ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Military

The Friedberg Clinic cased their colors today. It seems like such a simple statement. But it is reflective of far more. It permanently closes the history of a unit that was activated during WWII. That served in multiple locations in Germany after the war. Being subordinate, as the 733rd Medical Detachment to the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt. In 1994 when Frankfurt closed, operational oversight of the clinic at Ray Barracks, Friedberg Germany was transfered to Heidelberg. That same year all the numbered units were re-designated as named units with the closure of 7th Medical Command. I was in charge of outlying clinics for Heidelberg during 1993-1995. My youngest daughter was not even two. The drawdown was to be our peace dividend from the ending of the Cold War.

It is now 2007. All the units on this post are closing. Guidons are being cased, grounds cleaned, equipment turned in. BRAC is in full swing. Attending the ceremony today, I feel like it has come full circle: to closure here. Butzbach will case their colors on Thursday. There needs to be a wall at the Army Medical Department to note, honor, those who have done so much to support and provide medical care for soldiers. Retiring the colors, closing the traditions, in 10 years no one will remember the clinic, not at all the commander and first sargeant rolling up the flag for the last time.

Knitting

It was a very successful mailroom trip, on return from this morning’s ceremony. In the back of my van, the empty of seats van, you will note that there is a row of packages. My SOM kit from Chameleon Color Works, some medium weight STR from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, a small package from Ellen’s Half Pint Farm and treasures from The Sweet Sheep Shoppe including a skein of “Wicked.” This is enough yarn to allow me to complete all planned socks and obligations through at least the fall. Unless I keep up at the 10 pairs a month rate, and I am not going to be that insane.

With the van ride this morning, I managed the top on the second Glamour, then finished up the foot this afternoon. This is the 10th pair for the month. May should be a bit saner. All pairs can be found here.

Yarn: Scarlet Letter from The Sweet Sheep, a merino tencil combination.
Needles: The first was knit on 2,00 mm Lantern Moon Sox Stix. Since it turned out to be a bit tight in the ankle, I knit that portion on 2,5 mm rosewood dps on the second sock.
Notions: Beads, 34 per sock.
Pattern Details: top down, provisional cast-on with hemmed top. One row of beads around the top. 4 lace panels of 17 stitches each for a total of 68 stitches.

Did I mention the SOM that arrived today? This one should be interesting. Lengthwise sock in shadow technique, with two colors; wild cherry and moss. One is merino/tencil and the other bamboo/merino The yarn is now in balls and I am goign to cast on to be able to say that I got them started in April.

Reading

There was also a box of books that arrived. Miriam had been waiting for Lady Friday by Garth Nix and Celandine by Steve Augarde. Charles De Lint has a compendium of chapbooks that was in the box for Nina, one Manga for the Noah and Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch for me.

This morning, as the first one up, I needed a cup of industrial strength and fast. Dragging out the French Press which returned from Kuwait with me, I tossed in a little bit of flavor and a lot of caffeine. Loaded up with sugar and whipped cream, I supposed I should have looked for something additional for breakfast but my knitting was calling.

About midday, I headed out with the teens to run a few errands. As we tramped down the stairs to street level we heard this rushing, humming, buzzing noise. The front of the garage was covered with bees. Above the garage, there were literally thousands of bees swarming around one of the trees.

They seemed to think that the pine tree was a good location. George went looking for the beekeeper’s phone number as our son then reported that he had already been stung three times this morning. The property next to us is overgrown; leased out to a beekeeper who supposedly maintains his five hives. When you have a hive swarm, it is pretty obvious that he has not been keeping close watch on the hives. He just happened to show up this afternoon and seemed amazed that we could not be convinced to ignore the whole issue for a couple of combs of honey. He was singularly unsuccessful in luring them out, smoking them out, or otherwise recapturing that swarm.

I don’t want honey, I want the bees – swarm, hives and all – gone. I want to be able to sit outside on the patio without worry. I don’t want my teens stung. We have enough allergy worries without adding bees to the mix. Tomorrow will bring a conversation with the Politzei and a formal complaint.

Knitting

Details from Jody -

with and without a foot in to stretch out the central lace figure.

Niagara Falls is complete. Finally! From the Chameleon Colorworks Sock of the Month Club. This was my second month. I started it immediately, then decided to go and play with other socks before making myself sit down and knit the second sock. The pattern is fine, top down, which is my normal preference. Lace, which does not always thrill me. And a seed stitch heel which seems to hold up quite well. I did a star toe, just for a change. The yarn is decent and the colors never seem to run from her dyelots, but it does split some. My socks are altered from the basic pattern (alternating bands of lace and plain rather than continuos lace). I don’t have the April kit yet, since it has been taking three weeks for the average shipment to reach me via the US post.

Glamour second sock started. This time I had an easier time with the beads, with only one repeatedly trying to crawl to the inside.

Tomorrow I am hoping to see pick up slips in my box for April STR, April ChameleonColorWorks, and a bit of yarn from The Sweet Sheep which I am considering for Sockmania. And then there are the socks that the youngest teen would like, the DH would like, two KALs plus a Monkey along.

Yes, there are enough socks planned for next month.

-Holly

Knitting

I finished Jody’s Socks this afternoon while the five of us sat on the terrace discussing what to do for summer vacation.

The starting point was interesting – I like cruises, DH was talking about Salzburg, Vienna and Prague (said idea promptly shot down by all three teens as not wanting to do another anything in German, etc speaking Europe). One teen was negative on everything, another was voting for a nice ride around the Bodensee on bikes, the youngest was doing a “no France, please no France.” There were three negative votes about the Mediteranean. Two of us thought going down the Nile would be really cool, a couple more said fine, but not in August (gee, wonder why it is not high season. Temps well about 45°C perhaps?). One still voting no on anything to do with ships.

e started discussing father a field. India and Pakistan are not on any list, but the kids thought perhaps Thailand. Then China came up. None of us have been there – a real surprise considering the weird places both DH and I have been over the years. After they were done with the Avian Flu and SARS jokes, it is on the table. There might even be a tour at the right time (and it includes a river trip.)

Meanwhile – the sock. Knit over 60 stitches on 2,5mm needles out of Zen Yarn Garden (Zen Garden Yarn?) in colorway Norwegian Shores. The colors are subtle and complement the lace bow type pattern going up the sock front. The short row toe up construction has a turned heel with gusset, a strip of faggoting running up the back and a rolled top. Once I got the pattern down (second sock to be honest) it really zipped along. I’ll get a close up so that you can really see the lace and one of the back tomorrow.

