ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

The rest of the sights, I will write up tomorrow.

But for today, I simply will provide you with the doors captured at Oxford. I am not sure that the city can really be separated from the University, not the Colleges of which it is made up. Holding fast to its claims of being the oldest English speaking University in the world, University College dating from 1249. In contrast, my home city of Heidelberg was founded in 1196 and the University formally in 1386. The two cities are approximately the same size.

Like arches in the architecture in Mȕnchen, Oxford has a plethora of wonderful, old wooden doors.

Lovely day just wandering around, and got back home prior to the rain.

-Holly

Podcasts

If flying stories appeal to you – go listen to Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase.

Sock Wars III – Obits

Another valiant warrior
Has fallen on the field
No more yarn will pass her hands-
No needles will she wield.

Done in by Bakerina
With weapons of purest spun
She joins the ranks of the zombies-
Her time in the war is done.

This sad demise has proven
Her fear of the mailman was real
Goodbye to dear Arachknits-
She’s turned her final heel.

30 May 2008
1503 PST
PacNorthwest Network News: TOP STORY

YET ANOTHER PACNW KNITTER FELLED BY ‘KILLER SOCKS!!’

The victim was found by her husband face down at their mailbox clutching a small slip of paper in one hand and the package the socks came in in the other. The slip of paper reads as follows:

Where needles and yarn were found,
She was sure to be around.

Socks by twos and scarves galore,
K2P2, SSK and K2tog the stitches she adored.

Then the mail flap fell,
such the dreaded sound!

Pistols-n-Sticks
lives not to fight another round!

The victim was said to have been involved with an international ring of ‘sock traffickers’. The circumstances surrounding her untimely demise have not been fully disclosed at this time. The victim’s husband and family have no further comment.

She is survived by 2 children, a supportive and helpful DH, numerous knitting co-workers who are at this time fashioning the death shroud and will undoubtedly fight over the various yarns in her stash.

Books

Mostly this week I have been reading. Seems like it has been a series of paranormals and mysteries. Since I haven’t posted a list for a while, this includes the last 2-3 weeks.
Lover Unbound - JR Ward. Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night – Kresley Cole. Evermore – Lynn Viehl. Demon’s Kiss – Maggie Shayne. Elijah – Jacquelyn Frank. Kiss of Fire – Deborah Cooke. Night Season – Eileen Wilks

Arches

From Suomenlinna, the connecting tunnels from the ammo bunkers and firing slits.

-Holly

Another bush is blooming.

After a quiet morning, I spent the afternoon attending briefings about the last rotation in Herrick (Afghanistan) and the lessons identified. It is a subtle but important distinction between the US and the UK. On the US side, it is all about lessons learned. The implication being that the item was discovered, detailed and solved. (So why do many of us talk about Lessons Learned, Lessons Forgotten?) The UK implication is that some item has been found – now on to capture, audit & action. It will be interesting to see if the basic attitude that underlies the nomenclature will extend to a greater success in the process.

Sock Wars – Obits

Here lies dead Darth, who started out as Anakin Socknitter. Trained by the Jedi socknitters, she had the potential to be great. But crossing over the to Dark Side, she killed 2 worthy sock knitting opponents, and finally was finished off by Spiderknits herself. During the war she taught herself a new method of knitting 2 socks at a time of 2 circs and had her fastest sock knitting time ever. Though the war is over for her, the memory will last forever and has been commemorated in her blog… (it will be updated on 5/30 with pics of final SIPs and the socks that killed her)

She should have used the FORCE!!!

Stash

Ok, I purchased four different yarns while in Helsinki – two from Cypressi and two from (blank mind here).

The first is Finn Wool – similar to Kauni, but a three ply to be knit on 3-4mm needles, both of these are natural coloured wool. One goes from creams to brown, the other is shades of greys.

Then there is green, 3-3,5mm needle to be the contrast for the pinks I have already spun. The color in the picture is not that great, but is really a lovely rich green.

I found blue –

and finally some Finn merino/silk blend. I might even knit a shawl.

Work, as you can tell, is not exciting.

