Crystalline

Yup, that's the description of my world right now. Crystalline, white stuff. Too much of it. Also called snow. With more on the way. Yesterday we got around 20cm of it. I got to drive home through it. Down a 2 lane highway. In the dark. I got passed. By a dump truck. All I could think as he was passing me was,"Please don't slide, please don't slide" because if a vehicle that size starts to slide, there's no stopping it. Since my vehicle was next to it for a short time, it could have been ugly.

My silly question for the day today was,"Could you check my medication record and tell me if it is okay to use a nicotine patch to quit smoking?" . This is actually a fairly common question. A little bit of thought could aviod it, though. I mean really, if the nicotine in the cigarettes you were smoking was going tocause a problem, whouldn't you know by now? There is also the fact that a cigarette has an additional 5000 or so other chemicals. So switching to a single chemical in the form of a nicotine patch is likely an improvement, Even if the nicotine is not a good mix with the meds. That you have been taking. While you smoked.

So I looked up the file, glanced at it and told them to go ahead with the patch.

I'm off to dig my car out from under the snow.

Ciao

Another Try

You may remember (or not, it's not critical) that a while back I knitted the husband Mansocks. They were too short for his taste, so I was going to knit up another piece and graft it on. I worried about the graft and would it be ugly or leave a ridge if I did it wrong. So the socks sat. Unworn. I finally decided the other day to fix them. I unpicked the toe-graft and frogged them back. I am going to re-knit them correctly.

Here is a picture of the ripped back sock and the yet-to-be ripped sock. I already knit a bit on it, which is why the stitches look a bit wonky. It's the crinkle effect from being knit up and then frogged. It should settle after a wash. ciao

Neckline!

I have neckline! I had to pick up stitches 3 times. Or it might have been 4, but I finally finished the neckline on the Black Tomato.

I think it might be a little "closed in" so I am debating pulling it back a couple of rows, but I figure to block if before I decide if I am going to do that. And for sleeves, I have this much yarn left:So I should be able to get a decent length sleeve. Next time I work I am going to bring one of the skeins and weigh it and separate it into 2 halves so I won't have to think about when to stop knitting on the sleeves!

ciao!

Fingernail Friday!

A while ago I left a comment on Jessalu's blog. Okay, actually it was a bunch of comments. (snork) At any rate, I won a little contest she was having. It arrived a couple of days ago. Look at how pretty it is!

I now have a fibre stash. A little one, but that's how it starts....

By the way, the Official Fibre Inspector approves......

Shale Gauntlets

I finished them! I wore them to work today and for the first time this winter, my hands were warm.

and the close up view

and the flip side view

The yarn used was Lion Brand Microspun which is a sportweight yarn.

Pattern: I made it up as follows:

Size 6 needles

Cast on 38 stitches.

Row 1:knit

Row 2: knit

Row 3: knit 1 * k2tog 3 times, yo k1 6 times, k2tog 3 times* Repeat from * till one stitch left, k1

Row 4: purl

I did 16 repeats of those 4 rows. I put in an afterthought thumb by knitting stitches 17-20 with waste yarn, passed those stitches back to the first needle and knit one more pattern repeat.

Then 5 rows of k1p1 ribbing.

Bind off in a stretchy bind off.

Put stitches held by waste yarn onto 2 needles (8 stitches) and discard waste yarn. Pick up 2 stitches on either side of thumbhole (12 stitches total). Knit 2 rounds. then k1p1 for 2 rounds and bind off.

And you will have your very own Shale Gauntlets

Ummm, Yay?

It is no longer cold enough to freeze my nostrils shut. It is now only -9C! But it looks like this outside:

Can't catch a break here........

Ciao

Shale Gauntlets

I ripped out the Shale Gauntlets and re-started on size 6 (US) needles. Much better.

Sorry, the picture is not the best, but you can see I've been zooming along pretty well on them.

I have lots of incentive. This morning it was -24C outside. The vent hose on my dryer looked like this:

Yup, iced up. And that's INSIDE my house! Brrrrrrrrrr....

ciao

ETA: Dizzy Blonde will beup dating the shop tomorrow. At 11:00 PST.... It's lovely stuff....

Frosty

It's -20C out there right now. That's -4F for you folks that use that other measuring system. That is darn cold. I had tears running down my face as I scraped the ice off the car this morning. Nope, not crying, it was so cold my eyes were watering. Not an everyday occurence around here. So it was pretty darn frosty out there.

In other news.......

My husband likes to drink 1 cup of fruit juice a day. Don't ask me why 1 cup. At any rate, he is using up all my measuring cups measuring this stuff out. I try to cook something and have to wash out the measuring cup first. Irritating.