Audio Books

The last cassette from Vengence in Death has just finished whirring. I looked over at the audio book basket, trying to decide what is next. Perhaps another Inspector Poirot? PJ Tracey? JD Robb?

It is just like sock yarn and patterns – so many choices to fill up the time.
-Holly

I know that there are those who have well trained dogs. Those that fetch when requested, perhaps even items such as papers, slippers or the
portable phone that is ringing in the next room. Ours is a retriever. She does live up to her breed. But instead she treasures socks and underwear. Not out of the clean laundry, not for her. Instead she has a thing for those items which are a bit more fragrant. I find these soggy, half shredded pathetic bits of fabric and a dog who will not look me in the eye.

Now that I have in my possesion a lovely, typed two-page report from the Politzei verifying the van seats were stolen, I will tackle the insurance company. Apparently I am just another victim of an Eastern European theft ring that specializes in Ford and Sharan [VW] van seats. Who would have thought?

Knitting

The young man has been warned. He returned today after being in Stochach for the last couple of weeks. He had a great experience learning a lot about optics and bio-technology. The town, on the other hand is really small. Quiet even. Great for sleeping, no nightlife. None. At 16, the fact that there were limited opportunities for trouble while he was staying at a bed and breakfast suited me fine. Trying on his new socks, he was enamoured. They fit perfectly, not bad when I had made some guestimates based on shoe size.

But they are not to be left anywhere that the dog can get them.

I am on the heel flap of the second Jody, courtesy of a monotone SAEDA lecture this morning. I just gave up and pulled out the sock. Sitting in the back, I decided it was much better to knit than to snore.

Arches

From Castel dell’Ovo – what city do you think? If you are not sure – you can look here

Shabbat Shalom
-Holly

The following really happened. I know that it sounds insane but it is true.

A number of months ago I came down from house to car in order to drive to work. The lock on my car door was damaged, leaving the door shut but not locked. Being less that brilliant in the morning, I sort of did a shrug and headed to work. Since I was going to be hauling kids the next day, I went to the garage after returning home to put the seats back in the van. Ford Galaxy van circa 2000. There was one seat in the garage. My husband looked at me like I was insane when I asked him what he had done with the other three seats. He had done nothing with them, they were in the van yesterday. And not there today. Stolen. Checking with the Politzei, they mentioned that we were the second report in the area of seats being stolen.

Grief we got, and fairly nasty from the insurance company whose agent just did not believe that someone had stolen seats from our van. Eventually we got paid, and the new seats came in.

Well, guess what? Yesterday morning I unlocked the car from the passenger’s side to drop off my back pack, then walked around the van. Climbing in, I set off down the road. Something went ding in my mind. The van looked empty. No seats in the back, not one. And I had driven it the day before, full of seats. And yes, the lock had been forced on the driver’s door again. George will file the report with the Politzei, and I will tackle the car insurance people. Not going to deal with the local agent this time, I am calling USAA in Texas. And nasty letters will not be tolerated. Like I would lose the seats in my van? Sell them off? Lie to get them replaced? Exactly how am I to haul around three teens and a golden retreiver without seats? I may be crazy, but I am not insane. No one could possibly make this up.

Military

To add insult to injury, today was mandatory training day. I will work and play well with others. I will not start to do nasty things that have not occurred to me in 26 years (29? depends on how you count). And most certainly, I will not drink and drive.

I have little patience for most of this. Those that are doing dumb, stupid, or evil things are not going to stop because some hair flipping blonde tells them that it is wrong while bouncing around the front of an auditorium. She might do fine with teens, but all of us are too old for it to be at all cute. The only thing these courses provide is a CYA for the Army in general so that when yee olde idiot does do whatever – there is the ability to say that it was against policy and training. Sheesh!

Off soap box.

This means that I only got the toe of the second Jody completed as the Thyroid Nodule lecture was interesting and it would have been in completely bad form to knit in the mandatory training. Better to sit in the back and make jokes.

-Holly
(this means nothing worth a picture today – unless you want to see my special can of RAID! Those m*ths will die.)

Ok, quite a bit behind. DH fought the program to a standstill and won. Our 2005 tax filing is in the mail.

Yes, you read right, 2005. The IRS owes us a nice refund. As a result, they are normally not very nasty about late filings that allow them to keep $s for extra time. But it is rather foolish on our parts, since we have neither renovated our son’s room nor earned anything on that money in the last year. And before you ask, yes – the 2006 taxes have been started. It is rather complicated since taxes get paid in both US and Germany. And the US taxes can not be completed untill after the German taxes. 2007 just makes me shudder – it will be US, Switzerland and German filings to be done.

And I am not celebrating by buying yarn. I did mention house renovations didn’t I? Downstairs there are two decent size bedrooms and two that are the size of cells. The plan is to take out the wall between the two tiny rooms to have one decent size room. I don’t think the end result is going to be much neater than the mess that is a 16 year old’s joy, but there might be some place for his stuff – the current excuse for the covered floor.

Maybe 2006 money could do either our bathroom (left from the 1950s) or buy a floor loom. If I make the commitment to go back to a lot of weaving.

Knitting

Progress pictures on Jody. The foot is done, the heel is turned. the leg is knit, and the cuff finished off. Now allI have to do is ends.

It is actually a rather quick knit, considering how little time I actually have to spend, probably less than a couple of hours a day. I will cast on the second in the morning. The faggoting lace panel on the back of the leg is nice, but I probably will not start it on the second sock till after the heel is completely turned and I know it is high enough to not be at shoe risk.

Audio Books

Rapture in Death is finished, and I have only a couple more minutes to go in Ceremony in Death. Since the car CD actually deigned to work on the ride home, I was able to hear another CD in the current Stephanie Plum.

Haus und Home

And things are blooming, small plants are really striving to grow large. I am leaving them safely outside, since nothing seems to survive in the house anymore.

[and a shortened version]
It was not a hard choice at all. Please remember that we left the hotel for Ben Gurion Airport at 0230 in the morning to make sure we had enough time for check in as our Swiss Air flight was supposed to leave at 0500. Never mind the plane was late in taking off with the excuse being traffic control in Zürich.

We were part of the minority that did not need to meet a connecting flight, only about 30 from the flight hanging around the baggage carousel. Which takes us to the S2 in order to meet the long distance trains.

After arriving at Zürich HauptBahnhof, we could hurry to catch a train toward home that would go over Mannheim. I already had a ticket, but it was not valid for the 1008 route unless I paid extra. But there was an 1114 train. And this lovely Bistro named Imagine. It was where George had waited for me on Tuesday evening. High molded ceilings, simple black tables and chairs. And Sunday? A buffet to die for!

