Little Things

What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution. - Henri Frederic Amiel


Maybe because I hated this winter I have been noticing every little thing happening around here. Little changes in temperature have melted most of the snow in the woods. The snow on the yard and garden is getting thinner. My driveway is only icy when we go out in the morning. The birds are making more noise in the woods. I am seeing more deer near the edge of the woods.

I heard on the news this morning that these little changes had the crocuses coming up in one ladies yard. I had to go see if there was anything peeking out in my own neck of the woods and sure enough there was. A quick walk revealed daffodils, snow drops

and the bleeding heart

are making their annual debut. Although there was no visual confirmation due to a cloudy day, I have heard geese flying over head. Now I am on the lookout for the first robin in the yard.

With a little bit of change in the temperature and a little more sun, I was hanging laundry out to dry without my fingers in danger of frostbite! No drier sheet can duplicate the smell of laundry fresh off the line.

The little bit of additional light has made the chickens start laying more. Not to be out done by their feathered counterparts the ducks have decided to start laying now also.

A little bit of patience made me go back to spinning alpaca. I had picked up 4 ozs of gray and 4 ozs. of charcoal in the Little Barn while at Rhinebeck. When I first started to spin it I was not getting enough twist and it was so slippery. After several attempts I put it away and went back to spinning wool. Not to be bested by mere fiber I took it out again the other day.

For some inexplicable reason I had absolutely no problems with it. I finished spinning it and plied it. Today I started spinning the charcoal.

Now with a little bit of practice I will be spinning on the newest oldest spinning wheel. Cyndy emailed me to say her CPW was up for sale and I bought her. This is my first double drive wheel so lots to learn and I better be a quick learner because soon little bits of seeds will need to be started to become plants for this year’s garden. I still have to get my flats all washed, mix up some soil, clean the greenhouse…..

Where did the time go?

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” ~Confucious


I received a Nook for my birthday but with canning still in full steam and then the holidays right on it’s heels, I didn’t have time to fully appreciate it. Recently however, I have been downloading book after book. On top of that I usually read anything that the kids bring home for one of their classes. I use to read incessantly much to the chagrin of my children but put books aside to learn to spin and knit. Those two hobbies sucked up all the old reading time.

Now each day is a struggle between finishing a book, knitting a couple of rows or spinning. The weather is finally starting to change so my hobby time is going to dwindle as soon as the ground thaws so I have been trying to cram in as much as possible.

Friday, I finished a book so Saturday I started working on the Juneberry Triangle by Jared Flood. I did say I wanted something in lace and in wool and this fit it to a tee. I had wanted this pattern when I saw it but gardening had just started and then I forgot about it. The trip to Ravelry reminded me. I am not big on charts so I have been writing each row out, tedious but it will be worth it.

Besides that we have been…..

… ice fishing. As I hadn’t been in a long time, I decided to go along. We left and it started to snow. We drove in near white out conditions to the lake. The snow stopped but the winds just kept wailing.

What I didn’t realize was this was not my daddies type of ice fishing but one with all the creature comforts of home.

 That little clam keeps you warm while you are staring out the windows to see a flag go up. Of course the lawn chairs keep you comfortable and cell phones get great reception so you are able to call, text and surf the web all while sitting there jigging. I went for a walk but there had been a thaw and then more snow so about 6 inches down was a layer of water, then two foot of ice. You would be walking and sink, step, sink, step, sink. We hadn’t noticed it while traipsing out to the middle of the lake as it was still rather cold but it warmed a little and the walk back to shore was a lot harder. Alas the creature comforts of home did not result in a single bite….other than frost!

…doing some work around the house. My staircase finally got a railing, a coat of stain and some poly.

Steps and handrail I would paint all the time but the darn balusters were a pain in the butt. If it ever gets done again it won’t be by me.

…doing some auto repairs. We took the man’s truck into the garage for an inspection. We were told it needed a tailpipe. While this was not unexpected news, the weeks wait for a part was. Thankfully we have two vehicles. The man had to take my car and I was stranded at home. A week later the wrong part arrived and we had to wait another week. Normally I don’t go anywhere but the fact that I couldn’t drove me nuts. Supposedly tomorrow the truck will be done. My car will once again be mine, to sit in the drive and go no where….after I clean it from his misuse!


