Around the Farm...

Frankenfoot is all healed on the outside and feeling pretty good.

Inside, there is still some swelling around the joint and it lets me know when I need to sit down for a while and rest.  I see the doctor tomorrow and hopefully he'll tell me I'm not overdoing it.

Strawberries in abundance from Bountiful Baskets! Over the past two weeks I got 16 pounds of them.  I put up 8 pints of strawberry jam,

and dried 12 pounds of them in my dehydrator.

It's amazing how they shrink down to nothing...

I've been making some fermented things:  yogurt, sourdough starter, and creme fraiche.  It all sounds very fancy but it's stinkin' easy.

strawberry yogurt, sourdough starter, creme fraiche

In fact, there's no reason to buy sour cream when you can make creme fraiche in 24 hours.  Get a pint of heavy cream (whipping cream) - NOT ultrapasturized, and dump it in a bowl.  Add 3 tablespoons of buttermilk and gently whisk into the cream.  Put a clean cloth over the bowl (I use cheesecloth) and leave it for 24-36 hours.  Our house is chilly in the winter, so it takes a little longer.  When it's thick, it's done.  Put a lid on it and stick it in the refrigerator.

Yesterday I worked in the herb garden, building up the bed and making a (hopefully) dog unfriendly border using some paving stones that have been lying around for ages.  I also transplanted my bay laurel tree from a container into the ground.  This morning I'll plant some peas, nasturtiums, and calendula seeds. (Or maybe not.  I just went outside and it's freakin' cold and windy.)

Murnie checking out the new border.

At the back of the garden, you can see my upcycled bowling ball.  Here's a close up:

I got the idea for it on Pinterest here.

Remember the lace wimple I blogged about a while back?  Well, I got busy with it...

and now it's finished! I learned a lot by making it - provisional cast on, how to add beads to your knitting, and a picot bind off.

I must remind you that I am neither a professional model nor a professional photographer...

So while some of us are buzzing around doing a million and one things, others of us are just lying around taking it easy...

Murnie the Dog

Rosko the Chihuahua

Sophy the Cat

Nelly-cat

Frankenfoot, a finished project and the amazing cleaner recipe

Here is Frankenfoot, 12 days after surgery.  I am pleased, my doctor is pleased, my foot is relatively pleased.  I can now wear a real shoe, but have to be careful that it doesn't rub too much on the top of my foot, which = PAIN.  Murnie the Dog and I have walked twice around the path at the park (1 1/3 miles) for the past two days, but by the end of it we're both ready to go home and sit/lie down.

sorry for the poor color - it's my phone camera

Here is the finished forest green wimple.  It's really warm and light to wear either as a neck "scarf" or
a head warmer!  Amazingly simple to make, too.

dweebie looking model - it's hard to look stunning while managing the camera phone...

Yes, those are snowflakes and poinsettias left over from the holidays.  I have a hard time letting go...






I said I would post the recipe for the cleaner I used to clean my daughter's bathroom if it gave satisfactory results, so here it is:

1/2 cup Borax
1/2 tsp liquid soap (I used Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid castile soap)
2 tsp. TSP (trisodium phosphate - you can find it at a hardware store.  I got mine at my local Ace.)

Swish this all around in 2 gallons of warm water.  It did the trick on the bathroom mold/mildew.  Big happies and results without the use of noxious chemicals.   

I got this recipe from a book called Nontoxic, Natural, & Earthwise by Debra Lynn Dadd.  I just checked and it's available on Amazon even though its copyright date is 1990.  Shouldn't I get a kickback from Amazon for referring you there?  How do you do that?

Knitting with Sputnik...

That's what it feels like whenever I try to knit with double pointed needles.  After wrestling with this at my favorite yarn shop last night, I have gotten this far:

This is the beginning of my first mitten.  I am determined to learn to make mittens (because God knows we need them in Las Vegas at this time of year) and to knit them on dpns (because there's just not enough stress in my life).  And also because mittens are on my 101 Things to Do in 1,001 Days list.  Watch for updates...

Yesterday...

was what every single day should be like.  I got up early and had coffee in the morning room with the husband.

the morning room

 After a bit, Murnie the dog decided she'd like to go for a walk in the park, so into the car and off we went.

3D Murn

When we got back, I needed to get some things out of their pots and into the ground, so Murn hung out while I puttered around and the husband worked on his latest story.  I finally got a climbing rose and planted it along the front fence.  It doesn't look like much now, but I am dreaming of it taking over the ENTIRE front fence.