Spinning

While wandering around, looking for something else (like a source of Finwool outside of Finland), I came across a lovely site on the Northern European Sheep Breeds. Not only have they correlated history with current sheep, but have also accomplished the supporting scientific analysis. More breeds of wool to sample?

Sock Wars

No, I haven’t forgotten about it. Or been killed. Still alive here. My assassin apparently died right before I left for Finland, sending off the unfinished socks that she had started upstream to the person who had killed off her.
My target apparently finally got her socks, and has socks on the way to me.

Obits:

Kneedle Meister is now at peace.

There she lies brokenhearted.

Got her socks and ‘poof’ departed.

SKP2008

Think I forgot to mention that the second pattern in the Sock Knitting Olympics was released 1 May. Since there seemed to be some pattern errors, I held off till it was sorted out. I am recycling the yarn I had selected for Sock Madness – much happier with this pattern called Berlin Mȕster.

Helsinki

Just a few more photos – I liked the architectural details, and the lovely sense of humor. It might be reflective of a city and culture that found itself under the yoke of Sweden for over 700 years. Followed immediately by the Russians; the main Finnish Defence seems to be the sauna.

Church of the Rock

And then there was the Church in the Rock. Simple and elegant – even the presence of all the tourists didn’t detract from its function. From the outside, there is only the ceiling and the rock visible. From the inside, the walls grow up out of the rock. Elegant, there is minimal wooden furnishings and the organ.

Sock Wars III

The only package waiting for me was some wool. No socks – I am still alive in the competition.

Alas, Achillescat, has gone on to Zombiehood, being assoxinated. She left behind for her assassin, to finish a sock knit only to the heel turn. Shelley, who was assassinated by Achillescat at least sent a finished sock. Her son and daughter cheered her death, and her DH was heard to say, “At least it won’t interfere with classes next week”. She also left this thought, to be sung to the tune of “I May Not Go to Heaven, Just Send Me Home to Texas”.

When I die, I may not go to Heaven,
I don’t know if they let those with SIPs in.
If they don’t, just send me to my LYS, yeah,
Because kipping is the closest I’ve been.

My socks they are quite beautiful,
They killed me fair and square.
The ones that I am sending Sharon
Need work to finally get there.

When I die, I may not go to Heaven,
I don’t know if they those with SIPs in.
If they don’t, just send me to my LYS, yeah,
Because kipping is the closest I’ve been.

It has been a lovely 17 degrees and sunny in Finland.

As we were coming into Frankfurt, it was mid 20s, and not bad at all.

And then there is London. London City airport. It is 15 degrees. And raining, let us not forget the rain. We walk down the ramp out into the rain. There is plane side pick up of luggage for those who plane side checked bags. I see my suitcase being unloaded; releaved that it made it.

Nasty day, and a bank holiday to boot. So National Rails is doing their thing, offering bus service here and there along the journey.

Rain is good on Memorial Day. At least as a member of the military forces, it is a day for reflection and thought, not for sales and picnics. So rain is fine. I much prefer funerals in the rain.

Let the heavens weep as we hear day after day of further “losses” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why do we play with euphemisms? No one is lost, we know exactly where to find their bodies. They are dead, killed for the ambitions of others by a government that seems to think that sunk costs justify more sacrifice.

Lost to their families and friends, lost to the future. Contributions that will never be made, homecomings that will not be made.

Attend a ceremony, go to a cemetery to honor those who gave up their lives for their country.

The way to make a sacrifice not be in vain is to take courage and honor in hand. To not let events stampede us toward a future more brutal than the realities of the present. If we truly believe in democracy and the right of self determination, then we need to let other countries have that same right.

Even when they don’t chose as we would wish.

-Holly

Suomenlinna (aka Sveaborg if you are speaking Swedish) is just a 15 minute public ferry ride (3.8 Euros round trip). This fortress was started in the 1700s, improved by each succeeding wave of conquerors; it is still in habited today.

The Mole and I wandered the island, the girls seemed content to move from bench to park bench. Changing locations with the sun like cats relaxing without a care.

From ammo holding areas and gun mounts to the docks and museum, it is an interesting place to wander around.

The good thing is that we are too early for the tourist season which starts 1 June. That also means that the most interesting shop on the island is the small grocery – a good source of sodas and ice cream.

And a lovely day was had by all.

