Category: Great Big Fun

Great Big Fun

Really, I can stop anytime I want

Things often heard around here:

“I’ll just finish that white stripe and then go get some chores done.”

“Oh look! The green stripe! That’s so pretty, I’ll get that one done.”

“Oh man, I just pulled a whole yarn blob out of the middle of that ball. I better knit some of that up so it doesn’t tangle up in the bag.”

“LOOK! YELLOW! IT’S THE YELLOW STRIPE!” I’ve knit a whole sock worth of this yarn, I know damn well what color comes next.

“I’ll be just a minute, let me finish this row.”

John:

“You’re knitting in the round, the whole damn sock is one row. Put it down!”

Holy Sock Holes, Batman!

I posted some time back about always getting a gap at one of the gussets when knitting sock heels. I was roaming around on the internet this morning and found this video. Why on God’s green earth did it take me nearly 25 years of sock knitting to discover this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=UMWRP26WlOE&feature=youtu.be

I’ll let you know how it works out!

Fun in the sun

Today was the first day around here that really felt like spring. John’s kids and grandkids were here, so we took advantage of the sunny day to go to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. This is a huge wetland refuge at the Nisqually river delta, and is a glorious local treasure about fifteen minutes from home.

This was in the parking lot. I have no idea why there’s a skeleton on the front, but it seemed like it was a good sock photo op.

The trails through the refuge are well maintained, with a long boardwalk through the marsh areas.

We heard and saw a bevy of birds, including my favorites, the red winged blackbird. There were baby goslings, frogs, snakes, and a fine turtle.

I did take my knitting.

And the family group shot at the end:

Those of you who follow me on FB might have seen my news about Will.

That’s one of the most recent photos we have of him. The last we saw him was on Wednesday. He does go in and out, but always comes back in at night, especially as he’s gotten older. He was about sixteen, and starting to show his age, so we are pretty sure he went off by himself to die. I’m sad, but we knew this was coming. I think he is probably in kitty heaven, chasing bunnies and mice.

Because I Can

Remember this?

Langsjal Jóhönnu! I knit that in 2008, then had it stolen on an Alaska cruise the following year. I’ve always planned to reknit it someday. Well someday is now. Never mind that I already have a bunch of knitting projects going, including two other lace shawls.

Here’s the yarn:

The wool is Icelandic lace, Lodband Einband. I used this for the first one as well, just in a different color. This is a deep ruby red, and I have seven skeins of it, enough to make a huge shawl.

After some dithering around, I managed to get the pattern scanned, saved as a pdf, and uploaded to Knit Companion and set up. The original pattern book is in Icelandic, which of course I can’t read. It comes with a very abbreviated English translation. My project notes from the first time around will help tremendously in getting this thing started.

That’s the project photo from the book. There are 25 shawl patterns in this book, and that woman has the same “don’t fuck with me” expression in every photo. There are several other gorgeous shawls here that I’d love to knit.

Yes, I Am A Dork

I realized earlier this month that it will be 36 years this year that I graduated from medical school. Where the hell did the time go?

I decided to make a big splurge and update all of my hard copy medical texts. I tend to use a lot of online resources “on-the-fly” when I’m actually seeing patients, but do have a need often to return to actual texts. I can always read those online through my work medical library, but it’s not always the latest version, and I have trouble reading scientific stuff on an iPad on a routine basis. With technical texts, I find that I need to flip around to find stuff, and refer to the index a fair amount, and find that more annoying on a device.

So here they are.

The only one missing is the pharmacology text, which is coming later this week.

The dork part is that I’ve been pretty damned excited to have these show up. I’m also really excited that I have a monetary allowance at work for education and books, etc. I’m glad I’m not a freshman medical student for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is the expense of textbooks.

I’m also hoping that there is a reference in there somewhere to the treatment of hernias and back strain, because I suspect my poor mailman has both after lugging all those to my front door.

Sleeve Island

After a couple of false starts, I have the first sleeve well on its way. Normally sleeves are the most boring thing on earth to knit, but these cables are more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

The first false start involved my apparent inability to count. I finished that whole ribbing hem and then realized I had too many stitches.
The second false start only involved undoing a few rows. The ribbing is knit on a smaller size needle, and I was a couple of rows into the sleeve and realized I had never switched to the larger needles.
Here is a close up of the cable that goes from the cuff up the side of the sleeve.
And a gratuitous photo of Lewey doing what he does best on Saturday.
Have a happy weekend!

Mind the Gap!

