Cut away everything that doesn't look like a violin

A continuation of my September 25th post.



Time off between Christmas and New Year's has been fun. Although there has been plenty to do, my shoulder has healed enough that I can actually do work on my fiddle again. Rotator cuff injuries make doing all kinds of things nearly impossible.


You may recall when I finished the sides and proudly displayed them. Each step of the way, I've been really anxious, and by the time I put tool to wood, I've done it a hundred times in my head. Here again is the sides completed and sitting on the maple that will be her back.






Then I gathered up all my nerve and cut into that beautiful piece of bird's eye maple. I started taking little nibbles of wood and then eventually, got relaxed and finished her outline.






I have spent some time over the holidays with a chisel and a beech mallet, again taking little nibbles. And guess what I found?!?! There really is a violin inside that piece of wood. I can't tell you how excited I am, just watching it emerge. I'm already imagining what she will sound like when I play the first notes.

Tornado Picture Stitched

Susan took stitched my three pictures together from my tornado post ... here it is.

There are all kinds of areas like this where the tornado just cleared areas of forest.

Thanks Susan

Granny's Calmer Downer

Okay, it doesn't have all kinds of computer-like functions. It's no use in gourmet cooking, it doesn't clean the bird cage. This gadget only gets pulled out once in a while. Using it isn't always a happy occasion. When you do have to use it, as I did today, and on a previous post in the not too distant past, it takes you from feeling frustrated, to calm. It puts your world back in order. It is my wool winder.

Last night, I finished the back of a sweater that I'm working on for Ken. When I was about to cast off the final twenty-eight stitches, I realized I had thirty-eight, ten stitches too many. How can this be??? I don't add stitches while I'm doing something that's a plain old stocking stitch, it's second nature now. I can do it with my eyes closed. After having checked over the whole back, it appears that when I did my increase row at the top of the ribbing, I did my math incorrectly (Okay Mr Kibler, I do have some use for math in my life as an adult!) and increased by too many stitches.

Frustration ... with a capital F! So after deciding not to throw it into the fireplace, but putting it back in my knitting bag instead, I got it out this morning and pulled out my trusty wool winder. I've taken it apart down to the ribbing, and I'll pick up the stitches from there and start over.

Roll 'em! Take two.

Granny Takes The Leap .....

Nope ... not the new blogger leap, I already did that. I'm back on the nutritional warfare topic now.

Today I made shortbreads. Lighter than air, buttery shortbreads. I made them with spelt flour and fructose (no wheat, no sugar), but the butter is everything, just couldn't do the "margarine" thing. I haven't made the Yuletide batch in a few years since, only half of the dough usually made it into the oven. Showing great restraint, I only nibbled at the dough a little.

However, once they were done, they were fair game. They are as light and buttery as always and you can't tell they weren't made with wheat. As you can see, a mouse got at the one on the counter. I better gobble them all up before the mouse comes back.

Perhaps in the spirit of Christmas giving, I'll see if I can save a couple for the "fam" to taste ... yeah, right!

If A Tree Falls in the Forest ...

In early August of this year, we had three tornadoes touch down in the Haliburton area. Most of us had no electricity for about six days, but some folks had lots of damage to their homes and properties. We were visiting with friends when it took place. The drive home would normally take about an hour, but that night took us over three hours. Many roads were completely blocked by fallen trees tangled with hydro and telephone wires.

Fortunately the weather was beautiful and, being in "cottage country" everyone spent most of that time on or in the lakes. Everyone, that is, except the folks who had the job of restoring electricity, phone service, and clearing the roads of the debris and fallen trees.

They worked endless hours of overtime in the heat, with bugs buzzing around them looking for an opportunity for a meal. The trees were braided together with hydro wires, and they had to climb in amongst the debris with chainsaws to untangle the mess. Their twelve to eighteen hour days, were not filled with boating, docks and cold beer.

In the weeks and months that followed, the clean-up continued. We all saw significant damage to the forest along the sides of the roads, but as the leaves fell, it became much easier to see the extent of Mother Nature's work.

Innumerable huge trees were twisted off at the middle or top of the trunk like the one you see above. Now as you drive along the Harburn or Eagle Lake Roads, you see swathes of trees laying on their sides as if cut down by some Paul Bunyan sized sythe.

These three pictures should actually be stitched together, but I'm not that clever, so you'll have to imagine them lined up side by side, or come for a drive to the Eagle Lake/West Guilford/Drag Lake area.

Knitter's Lament - Part II

As I unravelled the sweater from my previous post, I came to realize that I didn't buy the wool in 1991, but in 1995. So I'm guessing I started on the project in about 1998. Had to clear that up after having read the tangled web post on Whitterer on Autism.

Odd that it didn't really bother me tearing it out. So here it is, all taken apart. I think I'll go and look through pattern books and find out what this wool has in it's future.

Knitter's Lament

Many years ago, I'm thinking in about 1991, I found the most beautiful coloured wool. A stunning hand-dyed wool in shades of turquoise by Colinette. It was really pricey, but I simply had to have it.

It took me about four years to settle on a pattern. The wool was such terrific colours that I thought it should be a fairly simple pattern. I decided on a shawl collar cardigan that looked great on the outside of the pattern.

I worked on it, but never seemed to find great enthusiasm for it. I had a problem with the front and back raglans where they meet at the top. The shawl collar, when finished, seemed to big for the rest of the pieces. I had all the bits and pieces complete and they weren't lining up right, so over the past few months I pinned it together, got the sides and sleeves all sewn up. I decided that I would leave it out in plain view until I completed it, so it's been sitting out now for several months awaiting installation of the collar.

