Sticky Pills Problem Solved

Background: I take a few vitamins, supplements, etc. and use a pill organizer that has 28 compartments that helps keep me on track. I'm usually foggy-brained first thing in the morning and the box gives me a way to check if I actually took the pills and ensures I take the right ones.

My pill box. Highly recommended for ease of loading (each row of lid lifts out).

Problem: The only problem is that the gel capsules often cling inside. IF I notice (see that big IF), sticking my finger in the compartment works to dislodge the culprit. IF it gets past me, it messes up the schedule. SO I googled, regoogled, etc, finding only one solution which I can't find now to show you.

The Solution: Add a dash or about 1/8 teaspoon of an edible powder to your bottle of gel caps and shake to distribute evenly. Then put the capsules in your pill box. The powder coating helps reduce stickiness.

Powders Tried: The original youtube poster used one of her powder-containing supplement capsules. My gel caps have liquid inside so my first experiment used cocoa powder, but the cocoa left brown dust all over my pill box! Since then, I've used bicarbonate of soda, which works great for me.

Powder Considerations:

• It must be safe to eat. 
• When damp, the powder should not be sticky which could defeat the purpose. I'd avoid powdered sugar, sugared drink mix, cocoa mix, and similar.
• The powder should be the same color as your pill box. Most are white or clear, so white powders are ideal.
• The powder should be very fine like bath powder, but don't use that!
• The powder should have a tolerable taste.
• It should be something you already have or can buy in very small quantities (think bulk bins).

Possible Powders	Powders to Avoid
Flour Sugar-free fiber or protein powder Instant milk powder (mash granules into powder first)   Baking powder Baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)	Sugar Fructose Cocoa Colored drink mix

Hacking my 2013 calendar

Since I started teaching knitting and quilting classes at Joann's, I've needed a small planner in which to keep track of things. The first year I made my own, and the next year I found one by Carolinapad.com that worked even better. Unfortunately, the style is discontinued. So my search for an inexpensive monthly/weekly smallish tabbed planner has been in progress for a while. I am pretty picky.

Then I ran across another Carolina Pad calendar in the back-to-school section. It was nearly perfect. $4. Tabs. Month and week pages. Squares big enough. The whole thing close to small enough. The downsides:  Wire binding. Curling corners on the plastic covers. Too many months (18) and unneeded reference pages making it too thick. Here are two Before pictures, borrowed from Carolina Pad's online store:

See that big wire binding just waiting to be squished, catch on things, and help rip pages.

The weekly pages are big enough to record ideas, expenses, and student info.

My options were to keep looking, design and make my own, or hack this one. You know which from this post's title.

The front.

Here you can see a new plastic binding and the ends of the elastic that holds the calendar closed. I have a few coils around because I have a punch for making spiral bindings. It turns out that metal comb bindings like the one on this calendar are spaced at exactly twice the distance as the spiral bindings, so I threaded the plastic coil twice through each hole. My original thought was to repunch everything, but there lies madness if every punch is not perfect. Avoiding madness is a good thing.

The back.

On the back you can see the long section of elastic (mine is 5/8 inch, I'd have used narrower, but this was the only black elastic I had). It keeps the corners of the covers from curling. Using a craft knife, I cut small slits in the cover (you can place them on the back cover if you want the long elastic on the front), inserted the elastic, glued it, clamped it, and waited overnight. Here's a close-up of one corner of the inside front cover:

Placement of the elastic.

How long should your elastic be? How long did I make mine? Long enough to hold the calendar closed without stressing the elastic or curling the book. My book is 3/8 inch thick and 8 inches high, I figured that 8 inches plus 2 inches fold-over twice (12 inches total) would work fine and it does. The elastic has to stretch 3/4 inch (twice the thickness of the book). When you glue, make sure the elastic is NOT wrapped around the book.

Shown just because are the new binding from the inside, the tabs I didn't have to make myself, and the nice big squares on the monthly calendar pages.

One thing checked off my shopping list.

