Composting and Looking Ahead

This summer, I spent a lot of time existing and not much living. If you've been around these parts for a while, you've probably guessed from my (few and far between) posts this summer that I've been in a bit of a slump. I can think of more things that I didn't do this summer, than things I did and when people ask how my summer was, I'm not sure how to respond. It came, it went and here it is, mid-October, my season full time employment wraps up this coming Sunday, and the long winter is staring us straight in the eyes.

I spent a lot of this summer in a state of melancholy. I've always been prone to glumness, but usually I buck up and shoulder on. This time however, I went for the full wallow. My creative well felt all dried up. It was all I could manage to work full time, fix dinner, tend and harvest the gardens, clean the house, run, and keep up with Etsy.(Okay, maybe I wasn't melancholy, maybe I was just tired.)

But last week I woke up on Monday morning and felt, like myself. I was awake. I was ready. I was tired of wallowing (or whatever the last few months have been about) and ready to get down to business. I'm calling this summer my "composting" summer; a fallow time necessary to grow great things in the days to come.

So here we are, a week later and I'm declaring it business as usual again here at Of Woods and Words. I'm committing to much more regular postings (I have so many post ideas floating around) and since this winter is appearing to be a little less project-heavy than last year, there may even be a blog redesign in the works before year's end. (Sorry layout, you're soooo March 2011.)I'm thrilled to be a mere week away from working from home and today has been a delicious little teaser, as I've been working from home (with the exception of a late morning board meeting) and actually working on my first freelance article in a couple months.

While it may feel (to me at least) that not much happened this summer, here's some of what's been going on during my absence:

We had our best garden year to date, despite a pretty cool summer. Last night was the first night we had a killing frost, which actually feels like a major blessing after harvesting gluts of green beans, kohlrabi, kale, potatoes, tomatoes, and so much more. Our freezers are filled to the gills and an empty mason jar is rare find in the cabin these days.

I've continued with my running and have 8 miles on the schedule for Friday's run. Whew! Running hasn't gotten easier per se, but it definitely has become a habit and I look forward to my runs, even though the decreasing amount of daylight has made it trickier to get my runs in before work. I got really into the Chicago Marathon yesterday and was so excited to think that in two years' time, I'll be one of those runners. Running = the bomb-diggity.

 

Over the last couple months, I got the lovelies above ready for a consignment order from Doodle Bird Design and Gifts in Minneapolis. I'm excited to have my knitting in an actual brick and mortar shop. If you happen to be a Twin Cities dweller, Kristin stocks a fantastic selection of handcrafted items from Minnesota artists and the shop is well worth a visit. Plus, you can buy a pair of my mittens, if you're not the sort of person to like waiting for Etsy orders to arrive. ;)

It's been a while, I know. What's new with all of you?!

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Rabbit, Rabbit

Well, hello there October! Where the heck did you come from?!

Does anyone else welcome in the new month by saying "Rabbit, rabbit?"  I adopted the tradition/superstition years ago when I watched the Nick Days blurb on Nickelodeon about how it supposedly brings good luck all month if you say "rabbit, rabbit" first thing on the first day of the month. (You know you were raised in the 90s when . . . )  According to Wikipedia (oh font of all knowledge) this superstition originated in Great Britian, probably in the late 1800s, and has since spread to all English speaking countries. I made sure the first words out of my mouth this morning were "rabbit, rabbit" so now I'm set with good luck all month. ;)

Speaking of Nickelodeon (is it even on the air anymore?!), why is it that I can remember all the words from the "Good Burger" skit on All That ("Welcome to Good Burger. Would you like a Good Burger? Can I take your order, please?"), but I can't remember the capital of Kazakhstan, which I did a report on some time in middle school . . . roughly the same time period as when I was watching (apparently) way too much Nickelodeon. And I can still hear the Nickelodeon jingle: Nick-a-looow-de-on!  Hmmm, suddenly I understand why I didn't get into Yale . . .

Source

MOVING ON . . .

All I really wanted to say was, "Happy October!"  I've reached the end of my marathon work schedule, which means that today is the first of two whole days off . . . in a row. I'm pretty giddy about the prospect of this newly found free time. Of course there are plenty of projects vying for my time already, but for the time being, I'm attempting to catch up on the blogsphere. The dirty house can wait another hour or two before I give it my full attention.   

Andy and I writing off September as the lost month. Because September was such a blur, I find myself still thinking that it's the end of August. Then I head out back and wonder what the heck happened to the garden.

