bad at all.  Robbie asked me why I bought them.  So did Bob.  Well, I don't have as much workspace as I would like and with the men pounding and sawing and grating sheet rock, I did not want to make food that might have sheet rock dust in it.  That is why.

After lunch I laid down for a few minutes but kept thinking of the tomatoes on the porch.  Vern and Kim had brought over hundreds of pounds of tomatoes last night (,and we were not even here to greet them!  They are such kind and generous people.)  If that is an exaggeration, it is not much of one. I sincerely hope I can get them all processed without losing any.  Such generosity deserves respect.

 These two pictures show the empty bags which were FULL of luscious tomatoes and which are now on the stove.  As I was cutting tomatoes for the pot I kept setting aside perfect ones for eating...then gave it up because I can only eat three or four at a time...!  Not really, but I can surely eat two tomatoes at a meal and these were gorgeous.

I checked with my friend who wanted to borrow the Victorio Strainer to make applesauce and found she had not located another one so she is coming tomorrow morning...SO the tomatoes which are ripe and ready need to be done tonight.

Since I could not really do the tomatoes while the men were working, I moved along in the washing process for the larger of the two sheep fleeces I received early in the summer.  It was somewhat of a project, which may have involved killing a good chunk of our new lawn (sorry, Bob! ) then re-thinking how to make the project move faster and less taxing for my body and the lawn, I did the rinse in the washing machine.  Three rinses.  No, maybe only two.  Now the bags of wool are hanging on Christopher's beautiful walking stick and attached to the new porch railing.  I am not sure it adds much to the decor, but...it will work.  Face it, it does NOT add to the decor, but there are no other convenient things to do at the moment.  Maybe tomorrow I can think of something else.

After the wool-cleaning project I got out the skeined up recycled Bartlett yarn from the giant sweater vest I made five or six years ago.  I loved that vest.  One year I added a hood to it.  Nice idea, not so greatly attractive, but it did keep the wind out...particularly after I made an I-cord and wove it into the front of the hood so I could pull the hood tight around my face.  Before that, Babe the Blue Ox and I could both get our heads into the hood concurrently.

So,  I had used my Niddy-Noddy to make skeins, then wet them in good shape and hung them to dry overnight with weights in the bottom to straighten the yarn again.  While the men worked on the ceiling, I used my swift and ball winder to make center-pull balls of yarn.  Some of them are VERY small as the yarn, being well used,  had some soft spots which now became new skeins, much smaller after removing the frayed parts.  I finished the ball-winding just about as them men finished for the day.  Great news. I was then very edgy to get out the Bond Knitting Machine, but I restrained myself and finally got down to the tomato job.

After nearly an hour of washing and cutting tomatoes I got them into the big pot on the stove and started reducing them.  Owen had mentioned that Debbie made spaghetti sauce this year.  I was impressed and decided that was what I would do, too, in the interest of time constraints.  Because I have had some tomato-burning disasters I set the timer for 20 minutes about 5 times to remind me to get over to the stove and stir the tomatoes.  I went over more often but was sure they would not burn if I kept at it managed by the clock.  They are now cooling a bit while I type this post.

Bob took my new knitting machine table upstairs so I can work on the sweater vest I am planning for myself. It will be sweater number two on the Bond. I was so pleased with the first one which took me a week to knit with all the messes and ripping out and starting overs.  I think this one will go better.  The back is basically just a straight up rectangle--knitting 78 rows then inserting markers for the armhole then knitting another 60 rows, putting 30 stitches on a holder for back neck, putting the stitches on each side onto waste yarn for the shoulders.  What could be easier than that?  I certainly don't know.  The front is going to be slightly more complex because I have to decrease for the neck.  OH MY GOODNESS!!! I just remembered as I was writing that last sentence that I was planning to make this a cardigan vest and not a pullover.  THAT will certainly make a difference on the front knitting...though only because I need to do halfsies instead of wholesie front.  Whew!  Am I glad I stopped to write this post.