Sock Needle Storage

As part of a recent effort to gather most/all my knitting and crocheting tools in one piece of furniture that I could park next to one of my knitting spots for easy, fast access, I collected my sock needles and sorted them by size in plastic tubes provided by a Scrabble friend.


My P-touch made nice labels with both US and metric sizes. To the right of the tubes you can see my traditional needle gauge and the digital caliper (less than $15 at Harbor Freight) that I use to get more accurate measurements. I've never claimed not to be obsessive about some things. Plus, I like tools.

My larger-sized DPNs are still in the roll-up I made some time ago.

Multitasking

Recently I got a vintage Schwinn exercise bike and rediscovered that time slows incredibly when watching the timer, even with the radio on. So I built and installed a simple book shelf for the handle bars.


The scrap of plywood is bolted to two smallish L braces which in turn are clamped to the handle bars with hose clamps. It's easy and requires no permanent modifications that might degrade the bike's collectability. LOL Just kidding; you can barely give these things away anymore.

Scrap of rubbery drawer liner keeps my book from sliding off. Now I can read and pedal until either 1) the timer sounds or 2) my rear goes numb. When it's the second event (which it usually is now that I'm building up a tiny bit of stamina), I get off the bike, march around for a minute, and get back on.

I'm exploring options and experimenting with available materials to prevent NBS (Numb Butt Syndrome). I'll report if I find a solution that doesn't involve temporary dismounts!

Fall vegetables

My tomatoes are finally ripening. I made turkey chili the other day, using tomatoes and baby zucchinni from my washtub garden. It was and continues to be yummy! It made enough that I had to freeze half of it.

It's hard to make out the tomatoes against the V8 juice. Also in there is a pound of browned ground turkey breast, celery, and onion. To be added shortly are black beans, pink beans, chili powder, and much later a splash of vinegar.

Also in vegetable news is this dirty carrot that blogless Louise grew and decided to share with me and, via the internet, you:

A shocking cautionary tale

Mondays are washday. While I was folding and hanging clothes out of the dryer, it bit me! See?


When I put a new belt in the dryer last year, I didn't make sure a cluster of wires was tucked away properly. When the drum rotated, it rubbed a wire, eventually wearing through the insulation, electrifying the drum. When my watch brushed the drum and the body as I pulled out some clothes, the circuit was complete and I was shocked. Fortunately only by 109 volts (as measured later). The temporary tattoo of soot is possibly from vaporized plating from my watchband.

This picture is from a few days later. You can see where the watchband links branded me.


BTW, it's almost as hard to photograph your wrist your feet! And that's a close as we get to knitting today. LOL

After I unplugged the dryer, took a few pictures for the blog, checked with the advice nurse, and quit shaking (in that order!), I called my brother who has more electrical experience than I do, and he came over and we fixed the dryer. He only told me twenty-zillion times that I could have fixed it myself, and he's right, but I was a little afraid of the dryer, even unplugged.

The moral of this cautionary tale? When you put electrical things back together, make sure the wires are away from moving parts.

Surge Protectors Serge Cleaning Cloths

Paper towels last a long time at my house (a couple of years, at least, per roll) because I use these 99.9% of the time: Those are well used, fraying towels cut down to approximately washcloth size. The edges won't fray because I do the cutting and hemming on a serger. The advantage to this size is that dish rags, washcloths, and my cleaning cloths fit this handy cleaning tool... ...purchased at a thrift store. No disposable Swiffer cloth has never crossed my threshold. If you noticed all the dangling thread chains, well spotted. The last two steps in cleaning cloth creation are dabbing on Fray Chek to lock the threads, and after that's dry, cutting the threads off. Some of the cloths are much smaller—as small as 3x5 inches—because I had to work around holes or tears. These mini rags are also handy; one resides with my spinning wheel. I see a number of other knitting bloggers post about knitting swiffer cloths, but I bet if they had a serger they'd be using it this way, too! Here are more swiffer options that Google revealed. My cleaning cloths collection does include several old knitted dishcloths which do fit my swiffer and do a great job. Cheerios for now!

