Peanut Butter Fudge

 Peanut butter fudge candy making

Mark and Esme made peanut butter fudge last night, largest ingredient contained : sugar.  It's a very hot process with stirring so much that it makes your wrists hurt.  I took the pictures, and they did all the work.  It set up well this time, and he says it will be gone within just a few days.

 

Below : Charlotte trying her best to also be on the stove side rug while Esme is stirring fudge.

of rugs and cats

It's been a while since I mentioned this, but we're sort of a hobby farm - with all these chickens, and my gardens, our 'working dogs' who are Catahoula and mutt and protect the chickens and the cats - and Melody, our blind goat whose main job is to eat weeds.  I had thought at one time I might have sheep or goats for wool and milk, but I wasn't quite brave enough for that, at least.. yet.  I guess you could also say our cats are actually 'working cats' - although don't tell them that there are cats that aren't (they won't believe you anyway) - they catch mice, they patrol around the yard and the chicken yard perimeter and the gardens, the garage etc.  And we have lots of mud, and lots of cold floors in the wintertime (cement and wood). 

 

 

  

The first of the 'working rugs', shown with Loki cat, a large Manx (we bought him and his sister from a working farm near Milan, so our cat Minion would have someone to teach to chase mice after all of her kittens were gone)  Loki decided this morning he would sleep there - although our dogs have been loving them, as well, especially as 'parking points' while they watch us cook.  I made this rug years ago for use in Esme's room.. but it sort of phased out and ended up in an old hamper.  During one of these cold snaps I had pulled it out and washed it, and put it back to good use.

 

 

 

This rug is headed for in front of the chair in the downstairs bathtub area - where the green one was before I got very cold cooking one night and moved it to the kitchen.. then I moved it to another place in the kitchen, and that sort of set off 'You should make more of these'  So I did, I made two more.  And when they get really dirty (like these garden shoes here, which are some of my favorite, mud and all) they can just get thrown into the washing machine. 

The bits : I darned socks and blankets today, finished that rug, swept floors, (swept floors again, and again... it is like that here with dogs!) did lots of laundry - put away lots of laundry! --- that ice storm, and the frigid cold that made it last all last week meant so much got pushed to the back burner.  I've got to work the weekend so I tried to just put as much 'good' as I could without really wearing myself out.  Esme when she got home and saw the post : You know that's a cat, not a rug, right?  It's not a cat rug?  Maybe Loki thinks it is.  The post says 'of rugs and cats' : it's about how our cats are working cats and chase mice and stuff, and these rugs are working rugs - as in, we're putting them to use.  Loki is, putting them to use, too.

I also finished that thank you gift for the people who helped us pull our truck out of the mud -a couple of knit dishcloths and a little card.

Crochet Rug, Winter Weather, and Snow

This weather ( 9 degrees, 4+ inches of snow on the ground, more snow in the forecast, and no above freezing temps until the end of the week) just goes to show you what all that knitting and crocheting multiple pairs of gloves, scarves, slipper socks, blankets and rugs for the house really is worth... it's so nice to come in from fighting chicken water dishes frozen to the ground (they're great now) and snow falling all over you from the netting above the yard to change into dry things, have a dry pair of gloves ready to go for later and sit down to a project and be warm.

This is a second crochet rug, as I was using the first one to stand on to peel potatoes and fry onions yesterday in the kitchen, and all the animals were playing musical chairs with it, some even sitting on my feet while I was standing on it.  I had emptied an old hamper a few weeks ago that was full of 'not really used things' from years ago, and found that and decided it was in good shape to wash and put into use somewhere.  I had put it in the bathroom where I put on my socks and shoes and it was often commandeered by a cat there.  Last night, on the concrete floor with 9 degree temps outside, I decided I wanted it while I was cooking as the chill was coming even through two layers of socks.  So, it might be worth making more than one.

Working on some more French - then I might spin the wheel and see what language I land on and see if I want to switch for a bit.  I was being spoken to in Spanish and trying to respond in a dream last week, and told the person I could actually understand about twelve languages 'well'.. and then when asked further, that I had studied up to 22.  A bit after that I woke up and told myself I wasn't really doing that well in most of them, which is why 'dream me' would only admit to 12 until pressed.  I found that interesting enough to note for the future, even in my dreams, I underestimate because I'm worried I really don't know enough.

 

Aside:

donc se crois - sitting here crocheting on this and thinking, you know, now of all times you have a few days to do this without your hands hurting too much to drive tomorrow, you should probably string up your loom, (but no, I have this project, why start another?) when else will you have the time to start it much less work on it - and the last three projects off that loom are in well-good use right now (pillow on bed, mat on footstool, bag full of stuff) so it'll be worth it eventually, and kick yourself into the kitchen and start some white beans to soaking, as well, since you never have the time to do that.

