Tuesday tidbits

In which our plucky heroine, though sick*, appreciates the bits that can be managed...

Look what has showed up here in the chookhouse! The hens may be as goofy as all getout, but they do the work....

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After the debacle of my previous attempt, started a new shawl. This time I dug out the directions I'd printed out back in '09 for the feather-and-fan pattern. Making a plain triangular shawl, not a heart shape. (I have no idea what I was doing on my previous attempt, but it wasn't this) This patterning is completely different, and is what I remembered, a graceful symmetrical series of curves and points. Plus I decided to go ahead and use my few precious skeins of Noro Kuryeon colorway 195. I love the rustic texture of the yarn, and the subtle hues in this lovely (sadly discontinued) colorway, that has all the varied colors that are in my chosen wardrobe

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A healthy stand of chickweed... There is quite a bit of this growing in the salad table currently. I planted it on purpose, as an experiment. It happily survived the snow and ice, looked beaten but sprang back to life quite happily... It is a mild green that I like to nibble on, or add as greenery garnish to things....

It apparently is reasonably nutritious, and has proven to grow well in the wintertime without ANY input from me... As part of my goal to have assorted edibles growing around the yard, I intend to encourage it to become feral, in the hopes of having an easy to gather source of occasional winter greenfood. I would love to also have miners lettuce here, and purslane (tasty, crunchy, and slightly tangy) in the hot months... these may be weeds, but the idea of vigorous plantlife to encourage (and lightly harvest for high nutrition content) is very hopeful/helpful in the upcoming hard times...

one perspective on using chickweed, and a different perspective
some information about purslane, and some more information

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Did a bit of rearranging of the wardrobe sewing plan, since it is past Winter 6PAC, and while I will be making all the garments, I will instead focus on those that are also part of the SWAP as well as the Springtime 6PAC

WARDROBE PLAN SEWING

#	done	6PAC	SWAP	garment
1	-	-	-	black linen crop pants
2	-	-	-	black chopshop cardigan
3	-	-	-	black knit top
4	-	-	-	black linen top
5	-	-	-	black corduroy pinafore
6	※	-	※	turquoise shot cotton dress
7	-	-	-	blue/grey striped knit top
8	※	-	※	brown twill pinafore
9	-	-	-	brown twill jacket
10	-	-	-	black/brown A/C top
11	-	-	※	black/brown marl knit top
12	-	-	-	black/brown flannel shirt
13	※	-	-	black/grey handknit wool vest
14	-	※	※	blue floral blouse
15	-	※	※	dark indigo denim pinafore
16	-	※	-	indigo pinstripe dress
17	-	-	-	brown raincoat
18	-	-	-	black rain capelet
19	※	-	-	black rainhat
20	-	-	※	brown crop knit pants
21	-	※	※	blue crop knit pants
22	-	-	※	black crop knit pants
23	※	-	-	blue striped batik dress
24	-	-	-	brown mushroom blouse
25	-	-	※	grey corduroy pinafore
26	-	※	※	black/grey/blue stripe dress
27	-	-	-	blue knit turtleneck
28	-	-	※	black/cream wool pinafore
29	-	※	-	blue/brown A/C cardigan

After playing around with the Sudoku Wardrobe contest concept over on Patternreview during the time that Stitchers Guild was down it occurred to me that adding in an accessories component to the wardrobe plan would be a fun and useful adjunct. I don't need much, but a few things would really add both function and whimsy.

LUCKY 7 ACCESSORY PLAN

#	done	color(s)	accessory
1	※	black/grey	black cowl, grey pompoms
2	-	blue/brown	blue cowl, multicolor pompoms
3	-	brown/black	brown everyday hat
4	-	indigo/grey/etc	denim everyday hat
5	-	turquoise/brown	acorn enamel pendant
6	-	-	bag?
7	-	-	daypack?

Both hats would be replacements for current hats that are getting very worn out. Bolt has some interesting looking wool gauze on their website that I want to go look at, it may work well for a new cowl, with multicolor handmade pompoms inspired by these two Jane Carr scarves: grey, and blue


* still quite sick, throat hurts when I swallow, and my eyes are all infected, liquid running like tears down my face. Somehow this seems related to the current events, which are equally hard to swallow, and bring tears to my eyes. A trip to the local clinic and I was able to get a prescription for antibiotic eye drops that will hopefully help my eyes fight of whatever bacteria is causing them to swell almost closed and drip painful and itchy salt tears and goo

Friday fragments

...our plucky heroine has the best circle of friends and family anyone would ever want. Just saying. Two deliveries today of needed supplies: more broth-in-a-box, garlic, honey, and citrus. Milk (because I am a dairy based life form). Special throat lozenges. Oh, and Wanda brought me a new bathing suit, because sometime in the future I will not be sick, and there will not be ice and snow, and the excellent pool exercise will again be an option.