Pondering a Goal for Tour de Fleece

I'm not usually a great goal setter, but the Tour de Fleece requires one, stated or not, to "win." We're supposed to spin from stash and do something that's a personal challenge. Given my relative newness to the craft and my self-teaching methods, I'm not up to anything fancy (yet). But I do have all the cheviot and karakul in 12 to 18 ounce batts. Those are *big* batts. I've spun some of the karakul already, so I'm thinking the white cheviot. A whole batt. Making quantities of yarn large enough to knit at least a pair of socks (3+ ounces). So, up to 4 batches of yarn, each consistent with itself. It will all be white (no time to acquire dye and dye the batt, even if I knew how yet), but I can dye the resulting yarn later.

My initial thought to spin a whole giant batt (visualize, if you will, spinning a giant bat around on a string!) (just kidding) seemed too grand until today when I read Stephanie's post. If she can spin 3 *pounds* I can spin one. I don't have budding Erica Claptons in the house playing the same song over and over and over! LOL

Here's the batt with Pepper included for scale. Or if you think she's a giant cat (she's not, at 10 pounds), the batt is about 22 inches by 5 feet. Yes, feet. BTW, it's overcast today, so the pictures are not the greatest, but they'll do.


And to show vegetative progress, here's my first baby courgette:


The cucumber trellis made of field fencing:


Cute cucumber tendrils:


And the tomato plant from Louise:


I got the field fencing at the neighborhood feed store. It has 6 inch square holes so I can pick/weed/whatever through it, and it was easy to set up using zip ties to "sew" the ends together and anchor the fencing to the handles on the washtub since that trellis only goes part way around.

Into the Closet

When my house was built 20-odd years ago, ventilated wire shelving was the new rage. So new, that it still had a few problems. The vinyl coating turned out to be a bad idea as it got sticky with age, and the clothes rod didn't allow hangers to slide very far. Like about 10 inches. Grrrr.

Well, I replaced my closet shelf/rod the other day. My hangers can now slide from one end to the other with only minor hanger bumping at the two braces.


BTW, the brown hangers date from when plastic hangers were new and only sold at hoity-toity department stores. These were 29 cents each in about 1977 and have lasted because they're heavier and thicker than current iterations. I can't recall any of them breaking yet.

The new shelf/rod is also nearly twice as long as the original. The closet installer (the shelving was so new it wasn't yet available for self-installation!) put in rods at two heights, and given my personal lack of height, I rarely used the higher rod. So I replaced the half-width lower rod with a full-width one. That required a bracket for the end; also the shelf design had a different bracket. Here's a focused-on-the-wrong-part shot of the correct bracket.


Because I wanted the new rod in the same place as the old to minimize the number of brackets to move and holes in the wall, I ended up reusing the original end bracket, making it work by inserting matching shelf hooks so the height is correct.


It's a bit of a kludge, but the alternative was to relocate everything. The new bracket is self-anchoring and the old one has traditional plastic plug anchors. Removing and replacing wall anchors is not IMO a good thing to try. This picture also shows the special screw that require special drivers or driver bits. Those Closet Maid people were sneaky, but I foiled them by acquiring a square-tip bit a long time ago.

The new shelf design made new angle brackets necessary. They're just a little longer as well, so I did have to put two new holes in the wall, but I found the studs and fastened the wall end very securely indeed. It was surprising to discover the original installation didn't fasten to the studs.

My new, free-sliding, wider, stronger shelf/rod makes me smile.

Wooly Garden and Triangular Dolly

Sometimes I get a kick out of being weird. Well, most of the time. LOL For example, my vegetable garden started out on wheels. Now it's on the old pickanick (remember Yogi?) table where it will be easy to find those baby zucchini before they become monster-sized.


After planting a zucchini, several lemon cucumbers, and a cantaloupe (which I hope will recover from my letting it dry up too much) in potting soil and compost, I covered the dirt with wool.