Fresh fruits, sushi, cold grilled vegetables, lox and salmon. Deserts, cheeses, and omlettes to order. (Ignoring the cooked or grilled pieces of dead animals). Fresh squeezed juices, milchcaffe and free internet. What more could I want?

Perhaps the rather large Blue Fairy hanging in the main entry area of the station?

We will ignore the not fun portion of the trip between Zurich and Singen where they pulled an old workhorse of a train out of the yard. Nor the connector which was allegedly also an ICE, of the variety that has been retired for years. No leather seats or outlets on this run.
Did not stop me from knitting.

Audio Books

Or listening to Dangerous Women, edited by Otto Pendler. I can not say that I enjoyed all of the stories, But I made it through 99/140 tracks by the end of the journey.

It will be nice to sleep in my own bed.
-Holly

Can you imagine how stupid I felt today when I emailed to someone that they could see a particular sock, if they just checked my entry from Sunday, the one with the train pictures?

“there is no entry with train pictures!” was the reply.

And she was right. It was gone. I could swear that I wrote a post entitled “Home Again.” I even have some of the draft words saved in another document and the pictures are all in the correct folder. But the entry is gone. Not only that, but my dates are off. Yesterday’s post came out labeled by the blog as 22 April. And I know very well that it was the 23rd.

And I have no clue how to get it back.

If I have enough energy tonight, I will recreate it after the fact, if only to provide the pictures. It would be a lot more fun than reliving today’s time in the office. The only positive part of the day was being able to knit a pattern repeat while backing up files.

We will not discuss the two hours that it took me to get home, at a total standstill on the A6 zwischen Grünstadt und Ludwigshafen. Remind me why I always come upon major accidents just after the last possible exit? An hour later as I eeked passed the bent guard rails and out of true large trucks I was still listening to Rapture in Death on cassette having decided to turn off the CD Player 30 minutes into the delay. That meant the rest of To The Nines is going to have to wait till later. Several repeats of the six row sock pattern as well mere managed.

Knitting

Moving on to the fun stuff – I have the first sock of Glamour done. It is the pattern for this 2-month period from SockenKreativ Liste (the German = of 6 Socks KAL). This was part of Sunday’s, but I will just put it in here.

Knit out of Sweet Socks by Michelle in merino/tencil. The color is Scarlet Letter. There are 68 stitches around and I was knitting on 2,00 mm needles from Lantern Moon – their new Sox Sticks. They are pricey, but lovely to knit with. I found that the shorter length was much faster.

And then there is Jody’s Socks. I am test driving this pattern and am finding it wonderful. Normally I don’t like anything that is not charted, but this one would be a royal pain and there are only six clever rows. As soon as I am done and get permission, I will let you know where you can get it. This is my first swag at anything from Zen Yarn Garden

The yarn is lovely to knit with, and the toe up construction was simple. At 60 stitches with 2,5mm needles. I have gotten over 15 cm done in less than 2 hours.

Home

The house is quiet with the kids all gone, the DH at a reception and the dog asleep. Moths, as I have discovered, do not like RAID for flying insects.
-Holly
24 April 07 2115

I really detest the first day back at work after vacation or being on the road. My email box is full and there are all these deadlines that cropped up while I was gone. Being gone apparently is not an excuse for missing a deadline. But if you continue to work while on vacation, it is not a vacation. To add insult to injury, the CD player in the car decided not to function. Oh, well.

Knitting

My copy of Selbuvotter by Terri Shea has arrived. I ordered it directly from her website. And, from Books-a-Million – More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch and Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel.

And then there are Noah’s Retro Rib socks from Favorite Socks which I just finished. They seem so big to me (and they are obviously too large for me), but then he has size 12 US feet so I should not be surprised. But they are finished. Knit on 2,5mm for 72 stitches around. The yarn was from a German on-line store, undyed Zitron which Noah and I dyed about two weeks ago.

Next up is going to be “Jody’s Socks” out of Zen Garden’s Norwegian Shores colorway.

Audio Books

I heard the last cassette today on Seven UP! and have moved on to To The Nines.. After that, I will rotate back to Agatha Christies as some sale CDs and Cassettes just arrived in the mail.

-Holly

on Monday, 23April07-2215.

With a kilo of fresh dates costing only 10 NIS, I have to be very careful not to get my sticky fingers on either my knitting or my husband’s laptop.

And if you have a nice Shabbas off, just to walk around and relax, you can take pictures of the beach -

Or of strange looking building fronts-

Or alternate between an easy and a technically more challenging sock.

Or stop and look at the flowers -

It almost makes up for the fact that we have a plane before 0600 in the morning.

-Holly

Traveling

Knitting

With the advent of the Internet, the knitting community has become world wide. Well, it was always world wide, we just had no ability to connect with each other. Through the knit list in the 1990s, I met knitters in Israel, one of whom invited me and my family to join them for Pesach when we were traveling in 2000. I found other Minnesotans; both had made Aliyah years ago.

Today I got a chance to get together with a knitter living in Jerusalem.  I got to see a couple of yarn stores, both with extremely nice staff. Bags and bags of various yarns piled to the ceiling. Much heavier on the acrylics than I would see in Germany and not so much wool.

We had tea at Chez Gita. Sitting together at a tiny table we happily chatted while knitting and probably obstructing the hall. As the cafe cleared out, we were offered a table next to the front window with plenty of light. We decided that I would plan better (grin) on my next trip so that perhaps a bigger group could get together. The short few hours flew by with our wip, and we managed to connect with my friend who was giving me a ride back to Tel Aviv.

I spent time turing the yarn Noah dyed into socks for him as well as a couple more rows on Glamour. It is easy to guess which is which. The last pix is a better shot of my slip stitch socks which went walking in Jerusalem today.

Arches

Just sitting there, from the old and new. This picture was shot in Jerusalem. Last week’s came from Beck Caserne in Sonthofen Germany.

Knitting

Just to put the knitting stuff first. I finished the mate to the last orphan that had been languishing in my basket for at least a couple of years. Knit out of JaWoll cotton, it is an even four colour stripe. Going from dark orange to a lighter orange, then blue and finally grey I have no clue why I bought the yarn in the first place. I used a k4 sl1 pattern with the alternate rows being plain knit. The end result looks like chains up the sides. This is not a great picture, and will provide a detail picture tomorrow when I have some light for photos.

Next up is Scarlet Letter (merino and tencel) from Michelle at Sweet Socks. I started the Glamour Socks from the German Kreativ Socken KAL. Stringing beads is a real pain, trust me but much easier because of the tencil than a pure wool would be.