We have had a fun couple of days in London for the start of our England vacation. John got off the plane feeling under the weather on Friday and Saturday right after we got here, so Saturday I was on my own. I walked pretty much the entire Kensington Garden park, which is right across the street where we are staying. And I found a yarn shop.

Loop London is on a tiny walking-only street with a bunch of other little shops. It’s not a big shop, but it has some mighty fine yarn choices. Here’s what I came away with.

There are two skeins of lace yarn from Eden Cottage, and two Wollmeise Pure wool yarn. The first two will be shawls someday, the last two will likely be small “neck things”, which I am growing quite fond of.

John is all better now, and we’ve spent our time being tourists, and doing a lot of walking. We’ve got the tube system sorted, at least for our little local neighborhood, and buses and taxis will get us everywhere else.

Here are a few other photos:

Every single tourist here takes their photo in front of one of the iconic London telephone booths.

Even better with Big Ben in the background.

There are lots of fine pubs.

We had a tour of St. Paul Cathedral today. What a remarkable place. We got there just before their midday Eucharist service, so I was privileged to attend that.

You hear “Mind the gap” about every few minutes while riding the Tube. I suspect if you are a Londoner, you don’t find it quite so amusing.

And this last photo is your medical public service reminder for the day. If you haven’t gotten your flu jab yet, please do so!

Tomorrow we take the train to Canterbury for another adventure!

Ruffles!

Project Details
 
Pattern: This started out as a Wool Peddler shawl, by Cheryl Oberle. I got a dozen rows into the lace section and hated how it looked in this yarn. I ripped it back and just knitted many more rows of garter stitch.
The border is a ruffle, when the shawl was “big enough”, I increased every third stitch (knit 2, increase one) across the row. then I knit more garter stitch, and then did a bind off.
It’s not blocked yet since I’m not home, but I think this will be a nice snuggly shawl. Sweetpea certainly likes it.
Yarn: Sirdar Balmoral, color Corgi. Yes, that’s why I bought it.
Needles: 4.00 mm Holz & Stein ebony circulars
For: Me
Started/Finished: Started 10/11/16 Finished 6/25/17.
Modifications: See above
What I Learned: Don’t keep knitting if it isn’t working. And don’t dump yarn that isn’t working. I bought enough of this for a sweater, but it has enough alpaca in it that a sweater would be much too warm for me where I live. Also, despite the color name, it really isn’t my favorite color. A whole sweater of this would be a bit blah. I had it in the box to go to charity, and pulled it back out to do this, since it really is very nice yarn. I have enough leftover for another medium project, perhaps it would make nice hats to put in the charity box at church.
 
So now I need another mindless-but-not-a-sock project. I’m thinking of starting another Hitchhiker-like shawl, since I’ve got tons of sock yarn that would work. The other three shawls in Martina Behm’s Hitchhiker series have been on my to-do list forever, so perhaps one of those.
 
Here is my Winter Solstice shawl.
 
I have been in Minnesota for a big family reunion since late last week. Great big fun was had by all. We stayed at a lake resort in Minnesota, and had a pretty big bunch that showed up. My generation had 25 cousins, with all but 6 of us still living. About half of the cousins made it, plus spouses/partners, children, and grandchildren. Here’s a group shot:
And me with Fritz. He was the youngest family member present.
And one with my sisters and Dave, Fritz’s dad:

The Church of Bluegrass-Day 3

We’re having some Great Big Fun here, let me tell you. As usual, it’s a pretty eclectic group of performers here. The music has ranged from old time Appalachian flat pick twangy banjo (yes, that is a music style), to Portland Swing, to Celtic, and everything in between. We saw a group last night that set William Blake’s poetry (yes, that William Blake that they made you read in college English class) to Appalachian roots/funk/soul/gospel/tribal music (Martha Redbone).

So far, it’s tough to pick a favorite, though Steel Wheels is a contender. We’ve heard two of their sets, both superb. Today should be terrific as well. Seldom Scene is doing only two sets this year, both tonight. Doyle Lawson performs a couple of sets today, he is a little twangy traditional bluegrass for me, but his band is polished and very entertaining.

And then there is Väsen. Not bluegrass, but one of my favorite performing groups here. They play Swedish folk music, but it’s more exciting than that makes it sound. I try to hit all of their sets when they are here.

As in previous years, it might be tough to choose my favorite performer of the weekend, but we’ll see. There’s lots of bluegrass left to hear.

Knitting at the ready. I’m off to chase the banjos. Or nyckelharpas. Whatever.