What! you say? Wasting wool on gardening? Not really. That wool wasn't going to do anyone any good for crafting anything nice. The batt was dyed with something that bleeds profusely even after a dozen washes. It was also felted, probably accidentally judging by the various thicknesses and holes in it. As mulch, it will hopefully be keeping the soil moist and the roots warm. Water flows right through. It was easy to install.


See those buds? Baby courgette will hopefully follow.

I mentioned wheels. Because I did nearly everything bass ackwards, I had the washtub planted before I moved the table to the best location. So the washtub was on wheels for a while so I could move it around easily. The wheels? An invention of my own:


Three salvaged swivel casters pinning three sticks into a triangle. The sticks are about 20 x 1 x .7 inches with holes in both ends. The holes are barely big enough for the caster stems, and the slight angling caused by the over/under layering of the sticks puts just enough pressure on that it stays together. I hope. I did play it safe and wedged a small nail alongside each stem. Have you noticed how it looks kind of like a recycle symbol? LOL This simple little project definitely qualifies as Reduce (back strain) and Reuse (sticks, casters).

Now that the wash tub is on the picnic table (thanks to Louise and Mattie who went for a walk and passed just in time to help lift it onto the table), my triangular dolly is under a stack of tires. It is so much easier to move stuff around with wheels!

Fridge Magnets: Take 14357

Not a very original topic, crafted refrigerator magnets are nonetheless useful and fun items to make. I find it especially satisfying to make something new out of bits and pieces already on hand. This time my goal was strong, unobtrusive magnets for the refrigerator.


No, that's not my refrigerator; it's origami paper ON my refrigerator so you could see the magnets better! Here's a crisper picture using the flash that shows the back of one of the magnets.


My button jar has housed these Mother of Pearl buttons for many years. They were "too nice" to put on clothes that go through the wash. LOL I used pliers to pop the metal shanks off. Then applied silicone cement to attach the rare earth magnets. During the day it took the silicone to cure, the magnets were stuck on a tin can lid on the counter to prevent the buttons and magnets from getting out of alignment.

I'm especially happy with these magnets because the button is wider than the magnet, making it easier to get a grip on them.

Returning with 'Poo-free Hair

Last May, Kathy at A Vast Amount of Spare Time posted about not using shampoo to wash her hair. Hmm, I thought. Maybe this will cure those little bumps I get on my scalp. After some experimenting, denial, and accidental or unavoidable use of shampoo, I've settled on a variation of her baking soda and vinegar regimen.

In my shower, I keep a former shampoo bottle (well rinsed!) that has a small dispensing hole (a dish detergent bottle would work, too) with baking soda and water. I start with 1/2 soda, but as the level falls with use, I add water. The quantity of soda isn't critical and depends on how much hair and how big a head you have. If you don't have a funnel for the soda, mix the solution in a pitcher or big measuring cup and pour into the bottle. I also keep a spray bottle filled with water and vinegar (Kathy suggests apple cider, but I had white on hand), about 1/4 vinegar.

To clean my hair, I wet it well, shake the soda bottle (finger over the hole) and apply a spiral on my hair (usual two circuits starting near the edge and finishing near the crown), massage into the scalp with my fingertips, rub all over with my palms and fingers, and rinse well. (You'll get some dribble and you can use it to clean behind/in your ears or even your face and neck. It's mildly abrasive which can be good.) Once the soda is rinsed out and my hair is still very wet, I grab the vinegar spray bottle, close my eyes, spray a few times (maybe 4, again, your mileage may vary) around my head, rub it around around a little bit to distribute, and rinse. You can, if you wish, use the vinegar rinse on alternate days or even less frequently. It does ensure there's no soda left in the hair and makes your hair shinier than with soda alone.

I found the measuring cup method to be cumbersome and much prefer the premixed solutions. And it did take a week to get my scalp and hair used to the change. Those little scalp bumps don't appear when I use the soda and vinegar, either. Even baby shampoo causes them. Additional benefits of this system are its very low cost and small environmental impact.