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Going to set up a second wee crockpot with an abundance of garlic and ginger steeping in broth. Because I can. Because whyever did I not think earlier of how much easier life would be (when sick) if there was hot broth safely ready whenever I woke up

not quite all this garlic and ginger at once
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Am very slowly continuing to knit the picot cast off on my Art In The Dark shawlette. The only thing I am doing differently is that the first bind off stitch after each picot, I just slip the knit stitch from the left to the right needle and bind that stitch off, instead of knitting it and binding off. Doing so seems to tighten up the connection between the picot and the shawlette, which was otherwise being a little bit more openwork than I would prefer.

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I am feeling a bit behindhand on my personal SWAP and Winter 6PAC sewing, but then, being sick has made me behindhand in all of my commission work as well. At least this shawlette will be a good coordinated addition to my accessory "wardrobe". Were Stitchers Guild up and running, I would start a thread suggesting an adjunct to the assorted planned garment collections, featuring accessories. I have been checking in on Patternreview, and on Textillia, but each online forum has their own culture and feel, and I have not been drawn to greater participation, though it has been good to read a few of the familiar names.

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wheel turn round...

in which our plucky heroine feels rather trompled...

"Small wheel turning by the fire and rod,
Big wheel turning by the grace of God;
Every time that wheel turn round,
Bound to cover just a little more ground..." *

and amongst all the strife and fear, the planet itself keeps on turning, and here in the northern hemisphere, there is sign of springtime awakening. No snowdrops yet, but new green growth from the formerly frozen earth. Must remember that downtime and darkness alternate with effort in the bright world, and take that as a lesson to not give up. As a sign I saw said: "they tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds..." Each of us a seed of our own beautiful gift to the world and the future that includes all of us.

* from "The Wheel" 1972 - Lyrics: Robert Hunter, Music: Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann

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I love my neighborhood. Just saying...

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Yesterday I felt a little wonky. Last night it turned into a cough and sore throat, and a heaviness in my lungs. I am kind of terrified it will turn into pneumonia, or is already pneumonia. Going to drink a lot of broth with garlic today and hope for the best. Took a nap this afternoon, woke up just in time to put the chooks safely to bed before it got too dark (there have been possum sighted in the neighborhood recently, and yesterday I saw a raccoon a few houses away in broad daylight) Now I am having some tea and grapefruit, and probably going back to bed... our plucky heroine feels very much under the weather

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For some reason, the shawl I have been knitting is turning out with an unintentionally wavy edge on both sides. The last time I knit feather-and-fan, only the live edge (the edges with the picots) turned out wavy, the upper edge was flat.

Not sure if blocking will be able to sort this one out... am considering adding a knitted on I-cord to the upper edge to try and decrease the waves. Pretty happy with the alternating colors every four rows between brown marl and blue marl, pretty happy with the picot bind off, just really wish that the interior edge was smooth and not scalloped!

Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine attempts to focus on the everyday good, mostly...

My chickens are gorram special. I just spent several hours wandering around in the dark (with a flashlight) trying to find them, since they were not in their house tonight. Flew over the chookyard fencing. No apparent signs of any varmints, just sheer cussedness on their part apparently. One was sleeping in a wet planter pot instead of the nice dry chookhouse. The other one had not only flown the coop, but also the yard fence and was hanging out in the carport with the assorted lumber scraps. I am not amused. I am going to have to create a more enclosed habitat for them. Somehow. It may involve giving them less space temporarily.

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Read that Stitcher's Guild is likely to return to active status maybe as soon as tomorrow... I can't wait. After eleven days, I really miss the ongoing "chatter" in my favorite corner of the virtual world.

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Am continuing to sort through the assorted fabric pieces stashed in the textile/guest room. So far have filled up 5 1/2 grocery bags full to re-distribute or discard, and may have passed the tipping point between small pieces to keep and those to leave. (small pieces being defined as pieces too small to make an entire garment from) I am keeping what is useful for edgebinding, or precious and beautiful, a few smaller knit pieces suitable for adding to my Alabama Chanin garments in the future, and a small assortment suitable for either SCA trimmings, or for next years holiday gifts. Oh, and anything indigo. Because indigo.

