Proud Auntie of Knit Worthy Girls!

As many of you know from following the blog I have some very knit worthy girls in my life.  "The Knit Girls" as I call them rock the knit worthiness world!  I knit and they wear everything I knit!  I can seriously attest to their knit worthiness!  I recently received a worn sweater back to be from Knit Girl #1.  This sweater was repaired once last spring as the icord cuff trim was wearing out and this was done at a local yarn shop in Port Townsend.  I got a call saying the elbows had holes and it would be going back tot he yarn shop.  On Friday the sweater arrived here in the village as it was not getting repaired as the person who once was doing the repair work has moved on.  I was thrilled to get the sweater back and to have a serious look at this sweater's wear and tear. 

Knit Girl #1: wears this sweater all the time! I do mean all the time!  Wool will wear in places, the sweater is stained, but I am thrilled. I know this sweater is loved and worn! 

The first job was to assess the worn out bits. Both elbows had holes one more than the other showing that right elbow spends a good deal of time leaning on desk and table tops. The left elbow only has a bit of wear but still, a small hole was present. One pocket had the potential for a disaster, I was able to head that off.  Buttonholes were snugged backup. To help reinforce the elbows, I remembered that EZ (for those who don't know of EZ this would be Elizabeth Zimmermann) had heart shape knit patches she designed for just this purpose.  I dug through all my EZ books and located the pattern in her book the Knitting Workshop a wonderful knitting tool/resource I can highly recommend.

Now one thing you should all know I jokingly call EZ the knitting astrophysicist.  Her brain never ever worked like the rest of us and she was a brilliantly talented designer.  I am continually amazed at her work.  Off I jump into casting on a heart patch . . . right away I am in over my head and knit up a mess!  I quickly go to Ravelry and the Zimmermann's group to see if others had an issue with this little pattern.  Well, of course, I am not alone.  Meg, EZ's daughter, pointed me in the right direction with her reply to another knitter.  I also pulled out the revised Knitting Workshop and saw that Cully had more detailed instructions.  I spent most of yesterday working on heart patches.  Mission accomplished!

Knit Girl #1's Kate Davies' Bláithín sweater is now washed, 98% repaired,  and on the blocking board. All I have left to do is to sew on the elbow patches and send Knit Girl #1 her sweater.

Worn elbow

Small hole

Top photo now repaired

The 1st disaster of a heart patch and off to Ravelry to find a few answers to solve the mystery of an EZ heart!

Using the newer Knitting Workshop and solving the mysteries of the heart patch!

Not blocked or anything but it looks like the hearth patch will work just fine.

Very worn & loved sweater.  I am so thrilled my work is used 110% of the time.

Off for a nice long soak in wool wash.

Hearts blocked and drying.

Washed and blocked . . .

We were just out ont he tundra and last weekend we were skiing right at this spot.  We have had rain, winds, and highs in the upper 30ºF.  A bummer but snow will be back soon enough.  The Nulato Hills south of us are covered in snow!

Miss Tally ready for the ride home! 

13 Weeks Later----Day 1 on Skis!

13 weeks ago today I was just out of knee surgery for a torn meniscus.
Today, I was on snow, on my skis, on my beloved tundra, ski touring! 

The Girls and I on the tundra for a late afternoon ski. The ground is mostly frozen and the skiing was pretty darn wonderful! Day 1 of the ski season.  The goal is always 100 days but I always have another secret higher number as well to attain.

13 weeks ago Nurse Sadie and I at home in Montana hours after surgery. 

My fresh tracks on the way to The Refugio for my a.m. 5 days a week physical therapy workouts.  I have been diligent as can be to my workouts!  At times it has been frustrating and painful, but I never gave up once!

All my PT workouts enabled me to bush-wack through that crap on my skis today!

Late afternoon sub-Arctic sun . . . I love it!

Miss Tally with her stick waiting for the go-ahead to chase down her boy off in the distance.

Our Cadillac--LOL!  the 4-wheeler.  The Girls loaded up and ready to head home! 

Christian loading gear so we can head back tot he village.

I love tundra cruising as I call it.  Most of you will look at the photos and think "Gosh you ski on that crud!"  You know it and if I have learned anything in my soon to be 12 years of working and skiing out here you never ever take anything for granted!

I am just over the top happy and grateful to be back on skis again!  I can thank the great surgeon I had as well as the wonderful staff at Whitefish Therapy & Sport Center in Montana.  The two therapists I worked with there were amazing!  I will be curious to see what skate skiing will be like on my knee.  After today skiing, I think I will be able to return to all my normal ski activities this winter.

Health Prescriptions GET OUTDOORS!

This is the type of Health Care I LOVE!
https://archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/physicians-in-sf-are-prescribing-park-time-to-patients/Content?oid=2927988&utm_content=buffer46faa&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I am so proud of physicians and park employees who are making this prescription possible for people in their communities (the article is from April 2015).  I love that there are medical professionals who are prescribing the outdoors as an alternative to popping pills! 