...doing some sewing together of pieces for lapghans.  This one got rid of three full skeins and some leftover black.  Quick, portable, super easy....I foresee more. 


                                  
 
....received all our seeds for this years garden.  Soon I will be starting seeds....but not yet.

The kids finally finished their second semester of school no thanks to school delays/closings. Today was to have been a make up day but 6 or 7 inches let them stay home once again.  If this keeps up they won't have a summer vacation and I won't have garden helpers.

Walking on Thin Ice

“If you're walking on thin ice, you might was well dance”


While walking and riding around the area, ice can be found everywhere. Forty-four of the last 62 days have been below normal so nobody is surprised by that.  And since you have to deal with it you might as well enjoy it.  That is not hard when you stop to admire the beauty of ice.

The ice crystals that form on the brush and trees.  When the sun hits them the yard and trees look like there are diamonds everywhere. 

...the ice forming on the river....

...the shape of some icicles.  This one looks like a snow cone hanging....

When he drips down he is starting to form ice stalagmites...

I should have taken the picture from the side so you could see the height, instead he looks like he is laying down.

But moving on to a wells overflow making ice sculptures....

And the force of water in either it's liquid or frozen form is amazing.  Here it has frozen in the gutters and pushed the gutters away from the building.  There are icicles on both sides of the gutter.  I am sure it will lead to interior damage if it hasn't already. 

There is also the force of it to the land.  Each year we have a "falling rock zone" from the water freezing between the layers of rock, separating the stone and then when it thaws the stone rolls down into the roads.

Oddly enough my knitting is like that ice.  A "force" if you will makes me want to knit certain things at certain times.  I can not concentrate on another project until I do what needs to be done.  Recently it has been hats.  Plain boring knitting, ear flaps (two but #2 daughter claimed one), cupcake and a Mohawk.

I have another cupcake on the needles which I will finish today and then I think that faze will be over.  I feel the urge toward something more challenging like lace....and in wool.  While the recent knitting has consumed some of the stash of acrylic I want to feel wool running between my fingers.  I also want a pair of mittens so maybe I will combine the two.  That sounds like a trip to Ravelry.  And the search is on!

Snowflakes to Sunshine

Snowflakes are kisses from heaven. ~Author Unknown

The man and kids have left for the day so it’s very quiet. Snow is falling outside, one of those lazy snows where you can pick out a flake and watch it slowly float to the ground. It really is mesmerizing. I had to pull myself away because it has been a very trying week. I felt bi-polar, happy one moment and upset the next, a regular emotional rollercoaster. I am exhausted; I want to crawl back into bed and go to sleep for a couple of more hours. Watching those flakes was only intensifying those thoughts.

Instead I get up and make oatmeal.

Move over Quakers, steel cut is so much better, fills you up, warms you up and gets you going. Just what I need today. When I am done here I will clean up a little, do a whole lotta filing, laundry, getting something out for dinner. The seed order is complete except for the actual ordering which I have to do today also. Lots of little chores to keep me busy.

This weekend the man bought me flowers to remind me that the cold (I love the snow but hate the cold) only lasts for so long and soon it will be spring.

 Luckily each day more and more of the buds open so I am enjoying them immensely. And while the flowers didn’t motivate me to do the seed order, I did do the taxes.

I have been busy learning more about the knitting machine.

I am still working on stockinette and have finished two baby blankets with stash yarn.

I also have a toddlers sweater and a cupcake hat on the regular needles, all in stash yarn. And I have been spinning a little.  I have a stash of roving too to work through so I should give it equal time!  Which reminds me to contact the mill since I want to send a couple of fleece their way....another little task to keep me busy!  I will work this lethargy out of my system.

And now it is time to get moving. The kettle is whistling that my tea water is done and the washing machine just finished spinning. It is suppose to hit 30 today which after the below zero temps is going to feel like a tropical heat wave.  I will have to find my bathing suit!

Have you hit the point yet?

“There’s a point where you can give up on winter–when temptation can enter your soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin–around January sixteenth or so, and this can make you realize that February’s coming, and beyond February, March." Rick Bass ~Winter: Notes from Montana


The kids are home again today.  They had snow days on Tuesday and Wednesday because of an ice storm that made walking difficult. 