-Holly

Helsinki Zoo is on an island out in the harbor. I was in a meeting, so they are responsible for the 300+ digital photos taken by sponge monkeys on the outside of the cages and glass walls.

Again, I would recommend hitting the “expand the page” button so that captions go with their photos.

The girls bring you bring you wonderful, hand-felted hats at an outdoor stall on the Market Square. Obviously Ms Copper was more willing to be the model. Photos courtesy of the Mole. (And all will enlarge if clicked)

Doors

-Holly

At least there is a reason why I don’t have a clue, one of the Finns explained to me today. A professor of Human Geography, he warned that you can’t figure out much without a knowledge of the basic grammar.

Unlike most other languages which developed some sense several thousand years ago (and then there is Estonian and Finnish), there are no articles in Finnish. Rather, all those designations, to include prepositions, some actions and modifiers are provided by one or more of the 32 potential suffixes. That is right my friends, not only do you have to know the root word, you have to hear the rest of the word to figure things out. Even more fun than Russian with six cases. So it is not just an excess of l, j, k, m, n, v along with common t, r, and s. Or the almost never seen d, z, c, q, x, b, c. It explains all those in, en le la. Vowels, I will reassure you, are plentiful and may be used in combination. But there are really an amazing number of ls and ns out there. The grammatical process that causes those incredibly long word is agglutinative morphology.

I think it might be easier to settle for just being an erect (most days) bipedal, plantigrade being with flat nails. I will disagree with the presumption that we are the only species that passes down knowledge along with genetics. (Marine biology anyone?)

I also found yarn. Two stores, Sypressi and the Finnish equivalent of Husfliden. And then there is www.pirtinkenhraamo.fi .

The kids had the camera today. Or not, as it turned out.

My conference starts late this afternoon with a reception. I suppose I should have come in today instead of yesterday. But I always get concerned at such things and appreciate not having to worry about being late, lost or otherwise confused. This post is picture heavy; you have been warned.

Instead, I took the sponge monkeys

with me out and about for the early part of the day.

When you don’t make them do anything, it is amazing. They are willing to see a few things at the City Museum about the history of Helsinki

what the city was

and what it has survived

We were reminded of the 700 years of Swedish “involvement”

the shipping industry which moved from here toward Germany

and work

there were also the Russians. Last Century, and during WWII. This sweater dates from the 1940s

Taking a break

Over the course of the day, Noah and I managed to capture ducks, geese and gulls.

We found the early bird was out late as well

while looking at buildings, islands, and the harbor

trim

sculpture -

I can’t imagine taking this route across Russian and the northern waters, but it was done

and we got some sunshine, even if it never really got all that warm.

-Holly

Elsewhere in Europe, the tulips bloomed last month. In Finland, it is still under 20°C most days and there are beds of tulips in all the major parks.

Helsinki is a city of Art Deco, of interesting buildings all dating from the late 1800s on.

We had enough time after we arrived yesterday to do a bit of wandering around, seeing a few things

and some interesting architectural details.

and Owls – looking downward over doorways.

We are staying at the Eurohostel – part of the Youth Hostel International Organization. Everyone staying here is not a student or young traveler. I wish those that were young did not feel obligated to pound out signals to each other through the walls.

-Holly

can be marked by such a simple thing. Today I saw this fancy bus pull into the Heidelberg Shopping Center and realized from the sign on the front that it was the Route A bus.

In 1995, it was a Blue Bird that ran the routes. It was another of the same ilk that we rode, full battle pushing us forward on the seats, sliding off at potholes and around corners from Slav Brod to the Blue Factory in 1998.

Blue Birds were the school buses that I remember from childhood, and seeing them reincarnated out on military deployments was a shock. Many times they had a cheap paint job over the yellow and the stop sign arm had been unscrewed; rusted holes marking the side of the bus. Suspensions are best described as non-existent.

It became a right of passage and you always knew it was the right bus, that shuttle bus, because no other organization with any kind of compassion would have such hulking, uncomfortable transportation. Soldiers just endure, happy that the ride is free.