I know many of us know that the outdoors is the way to good health, and mental well being.  We may not have scientific evidence but we do have antidotal knowledge on a personal level.  Below are several links promoting the use of parks "parkrx prescriptions" supporting what many of us have known innately.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/parks-prescribes-doctors-health-environment/

https://wakeup-world.com/2016/09/03/instead-pharmaceutical-drugs-physicians-prescribing-patients-time-nature-fruit-vegetables/

http://www.parkrx.org/

It arrived . . .

Most of you are most likely thinking snow but no! Life moves on and we are all certainly along for the ride through aging.  I have mixed thoughts on this years DAY yeap I am 58 years old.  For some reason, I have thought more about this number than other numbers for many years.  I think the last BIG number for me was actually 28 as I was almost 29 and what was I doing with my life because after all, I was almost 30!  Then I just went through all these years having birthdays and not really thinking much about having birthdays at all.  Another year,  life moves forward.  I am not a big birthday person as I don't need everyone to know it is my birthday (yah, right I am blogging about it).  I think it is nice to mark the passing of time.  I like the passing of seasons, another year, and another year on earth doing all the things I love to do.

As I write this post we have a nice big old fall storm blowing in from the Bering Sea.  Winds are clocking in around 40mph, rains are lashing the house, and it is generally loud outside with Mother Nature raging away.  Rainwater is blowing in under the front door a bit.  I contemplate 58 . . .

Let it be known I only thought about this a bit.  The day has passed and all I can not think about is snow . . . when will arrive, when can I ski, will my knee hold up and work as well or better than it used too?

Gear!

We live in a fairly good size place when you consider it is teacher housing in rural Alaska.  Don't get me wrong it is a million times better than our first place here in the village.  I appreciate the housing we have it is clean and was new 10 years ago.  We are the only ones who have lived in it!  As the season turns to colder temperatures the gear becomes a bit of an issue.  When you deal with temperatures that can go anywhere from 32ºF to minus 45ºF in no time at all and this is not wind chill . . . you tend to have a lot of gear!  I often feel a bit like I live in the early locker room stage of my life and the gear was just decorations.  Now at almost 58, I guess I still live like this still . . . I can never tell if that is a good thing or not.  I go to friends houses and they are all rather neat and tidy.  I would say our place is really pretty functional for us but still, there is gear all over the place!  We do spend a good amount of time outside. Just getting in our place there are skis, poles, packs, dog harnesses, boots, rain gear, wind shells, and various jackets for different usages.  Once inside there are boots . . . ski boots.  Then the endless supply of hats, mittens, gloves, goggles . . . GEAR!

Skis, pole, dog leashes . . . we feel no one can have enough skis!

Packs, dog gear, our gear . . .

Coats, jackets, rain gear . . . none of the serious down jackets yet! 

Hanging LLbean storage unit which is really great for storing hats, gloves, mittens, cleats for ice . . . 

SNOW update: Oct. 9th, 2017 first snow on southern peaks that border the Yukon River!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't eat WHEAT!

Honestly, I am not sure where I am going with this post but I feel I need to say something about this fact "I don't eat WHEAT!"  It has been almost 3 years ago that I stopped eating wheat as an experiment.  I started on the winter solstice and went until the summer solstice.  I had hoped if I made it a month that would be great but after a month I felt so much better I didn't want to stop.  I made 6 months and I didn't want to stop and now well I just don't eat wheat.  I have been lax at times about other grains--organic popcorn.  I have not wheat as far as I know. UNTIL LAST NIGHT!  We were invited to a friends house for dinner and were told we would have halibut.  Once we walked in there was homemade bread which is fine as we were not the only ones dining.  Our host said that she made the bread and was a bit miffed when I said, "Oh I don't eat wheat" which we have discussed several times as she is a vegetarian.  Since we have had this discussion a few times and since she is a vegetarian I figured things would work out ok.

I will admit that I have not asked others if they have food issues at all over the years.  But I would say the last decade I would ask people is there anything you do not eat, or can you eat spicy food or not--basic questions about preparing a meal.

I feel the issue is if no one asks you about what foods you eat or don't eat; then you should eat what is being served as best you can.  Since I was not directly asked about food issues and I didn't say, "Oh I don't eat wheat" then I sat down to a beautifully prepared eggplant parmigiana.  It was not heavily floured.  I ate a fairly good sized piece and took off flour fried coating when it was possible. Dessert was a stunning cheesecake and I ate the cheesecake part but not the graham cracker crust.

I was worried that I would get a headache or be up all night from consuming some wheat but I wasn't.  I did feel a bit off in the lower intestine area.  I feel pretty good this morning just a bit off again but nothing horrible.  I have read about people being sick for days after consuming wheat again.  This does not mean I will start eating wheat again. I feel better not consuming wheat.  Minor aches and pains are gone, mental clarity is stronger, lower carbs means lower weight on the scale, and I eat a healthier diet now that I have eliminated wheat from my food list.