Today we have several inches of snow covering the ice.  It is now 16 degrees and it is only going to go down from here as an "Arctic blast" is getting ready to blanket the area for the next few days....high temps of 12 and lows of -minus-. 

I was about sick and tired of mopping up snow from the kids coming in but the wood stove put me in my place.  He gave me a lecture of how every time he heats the place up the kids open the door and let his hard work go out.   He gets hungry and has to wait on people to feed him while they have the audacity to say he is not doing his job and fiddle with his knobs.  I think we both need a break from the below average temperatures that have been the norm for the past two months.  I can count on my hands the number of days with average or above average temperatures.  Depressing!

The man went out and bought me a new toy to play with to lift my spirits.  AC Moore was having a 50% off sale and he knew I had once said I would like to buy a knit machine so he got me a Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine.  It will make using up some of the totes of yarn easier.  So far I have made three six foot scarves on it, two which are double thickness.  It is very easy but I am only doing stockinette and haven't traversed into cables or lace yet.  I have found that some yarns are better suited for it than others. 

While this new toy is a great diversion it enforces the whole "winter" need to get warm theme.  I need a break from it.  I know it will be weeks or more honestly months before it is warm again but I need a "warm" diversion.  Enter stage left the seed catalogs!  Today while the temps plummet and the kids make the inside thermostat go up and down  like a pogo stick, while the wind blows the snow back on the roads and paths that I have shoveled I will be oblivious as I indulge in delusions of the first spears of asparagus, a salad that moments before was still in the garden, tomato sandwiches with tomatoes still warm from the sun and blackberries rinsed and covered with a little homemade whipped cream. 

Yeah, I know I will eventually have to wake up and come back to the reality of carrying firewood and the constant dusting that goes along with the stove, frozen water buckets and eggs if you don't find them in time but then ...."you realize that February’s coming, and beyond February, March."   I am not ready for all the backbreaking work the Spring/Summer months entail I just wanted to borrow some of the warmth.  Once my soul has been warmed I can deal with my frozen fingertips. And when the seed orders are placed I can wrap my frozen fingertips around my Nook and read the latest downloaded gardening book while curled up next to the overworked/underappreciated stove.

"Precious"

Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What does the scientist have to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity! — Isaac Asimov

Friday evening my friend and her children came to visit.  Her oldest daughter saw the little pink doll blanket mentioned in the previous post and said she "That would be perfect for Precious".  When #2 and her went upstairs to #2's room, I asked who Precious was and her mom told me it was her baby doll that had been bought as a Christmas present for her before she was born.  She sleeps with her every night and hides her under her pillow so other people won't know.

We were invited to this girls 12th birthday party on Saturday.  In some ways she is trying to turn 16+.  She wants to wear makeup all the time.  Every penny she gets she uses to buy stick on french manicure nails.  She wants to be able to go on the computer whenever and with whomever she choses.  She wants clothes, jewlery and toys and which are too old for her. She wants to be able to go to her friends whenever and have friends over all the time. 

In her defense she was daddy's little girl and grandpa's baby.  She had been Grandma's baby but Grandma was moved to a nursing home with alzheimers and didn't remember her.  Four years ago her mom and dad got a divorce and she hasn't seen her dad in over three years. Since the divorce her grandfather died, her grandmother died and her only aunt commited suicide.  So the past few years have been rough on her and in a rush to put it all behind her she is trying to race into adulthood.  She goes to counseling through her school but the counselor has been changed five times already!

To find out she had a "softer" side, a side where she relaxed, let down her guard and allowed herself to be the child she is, was amazing to me.  So after she left Friday evening, I started to knit her "Precious" a dress

and a blanket. 

I ended up switching to crochet as I can do that faster.  I got them done just in time for the party.  I stuffed them in a bag and off we went. 

She had friends over so I told her to take the bag to her room and open it.  She ran up the stairs while her friends were occupied and opened the bag.  She came downstairs, pulled her mother aside and with tears in her eyes showed her mother what I had made.  Before I left Precious was dressed and wrapped in the blanket.  I need to make another dress...Precious is closer to being a Flat Stanley from years of hiding under the pillow so the flatness makes the dress slightly big on her.  I have promised her another outifit.