After burning a couple of fried cheese sandwiches and delivering them to Bob upstairs I ate half a buttermilk biscuit with a slice of cheese on it and another chopped tomato with salt and a glass (I am using that term very loosely.  Humiliation restrains me from mentioning what I actually used for a beverage container...) of milk. 

Having taken a few pictures of them various projects I think I will add them to this post then fly (very slowly as the old bod is not what it used to be) upstairs and work the back of the vest....and re-think the front.

Summer Morning Wake-Up

Gary and the guys arrived at about seven and  are here to put the shingles on the porch roof, and maybe trim around windows and siding on.  Yay!!  I have been working on the website for the family history day in Concord in October this morning since I need to go live with it on the 30th.  We shall see. I am worn out and really just want to take a nap at the moment.  Maybe I will. 

Oh, a sort of funny thing happened a while ago.  Well, not even sort of funny...really a mean thing but unintentional.  I woke up at 5:41 this morning and started in doing stuff.  After a long time I was washing dishes and remembered the new glasses I purchased at the Salvation Army store yesterday so I went out to the truck to get them.  I used my new (since I lost my key ring that had the truck keys on it) truck key to open the door.  Well, it set the alarm off.  That lasts for 1-2 minutes.  Quite annoying.  No way for me to turn it off before its time.

It was very quiet in the neighborhood but I did not think about it.  I had not heard the dogs bark this morning....they always go out by 6:30 AM and sometimes earlier and bark for 15 minutes or so...annoying Bob to no end.  Well, unintentially I guess I fought fire with fire, or noise with noise in this case, and wrecked the pristine loveliness of a quiet summer morning.  The screaming of the truck alarm really sets the teeth on edge. 

When I got back inside with all my bundles, I found the clock was still in the 6 AM hour.  Oh well.  I have never been known as a good neighbor anyway...and maybe they had slept through their alarm clocks?

Baby Bolero

Back home late last night from a week at the temple.  A great week at the temple, though are there any other kind?!  Today was a pick up the house again, put away the stuff from the motel stay, wash all the clothes kind of day.

After doing the needed things I thought I would try to make some nice vegetable sushi rolls.  Not a great idea.  I made the quick cucumber pickles to go in the sushi, julienned the carrots, and made some wasabi paste.  After cooking, and sort of cooling, the sushi rice I got out my rolling mat which I covered with a large ziploc bag to keep the mat clean, and started mashing the rice into the size and shape I wanted.  I painted the center line with some wasabi paste then place a lovely green lettuce leaf over the whole thing then placed the carrot and pickle slices and started rolling it up.

It was not a  total disaster, but it was close.  The middle three cuts were sort of sushi looking but the other ingredients just fell apart.  Gr-r-r!  So, not wanting to invest any more time in this project, especially since I found out I was going to be the only one in the house to eat it, I mashed the ingredients into sushi rice balls and served it with the same kind of dipping sauce that Hisayo Oshima made when she made rice balls for us many summers ago when visiting our home as an exchange student from Japan who participated in the Rassias Method Language program at Dartmouth College.  The sauce was mayonnaise and catsup.  Heavy on the catsup.  It was really tasty then and I enjoyed it tonight, too.  Bob had a nice melted-cheese-on-tortilla thing.

Another thing I learned while making the sushi rice mess is that wasabi is VERY VERY spicy.  In fact, just about impossible to eat.  Or at least, the wasabi powder I used to make the paste was so pungent that it brought tears to my eyes and severe choking.  Water did help. I put the leftovers in a small glass jar in the refrigerator in case anyone comes by soon who likes that kind of stuff. I was afraid if I put it in a plastic container the stuff would eat a hole through and contaminate the whole refrigerator!

After semi-cleaning up that mess I headed to Wing's Market to get a few supplies for Bob's hiking trip next week and came home to find he had picked a large bag of apples for me to make into applesauce. I did get them cut and cooked but cannot make the sauce tonight.

Upstairs I picked up the baby bolero sweater that I am making for little Rhea.   I finished the back and the left front and started the sleeves.  About 40 rows till bind-off then sewing together and picking up stitches for the border.  It is going to be a sweet little sweater.