Apparently the garden all hopped into the freezer (I'm sure I had some hand in this, probably in a semi-conscious state after work), because our chest freezer is stuffed to the gills with green beans, tomatoes, cabbage, apples and blueberries. With the freezer being so full, Andy's been pestering me about where exactly we'd put a deer if he gets one this year. He raises a valid point. I think we have months to eat our way through the now very full freezer before we have to contend with storing 40 pounds of venison sausage, but then realize that November and deer season are next month. Yikes!

But enough. For today, I'm going to take a break from first world problems like wondering what we're going to do with all of this food and instead, spend my day soaking up the autumn colors, which I'm pretty sure peaked over the weekend. It's a cool, grey day - perfect for tea, reading, knitting, housekeeping projects and trying out new recipes for dinner. I hope you all find some time for renewal today as well. 

The view from one of Andy and my main grouse hunting hikes earlier this week

Side note: want to sponsor Of Woods and Words this October? There's still space for some more advertisers and I'm totally open to swaps. Lemme know.

Happy October! May you have good luck all month long!
 

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Spring is on its way! I swear . . .

I know in about a month's time, I'll be penning a post in which I wonder where the @%!#?* spring is already, but for the time being I'm optimistic that spring is right around the corner. Never mind that today started out at 45 degrees, but now it's just above freezing and snowing.  Spring is coming, gosh dang it! Here's my proof: 

Yesterday, I watched the local fishing guide bring one of his ice houses off the lake. I'm always a little shocked to look up from the computer and spy a snowmobile tugging what essentially looks like a big box across the ice. The DNR says ice houses have to be in a couple weeks before the lake trout season actually ends on March 31st and considering that the lakes have turned into a big ol' slush pile after the snow at the end of February, it's probably wise to get those ice houses in early. 

Another sign of spring is that this Sunday, I finished up my big winter craft project. In the last few winters, I've had a large knitting project to see me through the dark winter evenings, but this year I decided to devoted my energies to finishing up an embroidery project I started back before Christmas 2010.

Andy's step-grandmother (step-grandmother sounds odd and formal, considering it's the second marriage of a widow and widower - we usually just call her by her first name) gave me some of her embroidery kits a while back. They'd come from Harrod's in London, which I found kind of exciting because I love me some Harrod's.

The tablecloth is only about 36"x36", but it sure took me a long time. It'd been years since I'd embroidered when I first picked up the project and I found the loose weave fabric putzy and slightly frustrating to embroider on. As a result, the tablecloth got put aside many times in favor of other speedier projects. For a while, the only time this project saw any attention was at crafting weekends. Finally this winter, with no important knitting project queue and a limited yarn budget, I realized it was time to just finish up the tablecloth. I'm glad I did; I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

In other "spring-y" news, we didn't get chickens, but eggs are starting to show up everywhere. Must be getting to be Easter time!

Our recent warm weather reminded me that I'll be starting the first of the seeds at the end of this month. I know a lot of you are already starting your seedlings, but seedlings up here don't get planted outside until the final weekend of May when, hopefully, we won't have to worry about frost until, you know, September.  At the local hardware store this morning, I picked up some seeds. I didn't need too many, since I'll be using a lot of the seeds left over from last year. I do still need to order my tomato and jalapeno seeds, but I was glad to buy local and am really excited about growing some winter squash this year!  (Margot, do you spy your coaster making a cameo in the picture?)

Is spring coming where you are? What are sure signs that spring is on its way in your neck of the woods? Has anyone started their seeds yet? Any big winter projects getting finished up?

 

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Of Wind, Wool, and Stash Busting

A couple of you - okay, one - asked for some shots of my latest knitting projects after I posted about my knit-wit ways a couple weeks back. I'm happy to oblige.

I've declared 2012 the year of stash busting. I never meant to built up a stash of yarn (honest!), but somehow, with little bits being leftover from a project here and a project there, my yarn bag runneth over. Rather than devoting the winter months to a major sweater project like I have the last two winters, this year I'm all about using up the little odds and ends.

Let the stash busting begin!

I mention yesterday that I need new chopper liners. (Read yesterday's post if you don't know what chopper liners are!) However, after seeing my dad's literally disintegrating chopper liners over Christmas, I knew he need them more than I did. I used some red wool left over from a pair of mittens for Andy and a bit of almond left over from a wedding afghan for these guys. The mittens are double knit, which makes them extra cozy and much more wind resistant than most knit goods.

Andy's a big fan of the double knit concept (so much so that he has two pairs of mittens like the ones above) and when he found a couple bits of bulky yarn in my stash - leftover from some felted men's caps - he requested a double knit hat. So I improvised . . . 

