Musings from Marilyn

Posts Tagged ‘spring’

Going through my vintage knitting pattern stash, I found this sweet 1960s pattern!  Knit in fluffy mohair, it is a button-up cardigan style.  The scallop edge detail is so fabulous.  This would look so pretty in white or pastels.

Again, this is vintage sizing, so a size 12 would fit a 32″ bust / size 14 – 34″ bust / size 16 – 36″ bust.

More vintage knitting and crochet patterns to come!  Happy knitting!

“Knitting is very conducive to thought.  It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.” ~Dorothy Day

~Marilyn Huttunen

Download: Here

I’ve aired my dirty laundry for about 6 years now.  Well, actually it’s clean laundry and I air-dry it on either a drying rack or clothesline!  Being a “slow dryer” as it were, I often feel as though my whole life is consumed by laundry.  Either washing it, hanging it, waiting it for it to dry, and putting it way.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  It is a rhythm that slowly weaves its way in and out of my days.

Outdoor drying becomes a huge issue when you live in the Pacific Northwest.  Especially in the fall, winter, and much of the spring.  My indoor drying racks are in constant use during these times.  Once in a great while I dare to hang laundry outdoors in the depths of winter, but it is almost always to no avail – little or no actual drying gets accomplished.

This winter and spring have been especially rough on Seattle-area air drying enthusiasts.  Out of the 132 days since January 1, only 27 days have NOT been rainy!  I may not be that great at math, but I know that it means there have been 105 rainy days.  No wonder I haven’t used my outdoor clothesline much!

Yesterday and today have been sunny though (knock on wood).  Add temps in the 60s, a brisk breeze, and you’ve got ideal conditions for successful solar-powered drying.  In fact, the laundry is dancing out on my backyard clothesline as I write this.  When you become a consistent  air-dryer, nothing brings satisfaction to your soul quite like seeing laundry flap in the wind.  And the resulting intoxicating scent of outdoor dried laundry that is beyond compare.  I love that Mother Nature does her work so wonderfully and bonus, for free!

Those of you who already air-dry know what I’m talking about; and those of you who don’t, I invite you to at least try it.  It does take a bit more patience and waiting.  But when you let nature do the work in its gentle way, you are in for a great experience.  E. B. White says it well: “We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it’s only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.”

~Marilyn Huttunen

It has been a long time in coming, but spring is finally making somewhat of an entrance in the Pacific Northwest.  The weather is still rainy and cool, but the days are longer and the sun is actually making an appearance more frequently.  I don’t know why this surprises me every year, but my good old allergies start to kick in at the first bloom of springtime.  I think because winter, even though it’s dark and gloomy, does afford me a respite in the allergy department.

Tree, plant and grass pollen are filling the air, with the accompanying symptoms of sneezing, sniffling and swollen eyes.  My sinuses seem eternally stuffed up, resulting in that oh-so unattractive mouth-breathing at night.  I know that 24-hour non-drowsy allergy medications are available, and I do take them from time to time.  I don’t want to become dependent on medications though, preferring a more natural approach since it’s so ongoing.

What to do, what to do?  First thing, I am a committed neti pot user.  I religiously use it every day, and have been for years.  There is nothing quite like flushing out the nasal passages with salt water!  Once you start, it’s hard to stop; the instant clean feeling is quite amazing and quite addictive.  It’s perfectly natural though – I don’t think I am in any danger of having to go to neti pot rehab – well, at least I hope so!

I learned something new recently:  that applying petroleum jelly to the inside of your nostrils will trap pollen in your nose.  So, of course, I had to try this.  Being the natural, eco-conscious gal that I am (well, try to be), I really don’t like the idea of putting a chemical by-product up my nose, so I am using the Alba Un-petroleum Jelly, which is the same consistency of petroleum jelly but is made from pure plant oils and all natural waxes.  It helps keep the inner lining of the nose moist too, which just feels better.

First thing in the morning, and a couple times a day, I spray saline nose spray up my nose.  I use it to augment the action of the neti pot, and is more of a quick, nasal-moistening fix.  I find it works even better if I spray, wait 5 minutes, blow my nose and then spray again.   This seems to work more effectively for a quick nasal cleanse.

Yes, I do take allergy medications every now and then.  But since I’ve been practicing the more natural methods, my medication use has greatly lessened.  I haven’t had a sinus infection in years either.  I used to get them twice a year (fall and spring), with the resulting antibiotic use to clear it up.  I hate antibiotic use because it throws the body all out of whack.  I’m glad to be rid of having to take them anymore.

So gurgle, snort, spray and line your nasal passages!  They will love you for it!

~Marilyn Huttunen

If you don’t know it by now, I am a bit of a green-laundry diva.  Yes, I admit it.  The past five years or so I’ve ditched the dryer, opting for complete air drying with an out door clothesline or indoor drying rack.  Since I no longer use the dryer, there is no need for dryer sheets, so I ditched those too.  To complete the green aspect, I’ve been washing with unscented, ‘natural’ detergents in cold water.

