Keeping My Hands Busy

I finally am able to do a little with my right arm so decided to try knitting.   That makes it sound like I really know how to knit and  guess I do but definately not a master knitter by any means.  My knitting experience is quite limited and mostly I have just knited squares and rectangles.  I did start knitting a pair of socks at least a year ago but only got one done over the heel then put it away.  Must get it out again sometime and see if I can figure out where I am on it or start over.

I decided to make more dishcloths.  I love to use these dishcloths and this was the perfect project for me right now.   I use the directions for one called Grandmothers Favorite.  The website is called Knitting Pattern Central and has lots and lots of free knitting patterns all types.

It had been so long since I have knitted anything I couldn't even remember how to cast on and then after I finished it I couldn't remember how to cast off.  Luckily I had a fabulous website (knittinghelp.com) bookmarked to give me a memory boost.    I used this website to help learn to knit even though my niece taught me the basics.  For one thing, this web page has wonderful short videos on the different stitches.  The videos show the English method of knitting which most American's use...this one you throw the yarn over the needle with the right hand, and the Continental method which picks up the yarn that is held with the left hand.  The Continental method reminds me more of crochet and for me being left handed it just was much more natural feeling so taught myself that method and that is the one I use.

I would recommend the Knitting Help free web videos to anyone wanting to learn to knit.  They are very easy to see what to do and you can play them over and over until you get it or to refresh your memory as I needed this time.

I like to use the circular needles when I knit instead of the straight kind as I was always hitting the sides of my chair with the straight ones and the circular ones are more compact and I don't have that problem.  

Oops!

I did make a few errors when knitting this first dishcloth but you know it is just a dishcloth so I am not ripping stitches to start over.  I didn't do the increase yarn over a couple of times and once I stopped in the middle of a row to go do something and when I came back I picked it up and knitted back to the same end and didn't notice it until several rows later.  It makes the dishcloth have 1/2 row more on one side than the other.  This pattern only uses the knit stitch and is knit from one corner up on the diagonal with yarn over to increase at the beginning of each row until you reach the half way point then knit two stitches together to decrease.  It makes the dishcloth look like it has a lace edge with the yarn overs.

Two more errors.

I made one change in the pattern though.  I like a larger dishcloth so I knit rows until I have 50 stitches on the needles before I start decreasing.  The pattern says to increase until you have 44 stitches.  I use a size 7 circular needles that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I like the narrow tips on the end of these particular needles.  I use the Sugar and Cream yarn an inexpensive cotton yarn that makes great dishcloths.  That is pretty much it - I do use a large eyed needle to weave the tails back into the previous knitting at the start and finish.

Have one done and started another with another color yarn last evening.  Don't know how many I will knit but now can knit these almost without thinking so can watch TV while knitting.  As I said they are great dishcloths, easy to make and they do make great gifts too!

Until Later,
 
Lynn

Amaryllis

There is something nice about having real flowers in my home in the middle of the winter, especially after all the Christmas decorations have been taken down’  Maybe it is the hope of spring to come, don’t know, but January and February are times when I especially like to have fresh flowers around.

On my last trip to Hastings I purchased a couple of amaryllis bulbs right before I had surgery – love the flowers and since the bulbs were over 1/2 price I couldn’t resist.  Could get my flower fix this way.  

This one was already growing when I bought it and was out of it’s box so didn’t know what color I was buying.  I was hoping it would be a red one but as you can see it has variegated pink and white blossoms.  The other one is supposed to be this color so who knows maybe it will be a surprise too when it blooms.  The second one is just starting to grow and a leaf tip has just emerged from the bulb.  It is nice that they are not both blooming at the same time. 

I hope to be able to keep these alive over the summer and plant them again next year.  I had one that I kept for several years but last summer it didn’t get planted and of course died of neglect.  I had a late start getting my garden in shape then broke my ankle so was just lucky that John wanted to take care of what I had done before my fall.

Keeping them from year to year is pretty easy…just sink the pot or remove the bulb and plant it in your flower bed in the spring after all frost is gone and keep it watered and fertilized all summer.  Towards fall dig it up and lay it in a dry spot  out of the sun and let it dry up.  (I lay mine on newspaper on my garage floor.)  When you want it to grow again and bloom, re-pot and start watering it.  I think they do need the rest time without water to bloom and the old leaves will dry up and you will need to pull them off before re-potting. 

I have found that keeping the bulbs over and fertilizing them during the summer they tend to have more than one bloom stem and more blooms per stem so it is well worth the effort.

Enjoy my flowers to brighten your winter.

Lynn
P.S.   When I looked at my blog this morning I couldn't figure out why the photos all looked a little out of focus but when you click on them they are sharp...wonder if that is the way it as always been?  Anybody know?

Old Farm Photo

As the title of this blog indicates here is the photo of the farm where I grew up that was taken around 1955.  This photo is taken from a different angle than the more recent one in the blog entry before this one so you need to orient yourself.  The road is on the upper part of this photo too and it is running at an angle from the upper left corner towards the middle of the right side (behind those trees.)  The new house my parents built was placed just in front of the old two story house.  After the new home was built they sold the old one and it was moved to a small town nearby.