Regarding knitting, I'll have posts about completed projects (including my Mystery Stole 3), my new-to-me spinning wheel and an incredible fiber purchase via Craigslist, and so on soon. I've been a bad blogger.

SAM3, Antibiotics, and Blackberries

Assorted odd (or normal, depending on perspective) things are happening around here!

1) I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the second time, noting 8 instances of "sock," 5 instances of "sweater," and 2 instances of "underpants." Still no instances of knitting, though. Why underpants? They're just funny.

2) My brother's elderly cat, variously named Kitty, Barebutt, and "the skinny one," joined my household and it was not uneventful. He likes to pat your face if you aren't paying the right kind of attention to him. After he patted my gums because I was talking to him at the time, I started keeping my mouth closed. A couple days later, I had an infected gum and got antibiotics. Neither my dentist nor the nurse practitioner at my HMO had ever seen anything like it and had to do some research to choose the antibiotic. I'm OK now, but Kitty got his. He tangled with a neighbor cat and got an abscess of his own! So he's got a shaved spot and his own round of antibiotics to finish. Payback's a female dog!

3) I had a garage sale last weekend; it was very last minute and not the biggest sale, but some stuff I didn't need any more found new homes and I got some yarn money. Not a bad trade.

4) I finished my SAM3 July socks, shown here with Kitty who is a good knitting buddy because he doesn't mess with the yarn or needles.



The yarn is Regia Mini Ringel knit on US Zeros. They're a little bright but come winter they'll be great with my Birkenstocks. They're the eighth pair of socks I've knit since my first pair last August. I liked knitting the Regia, and the color repeats were very accurate.

5) Yesterday I spent some time with a new friend teaching her to purl and reviewing cast on and knitting while starting a simple roll-brim hat. We sipped our drinks, knitted, and talked on the shaded sidewalk outside our local coffee shop. We even managed to pick up another new friend in the process! We're already thinking about having regular meets.

6) I gave up this year's battle with the blackberries a few weeks ago, and now they're ripening! As I pick, I'll be cutting canes out, too. Mmmm, cobbler!

Settled

I'd mentioned getting summoned for jury duty; it started and ended today. Late last night the parties settled, so the 120 or so potential jurors (including me) who showed up this morning get a 2-year exemption from serving! It almost took longer to get through security than to find out the trial was off! Look what "needles" got through security:


That's 62 stitches of mystery yarn (that I wouldn't grieve over if it got confiscated) in an off-the cuff YO, K2tog lace pattern possibly to become a net bag. Now that jury duty is done, I'll move it to regular needles. The pencils are 6.6 mm in diameter, so a 10.5 US will be fine. I painted 4 coats of clear nail polish on the tips.

This is what I'd wished I could take to the courthouse:


My 8th pair of socks being knit on glorified toothpicks! Last week I was inspired by the combination of high temperatures...


... (76 inside and 107 in the shade outside my front door) and doing errands to make a woolly sock for my water bottle. I like the wide-mouth bottles because I can put normal ice cubes in them. I grabbed an orphan ball of fingering yarn and knitted away until it was the right size. Like a sock but without a heel:


Then I knit I-cord (on my Magicord Machine!) until I ran out of yarn and grafted the ends together. Fortunately, it was long enough to make a sling-able strap. Here are the parts. I'm not sewing them together since I'm using it around the house as well as out and about. I put a bit of ribbing in for snug fit. It was really technical: at the start of each of the 4 needles, I P2, K2, P2, K to the end of the needle. The "toe" increases were done similarly: KFB the first stitch, K to end of needle.


My Mystery Stole 3 is stuck half way through clue 2. That bit of blue yarn is to remind me to add a missing bead.

In other fiberly news, I made a dozen covered hangers for an upcoming birthday. I used puffy Homespun-style yarn and crocheted with a big hook. They just need the ends woven in. They're popular with their recipient because clothes don't slide off the hangers. And of course the sun
has gone down while I'm blogging, so you get a flash picture!