Travel

Looking out this morning from the balcony, the sun was shining and white buildings seem to stretch out into the distance. None of them are all that high, maybe 4 stories max for most of them. But it is a plain, cement, blocking kind of architecture. Tel Aviv is a young city for the mid East, starting in the early decades of the last century.

Walking along the beach, there were sunbathers and surfers. The tall buildings are hotels.

The old port of Jaffa was not a bad hike from the hotel. Layer upon layer of old city for thousands of years. Climbing around, there are so few tourists, all the small shops are completely empty. Even the more famous art galleries have few vistors.

And then I decided to walk through the city on the way back via the souks. Fresh dates, small tart olives and a 2 1/2 hour hike by the time I was done.

No fool, I spent the remainer of the afternoon sitting in the lobby looking out over the ocean. JD Robb on the cassette recorder and knitting needles in my hands.

-Holly

Travel

It was a lovely train ride yesterday. Heidelberg to Stuttgart, Stuttgart to Zurich. The train was not full, the seats were comfortable, and I was able to listen to books while knitting socks.  I have the first three J. D. Robb “xxxx in Death”, 18 hours worth, just started.
Other than my cell phone traveling to Mannheim, there were no incidents or accidents on the journey.  George met me at the Zurich train station, and we traveled another half hour out to Wollerau to stay overnight at the apartment.

From the balcony this morning out toward Zurich Lake. The mist was still coming up, making it almost foggy in the pale early morning light.

It was another  train this morning to the Flughafen, then a flight to Tel Aviv that would have been completely miserable had the Montréal connector arrived on time. Unless it rains again in the morning, I will be on the beach early. My clothes from tonight should be dried out.

Sock Knitting

What an opportunity, hours to travel, watch scenery, and knit. I am finally producing  mates to orphans that have been on their own for an extensive time. Perhaps years in some cases. I don’t even remember which German sock brand produced the pink multi-coloured yarn. Knit on 2,5mm needles, there are 60 stitches around. Each side has a twisted stitch panel, with the third in the center of the back. The pattern continues onto the foot and finishes on the toe.

This yarn I know came from Regia in one of their Antique colorways. Just a vanilla sock with strap heel on the standard 2,5 mm needles done over 60 stitches. It would also be a great yarn for small cables or 5/1 ribbing just to break up the pattern.

I have am on the last orphan pair, then I get to knit something new. Tomorrow I have some professional work to do, but after that I am free to wander around Tel Aviv with knitting and camera.

 -Holly

Luck was with me this morning. After sitting all morning listening to a number of necessary but blatantly uninteresting subjects, I was released from the requirement to attend the afternoon session. Instead of finishing at 1700, low flying vehicle down the autobahn, rushing around and trying to make my 1915 train, I had time.

Put it to use figuring out what to take with for knitting:

and redid the suitcase contents. I know I have a couple more tops than really needed; and I might just go and take them out. There is plenty of room left over. I have knitting projects (three orphan socks, or is that four?) plus some new skeins to try out. I have my new Sox Stix from Lantern Moon.. And on the 3 1/2 hour train ride to Zürich I should be able to finish up at least one sock pair.

Then there are all the electronics. Laptop, mp3 player, cassette player, camera. Oh, and batteries.

The dog is not pleased, but I am out the door and she will have to settle for the eldest coming by regularly for food and company.

-Holly

We have this cupboard in the corner of our living room that currently houses all of our packets of photos. Since we switched over to digital a number of years ago, there have been few added to the boxes and loose envelopes. At one point, I spent days sorting and labeling all the pictures by location and date in preparation for finally creating a number of photo albums.

Then the box containing most of them got accidentally dropped. Rather than metldown completely, I just piled everything back into the boxes, packing them away. After a few more moves we came to our current house. At this point, I no longer completely remember what is in either the boxes or the photos.

A vacation task for the teens was to bring order to the photos and to get them scanned. The youngest actually scanned a couple hundred. But mostly the three of them were fascinated by the old photos; what everyone looked like as a baby. About the years before they were born.

And this photo turned up

The kids remembered me getting teased by Hans. about knitting socks while on vacation. Our two families were together on the Nordsee, the kids running wild and having a blast. I quietly did my thing for a couple of days, then presented him with the socks. The year, I think, was 1997. Now that I have seen the picture, I can come up with the information. But I wonder how many other pairs of socks over the years I have completely forgotten and did not record on film.

Not counting the 56 full pairs floating around here somewhere (a few of which need repairs), there are 10 orphans whose mate has gone AWOL. Additionally, there are those that I sent out in the world to comfort others plus all the small ones that the kids went through, got handed down or lost when they were little.

I wish I had kept track from the beginning, both as a record of the different designs I made up and as a record of improvement and learning over the years. I am tracking now, as a result of the various challenges and KALs. Sockyarn is a bit more expensive now and most that I buy is hand dyed. But my pleasure in knitting, the wonder when watching the growth from a few stitches into a three dimensional object that is both beautiful and functional. That has not changed.

-Holly
I am on a train tomorrow evening to Zürich. On Wednesday morning we fly to Tel Aviv. I should be able to post, but might not be able to upload photos till I am back. We will see.

Dyeing

A number of years ago, perhaps before I went to Kuwait, our MWR crew had a case lot sale on expired products. Among other things, I scored a case of red, green, and blue food coloring. I could still kick myself for not getting the yellow. Each case has six bottles, 16 oz each. I think I paid about $3.00US a case.

Since then, it has been quietly aging in the back of a shrank in the studio. I certainly would not use it for food anymore, but could see no harm in trying it on wool. Afterall, we all know that food coloring stains just about everything. And kool-aid dyes are nothing more than food coloring.

The kilo cone of sock yarn (1,70€ 100gm) came in the other day. At that price, Noah and I decided to experiment. After he wound a skein, we headed to play. Getting the firs skein wet, we poured some blue and some red food coloring over the yarn, then nuked the skein. After rising out the worst of the excess, we ran the skein through the microwave again in another container full of vinger water.

At this point, since the water in the first container still seemed extremely dark, I decided to read the directions on the side of the food dye. Hummm 1/2 tsp to one cup of boiling water + vinegar for dark blue egg dyeing.

Oh, no wonder this looked so dark, we just sort of poured. And it would be an extreme shame to waste that dye. Noah, good kid that he is, wound the second skein. The red obviously had vanished into the sea that was blue. This time we just dropped the skein directly in dry and smushed it down over a few minutes. After the double nuking, the water was completely clear and little crocked off .

So this is what we have:

Not bad at all for messing around. The next time, we will measure a bit more, and see what we get.

Knitting

Progress on the socks, the first Niagara is complete and I am making progress on the second twisted stitch sock.:

Books

The reason that so little knitting has been accomplised today relates to reading hardcover books. Two of them as a matter of fact.

