Wednesday, March 28, 2018

At the Kitchen Sink

It's so nice to be able to use the kitchen once more now that the oil slick has been removed. I don't know about most people but I sure don't like to eat out all the time. I can manage for a few days but it isn't the food I prefer. I like hot oatmeal & raisins with a little dark brown sugar on top. And I like stir fried veggies with lots of ginger & garlic on top of my brown rice. The Mcdonald's drive thru may have good coffee but even my favorite wrap gets boring after several days!!

Now that my kitchen is functional again, I can think about setting the spin on all those white skeins of yarn I've spun up over the years. About 10 years ago I bought 15 pounds of Brown Sheep mill ends. The majority of the roving was a wool/mohair mix while about a quarter of it was plain wool in knots. The knots undid into a bouncy roving that spun like a dream into a spongy yet  bouncy yarn with a slightly yellow cast. I liked it better than the wool/mohair & decided it would make a great Kimono style sweater. But I didn't want white yarn. And I didn't want to dye it until ALL the yarn was spun. I waited to dye it all at the same time to get at least related skeins in the same color. I just wish the knots had been a light grey because I'd like to have a light base color & then paint some spots in a bright primary RED with a few dots of some other color to contrast. Since the weather is not so great at the moment, maybe I'll have to think about it until it's warm enough to let the skeins dry outside.

When I ordered that big bag, I never thought about what I'd DO with all that wool. And the bag didn't look that big until I opened it. The air rushed in & it grew to more than twice it's previous size in the box. And that's a lot of wool roving when you have several other bags of fleece, at least 20 bags of hand painted or dyed rovings & several bags of mohair & alpaca. I told myself I was buying for the future for when I was retired & too broke to afford the good stuff. Sort of like a fibre RSP - hahahah. Mind you, when I ordered that bag, the Canadian dollar was higher than the US dollar so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Skating Rink

Tuesday, I knocked over a full quart bottle of Extra Fruity Olive Oil. I have this big brown wooden cupboard about 5 feet long & 4 & a half feet tall with shelves inside that I use as extra storage in my kitchen. I think it was once a huge entertainment centre because one side of the  top lifts up when you press on the corner & the shelves inside are all different shapes & depths. I love that cupboard. It weighs a ton but it can store giant containers of pasta, flour, sugar, oatmeal, boxes of garbage bags, cases of mushroom soup, rolls of paper, foil & parchment, big Tupperware containers, sacks of rice & all the bits 'n' bobs that come with my Nutriblender. I don't normally store liquids in there but I needed a tall shelf for the tall oil bottle. So, there I was, on one leg with the other in the air - think crane - balanced on the cupboard top with one hand so I could get low, reach in & pull out a can of soup. And 'bink' said the bottle politely as it tipped over & fell one inch to my tiled cement floor.

It broke into three main pieces along it's side seams & oil poured out everywhere. I couldn't move fast but was able to grab newspaper from the recycling bag & cover the whole lake as it spread. I managed to drop paper towels on the edges of the paper & then more paper on top of the whole mess. I've spent the rest of the week trying to figure out how I'm gonna get it all cleaned up. I can no longer reach the floor easily. Most days if something drops, it stays there unless I can pick it up with my grabber stick or there's a counter nearby where I can pivot on my good leg while lifting the bad one which doesn't bend like it used to. Stuff that falls with an end or side sticking up I can often grab but a lot of stuff stays flat on the floor until it's dry enough to sweep. I sometimes long for my huge old dog Linda who could vacuum anything remotely foody from the floor before you realized it was dropped - even raw eggs.

Today, I managed to pick up the glass with my grabber stick just as neatly as you please. It was the part I really worried about. I thought it might be too heavy for my grabber or too flat because it broke along the side seams. It looks like the newspaper has soaked up most of the oil - all that Extra Fruity goodness whaaaa - and is stiff enough to pick up without too much mess. So I should be able to stuff all that oily paper into a garbage bag without calling for help. A little industrial degreaser on my floor should take care of any leftover oil - I hope. I'm really looking forward to getting back into my own kitchen & cooking again. I like eating out too but nothing tastes quite as good as your own brown rice & curried chicken!!

