next day

The view out the same window as before... just 24 hours later. There was about a foot or more of snow before it started to rain.
Her royal highness in a section that I'd shoveled just the night before. She isn't as miserable as she looks, just peeved that she has to be on her leash while I shovel. She likes to attack the snow as I throw it on the pile, then wander off to see what the neighbors are doing with their snow.

it's time

Let's see...got shovels, fire wood, stove oil, chains for the car, plenty of art supplies (list not in order of importance), and nice warm boots. I should be all set. Plenty of food for cat/dog and me...probably not enough chocolate, beer or wine, but I have to go in to work today so that's taken o.k.

I took 10 gallons of stove oil over to the liquor dude's cabin. He wasn't there, but I heard a compressor and a nail gun over near the house he's building, maybe they got the roof up today. Building a house in Alaska with out taking out a loan is a long and arduous road. His wife might be able to come home next month if immigration is kind to them, I hope so, they deserve a break.View from my computer window looks out across the neighbor's yard. Past that small tree and down that lane is where the horse was staked out. The pizza lady tells me it's being taken care of at the other end of town now. I hope it's in a shelter today.

october cuff

This one ended up to be a blue sky memories cuff...it rained a lot this month. Today was a fitting day to finish though, it was absolutely beautiful with a dusting of snow and blue blue skies. I'm pretty much done with the light blue though, September's offering was full of light blue beads too.

Finishing on this went faster and worked out better, I used what I call a baseball stitch, entering the cloth and felt both from the inside of the seam. I can control the stitch size and spacing a lot better that way than with a typical whip stitch.

fires

As you well know from all the 'firewood' posts, I use a wood stove to heat this place...it's not my only heat, but I want it to be the major source. Heating oil is still $5 a gallon and precious. My wood stove was put in as somewhat of an after thought, relegated to living on the porch really. It keeps that porch really warm, but there's a small wall that blocks a lot of heat from the rest of the living area...
So I fixed it. I took a hammer to that wall and removed its heat blocking self! I don't really know exactly what's next...but the heat gets through instead of building up in the porch. One less wall I have to tile or cover with metal.

This on the other hand is my neighbors' fire... they bar-b-que on their porch so they don't have to go out in the rain to tend the fire. If you look closely, there's a can of lighter fluid on the hand rail. The fire is very kindly pointing at that can of flammable fluid. Seconds after I took this picture (if you follow the Yarn Harlot, I Kinneared my neighbors' porch) the guy came out and moved the whole rig about 6 inches to the left. I hope that place has a second entrance!

head cosy

This is my version of Fiber Trends' Swirls Hat. It's a really fun pattern to knit...fast and slightly technical with that very cool braid. The braid is just a twisted purl stitch, one row where you make the twist go one direction by pulling the yarn from below and then the next row twist the other direction by pulling from above. It's slow going but the results are so satisfying!
I think I might be on a little hat kick, sort of like my mitten kick a few years ago. Maybe the next one will have ear flaps... I might change the way I do the decreases in the top to avoid that little barb of yellow poking into the fuchsia. (dang that word is hard to spell)

when the weather gets icky, make warm stuff

With the help of my lovely assistant, seen above helping with the design stage, I embarked on yet another "ooh let's make something new" adventure. My old wool slippers are gradually falling apart so I decided to make a new pair.
I started with some wool/rayon felt that I'd washed and dyed. The washing made it too thick and fuzzy for beading but the dye made it rich and beautiful. I made a paper bag pattern for the uppers and traced some felt insoles for the bottom.
I wanted them really thick so they both have two layers, but since the felt is hand dyed...no two pieces are alike. You can barely see the industrial gray of the insoles inside. They're thick wooly insoles that we put in our Xtra tuffs (rubber boots) up here in rain world.
The safety inspector reminds me that I've left quite a few pins and one needle in the left slipper and to please remove the pokey things before wearing. Payment to the inspector is to be made in the form of small bone shaped biscuits, thank you very much.

Shhhh don't tell the dog

Last night (it was a dark and stormy night) something jumped up on my bed and started purring like a mad thing when I touched it. Yup, Biscuit (aka Bela) snuck in for hours of snuggling! The dog woke up and shifted around and mumbled a little but she didn't get curious about the purring sounds. For her part, the cat was so impressed with her discovery of the big warm bed full of human she didn't let me sleep much. There was a lot of cat balancing on the highest point of human alternating with stomping on the softest parts of human. How do they know where your bladder is located?

The cat has a sanctuary in my bead room but I'm hoping that some day soon I'll be able to move the dog blockade and allow free trade for both species.

a couple of things including a market moment

It's getting chilly here, snow is creeping down the mountains, snow falling across the channel yesterday and the frost was still on the leaves in the shade at noon. Every morning when the dog and I walk, we pass a horse that is staked out in a yard, no blanket and no shelter available. I called the police non-emergency number and reported the horse alone in a field apparently left there to mow the grass. (here's the market moment...) The woman on the other end said "Kelly that works at Mountain Market?" She recognized my voice...so even though Heather Lende doesn't know my name, someone does! Miz Lende wrote a book called (something along the lines of) If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name. My brother claims since she doesn't know my name I must not live here. Hmph.

...but I do live here, see? The fish sign is on the woodshed at MY house. I decided to put it on the woodshed instead of the actual house because it just looks better against the raw wood instead of the painted white porch rails.

house numbers

I redid the numbers on this 3 times before I was satisfied. They were crooked, they were funny looking they were just not right until I finally traced some pre made numbers. I need to put some sort of clear coat on it before I hang it outside. I usually use some clear krylon or spray verathane to seal stuff, wonder why I didn't get some at the hardware store today...dork.

september cuff revisited

Here's the chickadee made into an actual cuff. I want to finish each piece each month so I don't have to go back and do a bunch of fiddly stuff at the end of the year. We'll see how that works out, but for now...
I used narrow grosgrain ribbon for the loops and sewed some hand-dyed cotton fabric on the inside to hide the stitches and make it more comfortable for wearing. Issues that will be a problem: my handsewing abilities are limited (messy) and I don't have access to a ribbon store, so I need to plan ahead on the fasteners.