Innocent in Death by J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts). It just went on the shelf in the library on Friday and I want to return it tomorrow so that someone else gets the chance to read it.

Edge of Midnight by Charlene Weir. See above for reason that it needed to be finished.

Meetings for the next two days, then on to Tel Aviv via Zurich.

-Holly

Posting in haste. In spite of another trip here from Telekom this week, once again we are without Internet all evening. This time we have telephone, which is leading me to suspect the router is malfuntioning this time. After 20 minutes worth of flipping switches and reset buttons, it is up for the moment.

Clean Up

The dog had been outside this morning. I had not noticed her trip to the water dish, leaving the floor spattered with water. Discovering this when heading to the microwave, I was amazed at how far a cup of coffee can splash.

Having this unexplicable urge to rearrange the living room furniture while the other half is on the road, I drafted the teens. To move my chair to where I was not directly near the TV and had good light meant that the couch and chair needed to be moved. To be able to tuck somethings away in the Shrank, we had to sort out everything dumped there for the last five years. Since I was on the kick, we restrung the audio wires, rearranged the extension cords and vacuumed. Trust me, you don’t want the details of the other five cupboards that got caught up in my organizational frenzy. But I now have two shelves in the shrank right next to my chair for patterns and some bags of wool.

Knitting

Finished up the first Niagara sock finally. The four twisted stitch sock I was working on yesterday is also complete and have the mate past the ribbing with the second Niagara waiting in the wings. I am letting the vest sit. I went through my entire stash and I don’t have any yarn that I can use without cancelling another planned project. My alternative choices are dark grey, navy or (surprising for me) a forest green. I was not able to get to Rödel today, so looked on line. Haven’t ordered yet as I am not enthused about investing a lot in yarn that would be difficult to return.

The cleaning turned up another UFO; this funnel neck sweater. I remember starting this sweater while visiting Angela, a Bundeswehr officer who was the commander of my partnership unit. We were sitting together with our families in the kitchen of their farmhouse and talking about renovations. That places the neck knitting back 10 years ago. I have located it off and on over the years. Sometimes with the pattern, the most recent time without. Each time it turns up, a bit more gets done. Since it is only the last sleeve to go, I think I can manage it without.

f course, it is now spring and I will not need it until next winter.

The kids just realized that the Internet is up, so I am uploading this before the connection gets overwhelmed.

-Holly

European Geography is not a subject well taught in most American Schools. Nor, honestly are the details all that much of a concern in daily life to those who live to the West of the Atlantic puddle. As a result, when I mention that I have to be in the office four days this week, it might not make much of an impression. After all, I am only driving from Heidelberg to Landstuhl (where ever those might be).

Somedays I even have a sense of humor about the commute. That is as long as the traffic is not too bad and the CD player in the car is working so that I can listen to books as I drive. After all, it is only 125 km each way….

My sense of humor really appreciated the following, currently making the email rounds about traveling from NYC to London:

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on “maps” (above the search box)
3. click on “get directions” (under the search box)
4. type ” New York ” in the first box (the “from” box)
5. type ” London ” in the second box (the “to” box)
6. Click Get Directions
7. scroll down to step #23

Knitting

The obligatory socks on the needles – two different pairs in progress

And then there is Cottonwood. The knitting is going well, and I really like the colorwork pattern. But I am not completely happy with the appearance of the colors when knit.

The sample I did was small, and it looked fine; it could have been that particular section of handspun. There is a fair amount of red in among the golds in my yarn. Burgundy as the solid main color is ok. I do not care for brown as a background color. But I am starting to wonder if I would be better frogging the whole thing and picking a blue (marine or navy) as my solid color. It seems a shame to put in a lot of work and have all the color work almost vanish if you are more than a few feet away. Honest opinions would be really appreciated.

Arches and Doors

Bowing to the minhag of the web, I will add to the Friday observance. Most of the locations are unlikely to be familiar to anyone outside Europe. The locations will be posted a day or so later if anyone is interested.

-Holly
Shabbat Shalom

It was one of those times when you really have to remind yourself that you like your children. Love them? Of course, but liking them? A whole ‘nother world.

I must have been totally and completely out of my mind, asleep perhaps when the youngest quietly reminded me that she had not had a birthday party last month. Would it be all right if she had a few friends over for a pool party the second week of vacation?

Or I was hoping that most of them would still be on vacation, but certainly not thinking clearly. After all, who willing undergoes the noise level that can be created by 14 year olds?

Next I was to find that this was going to be a mixed group. Ok, I can deal with that.

(Notice that she is leading me on, one step at a time?)

Then came the request for some of the kids to sleep over. This is an issue. I don’t want them in the house if there is no adult present. George is now out in LA and I am here. Ick.

Who was she thinking?
The whole group.
Nope, no boys, you are too old for that (or not old enough, but I am not going there). She settled for requesting a few of the girls.

The shopping completed last night, my final words were that she and her siblings had to have the house completely cleaned up for company.

I made in home barely before the first guests were due to arrive. As I came up the steps, I heard Nina rehearsing her performance piece. Noah was going to be downtown with friends.

Do you think for a minute that the house was clean?

Knitting

At first they were going to be for my husband, but they turned out to be too bright for him. I thought about my son, but his feet were too big and he has this lousy habit of walking around in his socks.

But the 18 year old daughter thought they were really cool, and they were tal enough that she can wear them with her ever present boots (as long as I shortened them a bit in the foot).

So there you have it – the original (2000) Opal Tiger knit on 64 stitches. They are 20 cm tall and 23 cm long. Knit on 2,5 mm needles.

Audio Books

I finished up Very Bad Deaths by Spider Robinson, The Witness for teh Prosecution & Other Stories by Agatha Christie and have just started on the Sue Grafton series from A is for Alibi.

Bread

I have Graham Wheat bread down pat with the bread machine. Doesn’t it look nice?
Receipe
1 cup buttermilk, 1 egg, 3TBS molasses, 1/4 cup oil, 2 Cups bread flour, 1 cup graham flour, 1.5 tsp yeast and whatever herbs you like (2 TBS dried onion flakes and 1 tbs chopped ginger) placed in the break machine in whatever order required and baked on the large wheat loaf cycle.

I am now going to be brave and go into the kitchen since the kids are all downstairs….
-Holly

What a wonderful thing, four pick up slips in my box today when I careened through the mail room right before their window closed. There was my box from The Woolery containing bobbins and dyes. There was this nice, small box. Inside were lovely stitchmarkers from JL Yarnworks for both regular knitting and socks/lace so that I have a chance not to lose my place in lace sock tops.