 

arguing over who gets to sit in the sunbeam

little black cat (Minion) went out and came right back in... even with the sun up out there it is just so cold.  Lyffan (other fuzzy butt above) keeps popping her tailless Manx butt out the door over and over again, and I make sure I get her back in after a few minutes.  The Manx kittens can't make hardly any noise unless you accidentally step on them (or the goat does, that happens with some frequency, as the goat is blind) - so I get worried when they head outdoors in this weather.  All the other dogs and the mama cat and the goat can make themselves heard - but the kittens barely squeak you can be right next to them and not believe you've actually heard it.

I am drawn to pattern... perhaps I am a gypsy?

The striped knitted blanket I've been working on since December, and a patchwork quilt that gets a few rows put on it every few months or so... it's about two or three years old now.  Today I may be finally ready to put the yellow diamond/triangle area onto the square part of the quilt.  It has been in progress for the past month or so and finally got to the proper width.

I can say I am drawn to the 'Bohemian' pattern and decorating style.   When I search through home decorating catalogs and websites I always end up saving the things that are full of intricate pattern and color.   It really isn't a surprise.  We live in the middle of the woods with ten dogs, live close to the land all summer and make as much of what we own as I can.  I am always telling Esme we can make that - or do something like that... and she also appreciates how much of the house has been made by 'us'.

Everything I make ends up being so brightly colored, unique and full of pattern and details that sometimes take much longer than anyone else would spend on them..... I get bored with one pattern in something - I start another.. and it all seems to fall together.  My art is like this, as well - intricate pen drawings that curl and squiggle and burst into color here and there...telling stories with animals and flowers and geometries that blend into each other as they move from one side of the page, to another.  Layers on layers of meaning... histories... time and thought encapsulated into craft.

Oh, and I wove more on the rug last night, added several more color bands.  Esme said it would be her rug - as the one she had in her room (that was made on the loom last year) was trashed in the water incident in January.  I had been planning to make a chair cushion cover out of it... but I think it is probably about the right size for her room in front of her bed.

Also, because of the weaving I felt like I was beaten this morning - had forgotten how much my arms and shoulder muscles - and back and hip muscles as well - used to hurt from the sitting upright, balancing the loom and moving the yarn back and forth again and again... it is a workout these muscles aren't used to anymore...

//note for later
Esme is outgrowing everything again.  I need to patch a few pairs of pants that have now become capris (highwater by two inches or more!) and go through the fabric stash to see what is available to make her some more.  measurements 25ch, 22w with 24 inch outer hip-ankle measurement - hemmed pants to 26 inch total length from Simplicity 8717 size 6.

Weaving a primitive rag rug

Very primitive.. but it will get use for the few hours that was put into the making of it.  I thought I could string up the wooden frame that was rescued from some packaging for a tight woven item I would hate to put on the floor whenever it was finally done - or do this with some old flannel shirts and be done in a few hours.  The product is thick and warm - not great to look at... but a good learning experiment.  All of the cotton flannel was cut 'spiral' so the back of each shirt and each sleeve etc etc.. became one long strip each.  That also made a 'ruffled' look to the outcome as the spiral made interesting fluffy areas here and there. I added a little crochet yarn to the edges and a few strings along the middle and it became much more compacted and sturdy.  I told Mark it almost looks like a saddle - he said Esme wouldn't get very far trying to ride the dogs so a rug is a better use for it :)

 

on the loom

36 by 18 inches
after tying up the ends and running a few lines of crochet through it.

These are three flannel shirts and a little bit of extra strip cloth left over from clothing projects recently. Scraps are as scraps are, but with some care to color choices this kind of project could look very neat and decorative.  This one being '80s country' colors are not really what I would decorate with - but for practicality it is much more use than the fabric might have gotten otherwise - it was coming apart at seams and probably not a good investment for a patchwork as it might come apart more after all of that work.
  I have that happening to one part of our bed quilt and it is awful - I want to fix it, but I hate to just slap a patch on it... also hate to take it apart and redo that area... *sigh* I honestly had a nightmare the other night about that part of my quilt coming apart... odd how that goes.

Now I will get back to the other project (not pictured), which is a knit cotton netting material... It is on my circular needle strung about five foot wide, and I have about six inches of length on it.  I was knitting on that last night while Esme was in the bath and at my lunch hour at work.  Mr. Harold at work said I was 'going to town on it' - but the open network means it goes twice as fast and is half as heavy as the afghan I knit last.  That afghan is the purple and green and blue one shown in the pictures - and it is getting a lot of use.

Esme and Daddy clowning around by the loom while it was hung up - give Daddy a hug :)  Sweet.

 

Here's looking at you, kid...

She had to try to look through the loom at me here.