Obviously, my off-the cusp pattern needs some perfecting since this was made to fit Andy, but just barely squeezes over my head. In my defense, I just barely had enough yarn to finish the cap as is. It's definitely not colors I would have chosen for myself (but are colors I had chosen for others' presents . . . ? Again in my defense, the presents were for men, if that makes an difference. . . .) but after taking this cap on last week's ice fishing adventure, it's proven itself to be a warm wind stopper.  I wear this cap when I walk out to the mail and am often so warm by the end of the walk that I have to take my mittens off.

My latest project is destined to be a stash busting failure though. Why? Because I'm going to run out of yarn before I finish with these anklets, made out of leftover yarn from another sock project! Not terribly good stash busting if you end up going out to buy more yarn, eh? Ah well, I'll just have to make another pair of socks with my new leftover yarn. ;)

If you're on Ravelry, feel free to friend me. I love seeing what everyone else is working on.

That said: What knitting projects are you working on - knitting or otherwise? 

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Knit-Wits

There are certain signs that your knitting "hobby" has morphed into something slightly uncontrollable.

For example, just last night, Andy and I sat down to watch The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I'd heard good things about the film adaptation and I loved, loved the book as a kid, so I was looking forward to it. But almost as soon as the film began, it became clear that film was trying too hard. It just didn't match the cozy, funny, and slightly dark children's book I remembered reading over and over again. I could have considered the movie a bust, but there was some take away value in the film: Mrs. Fox had some great sweaters in that film. And yes, I do realize I'm talking about the wardrobe of a puppet right now.

Keeping an eye out for knitwear can really get you through some dogs of films. Honestly, if the makers of the Lifetime biopic of Coco Chanel hadn't dressed their leading lady in such a beautiful sweater throughout various scenes, I doubt I would have made it through the whole thing. (I mean, Shirley Maclaine as Coco Chanel? Please . . . .) But the sweater is gorgeous. So gorgeous that I stalked the internet for stills of it so I could fashion a pattern after it.

I went to Sherlock Holmes: the Game of Shadows over the holidays. Like any Guy Ritchie film, I spent most of the film wondering what the heck was going and why everyone was beating each other up all the time. By the time I left the theatre though, I had an idea that maybe I could make a sweater or vest with cables based off of the motifs in the Oriental rugs showcased in the interior decor throughout the film. 

I'd feel a little self-conscious about this, but I know for a fact that Maggi over at Just Add Glitter and Stir does that exact same thing. Whatever floats your boat, eh?   
What are unusual things you notice in movies?

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Knit Happens*

When the going gets tough, the tough get knitting . . .or . . . . I'm not completely sure that the truly tough know how to knit. Nevertheless, I do have a poster hanging over our bed reminding me that life is never too chaotic to get some knitting done.

My mom taught me to knit when I was five. I plunked down on the floor and used some of  her leftover peach color yarn, which I thought was gorgeous and she probably felt smacked of the 1970s, and learned to knit to a nursery rhyme:  

In through the window,

'Round the back.

Out through the window,  

Off pops Jack.

I can still feel the smooth coldness of the silk cord drawstrings of the navy blue corduroy bag she gave me to store my wooden knitting needles and knitting projects in. I didn't knit much as a child, although I do remember making leg warmers for my American Girl doll. It wasn't until my early teenage years that I actually became proficient at knitting. That's when I tackled Barbara Walker's Learn To Knit Afghan and learned just about every basic knitting stitch and technique you need to know. The afghan, with all of its mismatched squares, is draped over the cabin's couch today.

While I've been knitting longer than I've been reading, I didn't put much effort into really improving my skills until 2008, when I discovered Ravelry. By that time in my knitting career, I'd had a fair amount of knitting disasters and I was tried of attempting to transform gifted yarn into beautiful garments. So I gave myself permission to buy myself some yarn and started to tackle progressively more difficult projects: felting, socks, colorwork, et al.  I had a major epiphany last year when I discovered the concept of "blocking" your work (where you wet a garment and pin it out to desired dimensions after you've finished knitting) which helps give knitted pieces their proper shape and also has a smoothing, evening effect on your stitched. It makes everything look so much better!

My latest project was a hooded lace sweater I started just after Christmas. The sweater, entitled Apres Surf (handy for all the surfing that goes on in northern Minnesota, eh?), uses sock yarn on size 3 and 2 needles (translation: itty, bitty needles and thread-like yarn) and although the pattern wasn't especially complicated, it did require patience and concentration. 