Also in the extras are my new sock blockers. Sold by The Knitting Haven , these are probably the best available for the money. Unlike some others that I have purchased, these are absolutely smooth on the edges making it unlikely to catch and pull on the sock.

To further my happiness, my yarn came in from Wollfactory. In it were four balls of Regia Silk Shine in mocha (on sale for about 2€ each) which are destined to turn into one of the Cookie A patterns., Additonally there was a ball of Art Socks 2 [Trekking in color 131 ] and…..the real find – five hanks of Trekking Sport – skeined and bound for the dyepot. If that was not enough, the aprons from CoolAprons.com arrived to please the teens with ghosts and skulls (don’t ask – they are teenagers).

Finally, there was this little box from New Orleans. I sat there. I don’t remember ordering anything from New Orleans. The box says Pralines By Jean. Now I have been very good and simply have avoided ever cruising on the internet for sweets. Inside is a beautiful presentation box, with a note saying “Thank you for the STR yarn” and signed by someone whom I do not know. I am now completely confused. I had sent my extra yarn from the first go round of the STR Rocking Sock Club to a lovely woman in California. Further down the pile was an envelope from her. The note inside explained: she had finished her second sock and had yarn left. Passing the good dead forward, she mailed off the remaining yarn to another member who was short yarn in Louisiana.

Now it was clear. From BFMA in area code 503 to me in Heidelberg Germany, to Los Angeles, California to New Orleans, LA. We have all heard of the traveling sock. This is the traveling sock yarn. There is a bit of that skein now in socks in Germany, Los Angeles, and the Gulf Coast. Not bad at all for Monsoon….

Knitting

Not much was accomplished today. I managed a couple more rounds on the Cottonwood Vest (it seems to take forever to knit even one round and there are only 226 stitches on the needles) and finished the leg and heel flap on the second tiger. Life, work and needing the frozen groceries just got in the way. But I now have another picture to post, this is baby in her Half-Circle Cardigan.

And I dropped off the last back-zip sweater today. I am going to have to try something different for the next batch.

-Holly
11 April 07

It was back to work today and very little time for knitting or anything else. I managed to find and return all but two books to the library, which means I am completely out of borrowed audio books for the moment. I dipped into the “purchased for emergencies” stash to have something other than noise on the car’s CD Player.

I even tried to be the good mom, and stopped for groceries on the way home. This may be the only time all year when I don’t get flak from the teens on unloading the car. After all, how else are they going to get at all the wheat products that they have been missing? Tortillas, pretzels, noodles, breaded chicken wings, and ramen: my crew has pretty eclectic tastes. Since I made the stop an hour away from home at Vogelweh, I skipped all the frozen goods in favor of a short trip tomorrow to PHV on my way home.

From the stash

The yarn as I mentioned yesterday is Tiger, Opal yarn from Wolfgang which I bought directly from the factory in late 1999 as it turns out. This is prior to Opal coming to the US via Mary Lou at PT Yarn .

Which reminds me, if you need the sideways sock (especially for long repeat patterns) Mary Lou has it posted here.

But anyway – the first sock is now complete and the second is 15 cm down the leg. I thought they would be for one of the guys. They both looked at me like I was insane and muttered something about not looking masculine enough. Sheesh. So the next on the list was the 18 year old. She is the one who wears army boots with her skirts. Other than the fact that the first foot is too long, she thinks they are cool. Now, I am knitting these top down. Shorten the toe by a couple of cms? No problem, the work of 15 minutes. As apposed to frogging them completely for fewer stitches around if I want to keep them for myself.

Lastly, since my knitting this year seems to be unlimited sock KALs of one kind or another interspersed with some bigger projects, I decided that I really needed a spreadsheet to keep track of all my committments. So far I have four fairly simple pages to the workbook: one for patterns that I have (including where they are), one for the stash (important things like year, source, fiber and amount), one for the commitments and the last for the completed socks. But I am not going to run totals on the supplies page, that would be TMI. I will post it for download as soon as it is completed if anyone is interested.

Home

They’ve cracked. Totally and completely lost it. Bursting into the house after being outside for over an hour this evening walking the dog, the three teenagers demanded candy.

We have none in the house.

Nor is there any gum, nutella, or anything remotely resembling deserts.

Now, during the regular portion of their lives, the teens will go days without needing sweets. But this is the last day of Passover and they are desperate. Wanting candy badly enough, they even contemplated walking or taking their bikes to the Shoppette, but it is likely to be closed before they get there. Not wanting to take that chance, there was prowling in the cupboards.

Even practical here, I suggested that they make candy. We have cocoa, we have butter, and we have sugar—have at it.

After first denying any interest, I am hearing sounds in the kitchen. The complaint was that they didn’t have a receipe. But the cocoa tin has directions for chocolate frosting. What is frosting but spreadable candy?

I have no idea if they succeeded, there was no offer to share.

Cottonwood Vest

Rather than tackle another UFO, I cast on the Cottonwood. 230 stitches on my 4,0 mm needle. Ten rows later I did the purl row, increased the needle size, joining the body in the round with a five stitch steek. After knitting enough rounds so that the facing was flat, I pulled out the provisional cast on (crochet around the needle method) and bound off the live stitches with those in work. Being careful to make sure the facing was the second stitch so that only the front color showed. There were also a few stitches decreased in this round.
This is not mindless knitting. I can’t listen to books while knitting this vest.

That means that I got to start another sock. This is out of Opal’s Tiger, which has been hanging out in my house since about 2000. Yes, this is an original ball, picked up at the factory in Hechingen. The pattern is vanilla sock on 64 stitches, so it is likely going to George.

Audio Books

While hunting around, I also found The Audiobookstand with a fairly decent bargain section. When I am done with audio books, I normally donate them to the library unless there is an overwhelming need to keep them.

Tomorrow it is back to work. Bleh.
-Holly

Knitting

The Bavarian Braid striped socks are finished. They are made of a German sock wool, knit on 2,5 mm needles over 60 stitches. The detailing is fairly simple, there is a twisted stitch braid running down each side, just to the front of the side marker and a double braid going down the back. The braid continues down the foot through the toe which is shaped inside the braid until the last several rounds. The color is actually much closer to the second two photos. Amazing the difference between indoor without flash and outdoor pix.

The fire yarn is now wound and some gauges have been made. I obviously (well to me) was going to have to do some adjusting. What it looks like is that I will wind up with is 25 stitches/10 cm. Doesn’t match any of the suggested ones for the Cottonwood. So I am adjusting the pattern down to 228 stitches, which will give me 4 repeats of the pattern on each front and 8 for the back with a couple of extra edge stitches to even things out.
I like the colors in the ball, and the burgundy seems to be a good contrast, and not as pink as it appears in this picture.