Another cool thing I did today was to set up the  Bond knitting machine in the dining room.  I had taken everything to the motel thinking I could clamp the board holding the Bond to the bar at the motel but found that the bar was at least 6 inched deep and I only had 4-inch clamps.  The clamps I have can be used on the table we have here but I am thinking of returning them and getting one more QuickKlamp which has a 12" opening.  I used one on the table and it seems to work fine.  Returning the two 4'-clamps to Lavalleys will give me enough money to purchase a second QuickKlamp.  I am just dying to get started making a little sweater.  Elsie will teach me a great way to insert the sleeves as I knit.  I did watch the first "Making Your First Sweater" video but I was too tired to take in everything. I will try again, maybe next week if things quiet down here a bit.  I am actually not very hopeful there.

Megan sent me the new America's Test Kitchen Cookbook and the video for the 2011 Season!!! I am so excited. I can hardly wait to watch it and go through the cookbook....

Apples, apples

Yesterday was a busy apple day at our house.  I picked a big Trader Joe's bag of apples from our Lodi tree around 6 AM and got them cut and cooked before leaving the house at 9 AM.  Owen and Robbie had arrived to help on the porch roof project by the time I was cooking the apples.

After a day of errands and appointments I arrived home around 3 PM and went immediately to stretch out for a little while.  Soon Bob needed me to go to Fairlee to pick up a quick clamp or something like that, which I did find.  It was good he told me it was blue!  I picked up two orange C-clamps for my own schemes while I was there.

After supper (fresh delicious sweet corn on the cob from Killdeer stand--plus some leftovers) I set up the Victoria strainer to make the applesauce.  The first go-around I had put the plastic guard on incorrectly and applesauce dripped everywhere...which I partly alleviated by putting a black plastic garbage bag under the collection bucket...but then realized my error, fixed it, and then the applesauce just slid into the bucket happily.

Bob kindly cranked for a little while before going back to the porch roof/lawn watering projects.  In the end there were twelve quarts of applesauce, very lightly sugared, ready for the freezer.  And I was totally ready for bed!

Here is the applesauce project set-up...making applesauce in a construction zone has its drawbacks, but it does work.  Notice the nice orange C-clamp.  There are two of them holding the sturdier board to the wimpy board.  There was a bit of bounce as we cranked, but all is well that ends well.

Ready for the freezer.  Now to make space in the freezer...!

A memory

Yesterday I was working on the computer to prepare for my Dartmouth email account to migrate to the cloud (yay for clouds, I guess...) and found an elderly email from daughter-in-law Laura...well, actually a report of a phone message from Laura.  She and young Anne had been out driving.  Anne asked if they were on the Freeway.  Laura told her they were on the Freeway.  After a brief pause Anne asked,  "When are we going to be on the Fourway?"  I thought that was really funny then, and I still think that is really funny!  Hooray for angel children and their thought processes.

Another one from last weekend.  Jonathan, Alissa, and children were at our house for dinner, but really so Jonathan could help move heavy stuff and do some electrical wiring.  After their long walk following supper the kids were at the table, newly moved into the new house from the storage shed, and were eating a delicious lime and raspberry dessert their mom had made and brought.

When 4-year-old Caleb finished his dessert...the first one to do so...he turned in his chair and looked at his grandfather and me and said, "Powered up.  Ready to work!" and jumped down from his chair and headed out the back door as fast as he could go.   As you might expect, there were smiles all around.  What a great attitude!  More of us could develop that one...

Another Day...

Yesterday was a busy day swimming, doing errands in the Upper Valley, doing laundry (AT HOME!!!), getting ready to come to the temple.  I left the house about 2:30 and finally arrived at the motel in Lexington at 7 PM after several stops (library, coop for Kosher salt, Sam's Club, rest stops, etc).  I made up some of Orchid's Cool Tangy Noodles so Jonathan and family could have them while they are here.  they arrived around 8:20 or so.  The children were in good spirits and acted well until bedtime, which was shortly. I was worn down and in bed by 9:45.