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Drew some pictures today as requested by my pal Thora. Two imaginary cities, loosely based on assorted medieval manuscript illuminations...

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	patches for ♀ march	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	creative drawings	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	bag to Goodwill
6	-	EBT application in	bag to Goodwill
7	-	bookcase tidied	bag to Goodwill
8	-	textile shelf leveled	bag for Powells
9	-	shadowbox tidied	bag for Powells
10	-	stripey cuffs mended	5+ bags fabric
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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Sunday snippets

once the snow began to melt and the ice dissapear... our plucky heroine followed this pathway along the side yard...

the eastern sunlight so warm it felt like striking sparks from the tips of the moss on the chookhouse roof. The landscapes of moss country are always fascinating to me, I spent a lot of time five years ago photographing them all around the local neighborhoods...

Then there were these mysterious tracks in the last remaining snow, which research showed to be squirrel footprints...  -   -   -  ->

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Given the general state of the world and our country in particular, I am attempting to balance action and effort with a modicum of self-care. There are only few things I know that compare to the delight of exploring a new-to-me book by a favorite writer. I was able to borrow "Summerlong" by Peter S Beagle, and am allowing self a few pages at a time, several times a day, to encourage my forward momentum. The wonderfully rich and specific way he uses words, and what to me feels like a glimpse of essential inner lovingkindness, have been invaluable to me.

I first read his "The Last Unicorn" in 1970 (according to my memory and the copyright on my very battered paperback, bought at the New England Mobile Book Fair with a combination of allowance and babysitting money) and have been a delighted if inconstant fan ever since. I read things, and then life distracts me, and then I come back again and remember how nourishing the writings are... Am considering making a reading list, and then after that choosing to add a bit to my heavily curated home library...

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine remembers that, despite everything, there is still beauty in the bright world...

at Green Zebra (a local grocery), I saw the most beautiful display of oyster mushrooms...

and a closer look at one of the clusters:

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I seem to be doing a lot of mending and repair this month, despite my desire to be making and doing. Whilst beginning on the large task of mucking out the textile room, I found some knitted fabric that lent itself to renewingone of my favorite knit tops, the stripey grey and black turtleneck. While mostly in good shape, the cuffs had become worn away in spots, and so this very narrow knit stripes in black and white were added to the ends to get a bit more another few years of wear out of it. I am considering also adding some Alabama Chanin style applique as well, since it is becoming a bit more "bohemian" a garment...

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Now that the library zone is done, I've moved on to tackle a much more challenging part of Acorn Cottage: the textile zone! The small bedroom here serves multiple functions, it is a combination guest space and stitchery workspace, at least in theory. However, my fabric stash has rather taken over, primarily due to my inability difficulty in discarding smaller pieces of fabric that "might be useful". My intention here is to make the space be orderly enough so that guests will feel comfortable staying here, that I have space to work on projects for myself and on commission sewing jobs, and that I am able to easily find, among my supplies and tools, whatever I need from the things on hand.

I expect this to take a bit of time, as it is more complex than dealing with books and magazines; I also am resigned to it looking worse before it gets better, since all the small bits tucked away in bins or drawers will need to be sorted through and recombined into a not yet created system that makes sense to me. For right now, though, here is a picture of one wall with the newly orderly piles of larger fabric pieces, those with enough yardage to create garments:

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	patches for ♀ march	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	-	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	bag to Goodwill
6	-	EBT application in	bag to Goodwill
7	-	bookcase tidied	bag to Goodwill
8	-	textile shelf leveled	bag for Powells
9	-	shadowbox tidied	bag for Powells
10	-	stripey cuffs mended	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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Cancerversary - the resistance of the small

Five years now...

from the day I woke up in hospital, minus some parts I considered essential, but which as it turns out would have essentially ended my life rather quickly...

Today my thoughts are conglomerate, embedded in a deep matrix of gratitude for my continued life. Had I not been successful in our states lottery* for access to health insurance coverage, back in 2011, my cancer would have been untreated and I wouldn't be here writing these words. So many of my beloved friends and family were amazingly supportive during the surgery and long recovery, their kindness lives on as bright as the sun in my heart. The difficulty I had in finding medical practitioners willing to accept state health coverage, which delayed my diagnosis by an additional six months. The excellent care I now receive at the cancer center, that has allowed me to continue building a life as a survivor...