My point is if you are invited over you eat what is served as best you can!  If you are asked if you have any foods you can not eat then you let your host know about these foods.  I think the world has/is changing and more people are asking their guests about food issues.

Great sites if you are interested in reading more on being wheat free or finding new recipes for special lifestyle eating:

https://elanaspantry.com/
https://minimalistbaker.com/
http://www.gourmetgirlcooks.com/
http://honeyvillefarms.blogspot.com/

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/
https://www.drperlmutter.com/
https://undoctored.com/

Ol'Blue--AKA Carraig-Fhada Vest & Knitting Trolls

I do this all the time . . . I get knitting on some rather large or complicated project and then PROCRASTINATION hits.  This procrastination usually strikes when I am getting close to a rather complicated part of the project. Say steeking, or some complicated decrease section. The Fair Isle vest I am presently knitting just had a procrastination lull.  I knitted 3 pairs of mittens and joined a test knit on a very interesting hat pattern soon to be released.  Ol'Blue was set aside and let me tell you Ol'Blue was not happy about this lull in his becoming a vest!  Ol'Blue called out the damn Knitting Trolls.  Some of you may have Knitting Gnomes, of Nast Knitting Fairies  . . . I have Knitting Trolls.  These little buggers love to get into your knitting and reek havoc at all cost!  Basically, it is payback time for ignoring Ol'Blue!  He called the Trolls in and I will admit I most likely deserved it! 

I am all set, Ol'Blue, color chart, good light and off I go knitting around and around.  Thinking to myself, "Wow I am making killer progress!"  Here is the first mistake I wasn't humble!  I think I sent a text and posted a tweet saying how great I am doing and I am kicking butt!

In the back of my mind, I kept thinking I am sure I held the blue in my right hand and the gray in my left.  I am sure I was carrying my yarn this way. I knitted on, stopped, got some dark chocolate and picked up my knitting . . . WHAT!?

Can you see what the Knitting Trolls did to me!  They led me off into the land of total Trolldom!  What the heck had I done . . . those Knitting Trolls tricked me into believing I had the yarn in the correct hands.  See the top rounds?  This is what happens when you switch how you are holding your color work!  Believe me, you will have a totally different looking project!

Just in case you didn't see it the first time look at the top.

I frogged out several rounds (like 10 at least) of 252 sts.  Put the blue in my left hand and the gray in my right hand and started knitting again. The damn Knitting Trolls scampered away into some far dark corner of our house to lay waiting for the next golden moment to toss my knitting around and reek total havoc.

FOOD!

Who doesn't love FOOD!  I am often asked how do you get food living 400 air miles from any major stores.  We do buy food before we come out to the village and ship it out to ourselves.  This food tends to be the staples.  We also order food on Amazon often throughout the year.  We stopped eating wheat 3 years ago. We do need to order items that will never ever be stocked in our two small stores here in the village.  

We just switched to a new produce vendor.  I am very happy with their produce, shipping rates and packaging.  Alaska Food NetWork is proving to be a great new company here in Alaska.

Last weekends Maple Walnut Scones made with almond flour.

Bee's Wrap is another great new discovery!  So far everything I have used Bee's Wrap on has stored great!

The heat from your hands helps to seal the wrap. 

Scones were fine for the few days they lasted!

The wraps come in a variety of sizes.  Under this wrap is a nice organic apple crisp.

Melon stored well in the frig with Bee's Wrap and no discoloring.

I am always after the perfect crisp cookie!  These came out pretty good but I think I could work with the recipe a bit more.  Almond flour, crystallized ginger, ginger snap.  I scooped out the dough and then flattened them with parchment paper.  I did this to have a flat, crisper cookie.

Our first box from Alaska Food NetWork and it was a treat!  Everything we ordered was int he box, items were packed well, and nothing was damaged.

Look at this fresh produce yummy!

This was a medium size organic box.  I did add a few more items to our box.  You can pick Alaska Grown produce, organic, or regular grocery store items.

Meat!  It is moose season and there were 34 moose up for the hunt this year.  The moose population here was hunted to very low numbers 12 years ago and there was no moose hunting.  They let the numbers return and slowly have been increasing the amount each year.  Our neighbour across from us is one of the hardest working people I know.  He is in constant motion whether he is fishing, hunting, getting his family out into the country he just goes from sun up to sun down.

Moose meat hanging.

Here is a nice piece we were given which is the village thing to do is to share your kills.  This will become a moose stew today.

I just love this note!  In my class, I always tell parents:  "Please don't let school get in the way of your child's education!" If something has come up just write a note and it is fine to miss out on homework.  One of the families who ski with us wrote this note for their son who is in my class this year.  The dad skis and his two kids.

The kids brought this by our house the other night.  Fresh veggies from their garden and a beautiful piece of moose meat.  All of this will be heading into the moose stew I will be making today! 

Never worry we are not starving out here on the tundra living 400 air miles from a wide variety of shopping options.  I have become interested in better quality food, and where my food comes from.  I look forward to the time in the kitchen creating healthier meals and treats for us here on the tundra.