A note of thanks, and spring shoots

Soon, this will be here, from a friend who moved away but keeps in touch

in response to my request for advice. C. simply said here's some nice cotton yarn, want it? Look at those colors! Just beautiful.

What I don't knit for myself will go into socks and gloves for the Knitting Ministry. 

Meanwhile, in anticipation, I had bought some very fine cotton/bamboo mix, for the tender bits,

which will go with a heavier yarn for the body, so I cast on, three threads held together, looking promising.  

Thank you for the boost to the Boud Handmade Lingerie Department, dear C.

Meanwhile, speaking of boosts, look at the sudden shoots of the pony palm

It's new and sudden and exciting.  This is after years of growing taller but not showing interest in multiplying. The big stems are the established ones, and here are kittens.

This means the light is increasing though I can't say I've noticed, but the plants have.

Happy day everyone, notice stuff! 

The puzzle answer is

TOUCAN

But you smart folks got that right off.

Snow, chocolate walnut cake and feta

 Measurable snow yesterday, about four inches.

Kids off to find a place to ski

At home, I started the car after digging a path -- just pushing snow ahead of me, mainly. I really enjoy a bit of digging and getting the car started, because I feel capable. Gary came out and dug more for me in case I needed to go anywhere. The roads are icy enough for police to beg people to stay off them unless it's vital.

He also asked me if I have cheese grater, and I offered him  choice, box or straight, whereupon he brought over a block of feta cheese, invited me to grate some for myself, and he would take the grater and cheese home to use as needed. 

Then he left, I realized he'd gone without the grater, now among the dishes, got the other and met him at the door coming back for the grater. Two absent minds thinking alike.

Later I baked a chocolate walnut cake, using whole wheat and chickpea flour

and took a couple of slices to him.

Knitting continues and here's the current state of the test underwear. You'll see that the cast on row doesn't match. That's because it's a provisional cast on. When I come to knit the front, I'll start here, remove this yarn, then picking up the live stitches means no seams in the crotch area. 

This is the good part of designing your own, you can go seamless using  provo cast on. This is knitted as a single piece, with just short side seams.  I'll line the crotch with linen or a scrap of. cotton knit fabric. So far so good.

Happy day, everyone from your fearless blogger, feeling much better since I dug snow. It's not everyone's happy place, I think!

I'm an action figure! And other exciting things

How I got to feeling better Part One

Dave Croucher, a marvelous member of Spoutible, a platform of which I'm an original member and participant, designed and run by Christopher Bouzy as a safe, interesting online harbor for minorities and women,  has started creating these figurine images for members, and yesterday he made mine. He entitled it Fearless!

 For a much better explanation of why this improved my day significantly, go here

Cut and paste or Google, this is a screenshot not a live link. Bloggers are familiar with it, but in case you aren't..

Then Part Two

Gary came over, spent a while chipping ice to open the hood

And finally, his own battery booster not working, he used mine and my car fired up, causing me to exhale. I've lived so many years alone in an area with no public transportation, that the car is a lifeline. 

It's hard to understand the real anxiety of being old, tired and alone -- many days I don't see my neighbors at all -- and having your car fail you, unless you've lived it.  And I was unable to get the hood up, cold weather making my  hands clumsy, or I could have started it myself using my booster kit. 

It's years since I had feeling in my fingertips, old fingers, so I can't tell from feel where the hood latch is, which you have to do in order to raise it.  That was a big part of yesterday's down mood.  

So that was great, instant upward trajectory.

Then Part Three, the Misfits box arrived, reminding me how lucky I am to be in their delivery area, and to be able to afford excellent food

This week was a small order, the eggs not available, but not a tragedy, and supper came from pita stuffed with spinach and tuna mashed with cannellini beans.

I'm going to get back into bread and pita baking after this supply is done, now that I've managed to find whole wheat flour. I'll use a combo of that, chickpea flour and oats. 

Then, once again art saved me, with Part Four, making!  a new idea! 

If you've been reading in here a while you'll have read about my handmade underwear repair (it made AC comment "you never know what you'll find in here!") and underwear making, after I couldn't find what I needed online, to replace the current tatters. I'm in need again, so I looked around for knit fabric, found I didn't have any and then..

Thought wait, I can knit my own knit fabric! So I hauled out the deconstructed underwear that I use as a pattern and figured I can knit by matching the shapes, why not. No need to count stitches, just look at the shape to know when to increase.  

Here's the notes, left hand page, the yarn and needles, with the model pattern pieces. And here's the start of a great new idea.

I'll have to use bits and scraps of whatever yarn I have, not much just now,  just to try this out. If it's doable, I'll order some cotton yarn and I'll be set. Wheeeee!!

Happy day, everyone, I hope your mid winter Northern hemisphere blues are lifted soon.

The puzzle answer, which the high flyers around here got, was

WINGSPAN