I am also envisioning the lavender growing to great heights, along with the bee balm, rosemary, and lemon balm I planted.  Grow, grow, grow!!!  Once everything was happily situated, I thought I'd go in and knit.  On my way in, I discovered Murnie the dog sitting in the middle of the strawberry patch, blissfully munching the nice, ripe berries.  It was so funny, I didn't have the heart to fuss at her.  She's such a fruit bat!  And we've got tons of berries from the co-op anyway.

Oh, this new knitting WIP -- I went to my local yarn shop on Saturday (I haven't touched yarn in sooooo long, and there were so many new things.  I just wanted to pull it all off the shelves and roll around in it...).  I settled on two skeins of outrageously expensive Turkish novelty yarn (green and purple) that actually has a bunch of different yarns worked into a skein (viscose, silk, cotton, linen, and combinations thereof).  I decided on a scarf (the world's most expensive, and like I really need another scarf???).  As I said, it's been forever since I touched yarn and I must have started this stupid thing a half dozen times.  I'm so out of practice and I just couldn't keep my mind focused on a simple feather and fan pattern.  Yes, ridiculous.  I mean, feather and fan?  The easiest pattern since garter stitch.  OK, so I finally got it together, and here is the beginning:

Turkish lavender mint scarf

Imagine it much longer and with luxurious fringe of many greens & purples...

Went swimming and did 60 laps in 45 minutes.  I must get off the sugar train and lose at least 15 pounds, preferably 20.  Back pain is no fun.

Finished off the afternoon by beginning an altered board book that will be a prize in Amy's All Together Now online art party.  Do you know Amy?  I love her blog, and her site Flutterbye.  To find out about the art party, click on the button on the right.  I've never done an online party, but it sounds like fun.  So here is the first page of my giveaway book:

altered board book giveaway

And now I'm done nattering.  That's what's up with me.  What's up with you?

Another project finished...

This is my wool peddler's shawl that I finished knitting quite a while ago, but didn't get around to blocking until yesterday.  I pulled the pins out this morning and am so pleased with how it turned out.  Why didn't I block it ages ago when I finished it?  Because I'm lazy and hate doing nit-picky stuff like weaving in ends, hemming, sewing on buttons and blocking.  Now I have not one, but TWO "new" shawls to wear this autumn.  C'mon North Wind, bring on the chill!

It's Done!

The shawl that took less than a century to finish!  There it is, laid out and pinned while it dries.  I unpinned it last night and it is so light and flowing.  Now for some cold weather, so I can wear it...

Sunday Morning

Quite a few things have gotten done around here lately.  The husband and I finally moved that ugly dirt pile and I added another garden bed and walkway:

 Not the best picture, because it was (of all things) cloudy this morning.  You might recall my ambitious plan to reclaim all that old gravel from the corner of the yard to make room for a firepit.

 Yeah.  That was a colossal pain in the butt.  So I decided to throw a hundred bucks at it and had some new gravel delivered.  The wonderful husband spent an entire morning shoveling it into a wheelbarrow and moved it into the yard.  (The gravel guys only drop it on the street, not where you want it on your property.)  Now it looks great, but it's too hot outside to have a fire.

Perhaps a small one for Lughnasadh...

 Remember the corn and pumpkins from not too long ago?

                                                                  Here they are now:

Every time I walk by them, I swear they've grown an inch.

And finally, I've picked up my knitting needles again after a long, long hiatus.  I have an inordinate amount of unfinished projects lying about. This year, one of my resolutions was to get some of them finished.  One of these is a shawl that I began I don't know how many years ago (really, I don't) based on a pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book.

I got the shawl itself made relatively quickly.  The problem was in how to finish it off.  At first, I thought a lacy, crocheted edging.  Started that, didn't like it, pulled it out.  Then, aha! It's done in fall colors, so why not knit little leaves all around the edge?  Hmm...did about 40 of those and couldn't stand it anymore.  How about knitting a separate, leafy border and then attaching it?  Got about 20" of that done and abandoned it.  Really, this project has been the source of unending harassment and derision on the part of all my knitting friends for, well, seems like forever.  (How's that leaf shawl coming?  Whatever happened to that shawl you started ___ years ago?)  Last night, while watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I pulled it out and took off all the leaves and unraveled the separate border.  Then I went back to Elizabeth and found that she had directions for a perfectly acceptable, simple garter stitch border that you knit on and bind off the shawl at the same time.  Why didn't I do this in the first place???  I'm now about a quarter of the way around and feeling so happy that I will actually be able to wear my shawl this fall instead of having it be my burial shroud.

I know it looks rather much like a pillow cover because it's on circular needles.  But once finished, it will spread out into a lovely circular shawl.  Here is a close up of the garter stitch edging:

I have decided that I'm working toward simplicity and completion.  Time to get all these things done so I can use them, rather than have them lying around collecting dust!

Coming soon:  pictures from my sketchbook project.