Today was the big day. I decided to procrastinate no longer. Now I can say, finally, it's all finished. It took from 1991 to 2006.

However ..... I don't like it. It's boring, has no character, has a beige personality. It's top heavy.

So, I guess it's time to unravel the whole thing and find another pattern.

I've located the wool winder, so the kinks should come out by the time I find another pattern.

Now I just have to get the guts to make the first cut. The funny thing is, I'm not all upset about it. I have a sort of "oh, well" attitude.

It's an Aran Weight wool, so if you have any suggestions. I'd be happy to hear them.

Blogger Beta II

So, in the continuing saga of Granny's learning to use blogger's beta version, you may have noticed some changes to the layout of my blog.

Look immediately to the right of this post. Right on the top, I have a list of my most recent blogs, so those who wait with baited (is that the correct spelling?) breath for my pearls of wisdom can see instantly, how prolific I've been.

I've had to redo the Ongoing Ode To Cheryl (see down below the links). I've tried and tried, but I can't make it look like the poetic genius that it is. It will only come out in paragraphs. Arrgh. (We're waitng for a new verse Cheryl ..... )

It was really easy to move stuff around, next time I'll try some pictures ... in the past they've been frustrating and I haven't had enough wine to deal with it today.

So, in Granny's opinion ... this new blogger seems okay .... so far. I made a deliberate boo-boo, so I'd have to edit my post (as I usually do anyway), that was really fast and easy.

Blogger Beta

Okay, so I've been putting it off. I've been watching the messages encouraging me to sign up, knowing that soon they'll force me to change. I don't like change. The worst of it is though, I'm Mr Gryper's "blogmaster" and he really HATES change. Especially changes to do with the computer. I know when he has to change, I'll be hearing "gryping" and bellyaching for ages.

So I bit the bullet. I've changed over. Now I have to find all the things that are different and figure out what they mean so I can deal with the old grouch proactively. Who knows, maybe aside from teaching him that he'll have to sign in differently (that's gonna be a five star whine session) hopefully he won't see any other changes when he's posting his questionable wisdom.

I hope you've made this easy Mr Blogdesigner, whoever you are.

As an aside ... it was -20C ( -4F) here last night ... the snow was squeaking like crazy when we walked on it. I suspect tomorrow morning the lake will be frozen over and we'll hear the old girl groaning and rumbling. It always sounds spooky, but I like it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I looked out the window this morning and I was sure the lake was frozen. It's early for "ice in" day, usually it's between Dec 12th & Dec 18th. I walked outside to take a picture, but there are still some open patches, so I guess it's not official yet.

You may look at this picture and say, nice thin layer of snow, but check the tub of sand in the lower right side of the picture, there's about eight or nine inches now. Before we go anywhere Ken will have to pull out the snow-blower for the second time this week.

It's all quite exciting when you're a cockapoo ... Muggins ran out the door, leaping over snowdrifts and barking joyfully at nothing, first thing this morning. Too bad Mushing Mum is in Arizona, or she'd have acted like Muggins. They had the dogs and sleds out here on Monday Susan ... when do you get back to the great white north?

As things return to normal

As my cold subsides, business slows down to a more normal level, and all my custom soap orders are finished, I realize that I have been neglecting my blog. I have been reading everyone's even if I have not always commented.

Mum & I were in the health food store, last week, and the really helpful employee told me about some stuff that has helped the rotator cuff in my shoulder a lot over the past week and a half. I should be able to get back to carving the back of my violin soon .... (see the July through September archives). Since my new shoulder stuff has kicked in I've been able to bond with my banjo much more too, that was really a nuisance.

I've made a bunch of lovely soaps in the past couple of weeks and still after 11 years of soapmaking, I still check on each batch as if it's a newborn baby for the first couple of days. I made six pounds of soap that turned out simply awful, so I melted it down and tried a couple of tricks with it and now it's lovely.

I've been working on a couple of knitting projects from the stash and I've been learning crochet .... knitting's much more sensible.

Prior to the cold setting in, as I blogged, I was on the nutritional warpath making Stealth Foods for the smurfs. There was a batch of Chocolate & Beet Root Muffins that were outstanding. I highly recommend them. The elder smurf liked those, the younger smurf took a couple of nibbles and threw the rest to the floor making Muggins' day. It was a double batch, over half went to the smurfs, but a bunch were gobbled up with great gusto by Mr & Mrs Gryper when they were here last weekend. There were also batches with squash, zucchini, apple, and parsnip. All turned out yummy.

Our concert band has been working on our Christmas pieces and this Friday, we'll be in the local nursing home, to play for the folks there. There are a couple of tricky flute bits, but I'm working my way through them. This particular nursing home they must have insomnia 'cause they don't usually sleep through our concerts (hear that Gryper?), nor do they usually put their hands over their ears and wince. Makes me wonder what we're doing wrong.

We've got about 8" of snow now and it's still coming down, so it's "Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". The lake isn't frozen yet, but a lot of the ponds are. Being out in the boonies, I've done a bunch of my shopping online, that's made it easier. I guess now it's time to do my Christmas cards, I made all the corrections on the address labels at 5:30 this morning when I couldn't sleep for the coughing. Hey, maybe I'll do one of those newsletters in a tiny little font that goes on for three pages.

Poor old Jonathon is starting to feel better after his bout with mono, now he's just dealing with the exhaustion ... remember that Vee?

I can't think of anything else to waste everyone's time with, so I guess I'll sign off and go make my meatloaf. I'm going to try to think of something really interesting and important to blog about. I did have one idea and took some pictures to go with it, so stay tuned.