... and now, my intense worry about losing my health insurance, as the new political administration is determinedly starting to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, with no signs of any "great plan" at all to replace it. As a cancer survivor, I am "uninsurable". As a self employed artisan, I have no "coverage through my workplace"... As our plucky heroine, I shall do all in my tiny power to resist those who would call my life valueless, and all the lives of the other "small" folk who are excluded from the tables of the powerful and rich. 

...everything can change
in the blink of an eye
so let the good times roll
before we say goodbye...

- from "The Bug" by Mark Knofler

* Every year, or less often if there were no new funds, the state health plan opened a lottery for uninsured citizens to apply for health insurance. If you were lucky, you might be selected to be able to apply. I was in the lottery five times. Five years attempting. The year I was lucky, there were over 10,000 applicants for a little more than 1,000 openings. The next year, I was diagnosed with cancer.

wishful Wednesday - SG

in which our plucky heroine is wishing that SG was back online...

My favorite online community has been down for days now. I am referring, of course, to Stitcher's Guild, an online international message board that connects people who sew. Over the years I have been participating there, it has come to be much more than just typing in boxes, even though I have only ever met one of the participants in my brightworld life. Every day now I click on the link to the site, and get the dreaded 404 message.

I realised that over on Patternreview there might be information about what what happening... and sure enough, in the Forums section under Web Site talk, there is a thread about "SG down?" DragonLady (who owns the message board) posted over on the PR thread on Monday: "'Lo everyone! I'm just popping in to let everyone know that SG is being worked on. Please be patient, as this is happening over a holiday weekend, and everything takes time -and patience. But I promise the hosts and I are working together to resolve the issues to bring us back online ASAP.

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the last of the local snow lizards, basking in the cold sunlight, before the rains came and washed them all away...

The thawing snow recedes,
and leaves my liquid heart visible once more...

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a dream and other Tuesday tidbits.

in which our plucky heroine has a very vivid and unusual dream. Wandering inside a store like Powells, only in Japan. And they also sold fabric on one whole floor. My delight was all in browsing the aisles and racks full of beautiful fabrics. Not in finding but looking. Was entirely unlike any other visit to dreamland, and an area I had not discovered before.

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After spending a huge chunk of the day stocking up on some extra groceries in case the predicted ice storm hits us hard, I was thinking about sewing, but decided instead to continue my efforts with the "library zone" here at Acorn Cottage. After previous efforts had the bookcase all tidy, the remaining work was to clear away the random items stacked on the top... That took about an hour.

When my coach asked what I wanted to do next, I said "tomorrow, how about the shadow box?" She thought that would be fairly simple and suggested that we go ahead with it tonight...

Well, it contained rather a lot of tiny trinkets, as well as larger artifacts and an astonishing number of rocks. I often find interesting rocks and bring them home, and apparently this is a common behavior in people that struggle with clutter, or at least the ones my coach has worked with... I sorted out what I wanted to keep, what needed to live somewhere else, like the metronome belongs with the music things, etc. and what things were no longer resonant in my life... After another several hours, I can confidently call the library zone DONE!

The arrangement in the shadowbox is temporary, and I'd like to find some new paper to line it with, as the old paper had become faded and patchy. The top of the bookcase will just stay empty for now; though my original intention is for the area between the upper and lower bookcase to be used to display interesting or seasonal things,  each artifact I have tried to put there looks really odd, small, and isolated. I'd like to add some lighting underneath the upper bookcase shelf, and think about how best to use the newly free space.

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You can bring a chicken water, but you can't make them drink! My hens are goofy. I brought them nice fresh slightly warmed water today, because as always, when the weather is this cold, the water freezes solid pretty quickly. Did they avail themselves of said nice liquid water? nope! They decided that eating snow was better! If they do it again tomorrow, I will try and photograph them, with their little beaks all snowy.

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	patches for ♀ march	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	-	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	bag to Goodwill
6	-	EBT application in	bag to Goodwill
7	-	bookcase tidied	bag to Goodwill
8	-	textile shelf leveled	bag for Powells
9	-	shadowbox tidied	bag for Powells
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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Monday musings

in which our plucky heroine is grateful for friends near and far...