This morning breakfast was hectic with many other motel guests, some of whom were pushy-pully types of guests.  If you were courteous, which we tried to be, you waited and waited and waited.  Jonathan has just driven the family in to the Boston Aquarium to drop them off and will then come back to the motel to work from here while they are gone.

With the peace and quiet prevailing, I think now is a great time to shower and get ready for the temple!

Larry Godfrey came to do the remaining excavating and back-filling for the porch.  Yay!

Hot Water Showers at last!

Yesterday when Sister Vogel and I got home from the temple, there was Bob with clean clothes on, damp hair, shaved face...on a Friday!!!  That has not happened since May when the hot water heater was removed from the log cabin.  Since then Saturday showers at Jonathan and Alissa's house has been the norm.  I was too tired to shower last night but have a lovely hot more-lengthy-than-usual-for-me shower this morning.  Heavenly.

New house coming along

The builders and Bob have been working like crazy on the new house.  As of today, Day Eight, both levels have floors, outside walls, and interior walls framed in.  Bob is cutting out the windows and doors.  We are waiting for the roof trusses, which have not yet arrived.

My part in the deal has been to stay out of the way...easy to do with so many other activities to take care of, and to prepare for the trip to Utah which is next week.  Really looking forward to seeing all my babies, both the 30-somethings and the 14 and under crowd!

Time flies...

It has been ages since I wrote.  I was working furiously on the Sock Madness Forever project. I just missed getting into the fourth round.  Being horribly sick for five days put me out of the running, but I did finish my round three socks, a lovely yellow cabled pair.

Since then General Conference has come and gone. I have listened to the talks since then multiple times and am trying to put into action in my life the action items I got out of the talks...particularly Elder Oaks' talk on Desires.  My actions in the past have not supported my desires.

Also since the last post the log cabin that Bob built for us 39 years ago has been taken down and the logs burned.  We are getting ready to put up a stick-built house on the same location after excavating under the porch and putting in additional foundation.

The cellar room under the porch will be a food storage room so the main cellar can be used for other things.  Maybe we can actually have purposed rooms all over the house instead of everything a mishmash of uses.

Sock Madness 5

A few weeks ago on Ravelry I noticed that there was going to be a Sock Madness competition.  It turns out this is the fifth year of this competition.  It corresponds to basketball's March Madness, though I think it does not end until June.  Well, I thought I would like to try it.  There are seven patterns to be knit.  Everyone gets the first pattern, and if it is completed within the first two weeks, the knitter is put onto a team for the rest of the competition.  I signed up for the competition but then sort of forgot it.

On 9 March I went to the Sock Madness site and found that the pattern had been dispensed on March 4th and there was two weeks to do the knitting!  I was already behind the eightball.  So, I downloaded the pattern the found a good supply of two blues in Baby Ull yarn and got started.  I started out on two sets of size 4 double-pointed needles, then at the heel moved the socks to one long size 1 needle for the Magic Loop technique.

The first heel had a very large hole where the leg meets the heel, but I thought I could fix that after completing the knitting. So, knit, knit, knit.  No house work, no genealogy, no fabulous meals (or even passable meals.  It was a good thing we had a fair amount of leftovers in the refrigerator!), just knitting.  I realized that these were going to be too long for my feet so I left off the last 8 rows of the second pattern repeat on the feet, finished the toes, photographed the socks and sent them to the Sock Madness fairy.  Whew!  Finished on the 15th with two days to spare.

The next morning I found an email saying that my socks, though lovely, did not meet the competition guidelines and needed to be re-knit to include those 8 rows of the second pattern repeat.  She also told me not to worry, that there was time to make the change.  What! What! Really?!  So, I started un-picking the Kitchener stitched toes.  This was a real pain so I thought I would clip a stitch up on the pattern repeat then just ravel out.  Wrong!  That didn't work very well either....so I used my fingernail clippers (the only cutting tool at hand) and clipped all around both toes then raveled back to the right place for picking up stitches to re-knit.  It was really a MUCH more complex job than I expected.