This bus was silver. Not yellow, white, blue or various rust speckled paint jobs I have seen over the years. It probably meets current safety specs including the presence of seat belts. Adults no longer jamming themselves into seats that best serve elementary school children and make sardines with the feeling of knees around your ears for anyone of late teens and up.

I took a picture, but then realized it is only a bus. One without history or charm to its comfort.

-Holly

It finally happened today. The Mole started on the garden.

munching along through the high grass.

unfortunately, the fan belt gave out – leaving me with an incompletely mowed lawn. Lawn sculpture anyone?

Ah, well. I have flowers

and plenty of bees.

Spinning

Since it was sunny, I took photos of the rest of my spinning stash. Blue Faced Leicester Roving, some Lornas Laces and the last from Creatively Dyed.

Audio Books

Finished Bloody Mary and on to Rusty Nail. Can you tell that JA Konruth has a name thing going?

Since I have to catch a train at 0617, it might be wise to go pack a suitcase…

-Holly

The good thing about rain is that it keeps away some of the other tourists. Rather than give you long descriptions, I will just tell you to go here to read about the Castle, think about Henry VIII and know that people lived here as late as the 1960s. Yes, there is a golf course. No, I didn’t make any effort to take pictures of it. These photos are in gallery form. To see better, click the button in the upper right had corner of the post to eliminate the sidebars. To “bigger” a picture, click on it. I will build a page in the next day that includes all of these, plus photos of the grounds, the aviary, the duckery and the sheep.

Sock Wars III

The Obits continue. The shortest and clearest is

Helen:
Dead, dead, dead.
Darn, Darn, Darn.
Killed two before I perished.
By beautiful Tofutsies Yarn.

Rhonda:
Friends, Enemies, and Cannibals:

The Black Priestess of the Divine Faustus was slain, laid low by the hand of the most Fearsome and Deadly Tracy. Tracy is known (or not known) by her silence on the forums; rather than spend time in idle banter, she watches, she stalks, she knits, and when the moment is perfect SHE STRIKES! For her pains Tracy will receive incomplete socks in a really awful combination of pastels, but at least she will have the opportunity to try knitting with corn fiber yarn (Maizy).

The Black Priestess is survived by two large dogs, five cats and a rooster. The dogs are distressed by her departure from this life, but the cats think there is enough meat on her carcass to keep them all going for a few weeks, at which point they will kill and eat the dogs, plus now they have all that yarn to play with.

The rooster has a brain roughly the size of half a pea, and has no opinion on the matter.

This post is long enough. I will hold the fiber for tomorrow.

Sometimes one’s day just does not go as planned.

Right before bed, I had reminded the Mole that we needed to leave NLT 0700 since I really wanted to make dental sick call. At just a few minutes before I wanted to leave, I realized that I had not heard a sound from upstairs.

No surprise, he was sound asleep. Very unhappy when woken to find that he did not have an hour to get ready. And you think teenage girls can take a long time?

It was drizzling, trucks were doing strange things on the roadways, and we were listening to Wiskey Sour. The upshot was that I zigged when I should have zagged and didn’t notice till I saw the exit for Reading. To compound things, instead of just heading around the traffic circle and getting back on the M4 in the correct direction, I decided to attempt a short cut through Reading.

Two times around downtown Reading before we could get out of there (would you believe that there is rush hour traffic in Reading?) and we finally got back to the A33 and found the M4. Lost an hour literally driving in circles.

Needless to say, by the time we got to Croughton, it was after dental sick call hours. They took pity on me. Said I could wait, or have a real appointment time at 1300. I opted for the appointment and we headed off to run errands. Just as I went into the PX, the fire alarm went off. 20 minutes later, they let us back in, all still clueless as to why it rang.

Commissary, then a run by the library which was still officially closed. They are supposed to be finished with the relocation by Wednesday. Since I will be out of town next week figured it would be nice to return the new best sellers and at least some of the DVDs.

Got the tooth looked at. We decided to hold off on drilling a little while longer. I don’t mind a bit.

Came home. The rain is good for somethings.

with the occasional glimpse of sky

Sock Wars III

I am still watching the forums and howling with laughter. The dead are mounting and the obits are a hoot:

The Dead Dulcinea wrote:
Here lies Dulcinea Quixote de la Mancha, cruelly felled by a fatal case of Sox Pox!