So I decided to make drinking the juice a one step process for him. I etched a line on the glass. To do this, you get your 50% off coupon from your last purchase at Michael's and buy glass etching paste. Buy some small cheap sponge paintbrushes. Then you also need masking tape, newspaper to protect the counter, rubber gloves and a sink with a tap.

First you figure out where you want to put the line. I dumped a cup of water into the glass to do this. then mark the line on both sides with the masking tape.

Then you put on the gloves and carefully apply a thick layer of the etching stuff. It said to leave on for 1 minute, I left it for something around 2-3 minutes. Then you wash it off under the tap in the sink. Carefully! Don't splash etching stuff up on yourself etc.

And there you have it. Measuring glass and drinking glass in one!

I thought I had pressed the edge of the tape firmly to the glass, but there was a little leakage under it so the line isn't perfectly crisp. Maybe electrical tape would have been better.

Ciao

Ribbing!

We have ribbing. Not, not as in 'ribbed for her pleasure'. As in Black Tomato ribbing!

Soon to be bound off ribbing. Then on to the neckline ribbing.

I'm off to rib!

Ciao

Snow Job

If you happen to be an unscrupulous person who is diverting your narcotic pain meds (ie selling them instead of taking them) and send your spouse in to tell your pharmacist that you are in a wheelchair and had to take a 'few extra' and that 'your doctor knows about it; Please be aware that I can see a snowjob from a long ways off. Taking triple your dose is not a few extra.

When I call your doctor, I will be asking what the dose change is. When the doctor tells me that the dose hasn't changed, I will be suspicious. When the doctor goes onto say that you told him you took a few extra because you are back at work and your back is bothering you a bit, that sends alarm bells clanging. Especially when I asked the doctor if you were back at work in a wheelchair. And the doctor said no, you were not in a wheelchair.

Then when I calculate the supposed dose you tell me you are on, depending on when you started it, you should have been out 10 days ago, or still have 2 weeks left.

So, do me a favour unscrupulous drug diverting person, do your homework and remember, no matter how big a snowjob you give me, I have a shovel.

I Used It!

Remember the clarified butter I made the other day? Today I used it! To make this:

Popcorn! Movie theater flavour popcorn, to be precise. The secret seems to be to use coconut oil as the fat. The clarified butter was (what else?) topping. The result? Lovely, movie theater popcorn. Another trick the recipe called for was to grind the salt used to sprinkle on top. I used the Flavour Shaker thingie from Jamie Oliver that was a Christmas present. Sorry, but the flavour shaker might seem like a good idea. The reality is that the stupid thing doesn't stay closed very well. I had to use 2 hands to hold it shut. So, as the brits say, I binned it.

The popcorn was a success though! I will definitely be making this again!

ciao

Shale

Do not adjust your monitors. This IS the 3rd post in 3 days. Do not be shocked. Also, do not get used to it. Eh, I had something to say for 3 days in a row. How odd....anyhoo, here you are!

I was wandering around the intertubez the other day looking for a stitch I could do in the round. I want to make my self a pair of fingerless gloves. Long fingerless gloves. I stumbled across an old stitch called shale stitch. Which, it turns out is feather and fan. So I knit a bit up to see if I liked it. I think I like it. It is a simple pattern that gives some very dramatic results. Just what I was wanting.

I think it is a little big. The pattern is such that I can't just decrease by a few stitches. So I am going to use smaller needles instead. Naturally, I don't seem to own any. All the ones I can find are teeny tiny sock needles. Not something to attempt sport-weight yarn with. Sadly, this means I will have to make a trip to my LYS. Sad. Right. Did any of you buy that?

Off to shop!

Ciao

Butter Up!

As I continue experiments in cooking, I found a recipe I want to try that requires clarified butter. So I made some!

First, you put unsalted butter in a pot and melt over low heat. Seems if you do this with salted butter, the amount of salt that gets into the clarified butter can vary rather wildly.

Then you strain the melted butter through a few layers of cheesecloth.

Then you let whatever might have gotten through the cheescloth settle and/or float to the top. The stuff that floats, you skim off.

If you look close you can see that the bottom of the measuring cup is slightly lighter yellow. that is the milk solids we are eliminating. I put that in the fridge and then when it was solid, scraped the clarified butter away from the solids.

I am leaving the jar open on the counter for a bit to let the water evapourate. Then you can store either in the fridge or keave on the counter. Apparently, clarified butter stays good at room temperature for a very long time. 2-3 months supposedly. Apparently it is the milk solids that go bad. At any rate, stay tuned for my next experiment.

ciao

Black Tomato

Not sure how far along Black Tomatoe was when I last posted about it. It's this big:

I figure another inch or so and then it's time to do the ribbing on the bottom.

ciao

Fingernail Friday

I was lax and didn't take the picture right after they were done. So if you see any imperfections, it's from use......

Ciao!