For days I have been knitting... the second sock... I thought that on Mother's Day I had it just about done... and then I discovered that I had too many pattern repeats in the leg of the sock! I had to ravel back to the ankle and start again. I turned the heel before I went to bed and then got up yesterday to knit knit knit. It went well yesterday and my expectation was to finish before going to bed... but the great eye closer in the sky came to visit last night and being fearful of making another stupid mistake on the toe I shut it down and headed for bed where I crashed with the sock still incomplete. There are about four rows left if you can believe it but those four rows have serious decreases and I could see myself screwing it up royally because I was so tired. I am glad I took my ease and went to bed.
Part of the reason I didn't get the sock finished yesterday was because I had to take my mother to town for an appointment with an eye specialist.... her cataract surgery a few years ago was giving problems and she ended up having laser surgery in the office of the doctor while we were there. It was rather cool to see what was happening. Evidently sometimes if microscopic bits of the cataract are left in the eye they can begin to regrow and that was what was happening with mom. It was a very short procedure taking all of ten minutes. I had to lead her around after but in a few hours her eyes were beginning to improve.
It is mushroom season in our neck of the woods and since this is cattle country we have prime growing conditions for puff ball mushroom. They tend to like cow paddies to grow in, so finding a cow pasture is usually the best place to look. Later in the summer the Morels will be growing but I'm not a big fan of Morels... they tend to grow in sandy areas and cleaning the sand out of all those wee bits is not the easiest thing to do. Generally when you bight into a Morel then you can expect a mouthful of sand. Yuck! Generally this is rather nasty. But the puff balls are quite nice. I like to fry them in a little butter with a smidge of Worchestershire sauce and some red wine.... they are lovely. I eat them quite often when I can get them. I even will eat them for breakfast. A plate of puff ball mushrooms with a little fried tomato and bacon on the side makes for a very satisfying breakfast.
It has been a little too windy and dry for mushrooms yet this spring but I am hoping to get some sooner or later. It looks like there might be some rain on the way today and I might be more lucky on the mushroom front then. Yesterday I had the grocery store mushrooms and while they were delicious... somehow they just can't compare to the freshly picked ones.
With all the windy weather lately the ground has been drying out more than I care to see. Still I am hoping that spring and more importantly summer, won't be the dust bath of a few summers ago. Hay of course, is ever on our minds. Yesterday, on the way home from FSJ there was another wild fire. People think that they are being smart by catching the tall grass by the side of the road on fire and then driving away and leaving it but I am afraid that sometimes these little fires get out of hand and that is what happened yesterday... the flames were shooting high into the air as it traveled up the dry and dead Pine trees. There were people there trying to get it under control... mostly farmers who own the land but I am sure that the Department of Forestry would step in if needed. When I got home you could smell the smoke for hours after. I can't smell the smoke this morning so I am thinking that it was contained after wards. Still as the crow flies I would say it was about 15 kms away from us.... still the wind should have been taking it the other direction.
Well, on that note I think it is time for me to finish those four rows on my sock and pop it into a nice dye bath. A little soak first in some synthropol and soda ash and I think I'll be finished those socks today. That's when the real work begins. After the fiasco of level 3 the first itme when I sent off my books having missed a number of questions.... I do a very thorough review of my work to make sure that everything is done and finished. Sometimes that review takes a day or two. I still have a write up for the 50 hour project to do and I have to write my notes up on my classroom presentation. Very important not to mention needing the index and bibliography. But by Wednesday or Thursday I hope to have the sucker in the mail. I can't wait.
I'm off to eat a breakfast... and then finish those four rows of knitting.
No comments:
Post a Comment