She leaves behind her loving husband, Don (a good guy but seriously delusional), and their children Aldonza Duet, Don Dos, Juan, Pedro, Miguel, Angel and Sam (who bears a striking resemblence to Sancho, Don’s faithful but apparently not so trusty sidekick).

She also leaves behind her best friend Aldonza (the barmaid and part-time hooker), Sancho (we know what kind of friend he was) and a pet dragon, Spike.

Dulcinea loved the outdoors in the frozen tundra called Wisconsin, especially tilting at windmills. She pretty much tilted at everything else after Aldonza poured another one. When not tilting, she was known to wage war with socks.

She’ll be buried in the family plot, wearing her beautiful, Sox Pox Socks!

She leaves her craftroom of wondrous yarns to her knitting friends, figuring they’ll duke it out over who gets what.

Please feed Spike on your way out… you don’t want to walk past a hungry dragon!

and Tiny Tyrant:

Interred May 14, 2008 by Knit Picks Memories in Rocky Mountain Dusk
Tiny is survived by her husband who refused to get the mail that
day and spare her from her fate. Her three dogs, Cliff the Mutt,
Oscar the Dog and Scrat the Brat, who all allowed the mail man
to deliver the package and four felines who simply worry about
where their next meal is coming from since dad is absent minded
about set meals. Her stash is not available as she intends to
come back from the dead and haunt her husband and leave yarn in
all the rooms of the house and needles in the most unsuspecting
places.

I am sure that I will be “dead” sometime early next week. Must think of something to say.

Audio Books

Finished up Whisky Sour and started on Bloody Mary, both by J A Konrath. They are funny and Dick Hill is perhaps my favorite reader of all time.

Arches

Right near the end of my road, a trail winds back into the woods. This arch, made of long dead greenery wound around a frame stands by itself. No clue how long it has been standing, nor why. Only near object is this strange looking shelter, tucked between two huge trees with toes dug deep in the earth.

When you put time and effort into hand knitted socks, you want them to last.

Really soft yarns, even knit quite tightly, don’t have the strength to stand up to foot abuse. Often they are spun woolen rather than worsted with characteristics that make them wonderful garment yarns. Sock legs? My sock cuffs and legs don’t wear out. (We will not speak about the guys in my house who think the way to put on a sock is to grab it by the cuff and yank.)

But when it comes to toes and heels – well fitting shoes should not bother my socks and baring my own stupidity (where is that nail clipper anyway?) socks should last. Coming apart is a construction fault, but wearing through? Unfortunately, I am seeing this happen with the 100% merino or wool yarns, and not with the commercial sock yarns (excepting those Indie dyers’ whose base is a good quality sock yarn).

Deb recently had the experience of a lovely pair of socks developing a gaping hole. As I looked at her sad picture, I realized the advantage of the afterthought heel. She can just frog and reknit with a small amount of fiddling.  Doesn’t work with my favorite heels.

Where am I going with this? I have a lot of sock yarn from Indie dyers. I enjoy the colour, the uniqueness and supporting cottage industry, but I don’t like socks that wear out.

I wear my clothes for practically ever (hint, anyone who wears a uniform to work on a daily basis is not constrained to keep up on fashion). I have a skirt, older than the eldest (now 29), in my wardrobe that I still wear. I have turtlenecks that are still wearable after 10 years.

I have dozens of pairs of handknit socks. Socks should last, especially when I have enough choices that an individual pair is not getting worn every week.

I used to add in the reinforcement yarn in toes and heels. Only JaWoll and Lang still seem to include it. I can buy it from Regia as the German shops still carry it. I have been know to make my own reinforcement yarn (it is two extra plys – I am a spinner, exactly how hard is it separate a couple of meters of yarn?) or use wooly nylon.

What is the catch? No mater what you do, the color or pattern on the toes and heels is not going to match the rest of the sock unless it is a solid. If I had planned on a contrast heel, it is not an issue.

Yes, I know I just told you that I am not a fashion person, but this is a rare time when a bit of OC strikes. I like things to balance and I am not a real fan of bulk.

I think the 100% wools and merinos are going to languish a while in the stash while I go back to sock yarn.