A little leftover yarn meant more than the money in the card.  It allowed me to see a side of her that she doesn't share with the rest of the world.  Precious keeps her tied to a happier past and knitting/crocheting does the same for me.  It reminded me of all the Christmases where we would put our naked dolls under the tree and wake to find them dressed in new outfits.  I think we all have and need some little "Precious" something that brings us comfort and soothes our soul.

Accumulation

I never have known a man of ordinary common-sense who did not urge upon his sons, from earliest childhood, doctrines of economy and the practice of accumulation. ~ William Graham Sumner

I have been very fortunate to have been given a lot of my crafting supplies.  My family has spoiled me but I have also received crochet hooks from a boy scout leader, knitting needles that belonged to a friends mother, and lots and lots of yarn from various sources. 

The accumulation of yarn was all over, boxes and bags with full or partial skeins falling out.  I would have to dig through each and every box/bag until I found what I was looking for.  I decided now that I don't have to store small bits and pieces all over that I would properly organize the stash. I ran to town and bought some 64 qt. clear totes and started organizing.  

Skeins by Lion Brand, Wintuk, Woolworth, Malina, Phentex Angorel,  Super Soft by lana Moro, Red heart, Caron Simply Soft and DazzleAire, Natura from Jamesway for 88 cents!, Herrschners, Prestige, Reynolds.  It was a virtual time machine of yarn.  Some colors/dyelots had multiple skeins so you wonder if they were making a sweater or an afghan. Who were they making it for?  Why, the birth of a child, a wedding gift, a child's sweater, a teachers gift?

I pondered on that as I sorted, reds/pinks in one tote, blue/purples in another, yellow/green, tans/browns/blacks, a variegated one and the largest tote of white in it's various forms.  And last but not least, is one tote of baby/sport/dk yarn in solid pastels colors and variegated mixed.

In amongst all the sandwich bags of small rolled up balls were some tools of the trade and some finished/unfinished projects....a dolls quilt,

a baby set that just needs to be sewn,

a stack of granny squares with coordinating yarn which I guess was to sew them together,

a baby bonnet that needs the ribbons,

 a lone bootie. (Oddly enough I think the match is in my mothers Bingo bag!)

and a lone afghan square.

I would like to finish the granny square and the baby items. The kids have a snow day today so #2 is rolling up all the little pieces into balls.  I foresee a scrap afghan of some sort in the future with all those balls.

Until then I started using up some of the larger partial skeins.  I made two hats,

and the Spring Butterfly toddlers sweater.  I changed the bottom to a hemmed bottom. 

Love this quick pattern and because the top part is two strands held together, it can use up lots of the partial skeins so I know I am making more.

And in the spirit of passing it on, my brother's MIL will soon be the recipient of some of this yarn.  And soon I will have an accumulation of finished projects...I hope.

Year of the Sock?

“One can never have enough socks.” ~ Albus Dumbledore
It started with an attempt to finish old projects.  Languishing in a project bag all alone except for some yarn and a set of needles was a sock.  I had started it months ago and was struck by the SSS disease.  I felt bad and who can't use another pair of wool socks in the winter, especially one where below normal temps are the new normal.

Needless to say I finished them and made my feet happy.  Paton's Kroy Socks in Clover colors on size 2 dpns, basic sock pattern.

Since I had overcome the disease I started on another pair hoping I didn't relapse.  I didn't and my feet were doing the happy dance.  Aisling Yarns in Casablanca on size 0 dpns, short row heel pattern by SR Kertzer that came with a Mary Maxim order years ago.

And my momma always told me "moss won't grow on a rolling stone" (aka a rolling stone gathers no moss) so while I was feeling so sock friendly I cast on for another pair.  I finished one sock and the other is on the needles already.  Red Heart Heart and Sole in Razzle Dazzle, short row heel on size 2 dpsn's.

I was told 2011 was the year of the Rabbit but I am thinking it is the year of the sock.   My feet are not complaining and neither is the man since it is all stash!  Win Win Win situation.  Off to finish the second sock