Amazingly, I did get the job done, but had run out of the blue yarns, and since we were at the temple this week, I only had some leftover orange Baby Ull in my bag, SO there are two orange stripes.  Finally, finally, they are really done and I sent the new finished sock photo to the Sock fairy as well as posted it on the Supporters Sock Finishers thread on Ravelry.  I am very happy to have finished them.  Bob is willing to wear them, but I think they will be too large even for him!  We shall see.

It will be interesting to see what the other sock patterns hold for us. I don't think I will commit so much time to the next sock patterns.  I need to get back to more important things, though I do want to use up the sock yarn in my stash.

One of the nicest parts of this competition so far is that the wonderful designer of this sock pattern has sent me several emails.  She lives on the Isle of Wight and is a fabulous gardener. I would love to become friends with her...though it would be a sacrifice for her because she is emailing everyone who finishes a pair of her socks!  That is a fabulous gift to the knitters.

Knitting, knitting, knitting

Yesterday and today have been filled with knitting...the Scandinavian hat class hat that I am doing at Country Woolens in Lebanon, NH; the earflaps hat for Bob with many colors in it; the socks for the Ravelry Sock Madness competition. 

Today was knitting group at Elsie's where I finished the first of two and a half pattern repeats on one sock and am nearly finished the first repeat on the second sock.  I may finish that pattern repeat tonight then get rolling some more on the earflap hat, though that does not have a deadline as the other two projects do...well, next winter, I guess.

One other thing on my mind today is clearing off the sewing table so I can set up The Incredible Sweater Machine.  I have a good mind to make myself a vest with it.  We shall see.

The Blanket is Finished

The charity blanket which our church ladies began in November is now off the needles and ready to give!  Hooray!  Many people participated in this project.  A good third of these ladies were non-knitters when they started.  When you look at the squares you can see that they learned very well.  It is a joy to work together for the welfare of another soul...even if we do not know the beneficiary of our service.

 Picture to follow when I figure out how to make it small enough...

  These are the garter-stitch squares sewn into strips.

This is the completed blanket.  You will notice the last two squares are sewn on for pockets if the person receiving the blanket uses it for a lap blanket sometimes.  Great place for a handkerchief, a paperback book, or to hide a couple of chocolate bars from the kids!

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to knit these squares!

Fun with Friends at Limerick Irish Eatery, plus knitting

To celebrate the birthday of a friend yesterday four of us got together for lunch at the new Limerick Irish Eatery in Quechee, Vermont.  Very nice meal. Friendly server, and it was great to be able to chat with Jessica, the owner, for a few minutes.  She is such a busy lady.  It is always fun to be with friends...we chatted for 2 hours before we ran down enough to leave the restaurant, carrying the conversation into the parking lot.

One quick stop at the White River Coop (not Upper Valley Coop this time), where I picked up some tortillas and a couple other things to use for supper, then an even quicker stop at the bank to drop off a key to the safe deposit box then on to home for a nap.

Morning had come early.  Before 6 AM I was at the Incredible Sweater Machine hoping to finish the strips for the Church blanket.  In two hours I had three new strips made as well as hand-stitching together  the parts of the previous two days' worth of struggling with the machine.  Yay!  I decided that four strips would be better than the six strips I previously planned to use.  This way the border will not get lost in the strips.  At least that is the idea.

Before leaving for lunch I had managed to sew together half of the strips.  Sewing together is not my forte, but it will hold the blocks and strips together so I am going to stop agonizing about the job.  After the nap I made burritos for supper:  whole wheat wraps instead of tortillas, though I don't really recognize the difference, plus shredded cheddar on fat-free refried beans plus some homemade pico de gallo (which, by the way, I used chopped parsley for the greens instead of cilantro and have decided I despise...at least in this batch).  For "dessert" I used a slice of lavash bread on which I spread cream cheese (it would have been more successful if I had removed the cream cheese from the refrigerator an hour earlier...!) and then grated on some Blueberry Cheddar cheese, then put in the microwave for one minutes.  Really not bad at all!  Liz suggested it at lunch.