Sock Wars III

The knitters are slowly being killed off. It is a balance of being able to knit rapidly and having your assassin knit slowly enough to get killed off plus being favored by the tricksters of the Post.

I am still alive, with my target’s socks wending their way from Royal Post to USPS in Texas. We will see.

The forums are hysterically funny. Most of us are posting under our aliases. Puns and laughs abound as the ghosts and ghouls just keep coming back. Zombies we think as well. Plus there are those vampires who keep sucking up everyone’s time.

A lot of entertainment for very little money.

-Holly

Honestly, you wonder that people don’t have better things to do.  Dummy websites that pull posts from around the world based on key words. Mailers that send out dozens of offers for various insurance schemes. Drugs that none of us need or want. I would home that no one would ever answer any of these bogus offers.

I suppose that I should be grateful to somehow be missing all the porn spams.

At the same time, I have no clue why Askimet keeps dumping comments from my friend Carmen in the spam bucket. I might have thought it was because of having a gravatar (Odin is quite the cat) since I have have it set to catch all comments that have links, but this happened before she got the pix uploaded.

There has to be a logical reason why all of this spamming occurs. Someone must bite. Same reason that pfishing is out there, and all the letters from Africa hinting at untold millions should you only help by first opening an account with your own money. (That disappears. And someone might be surprised?)

Sock Wars III

The forums on both Ravelry and the Sock Wars sight have been hilarious. As of shortly before midnight, there were 81 fallen in their socks and comments flying thick and fast. Besides a few rather sour grapes, I have seem prose, poetry, beautiful sock pictures and some really creative obits. Krafty1 went all out in her packaging (and the socks are pretty cool too).

Spinning

Finished up the last ounce of Temptation and all of the plying. Picture tomorrow, since it would involve going and locating the camera.

We (the Mole and I) braved Tescos for gas and some groceries, dropped off the recycling and made it back home with only one detour. I just love people who ride on your bumper even when you are doing the speed limit.

-Holly

Be looking at this?

Or this?

Wearing these?

Or these?

Dressed like this?

Or this?

Working at a computer (hey – you don’t need a picture of that – you have acess to one or you would not be reading this)

Sock Wars III

Or admiring a finished pair of socks for Sock Wars III prior to the run to the post office.

At last tally, 31 casualties have been recorded. And that is not counting all the wounded in action (cramped hands, sore shoulders, bleeding fingers).

I am off home, then have the Mole to get from the airport around 2300.
-Holly

A Monday back in the office means a number of email accounts to check, a search of the calendar to make sure that I don’t forget anything and a bunch of filing. In other words, booorrrring.

Sock Wars III

I have heard from my assassin. She is in the US. I reached my victim. She is also in the US. Luckily, she is not allergic to wool since her socks are just about done. Without a screaming reason to really hurry, I didn’t knit during breaks today.

At the start of today, one sock was complete and the other half way so. (Well, I did tell you that I spent most of yesterday spinning. Pink and hot pink it was with that grey thrown in).

The “dead” count started at 5, since that was the number of those who opted out after the alleged start. From here on in, I suspect the first ones out will be US based who received US based victim’s dossiers on Friday. Could have gotten socks in the mail on Saturday. Or even Sunday if you live near a major airport.

Seems like a lot of people are taking this more seriously than I. Airmailing small packages actually costs the same US or UK post. (under $5). DHL? UPS? FedEx? Not me!

Spinning

I am in West Surrey. Surrey Heath to be specific. Don’t ask my why my post code says Guilford. There is a local spinning guild which meets occasionally in Farnham. Another spinner (ound through Ravelry) and I went together. The speaker was excellent, funny and dynamic.

20 year ago, she and her husband moved into Hampshire. Having a large garden (US this = yard) they decided to get a couple of biological lawnmowers. They had never had animals before. The Shetland Sheep really took over their lives.

She brought about 12 fleece to demonstrate the breed characteristics – never mind that it turns out the breed has literally dozens of recognized colours and patterns. (Lets hear it for the Scandinavian names.)

Just a small sample.

But you know what was really amazing? No one, I mean no one brings knitting to the meeting. All those knitters and spinners, they are all worried about offending the speaker. I thought for a moment and asked the question. Not surprisingly, none of them would worry about knitters, they all believe in multitasking.