My goal with this project was to make a sweater that didn't look homemade. I realize this is rather counter intuitive to the whole reasoning behind knitting, but we're all familiar with the ill-hanging, bulky homemade sweater.  I wanted a sweater where people's first comment was "What a pretty sweater" rather than "Did you make that?"   I'm rather pleased with the results.

I had to slip in a fun little project while the sweater was blocking. This little sweater is for former co-workers' baby-to-be. 

After the success of the Apres Surf sweater, I'm really hot to trot to start in on this lovely little shell by the same designer, Connie Chang Chinchio. 

Photo credit: changcon

Unfortunately I probably devoted a little too much to my own sweater. Now I need to get a "Tree of Life" afghan finished to be a gift for an early June wedding.

Good thing they have their love to keep them warm because it's going to be a while before this afghan achieves the same effect!

 I better get those needles flying.

Do you knit or crochet? Working on any projects this winter?



*Title shamelessly stolen from fabulous fellow "K"rafter Ali.

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The Christmas Balls

This marks Andy and my third Christmas together and ever since that first December, Andy has been waxing poetic about bourbon balls. I had no idea what bourbon balls were when he first dropped them into conversation. Coming from a rather teetotaler household, we only ever made peanut butter balls (also called Buckeyes in some parts of the country) for the holidays, but it turns out bourbon balls are quite similar: bourbon soaked pecans mixed with powdered sugar, butter, rolled into balls and dipped in melted chocolate. Despite his talking about bourbon balls every December, for the last two Christmases, we just didn't get around to making them. Maybe I was just a little nervous about trying out something new . . .

As a college kid, fresh to the adult world and anxious to engage in Christmas merriment, my roommates and I almost always did some holiday baking. Despite all being pretty confident (and competent) in the kitchen, when working with unknown and unreliable appliances, these Christmas baking adventures resulted in a number of notable disasters.

My freshman year, my roommates and I decided to make sugar cookie in the dorm kitchen. A number of sprinkles got on the cookie sheets before they went into the oven and while the cookies were baking, the sprinkles proceeded to burn. The smoke alarm went off and the entire building was evacuated. (Luckily, it was 6 p.m. on a Friday night -- not a whole lot of people were affected.) I remember standing in the neighboring building, clutching a pair of hot pads to my chest, while we watched the emergency vehicles arrive.

Oh look, the fire engine . . .

Funny story . . .

Then my sophomore year, my dear friend (and at the time roommate), Sarah, decided to make peanut butter balls. I had made peanut balls a ton of times with my mother, but had never done it by myself. I think the same goes for Sarah. When it got to the part where you melt the chocolate, Sarah and I decided the chocolate didn't look smooth enough . . .so we added water. Of course the chocolate immediately ceased and we ended up with peanut butter balls dabbed with bits of chunky chocolate. We dubbed them Shitballs. They tasted delicious though.

Ever since, Shitballs, aka, peanut butter balls, have been a holiday tradition, something that Sarah and I make together almost every Christmas. Because of something pesky call being adults and have hundreds of miles in between us and crappy schedules, Sarah and I didn't get around to making Shitballs this year, so it only made sense that bourbon balls fill the void. 

After making a test batch last week, Andy tweaked the recipe a little bit and prepared a second batch to share with coworkers, family, friends, etc. The chocolate didn't cease, the butter in the balls didn't melt in the chocolate, and the fire alarm didn't go off. Boring really.

I still prefer the Shitballs (yes, I do choose peanut butter over bourbon) however it's been fun to watch Andy so diligently plug away at a project. Perhaps a new Christmas tradition has been born.

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No Fooling

I’ve never cared for April Fool’s Day. The whole concept of the day has always seemed a bit misguided. I’m not sure where the fun is in taking advantage of people. And doesn’t corporate America do that every day anyway? Do we really need a special day set aside for it each year?

There’s no time for fooling around here. Tomorrow morning the train leaves the station and won’t return for nearly two weeks. Because I have an out of town work appointment tomorrow afternoon, we don’t have the luxury of being able to leave whenever we’re ready to go tomorrow. Everything needs to be pretty set to go this evening, although we don’t actually fly anywhere until Saturday.

Right now everything’s kind of frantic hum of trying to think of everything I need to pack, making sure all the stinky garbage is out of the house and wondering when the best time would be to do that finally load of dishes. I’ve also got to devote some time to get the toiletry bag in order. Petty, I know, but with all the liquids needing to be in their own baggy, I need to sort through it. On top of the buzz of preparations, it’s starting to sink in that I’m going to be gone for a significant chunk of time. I sure hope there isn’t anything crucial I’ve forgotten to do.