Home stuff

Not a teen is interesting in counting the Omer. They are not interested in anything but planning the post Pesach dinner out. And you think that they would all help clean up the terrace and grounds? Noah pitched in for a while, but when I looked out – all I saw was George getting rid of the cobwebs. As you probably figured out, I was happily ensconced in a chair and knitting.

Knitting

Progress! I finished up the armholes early this afternoon, then dunked the sweater before patting it out to block it. The original pattern had called for one row of purls around the armhole, then bind off in knit. I thought it looked rather unfinished in the book picture, and it was even more so up close. As a result, I added a band in the same pattern as the neck, bottom and front facings, only narrower. I think it looks rather nice. The yarn is Gedifra’s For You in red, knit on 3,5 mm needles.

I had enough energy that I pulled out one of the orphan socks and started to make it a mate. It was as good an excuse as any to test drive the 15 cm bamboo needles in size 2,5mm that I picked up at Rödel today. I like the feel and the flex, but they are lacking in the really sharp points that are nice to have if you are doing twisted stitch patterns. I should be past the gusset decreases before I call it quits for the night.

Next Project

I am going for the Cottonwood Vest out of Folk Vests. I picked up some burgundy merino today for the main color, and will use the fire roving handspun for the contrast color. Since I have no interest in a vest as big around as this one, I chose it because the patterning lends itself easily to gauge changes and reduction of stitches.

What to eat?

Any other time of year I can go to the Fußgänger Zone in Heidelberg, plow through the crowds and head home totally oblivious to the food.

But not during Passover. I notice everything to eat that is for sale; all the people walking by with take-away in their hands. All the walk up counters that line the Hauptstraße seem to be teaming with people.

And things that would normally not interest me at all are starting to smell good.

I know it has to be related to the issue of “permission.” Since normally I could choose to eat almost anything, but don’t; it does not tempt me. But today, in spite of a late breakfast, I was hungry when I ran my errands downtown. With stomach rumbling, there seemed to be a bakery every 50 meters with luscious pastries on display. Nordsee fish shops had out their crusty baguettes filled with lox or fried fish cakes. The sidewalk cafés were open and starting to do business. Couples, families and friends sat relaxing over a beer and watching the crowds pass by.

It was about this time that I really figured out that even if I wanted something to eat, it was going to be unlikely that I would be able to find anything. Certainly not any of the shops serving things in bread, or breaded; not even considering the animals or creatures from which it had been prepared.

Then I started looking. Other than the fresh fruits and vegetables in Kaufhof’s Markthalle, the only possibility that I found (and unsurprisingly in the same place) was Matjesfilet. With sour cream and dill, plain, with onions or with a sour cream & beet combination – those would be on the edible list. All the other fish concoctions had sea food of one kind or another.

But the thought of herring just did not do anything for me, and I headed home.

Besides, they didn’t offer even plastic silverware with their containers of food.

Audio Books

Total mindless stories today. First one of the Gallagher Series by Nora Roberts which was much better as an abbreviated audio book than as an original read, then followed by Anne McCaffrey from her Pegasus series.

-Holly

Knitting

Remember that Chinese Red Vest I mentioned yesterday? I picked it up this morning and started to knit, first completing the fronts, then the back to finish up the mainbody of the vest. And then came time to bind off the shoulders.

Fighting to stay free, the stitches kept jumping off the needles when I wasn’t looking. Taking a leap, they ran down away from the bind off. A springing yarn, the Gedifra merino had plenty of energy and obviously a mind of its own. Added and abetted in this endeavor by the ebony needles, I finally cried enough, sliding them onto one needle. Alternating the recalcitrant escapees from both front and back I forced them into submission with a K2tog and psso, locking them in pairs for the life of the waistcoat.

You think I could find my scissors after this? No, it was declaring its support for the integrity of the yarn by hiding.

I hate biting off yarn.

The first picture is as of 2004, and how it appeared for the last several weeks as it sulked on the living room window sill, waiting for me to finish up socks and baby sweaters. The second picture is after fmy victory on the shoulders. And finally,my status just before going out the door for services. The facings are done on the fronts, and the neck is finished. Although not without spending 15 minutes rooting through the stash before finding the remaining ball of yarn from the same dye lot. [I had decided I was not going to cry even if I was 20 m of yarn short]. All I have left to do is the armholes.

Vacation Dreams

This is what I would really like to do, if I had all the money and the time. Just when we are in the midst of winter here, I would fly to Sanitago, Chile then board the boat for a cruise to Antartica. Failing the money for such a trip, I could instead sail from Kirkenese in the middle of winter, down the Fjords to Bergen on the Hurtigruten. It should be quiet; it most certainly would be dark. I am not sure how it would be for photography, but knitting should not be an issue.

Maybe it is not such a good idea that I have a day off. I find reading the vacation section of the Süddeutsche just full of good ideas.

-Holly

Knitting

It took about 15 minutes to untangle the three balls of yarn attached to the top of my Chinese Red Vest (from Folk Vests). Having a tendency to like all the pieces to be the same length, I knit the body in one piece up to the armholes, then attached additional yarn balls and kept on going. After a while, those three balls of yarn have a tendency to fall apart and get tangled. I may have creeped up row at a time, but the decreases match exactly. Measuring it out, and counting the stitches – I had actually finished the decrease sequences and was at the point of continuing straight up.

Then I stopped, and the vest has been sitting since sometime in 2004. Last month I joined the Red Sweater KAL and committed myself to finishing it up. While I was at it, I listed it as my UFO to complete for a follow-on to the March Madness Sweater Group.. I have knit another 5 cm, leaving only 3cm till I start the neck shaping in the front.

This is progress.

And then there are the following Finished Objects! – the worsted weight Horcrux socks I started yesterday are complete. Knit on 3,75 Lantern Moon double points. The yarn is colorway Monet from Collinette. There is also the Sweater Vest designed by Mac & Me which is finally blocked (and really needs a nice decorative closure.) This is, of course, the obligate mirror picture since otherwise I would have to ask one of the kids to take a photo for me.

Audio Books

After buzzing directly through ’5 and #6 in the Stephanie Plum series, I started Finding Moon by Tony Hillerman, who is primarily known for his Navajo Mystery Stories. On the surface, this is a simple tale of a man traveling to Viet Nam in Spring of 1975 to retrieve a young daughter of his recently deceased brother. Set against the background of the collapsing regime in Saigon, it is a shrewd look at the chaos of the time. The characters are excellent, and more than realistic of those who inhabited that time, living and surviving off the needs of the governments and the Company. Sometimes I forget how long we have had the tradition of contractors for those jobs which the US Government does not wish to do directly. Perhaps it would not be as interesting to someone who was not old enough to have personally experienced the VietNam era, but I found it intensely interesting.