After supper I settled into the great room upstairs along with the sewing/knitting project and A Touch of Frost on NetFlix.  It took me two shows to complete stitching together the strips and begin picking up stitches around the edge for the border.  I had to stop because I needed more cable on the needles to get all the stitches on.  I think I will need about 100 inches of cable....

Just now, on Saturday morning, I have spoken with Lois at White River Yarns to see if she had such a needle.  She didn't but told me that when she picked up stitches for a border on a beautiful large afghan she has in her shop, she used three needles with 40-inch cables and a fourth needle with 40-inch cable for the knitting, just like four giant double-pointed needles!  Isn't she the smartest thing!!  I am so thrilled.  Now I need to see how many more I will need--based on how many circular needles I have with 40-inch cables!

Since I wrote that last bit I have knitted a swatch for the Scandinavian Hat class I am going to this afternoon at Country Woolens in Lebanon, NH.  Using the size 3 circulars with very LONG cable, I got gauge the first time!  Yay!  That is good news.  But that was knitting flat.  Now I am working a gauge on double-pointed needles and size 4...since that is the size I am supposed to use for the River Chullo River Star hat that Bob actually wants.  I will go along with the class and the Country Creations hat...small child size for some little person for next winter...mainly because if everyone else in the class is a beginner at this sort of hat/knitting style, I am afraid my knitting with 11 colors and an ear flap with be confusing.  Far be it from me to confuse people when it is unnecessary.

After the class I will go work on the computer to enter do some Visiting Teaching work plus maybe some genealogy then go to Jonathan's after supper to pick up the bulk order that is being collected in Worcester today.  So...off to work.

PS  In case you are worried, I did make Bob a nice omelet for breakfast. I ate a great leftover salad...about 10:30.

Whoopee!

Today was a real changeable day: I woke up early after a very bad night...leg cramps, nightmares, too much pain everywhere,  etc.  I had a meeting to attend but had to beg off and spent a good deal of time in bed but by noon I felt a little better and started working with the knitting machine again...the one that the very kind lady on FREECYCLE gave me yesterday.

The first few strips I knit with the machine nearly made me tear my hair out, but I kept telling myself that I was smart enough to do it...same as yesterday.  That really didn't help very much, actually.  Eventually it occurred to me to try YouTube, and voila!  There was a whole course on using the newer version of the knitting machine.  The final strip attempt today was 36 inches long...needs to be 48 inches long, so I am making progress, though still a long way from getting 6 strips completed.

In  the interest of sanity I stopped with the Incredible Knitting Machine around 2:30, picked up my bag of sock projects as well as the spinning workshop mitten project and went to Elsie's for knitting group.  It was SO GOOD to see her and Sharon and Cameron again. It has been a whole month since I was there with them.  Last week Elsie had a wonderful class at the library teaching kids to knit. She had 8 kids and one mom--7 girls and one boy who, by the way, picked up on Elsie's Continental knitting style and learned to do both knit and purl that way!  Good for him.

Anyway, after knitting with Elsie, Sharon and Cameron and watching Cameron's slide show of his trip to Ghent, I batted out for a shortish set of errands to include getting another skein of yarn for the strips and border of the homeless blanket. I do not believe it will be completed by Monday night, but will be much closer.

So, after coming home I worked a bit more on the last strip then picked up the mitten project. and WHOOPEE!!  I finished the first of them. It looks a little funny and it fits a little funnier, but I love it.  I showed it to Bob and he said..so? in a very sweet and gentle way.   I told him he should be impressed because it was the first project knitted with totally me-weighed/blended/carded/spun yarn.  I am so happy to have it done.  Parenthetically, I was so sad to hear that Bonnie, one of our spinners, was run into by a unthinking woman who was having her dogs drag her down a ski slope.  When she ran into Bonnie she broke Bonnie's shoulder/upper arm.  Bonnie's doctor says it will take about six months to heal before she can start spinning and knitting and weaving again.  So sad.  Plus she has missed her trip to Alaska and the Iditarod.