I got a good start on a project today. I’m really excited about the progress I made yet am simultaneously overwhelmed because I realized the progress I made today is just the beginning of a very large project. Seems like a good time to go on vacation. I’ll be happy when I get back that I got this work done ahead of time.

Today the temps have been close to 70 degrees. The robins are out in full force and the lake is looking quite black. The goldfinches have been hanging out at the feeder for the last week or so.

Next time I talk, it’ll be from the road. Happy April everyone!

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Harbingers of Spring

It’s no secret. Spring has been on its way to the North woods for quiet some time now. Despite the gusty wind, today saw temperatures of nearly 60 degrees and the air holds a softness that must mean spring.

A lot of good signs have been popping up.

Like pussywillows: 

Or suitcases waiting by the front door.

 (No, they're not packed yet!)

Some signs, not so good:

Granted, I’m not sure that the fire danger in the area is truly “high.” After a couple major wildfire events in the last few years, the locals are on heightened alert. And they’re right to worry until the trees bud out. Things are looking really, really dry. By all accounts we should still be out skiing.

But then things have been a little odd this year. . .

I went into the bathroom and noticed this:

For a couple weeks now I’ve been really excited that my dormant Christmas cactus is putting on new leaves. Does anyone know what Christmas cactus leaf buds look like? I’m starting to suspect that what I thought were new Christmas cactus leaves are in actuality, Christmas cactus flowers.

Flowers?! At the end of March? Right when I’m about to leave on vacation for a month? Not only are we a good nine months off from Christmas, I’m going to miss the flowering Christmas cactus! As Tina Fey would say: BLERG!

These days I find myself finishing up articles and other projects that won’t be worried about again until nearly a month from now. I wonder when exactly I’m going to find time to pack and do laundry before the trip and I fear I will not get around to throwing everything out of the fridge that is going to go bad while we’re gone.

Oh yes, spring, or something like it, is right around the corner.

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Three Shifts to the Wind

Despite having had a lovely weekend in Duluth, the title to the blog is not a typo. I was never “three sheets to the wind” this weekend, but today I find myself “three shifts to the wind.” Only three more shifts of work as a waitress before the restaurant closes for its seasonal hiatus and I am on to the next chapter of life. I’m looking forward to the new challenges ahead of me that better match general career ideas I had in mind when I got my degree. That’s not to say I think being a waitress was a wash. It sure taught me a lot about human nature and made me a better tipper. And now, whenever times get tough, I’ve got some waitressing and bartending skills under my belt and that’s really nothing to be sniffed at.

I should be working to think of something beyond the cliché, but I just have to say this next thing: doesn’t it seem like things have been moving awfully quickly as of late? Half the time these days, I find myself thinking it’s still February. I can not believe quickly things change. In the past month the winter has made a dramatic flip into spring; I have gone from a waitress to a manager; and I have gotten a refund check from my insurance company for growing older. In less than two weeks we head off to the Pacific Northwest. Can you believe it? I bet you thought it would never get here. Especially after I’ve been talking about the April travels for what borders right on forever.

With only a few hours of work left, I’ve been given a bit of extra time to cobble some stuff together for another large freelance project that threatens to consume every moment of free time I have this summer. I’m extremely grateful for the extra time to get some pre-work done before the big push during the first part of May.

I have one chapter left to revise on the novel before the revision process is done! That should get finished up before the day’s done tomorrow. Another day you thought would never come!

The ice in the bay outside the Shack is rotting. So Andy suggested an ice fishing expedition for tomorrow. Hmmm. . . .

Had book group this morning. We really talk very little about books. When there are itty bitty babies to be “oohhed” and “ahhed” over, I guess that’s to be expected. Seeing that new little guy today (one month old, but actually still a couple days shy of his due date) sure reminded me that motherhood is not something pulling at my instincts or heartstrings just yet. I’m not even ready for the cat Andy keeps pulling for.

I spent the weekend in Duluth catching up with a lot of friends. We had a slumber party on Saturday night at a friends’ house. They’ve recently finished some remodeling and watching their two-year-old lab puppy prance around the coffee table on which the friend’s massive wedding planner sat, reminded me just how far we are from that lifestyle in the Shack. I’m still on my “let’s move every six months!” lifestyle. That’s not to say there aren’t lovely things about the lifestyle we’ve chosen in the woods, but there are just so many ways to live a life, aren’t there?

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