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Down the Hole Again

Leftovers Bag
I don't know how it is in your house but sock yarn is a staple in mine. Yeah, I would say it has actually become the equivalent of a Food Group over the years. One of the Essential Food Groups. There's always sock yarn in this house even when I'm out of bread. Not only do I have new balls of plain & patterned yarn but I have sock yarn leftovers grouped in three main color groups - Reds, Blues & Purple/Pinks in a box & three bags!! Seems that nowadays, most people love the leftover, scrappy socks a whole lot better than plain ones. Good thing. Because I've made a lot of socks since I left my husband 17 years ago .   .   . 

A couple of years ago - I can't remember exactly now - I decided NOT to BUY any more SOCK YARN. None. I decided I would knit up all the left-overs until they were all used up. That was okay for a while until I ran out of plain colors for heels & toes. Socks that are made up of all kinds of patterned yarns really, really need plain toes at least. What's more fun that a pair of blue patterned socks with shocking pink toes??? The kids I know fought over them! So I bought a half dozen balls of neon pink, yellow, green, turquoise & red yarn for toes. But basically, I've made nothing but scrap socks for the last year & a half.

Of course there's the yarn I traded for or was given for my birthday which doesn't count toward's stash, it's personal. My friends know I love Kroy for my winter socks & even a pair or two of mitts & I will donate the scraps to the box, if there are any. And last fall I fell off the wagon & bought 6 balls of Knit Picks Felici sock yarn in Goth Kitty for me!! It's a delicious blend of plum, pinks & greys. Just my colors!! I love hot pink with grey & black!!! Or plum & green together - like pansies & violets!
And then along comes Gail, the Enabler, with her big sale on sock yarn at dirt cheap prices & offer to share the shipping cost .   .    .    .    I fell down the hole & bought another 20 balls. They won't have to embalm me when I die, they can just stuff sock yarn into all my orifices & wrap me into a giant ball.

Monday, March 05, 2018

A March Day

I was sitting in my favorite spot in the Rotten Ronnie's parking lot today enjoying my Xtra-large coffee with two milks & Fruit n Fibre muffin, cruising the free Wi-Fi for more books by Alys Clare. I love my Kobo ebook reader & use it every chance I get. It's totally back-lit so reading at night or in poor light is amazing. The font is adjustable & I can actually read without my glasses!! There's no glare on a sunny day & no bright spot or dark corner when it's back-lit.

But, as I was saying, I was was in my usual spot, after going through the drive-thru & looking for another Medieval mystery by Alys Clare. I park in this spot for several reasons, free WiFi, good coffee, sunshine - when we get it, people can't find me unless I tell them to & I can people watch. It's amazing what goes on in a Mcdonald's parking lot!!! Yeah, I could go inside & get free refills but I don't want to listen to kids shrieking & whining - man, the older I get .  .  .  .  . this particular spot has a huge playroom so the noise level can be pretty loud!  I can also knit in my car & listen to an audio-book if I want while drinking my coffee. And I can take all my cups, napkins, bags & cardboard home to be recycled.

Today, it was a glorious sunny day that got me outside checking on my fern garden.  My stiff leg reminded me I should go grocery shopping early if I wanted any 'specials' & I decided to go for a coffee on the way home & read the last of my latest 12th century 'Who Dunnit'. On the way to Rotten Ronnie's, the sun shone brightly & I had to put on the summer shades!! Got my coffee, parked in the sun, got out the ebook & watched the big, black cloud roll in. It even brought it's own wind & rained down on everyone crossing the parking lot - especially the ones in shorts!! Then the  temperature dropped suddenly & it turned into a hail storm. The hail hit so hard it bounced & came down twice!! Then, as suddenly as it came, it moved off & I was bathed in sunshine once more. Then I had to go home & get back to work .   .   .    .    .