My dad milked a couple of cows for years and you can see them in the lot south of the small barn.  The cattle in the feedlots really show up on this photo too.   The barn was removed and a new metal shop building was erected in the same place or close to the same place.

The tall silos were built near that small island looking area in the lower center of the photo.  If I am remembering right that is the area where the large gas and diesel barrels were located.  Most farms then and now have gas and diesel barrels that we fill our vehicles from.  Farm tractors, trucks, and pickups take a lot of fuel and farmers can't be driving into town for every fill up so they have to invest in bulk barrels to make it convenient.  Of course that means the fuel bill when they are filled is a big one too.  I still have trouble with filling up my car at a gas station in town at times since I usually fill up here at home.

There was a small grove of trees that was to the left of the house that my sisters and brothers and I played in almost continually when we were kids.  There were a lot of large cottonwood trees plus caltalpa, elm and ash trees.  We would play house out there for hours.  Each of us would have a separate area as our "house" and would have all sorts of empty cans, old pots and sticks for silverware. We even swept our dirt floors with an old  broom or rake. Of course we climbed the trees too - I think we were part monkeys as we did a lot of tree climbing.


My two sisters and I would climb to the top of a few of the younger elm trees that were 25 to 30 feet tall.  We would climb up to the top of  the spindly trunks and branches, each of us in a separate tree.  We would then start swaying back and forth and back and forth bending the tops over.  Looking back, I am surprised we didn't break the tops out and come tumbling down.  I don't remember my brothers climbing those trees while I was doing it because they were younger than the three of us girls, in fact Don was a baby during the height of this fun activity.

We had a snow storm blow through here Sunday night and Monday and ended up with 6 to 8" of snow.  Yesterday, Monday, the snow looked so pretty as it had come down and settled over everything without any wind.  That was short lived though as the wind picked up my mid-morning and blew it into small drifts around the yard.  John waited until closer to evening to start clearing the driveway our with the tractor and scooping the deck off.  Would hate to do it all and have it all sift back in.  All I can do is watch from the windows this winter.

Besides the snow we are having frigid temperatures here in Nebraska and even colder wind chill temperatures.  I am not sure how they figure wind chill temperatures but they take the actual temperature, factor in the wind speed and come up with a temperature they say it feels like outside.  This morning it was -3 degrees F actual temperature and the high was 10 degrees F around 4:00 pm. but I don't know what the wind chill temperatures were today but tomorrow the high is supposed to be 9 degrees F and a wind chill of -26 degrees F.  It is predicted to be very cold all week....another reason for me to stay in the house.

Until Later,
Lynn

New Blog

Thought I would all let you in on a new blog Platte Valley Farmer about farming in central Nebraska.  It also so happens to be written by my brother Don.  I borrowed this photo from his blog...it is the farm that I grew up on.  It has made a lot of changes since I lived there, one being the house.  I grew up in a large square two story house and my parents built the home you see in this photo the year after I graduated from high school.  My brother Don and his family live there now.

Also when I grew up, my father had some cattle feedlots but expanded the operation in later years.  Now there are no cattle on the place as my brother has switched to all grain farming (read his blog for more info.)  That is the ebb and flow of any enterprise.  I think this photo was taken at the height of the cattle feeding operation with many cattle on feed.  If I can manage my camera or the scanner I will post an aerial photo in a few days of what looked like at an earlier time.

The farm is located in the Platte River valley in central Nebraska but at the north edge of the valley.  You can see the pastures on the rolling hills beyond the corn fields.  Growing up we would occasionally hike up to those hills and in the winter would get out the ice skates and drive to a pond near our pasture a few miles away from our house and spend a few hours ice skating.  My dad had skates too and would drive us up and skate with us....what fun memories.  (I have two sisters and two brothers so I have 4 siblings with 10 years between the oldest and youngest who is my brother Don, the new blog writer.  I am 9 years older than Don and he was just a little kid when I left home to attend college.)

It seemed like we had colder winters when I was a child than we have had for many years as I remember skating a lot.  Either kids didn't skate or we had warmer winters when our daughters were young but this Christmas our two granddaughters received ice skates and are skating on a pond near their home and loving it.  They did get in a few times of skating before it warmed up after Christmas.  They had to put them away for a while as their pond was melting a little and it was just too dangerous.  The last few days it has gotten very cold and is snowing so maybe it will freeze solid again so they can skate some more.

 Shoulder update....I am doing better and have not had to take any pain pills since Friday afternoon.  I still have some aches but no worse than before surgery so can deal with that, of course I have not moved it too much either.  I am even typing this blog with two hands....Yay!  I just have to angle my sling over the keyboard and away I go.  I still am icing the shoulder and wearing a sling and will be for a while but am getting along pretty good with one usable arm since I am left handed and it is my right that had the surgery.  I will start PT in about 2 weeks but in the mean time I am to do some simple arm swings etc. to keep it as limber as possible.

No sewing for a while I am afraid - I just can't raise that arm too high or for very long.

Until Later,

Lynn