Given the condition of the roads, I was quite surprised that my beloved Blue Cedar House pals decided to come down Saturday to stay overnight and give a helping hand. I was grateful as well for the distraction of guests, given both the weather and my rather unrelenting and painful stiff neck.

Quite a bit of additional progress happened here over the day and a half that they were here: Farbjorn readjusted the textile room over the door shelf to a more level orientation, dragged masses of fresh bedding out to my Ungrateful Hens, and did yeoman service in cooking delicious meals, while his wife, Mindy of the Marvels, aka Thora, helped me dust and cull the bookcase and contents, to allow room for most of the books to be arranged vertically, as contrasted with the prior higgledy-piggledy bookcase.

There are still a cluster of "things" on the near end of the central shelf that need to find appropriate homes (a task for this week) and a stack of books at the far end, paperbacks and Whole Earth Catalogs, that are waiting for two new suitable bookshelves to be built.  In addition, she and I did a very rough first pass through the fabrics in the textile room, ostensibly because we were looking for some particularly useful to her fabrics. The results of our two major weekend projects were three bags for Goodwill, two for Powells credit (hopefully), and a modest amount of paper into the recycle bin.

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My neighbor M came over Sunday afternoon, and I taught her how to knit! Later that evening she took me along to a gathering of women preparing for the local womens march this coming weekend. There was a whole room of women knitting pussyhats, and another room of women making placards, and smaller pin on patches to share:

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	patches for ♀ march	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	-	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	bag to Goodwill
6	-	EBT application in	bag to Goodwill
7	-	bookcase tidied	bag to Goodwill
8	-	textile shelf leveled	bag for Powells
9	-	-	bag for Powells
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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Thursday thoughts: declutter, organise, create

in which our plucky heroine has a productive day...

After spending all of yesterday indoors, it was time to strap on the YakTrax and head up to Green Zebra for a bit of fresh produce, another apple would be quite welcome, and some rice crackers to go with the homemade hummus would combine for a sustaining brunch, and a chance for a short walk, even if it was ever-so-careful penguin walking, was really welcome...

Today it is just above freezing. There won't be much of this melting away in the next few days:

The streets are full of snow and ice, and the sky is a cloudless blue

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Since the planned errands for today were off the table, due to bureaucracy being closed due to snow, it seemed like a good day to turn up the podcasts and dig in to the decluttering. There was just one more box of misc unsorted papers to go through, and then all the unknown boxes were dealt with (as I recall I started last year with over 60 piles or bags or boxes of unknown content) It took a few hours to look at each paper bit one at a time, but when I was done there were two full bags of recycle, a pile to go in the bag of "shred or burn" and a tiny handful of index cards with art ideas noted on them to save. Huzzah for the end of Phase 1 !! (which I have been toiling away at for almost three years of somewhat intermittent effort)

As best I can understand it, Phase 2 involves going through the house one area at a time, sorting, organising and condensing what is there, moving things as needed to the best place for them to be used or stored. I suspect that as time goes on, I will have a better sense of this, so for now, I chose one obvious spot.

The hallway is my library, and most of the books in Acorn Cottage are supposed to live on the bookshelves there. A great deal of other things have been tucked in there over the last ten years, and the whole zone has become quite disorganised. Tonight's project was to deal with the very top of bookshelf, above the paperback shelf.

What I had originally intended for this wall was: wall art at the very top, then paperbacks (and the shadowbox at the right end for small interesting things)... then the wall clear from the bottom of the paperbacks to the top of the bookcase. The top of the bookcase for a pleasant assortment of interesting objects of a medium size... then books solidly all the way down.  There are several issues that have made this difficult, besides the obvious need to sort and organise. But I also don't really know where to put the things that ended up there by default instead of by intention. And I also have a problem because some of the books are too small for the bookcases (too short, and too shallow) and a few are too big and stick out!

It took a bit of doing, I'm embarrassed that there was some pretty heavy dust and cobwebs up there, but eventually the entire surface was cleared away, and the objects were either dusted off and put aside as memorabilia, or sent to Goodwill or recycle-land. Of course, now that is cleared off, the bookshelves look much more jammed. The taped tags mark the spacing for my personal SCA charters... Last year I found Ikea frames that include a shadowbox insert, which makes framing the charters a lot simpler, as multiple mats to deal with the thickness of the wax seals are not needed.