And don't give me any grief for crochet and acrylic! Every technique and every fiber has its proper niche.

Ta ta for now!

It's Been Hot

Hot for Portland, anyway. I've been knitting on my Mystery Stole 3 and finished clue #1. Here it is quickly pinned out:


You can see my three pearl cotton lifelines, but the beads barely show. That might have something to do with them being clear! I got my lace knitting workstation settled to my satisfaction on the piano bench (made by my grandmother's uncle around 1898, no less) situated in front of the couch.


I was going to make a cone spinner like this one, but couldn't find a paper towel holder at the thrift store. They did have a lazy susan that, turned upside down, works well and required no remodeling. Someday I might paint the underside, but for now it's OK.

Just in the nick of time, I finished my June Sock a Month socks, my 7th pair. They started out as Horcrux socks, but the yarn was too busy for a pattern. They're Koolaid dyed KnitPicks Bare fingering knit on US 1 DPNs.


I need to start my July socks soon, or I'll be in the same last-minute rush I was in on June 29! They'll be plain with fun yarn again to provide easy knitting in contrast to the stole.

In related sock news, my first pair of socks felted a little in the washer (now I handwash ALL my handknit socks), and it makes a great insulating sock for my water bottle. The heel looks a little odd, but if it keeps the water cool longer, I'm not bothered. Cool water water is simply wonderful in the summer! VBG

Yesterday I went over to Ruthie's Weaving Studio. She's been posting ads about spinning classes on craigslist. She's got a big space (complete with stars hanging from the ceiling courtesy of the square dance club that used to be there) for her and members' looms, plus equipment for getting warps and other weaverly things ready for weaving (I don't know the lingo, obviously). The first Saturday of the month she offers spinning classes. She had some good suggestions for me regarding some overspun yarn that I want to tweak into usable form.

Now off for some errands (including a nearby yard sale with "knitting things"). Later, 'gators.

MS3 Swatch #6 aka Too Much Time on My Hands

Is that a pun?

I knit another MS3 swatch last night, this time on size 4 US vintage plastic Boye needles with scooped tips. Although technically not a pair as one is blue and the other white, they were nice: light, smooth, and sticky enough they didn't fall out every other stitch. Here's the swatch complete with imperfections caused by PBS viewing:


The lower section is knit with two strands and the upper with one. Both are pretty fluid. I was worried about breaking the single strand as I knit, but that didn't happen. Damn. I suspect I'm going to have to knit the stole on one strand of the gray mystery wool. I never would have thunk it. I can blame Jan, a knitter/weaver/seamstress I met yesterday who was knitting a shawl of what looked a lot like my gray mystery wool (only a very pretty autumn-colored variegated yarn/thread). Shoot. If she can do that, so can I. LOL What do YOU think?

The sunlight streaming through my kitchen window as I immortalized the new swatch was hitting my window sill garden. Look, African violet bloom!


And my 2007 primrose, currently on its 4th and 5th (see the bud in the center?) round of blooms.

Every spring I splurge 79 cents on a primrose for my kitchen window. Some years they even survive to bloom again 12 months later. Such a deal!

Simultaneous Knitting and Scrolling

Late last night I was playing with a friend's camera and took this picture of my frogged Horcrux sock sitting in a heap of recent fibery goodness.


I got it past the heel twice but didn't like it (not the pattern's fault!), so ribit ribit. At least now it will be started during the Summer of Socks. The other night I swatched for Mystery Stole 3 on size 5 US needles in both the green and the blue. I'm teetering between size 4 and 5 and the green yarn. We'll see what happens with clue 1 comes out Friday.

This camera is 12 or so years newer than mine and actually took pictures of the Black Hole Under My Desk without the flash. A Very Good Thing because the dust bunnies don't show up! Here's its frequent resident, Mr. Kitty, looking sweet and keeping my toes company on a big pillow.