Other

And then there was the Bris late this afternoon. Given the absence of a local mohel, it takes a bit of organizing to get the services of one from either Strasbourgh or Zürich. It was quick, with almost no ceremony or ritual attached. Given that it is also Pesach and the Gemeinde’s Kitchen was closed with a prohibition against bringing any food, poor Sarit was not able to even offer anything afterwords. The kids and I gifted the new baby the one sweater that I just finished up last night. Since Emma’s parents were also in attendance with her, we were able to present her with her present as well.

Hopefully, as soon as I drop off the last baby sweater on Tuesday and collect a couple more pictures from parents, I will post a gallery of babies in handknit sweaters.

Tomorrow starts a four day weekend. I have knitting and spinning planned as well as something with the kids if they are willing.

-Holly

After attending meetings all morning, followed by the “wonderful” experience of getting my DA Photo updated I was more than willing to stop at the mailroom on the way home. Of the packages, one was for me – some really neet stitch markers that I had ordered from Zero on Esty in tiny sizes to work on my sock needles.

Audio Books

Kirsten mentioned LibriVox. A lovely site similar to Project Gutenberg, devoted to creating and making available as audio files, all books currently in the U.S. public domain. Solely with the use of volunteer readers, the site already has an extensive collection available. I downloaded a couple of books. The quality of the reading varies, but it is a great opportunity to listen to some of the classics as well as volunteer if you are a good reader.

Knitting

It has been a long evening, but a highly productive one. I finished the last two Back-Zip baby sweaters. The yarn is Siena-Stripes, a washable merino from Rödel, 125m/50gm. The pattern is found at Fiber Trends – CH39 and takes 3 balls of the multi-color and one of contrast knit on my 4.0 mm ebony needles. I had sewed in the 9″ zippers with the opening on the bottom. On the two previous I had used a 12″ zipper and had to double over the ends. This time I just closed up the back a small amount and left the tabs long at the bottom.

Then there is the Half-Circle Baby Sweater by Shibuiknits. It is done and sewn together. I am not as pleased with it as I could be, and probably will wash and block it. My daughter thinks it looks better than the model because she likes the pink and the stripes. The yarn is Siena-Stripes, a washable merino from Rödel, 125m/50gm. The yarn is Siena-Stripes, a washable merino from Rödel, 125m/50gm and took a bit more than five balls. Part of the yarn issue was my desire to match stripes.

I also finished up the first Horcrux Sock today and cast on the second.

Which means I am running out of excuses to not pick up my Chinese Red Vest which I have promised to do this month. I still have the first Niagara Falls sock on the needles from Chameleon Colorworks.

Quilting

The oldest dropped by to use a sewing machine. It is baby quilt time, and she found some wonderful fabric.

It is getting late, and I am already sick of Matzah.

-Holly

Spinning

I have made progress – the Fire Colorway looks like this on the skeiner and in close up:

Knitting

The last three baby sweaters are close to finished. The half circle just needs to be sewn the rest of the way together. You can see that this is similar to an EZ type of construction. You just don’t have a complete feel for the item till it is finished.

I have the last one of the Back-Zips to sew-up, then this one as well as one more need zippers.

And finally, I just had to do it – and cast on Horcrux in merino (125m/50gm) color 101 from Collinette. The pattern is by Susan Pierce Lawrence. She has also contributed the pattern this cycle for the Six Sock KAL, a fingering weight version which I will cast on as soon as I have the baby sweaters and these two pairs of socks complete.

Books and Audio Books

I have finished two urban fantasies, the most recent Rita Mae Brown mystery and four audio books over the weekend. Since I can’t knit complex items and read at the same time, I am about to start on the two Stephanie Plum audios that came into the library today for me.

-Holly

We have a really great vacuum cleaner. It is one of those no bag models; you just empty out the container when it is full. This seems to be all the time when you have a golden retriever in the house. Even when fairly full, it has a powerful suction; strong enough to suck keys off a laptop computer. You don’t even have to ask me how I know that, do you?

Noah was my hero, managing to find the tab key, the small plastic interlocking spacer, and to get them properly settled back on the keyboard such that they actually worked.

Knitting

I am certain that I do not have to appologize for not getting much knitting done today. I managed another 15 rows on the 1/2 circle sweaeter and am doing the gusset on the first Niagara sock.

Heidelberg Community Seder

Kathi and Louis started with the cooking at 1500, I got there about 1630. My set up crew actually arrived in plenty of time to do the tablecloths, plates and everything. Final number in attendance was 45. Besides US and Germany, we had members with origins in Turkey, Hungary and the Form USSR. Our youngest attendee is 6 months old, our oldest? Well, we know she has passed 80 a number of years ago. And of course, you have to make sure that you sing all the songs now, don’t you?

It is back to work tomorrow. Good grief, that is only 6 1/2 hours from now!

-Holly

There are spring cleaning rituals and customs in many cultures. I am not sure that as many come with all the stipulations and rules as cleaning for Passover. But we are ……

Done. The kitchen is clean, as is the house. For that matter, with two friends + their daughter and my son we managed to get the kitchen at the chapel completely scrubbed. Additionally, the teens cleaned up the floor, set up tables and otherwise were an incredible amount of help. Looking at the state of the stove, refridgerator and oven, we decided that it probably had not been cleaned since we did it last year. Once we finished, we taped up both doors leading into the kitchen and placed big signs saying that the kitchen had been kashered and to come back on 3 April. Just to be safe, I will stop by in the morning and talk to the NCOIC as well as the senior chaplain.

Fiber Stuff

Not surprisingly, I did not get a chance to do much in the way of spinning or knitting today. I skeined the merino roving – comes to about 500 meters of 2 ply for a fraction less than 450 gm. I have only 5 cm to go on each of the second sleeve and second curved extension.

Perhaps an unforseen benefit – I hardly had time to drool over new yarns or pattern ideas with everything that needed to be done today. no browsing webstores, no spending of my hard earned cash. I downloaded the pattern for the 6 Sock KAL, and it will be fun. There are a lot of yarn choices already in my stash. The Socken-Kreativ-Liste is not on the same month cycle, giving me a chance to do a new sock every month for one or the other. Now, it also should be time for Chameleon Colorworks to send me another challenge and then there is STR. Two pairs a month? It should be do-able.

-Holly