After a fair amount of additional measuring, the framed charters, which have been leaning against the bedroom wall for the last month, are finally on the wall where they were meant to go all along... You can see the gap in the middle where my missing Jambe charter should be. I am tempted to put my Laurel scroll, currently on the lower left corner of the wall, there temporarily. It would make sense move it up there at least for now, until I can get the missing Jambe sorted out, plus that is my one "real" scroll and it will likely be safer up and out of the way, but still be visible.

leaning against the wall, soon to be properly attached!

I don't really want to put all the assorted memorabilia back up on that shelf, the family photos need a different wall for their home, and some of these trinkets and treasures are actually useful elsewhere. I'm liking how much more peaceful the library wall is beginning to look, and the upper shelf is so high that it is really hard to dust things that are living up in the sky like that. So, for now, these pretty and fascinating objects will get temporarily boxed up, until Phase 2 creates places for them to call home.

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	-	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	-	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
9	-	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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wishful Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine accepts the inevitable and attempts not to whinge too much...

Yesterday evening looking out the front window - the snow keeps falling.

The Japanese maple is beautiful with a snow coat

Won't be hanging any laundry outdoors to dry for a while yet...

...and it just keeps coming down, another several inches in the last few hours after dinner; at this rate it will be OVER the tops of my high boots by morning!

almost seven inches deep... 11 PM on Tuesday night

woke up way too early and saw the neighbors cars transformed into snow dragons.

morning today January 11th, a foot of snow, and not done yet...

Remember that artistic Japanese maple from yesterday evening?

The view from the back door is not promising;

there is so much snow that it is tilting and curving, overbalanced on the tops of fence and clothesline.

I managed to make it into the backyard, carefully, because there are chooks that depend on me, tucked inside their house in this no longer pleasant hen-yard

They looked, but were not willing to go sledding; the snow is over their heads out there. I will need to make another trip to hang a waterer inside the chook house. There is a hook inside, under the roofline, for these rare occasions... I can't expect them to go outside when the snow is higher than they are tall!

This morning the backyard was full of unusual sculptures. Rose cages turned into layered snow cones.

Every bit of wire or wood had inches of snow piled up in thin blades of coldness.

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Doing my best to pay attention to how beautifully the snow transformed everyday reality, and not to focus on how much more difficult everyday life is when it snows. The weather will be getting colder for a few days before it gets back above freezing, so there will be more ice on all the streets and sidewalks. I managed to stay home all day today, working on tasks that could be done online, and only wrenched my knee a bit while going back and forth across the backyard with chook food and water. But there are some things that need done out in the wide world in the next two days...

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One thing I really wish I had thought to do earlier this year would have been to set up a wintertime chook yard, where their house and pen are much closer to the back door of AcornCottage, and where I can create a covered area for them in inclement weather. It makes sense to move their environment to different parts of the yard depending on the season. Where they are now is really good in the summer, as it accesses shade. It also means in the winter when it is frozen, I have to scramble across the icy yard several times a day to tend them. Hindsight is 20/20. Some winters it isn't an issue. Not today, though, and not last week. Sigh...

Something like this would be a possibility, though needs to be a bit larger in the covered run area. And were money, time, and space no object, there are plans for several large chicken structures that combine hen house and hen run, that can be left with the connection between house and run open, because the whole structure is secured against predators. This means that needing to open and close the chook house twice a day is not necessary... they can be left for overnight, or a weekend, with enough food and water, and still be safe from varmints.

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	-	Wastekeep bid	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
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14	-	-	-

Tuesday tidbit

in which our plucky heroine managed to get out on the front porch when it wasn't bitterly cold, or icy, or snowing...

was too cold for a real photo session, but I wanted to get started documenting my first few SWAP garments: This is Over #1, a pinafore made from brown brushed cotton twill, trimmed with black corduroy and a decorative stencil patch. It is worn over Upper #1, a dress made from turquoise Kaffe Fasset shot cotton.

This is Over #2, a pinafore made from some lovely, almost silky, wool, black with tiny flecks of cream. The textured weave and cream "dots" turn the color of the fabric to almost a bittersweet chocolate color*. I am wearing it here with one of my potential candidates for "previously sewn", an everyday top made from the same pattern as my dress, in a black floral print inspired by midcentury design.

