Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Lookin' Up!

Thank you for asking how the arm, wrist and hand are after the barrel won that round.
Things are looking up!
Today's progress is the following:


There are two of these pumpkin pies, now in the refrigerator.


These 7 custard cups, shown baking in the oven, are the leftover pumpkin filling. Custard cups with custard in them! Who would have thought that they had a purpose other than to be stacked in a cupboard?



One thawing 20 pound turkey is now nicely thawed in wait for tomorrow's bread stuffing. (That's chunked bread, 2 sticks melted butter, diced onion, thinly sliced celery, dashes of salt and lemon pepper.) Russ is moving the turkey around for me as the wrist is not ready to support the weight of a frozen 20 pound turkey quite yet.



Can you believe two matching slippers? Yes, I finally finished the second one as wrist and hand allowed.


Finally, but not least, Happy Thanksgiving Thursday to those of us living in the USA or Overseas who celebrate our many blessings.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Barrel 1, Nancy 0

Last Sunday when DH still had to rest due to his port being removed and stitches were still 'fresh', I partially emptied the old burn barrel onto the compost pile, turned the pile, added more, then pulled on the barrel to replace it with new barrel. Sigh. The top third snapped off and so did my arm and wrist. The swelling is nearly gone now, still some bruising and I should be able to knit again tonight....a little.

'Meanwhile back at the ranch', the weather has been beautiful and yesterday DH took the leaf blower and cleaned off the back porch (sweeping is a no-no for the wrist) and blew more leaves from the yard into the garden.



First up, Russ is at the back left corner of the fenced portion of the yard.
(Notice blue sky!)



Second, here's DH's close to the garden. (Notice new burn barrel's shadow. Russ whupped the old one into shape for Mother Nature to finish recycling.)



How deep the new leaves are on Russ' boots!



The garden has been lightly tilled for winter by Brian and his trusty Gravely. We'd put homegrown compost, two barrels'-worth of sheep manure on the garden, then leaves two weeks ago and again yesterday. Uh, no, I didn't help yesterday except to take the progress photos.


Here's a cropped photo of the Gravely at work. This is an older, still cast iron Gravely. Heavy? Oh, yeah. Impermeable? Absolutely. Reliable? Always.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Beautiful November


A
Saturday
in November
in the low 60's!
Even though it has frosted heavily several times, lavender is still blooming! Trees have dropped nearly all their leaves, sparrows are raising their last fledglings. Russ' surgery went well yesterday for port removal and colonoscopy (clear), so we feel very, very blessed.

We'll enjoy this while we have it, knowing winter-like weather will also most likely be ours this month.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Footlet time

November in PA means slipper time and Marilyn Van Keppel's patterns being shared on the SHP KAL are just the slippers!


The KAL gives the option for stranded Scandinavian footlets or solid ones. Marilyn shares that Scandinavians often do not wear shoes in their homes so create these footlets to wear throughout their homes.



Here I'm sharing pictures of one of each. I've posed them in different positions to share that they do, indeed fit! Now, this is amazing considering that shoes and slippers and I have a hard time fitting comfortably. The acrylic ones are good for milder weather, while, the stranded ones are very warm right away. Sounds 'pretty good OK' for this 'grrl' who tends toward cold feet in colder climes.



Details (you do want details, right?):

Solid: Red Heart Soft Yarn (acrylic), Cherry Red

Stranded: Brown Sheep Prairie Silk "Buck" and Paton's SWS "Natural Green"
(Thank you, Yarn Elf!)

Needles: #5 16" circulars, 2 for each footlet;plus, straight #5 and crochet hook size D, tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

The solid ones have three stitches at the beginning of the foot top section while the stranded ones have seven stitches to accommodate the star pattern. The two footlets do fit differently because of this, but only in a good way.

These are welcome additions to my Ugg boots.

Thank you, Marilyn, and SHP for the KAL. Guess I should try out the next footlets, too, right?