Mitten photo will be here soon.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was a wonderful day at Church!  The speakers and teachers were all so inspiring and motivating.  They really made me want to be better.  I spent the evening knitting with a friend who made me a delicious supper--lavash bread sandwich and the best wheat/coconut/chocolate cookies in the world.  Really.  She is working on some beautiful socks that she is knitting toe up.  We thought she was at the point where the heel started but it looked like she needed three more rows.  Maybe we can start the heel next time we get together.  I did go over the pattern and write in the numbers at various places since she has a finer gauge than the pattern so changes in numbers were needed.


After the pepping up yesterday my plan was to visit two sisters with my companion but, when we looked out first thing this morning, sleet and freezing rain were hitting the road surfaces at an alarming rate and we just did not dare to go out (me) and children were home from school (my companion) so we will try again next week.

Since my planned church work was at a standstill I decided to spend the day profitably doing something else of real value and chose: family history consultant training.  One nice thing about this training is that records are kept and you can see what modules you have already completed.  That is also a bad thing about this training system:  you discover that either you had not finished all the modules after all, OR there were new modules to do.  So I went to work. I worked through several of them, taking time off to work on our own family history as part of the training.  There again I found that some of the people I thought I had already entered in the system were not there, so now they are.

Now that it has already been a productive day I feel the need to pick up the charity knitting project and get rolling on getting the last of the sisters' squares sewn together.  There is one more strip to go.  On Saturday I had a brain flash that I was not going to get the blanket finished in time for the meeting on the 8th of March--well, that was not the brain flash...that was just common sense:there is too much knitting still to do to get it completed with hand-knitting.  The brain flash came when it occurred to me to see if anyone on FREECYCLE had a knitting machine they would let me borrow, so I sent a message on Saturday evening.  Yesterday there was a message and offer!  Of course, I must drive to Springfield to get it and the roads were just too awful today; tomorrow I am going to the temple; so on Wednesday I am going to get up early and drive down there to pick it up before the potential knitting group meeting. I should be able to knit six strips pretty fast with that machine then pick up stitches to get a border around the whole thing.  We shall see.  Below is a picture of most of the squares.

Satisfying

Today has been a somewhat satisfying day...to this point, and hopefully it will continue on in like fashion.

Up somewhat late-ish and made a quick breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, warmed in the microwave, for Bob.  I ate a leftover sandwich from yesterday.  With the energy derived from this food, I was at the computer by 8 AM and worked until after noon on the Visiting Teaching lists/emails/letters.  The wonderful ladies have started responding already!  Yay for them!

It was sunny and beautiful outside and almost got me out there but I was cold and headache-y so I took a nap instead.  When I woke up the opportunity for a walk on a gorgeous day was gone. I hope Jonathan was able to get all his taps placed today while it was yet lovely out there.  Of course, slogging through the extra foot of snow that came yesterday may have made it less than a pleasurable activity...

Next on the agenda was to make some Black Bean Chili.  This is the recipe I used:

Black Bean Chili
www.grasslandmeats.com

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 15 1/2-oz. cans black beans, drained
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 cup thick and chunky salsa
1 15 1/2-oz. can diced tomatoes, do not drain
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low heat setting 7 to 8 hours.

This is what I did differently:  instead of 1 cup of chunky salsa, I put in the whole jar.  Since I have just ordered my Pampered Chef garlic press I passed on the garlic and instead used about a tablespoon of some granulated garlic/chili powder/granulated onion/ground cumin mix that I use to put on buttered popcorn.  I added another teaspoon of straight chili powder and left out the crushed red pepper, though I am thinking of squirting in some chipotle sauce before serving this.  It tasted good when I first put it into the pot.  Oh...and I used a full 4 cups of cooked black beans and nearly two cups of chopped onions.

The proof in the pudding/chili will be if Bob likes it.

 It is snowing outside!  Great night to eat this chili...or at least some hot soup.

Busy

Whew!  Has life ever been busy lately.  Too many things to do; nearly all of them enjoyable but demanding.  Many knitting projects completed; new ones started.  Right now in a pinch to get a charity project finished by March 8th.  We shall see.

This photo is Egeblad, knit in ecru sport-weight cotton yarn from Mary Maxim.