Recently though, I’ve realized that I may have gone a bit too far over to the stoic side of laundry.  I’m not quite at pounding the washing on rocks at the rivers edge, but I was headed in that direction – ha!   I realized that I was missing a key element in the laundry process: scent.   I love scent, I love perfume, I love all of nature’s aromas – why did I give that sensory delight up in the laundry?

Sure, if I hang my laundry outside, it does pick up an outdoorsy scent; but after a particularly long, cold winter of indoor drying, that was missed greatly.  My laundry was hung indoors, wet and scentless.  Something was missing.

So I decided to go back to scented detergent.  I washed a load this morning and half the laundry is drying outside, and half inside.  The aroma is amazing, it smells so clean!  The drying laundry inside freshens up the whole house.  The drying laundry outside mingles with the outdoor scent and combines to make an intoxicating smell that can’t be reproduced in the lab.

I will continue to do cold-water washing and air-drying, but I will take back some scent in the process.  I’ve decided that even green-laundry divas need their aromas!

“We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.”  –E.B. White

~Marilyn Huttunen

Take a look at the sky in this picture.  This was just taken today from my backyard and has become a constant sight around here day after day.  Gray, cloudy, rainy weather has gripped us all spring.  Cool temperatures too.  There have been a few days of sunshine, which have been glorious, but the dark clouds always seem to be lurking around the corner.

I really try not to be the complaining sort, especially about things that I have no control over – like the weather.  I do, after all, live in the Pacific Northwest, where moisture is king!  This is good for keeping the landscape nice and green, the air clean, and the skin dewy.  It gets a little trickier for line-drying enthusiasts like myself, when trying to schedule an outdoor drying session though.

After three solid weeks of rain, it was finally a sunny day yesterday.  I hurriedly washed several loads of laundry and loaded up my clothesline.  It was an absolutely ideal drying day; warm temperature and softly blowing breeze.  It was a joy to once again see my laundry waving, doing the clothesline dance in the sun!  Everything dried relatively quickly and since it stayed sunny all day, I could rest easy knowing that the sun could just do its work without interruption.

I am glad that I got the bulk of my laundry done yesterday, as today it is back to the gray clouds and rain.  And probably for the foreseeable future.  It’s looking like it will be a very cool summer around here.  This means that I will have to keep an even greater eye on the sky:  looking for those lurking rain clouds whenever there is a patch of sunlight to hang the laundry in.  I also have my indoor drying racks close at hand.  I use them all winter and was hoping to put them away for the summer.  But to be a successful air-drying enthusiast, the first rule is to be flexible…and patient…and diligent…well, you get the point.  Dry on!

~Marilyn

Due to the lack of winter here, allergy season started early this year in the Pacific Northwest.  Trees and daffodils started blooming as early as January, and the grass started growing fast and never quit!  While it’s pleasant to have nice weather, it comes with a price.  And that price for many, myself included, is those annoying springtime allergies.  This year is especially fierce; not only here, but in most areas of the country.

Since I suffer from allergies the hardest during springtime,  I decided to take a more proactive approach this year.  The spring allergy season was going to be a long one, so I planned my attack.  I didn’t want to spend any more time than I had to suffering from debilitating allergy symptoms, like in previous years.  This year was going to be different!

First up, I was going to take a 24 hour non-drowsy allergy medication every single day. I picked out Claritin, actually the store-brand equivalent ( a LOT cheaper), and started taking one pill a day.  This had little or no effect.  I posted my allergy woes on my Facebook status update, and got several really good suggestions.   Facebook can be so helpful in many ways!   One friend who is a nurse, suggested I take two tablets a day to get the dosage up to prescription strength.  I looked on the package, and sure enough, the one-pill dosage was the same for a six-year-old as for an adult.  So I started taking two a day, and after a couple of  days it seemed to kick in, and kick butt!

I am also continuing with my daily neti pot rinses, as I do year-round.   I do this later in the day, after the buildup of allergins.  The warm saline water poured through the nasal passages is so soothing and cleansing.  A lot of times I’m pretty congested and not much water gets through.  But even getting just a little bit up the nose seems to help dig through the congestion and help clear the airways.  One trick I’ve learned recently is after you rinse with the neti pot, bend over in front and blow your nose.  Turn your head sideways and blow too.  One crazy thing about using a neti pot is that the saline solution will quite often pool up somewhere in the recesses of your sinuses, and then come rushing out hours later when you bend over.  This most likely happens in a public place, of course!  Doing the bend-over nose blow will prevent this embarrassing occurrence.

Doing these two things have helped immensely!  The combination of medication, and the neti pot rinse really packs a punch for me.  I am able to continue my daily outdoor walks, and just generally go about life.  I also do other things to help keep allergies at bay: eat healthily, drink lots of water, take many vitamins and supplements, and use saline nasal spray.  While I’m not completely symptom free, it is so much better than in springs past.  It almost makes me feel like dancing ‘The Rite of Spring’.  On second thought, I think I’ll pass on that.  That ballet was about a pagan ritual where a girl dances herself to death.  Maybe a few springtime allergies don’t sound so bad after all!

~Marilyn