Over to the right is this:


A serial trackball with BIG buttons that I got at Goodwill for $1.99 recently. The ball is on the shelf since I discovered that it's hard to control it with sock-covered toes. HOWEVER, it is extremely useful for scrolling down while reading blogs! I park the cursor over the down-arrow in the scroll bar, pick up my knitting, and read and scroll away! My system seems not to mind at all having two pointing devices operating at the same time. Definitely a simple, thrifty, reuse idea that increases knitting time. The only downside is now there's another cable snaking around. Just wait till I give up my socks and get practiced surfing with my toes!

Mystery Stole Swatch Results

Yes! There's a hole in the gray swatch! And if you look closely, there's a missing YO in the green one. Now that's over with, let's celebrate 3 swatches done yesterday. LOL

The details in order of knitting:

Gray Swatch: mystery wool on cone (10.5 ounces), 28 WPI, two strands held together on size 2 US, blocked to approximately 5.5 inches wide, 4 inches tall. If I choose this, I'll go with three strands plied together somehow (not having a wheel...) because unplied, I'm going to be sticking my needles between strands a lot. Finished width approx 18 inches. The math: 5.5 inches/35 times 99 stitches times 120%. Melanie has revealed the stole is 99 stitches wide.

Green Swatch: mystery wool on cone (21 ounces), 24 WPI, one strand on size 4 US (bottom) and size 3 US needles, blocked to approximately 6 inches wide. I like the size 4 results better. I'm leaning toward using this yarn. Approx 20 inches wide finished.

Blue Swatch: Shetland wool on cone (12 ounces), 18 WPI, one strand on size 4 US, blocked to approximately 6.25 inches wide. I like this color best, but overdying either of the other two is an option. Approx 21 inches wide finished.

Any opinions? Is my math OK? Please comment!

BTW, I unvented a WPI tool from my wood scraps box: a piece of tinker toy. Perfect! Love that Reuse part of the three Rs. LOL This is such a simple concept. One could make one from a piece of doweling very easily if there are no kids around from whom you can beg a stick.

As to the wrapping, I let the yarn decide where to fall by angling it slightly toward the already wrapped strand as I twisted the tool, pulling the yarn just enough to snug up to the tool without being overly tight. Is that the right way to do it??

Grandma's Spice Sauce

My grandma spent her youth as a professional musician in the Weber Junior Orchestra touring the US and Canada. Here she is, leftmost in the front row with her mandolin:



Grandma, who I loved dearly, wasn't the greatest cook, but she tried hard and had some tried-and-true recipes. Grandpa had paid for cooking lessons when they married. She used to make Spice Sauce to drizzle over pie, cobbler, and ice cream (not all at the same time, usually!). My sister recently asked if I had the recipe, since I am Keeper of Grandma's Recipe Box. The wooden box is labeled inside with her maiden name and "From Elgie 1919." It appears that my grandpa knew what grandma's cooking skills were like going in. LOL

Anyway, I found the recipe. It was actually in my handwriting; some time in my youth I noticed her card was way beat up and copied it over for her and made another for me at the same time.

tiny space

Grandma's Spice Sauce Blend in a small saucepan: 2 T flour 1/2 t nutmeg 1/2 t cinnamon 1/2 t salt 3 T sugar 1 1/2 c hot water Cook slowly, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in until melted: 1 T butter or margarine Serve hot over pie, ice cream, cobbler, or anything else you fancy.

I was telling Louise about it today, and she mentioned making a similar sauce but with lemon juice and rind to put on gingerbread. A little googling later, I found these two Mrs Beaton traditional recipes. I wonder how they'd be over berries?

Acci-dental Stitch Markers

The replacement heads for my electric toothbrush come with rings for color coding family members' brushes. They make good and free (if one doesn't buy the brushes to get the rings!) stitch markers! Shown here on a size 8 US needle.

BTW, an electric toothbrush is a simple tool for improving dental health and saving money. Since I got my Braun several years ago (less than $25 for a rechargeable model, and replacement brushes at 1/5 retail via eBay) my gums are healthier, my teeth cleaner, and no new cavities. Your mileage may vary. LOL