(you can just barely see my toile for Lower #1 (knit capri pants) sticking out underneath the hemline - the pastel blue jersey used for the toile is not really well coordinated with any of my colors, but at not quite 40F, it was still really chilly outside today, so keeping my legs warm was the priority! This gives me the general shape of my basic look, but requires imagination to change the color to navy/indigo/brown/black. Future actual capri lower garments will be just a few inches longer, with some subtle trimming as decoration, possibly some reverse AC style applique)

*A closer look at the wool fabric:

Monday musings

in which our plucky heroine becomes confused, and laughs...

I cut out my first toile of the loose capri length leggings (a necessary part of my SWAP 2017 wardrobe components), using my blue tape pattern pieces. I looked at my instructions for "how to sew pants together": sew crotch seams, sew inseams, sew outseams, cover waistband, attach waistband. I sewed the pants together and moved on to the covered waistband. Which went together perfectly; the instructions in Threads #126 are good and helpful. However, when I tried to attach the waistband to the pants, something didn't look quite right: I had somehow sewn the pants together upside down, mixing up the inseams and the outseams, so I have a toile that has REALLY short legs, and is REALLY high-waisted!

Fortunately I used fabric I didn't love (a thrifted cotton knit jersey bedsheet) and I am not sure wondering if I can simply cut off the serged edges and re-stitch them, because I will lose at minimum an inch of width on the pants if I do so. Might need to start over entirely with new fabric to see if the toile will fit me properly. I mostly never wear pants at all, and so don't usually sew pants for self. This pattern is from a pair of loose leggings that do fit me and are VERY COMFORTABLE. All I can do is look at my goofy mistake and laugh.

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Compared to many parts of the country, our relatively mild climate is both good and problematical. The media, and many people who live in much more intensely wintery places, find it amusing how only a little bit of snow and ice causes widespread panic here in the PNW. Truth be told, there is very little in the way of municipal snow removal infrastructure here, very few plows etc...

Last week before the most recent ice storm hit, I trundled out to the little Green Zebra grocery to pick up a bit of extra produce and a quart of milk, so I'd be set for a few days. While they were not exceptionally crowded, for a Saturday, the man behind me in line said that the local big grocery store had lines almost an hour long, to which I replied, it's only a winter storm, not the Apocalypse.

Sure enough, we did get quite a layer of ice on everything this weekend, and I had to put on my YakTrax to to chicken chores. With my dodgy legs, I try and be cautious about slip-sliding away. Today, as the weather warmed, the result was lots of water OVER packed ice. Not safe walking, so the YakTrax were again deployed for my trip to Physical Therapy. By the time I was home again, the ice was gone, at least for the time being.

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Well that was interesting... got a notice last week from the water bureau, the "home water report"... apparently Acorn Cottage ranks in the top 20% of conservation households. Average for similar house and yard size is 157 GPD (gallons per day). Usage here is 16 GPD !

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	-	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
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13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

several Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine attempts to raise her spirits by raising her activity level...

...at least as much as is possible when the outdoors is a sheet of ice. Went as far as Green Zebra yesterday to pick up extra produce and a container of milk, but then decided against any further travel since the snow was picking up. We didn't get anywhere near as much as places further south, or higher up; the grass is visible under the snow, here, but there is ice layers all over the place (this afternoon I took the flat end shovel, and cracked away all the ice over the concrete next to the back door, so as to render chook patrol less fraught with danger)

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In the interest of starting 2017 off in a positive direction, I am going to be offering Enameling Workshops here at Acorn Cottage, on the weekends of January 28th/29th, and February 4th/5th... anyone out there interested and available at either of those times? All materials and supplies would be provided, as well as knowledgeable instruction. Cost for the workshop will be $250. Completion of a workshop allows you to come to my open studio times for further fun with enamel...

I intend to to offer workshops here at Acorn Cottage throughout the year on various skills, not only cloisonne, or painting enamel, but other jewelry techniques, as well as sewing and decorative textile arts. Some will be whole weekend workshops, others for either a day, or an evening. Is there anything you would like to learn from me? drop me a line...

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Spent almost two hours this morning working on the black/cream wool pinafore, as my next SWAP garment. Decided that timing how long it takes to complete will be helpful in future estimates of sewing commissions. I am suspecting that my rough estimate of about four hours labor is likely to be close. So far I am up to 2¾ hrs, and still have all the edge binding, and attaching the skirt to the bodice yet to go; tempting to just go on and finish it today...

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my interpretation of "wintery mix" (where snow starts to turn back to rain and vice versa)...

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	-	-	paper recycle
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
9	-	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-