Perhaps I am just too young for the group?

-Holly

The blossoms are just about gone from the trees.

Sock Wars III

I forgot to show you my progress on SockWars from Friday evening.

Since as of last night, I still didn’t have my target, well taking an updated picture seemed pointless.

Some sense intervened somewhere and the complete list was posted on the website. It was easy to figure out who was your enemy and your target. As it turned out, my first assassin bailed on the play, but I was able to contact the person before her on the list. Having email addresses is so nice! Both are in the US.

Given that I am not making the post till tomorrow and I am much farther than the above, I spent the rest of the day spinning.

Audio/Video

I don’t care for Inspector Morse (BBC) but found Hamish McBeth (also BBC) pretty funny. I have a real feeling it is like Lake Wobegone; close enough to the truth to have some reality and far enough away that you can write off a fair amount as stereotypes.

-Holly

There are worse things than no comments, and that is one pointing out errors in spelling and grammar.

‘Tis a fine line to walk, providing information without being insulting. Expressing an opinion that disagrees while avoiding accusations of malfeasance. Content comments can accomplish that, corrections do not.

Did I tell you that I have been known to use the almost random comma?

A long time ago, more than 40 years as a matter of fact, I was in high school English. Besides studying grammar and diagramming sentences we wrote essays. I used to be good at both of those. In those years, 1960s, there was little call for creative writing in school. In fact creative writing was what we all did on those various exam essays in an effort to fill both time and page when the knowledge of details was a bit lacking.

Now there seems to be in certain groups a conspiracy of complicity. If you don’t agree, you say nothing. Unlike real life, only nice things may be said.

Nice, read it helpful, is in the eye of the writer, not reader.

If you have not read by Lynn Truss may I suggest it to you as hilarious reading which making some excellent points about today’s society. That which she sees existing in London at any case.

We will not talk about her Eats, Shoots, and Leaves since I have already acknowledged my lack of comma properness.

I was going somewhere with this? Ah, yes.

How to provide constructive comments without starting a flame war. For those of you who are not old enough to have been on alt.rec.(insert your various groups here or various Listservs, when participant exchanges heated up past the level of discourse and dissolved into nastiness and name-calling, those exchanges were called flame wars.

The basic principle of “disagree with the idea, do not be personal” was forgotten. It is one thing to say “that is a stupid idea” and another to say “you are an idiot for saying that.” The second maybe implied from the first, but it is not explicitly so stated. Political debates in the US have degenerated into name calling and it is not pleasant, seeing it in writing preserved for eternity is not an improvement.

Providing facts and fact checking is more important in these days of unrestrained word flow. I hesitate to call it information flow. Website and blog follow each other. Blatantly incorrect information is passed along like treasure from the Victoria & Albert Museum. Woe to a person who challenges it.

On other sites, corrections and changes are welcomed as the goal is to have the most accurate information possible. As a contributor on Wikipedia, most of the exchanges are polite and simply a request for source material so that verification of corrections and updates can be accomplished. An answer that contains “program guide from the closure ceremony – would you like me to scan it and send it?” suffices.

With our knitting bloggers, email might be a better way to communicate. Most blogging software allows the blog author to delete comments. Facts and figures, along with references are not likely to survive, no matter how nicely put. (Hey, I talk to generals and survive, I can be polite and tactful when it is necessary).

I appreciate knowing when I have made an error or said something quite stupid. Personally I don’t want to be a source of misinformation. And we have all said something we think is fact without double checking our references. So please help me out when I am wrong.

And no, I have not been participating in either side of arguments or wars. But I have stopped reading several blogs because the writers have gone from interesting to personal attacks. Admittedly, several hundred yes comments on any post can be extremely boring, but I find nothing worth reading in paragraphs of personal diatribe.

Unless, of course, I can hand the writer a fistfull of commas and some capital letters.

What is Sock Wars III? you ask.

Well, obviously it is battle 3, following Sock Wars I and Sock Wars II.

It is the usual insane suspects scattered around the globe who all start with a pattern and target at the same time. Knitting as fast as they can, they post off their completed pair to their target, effectively forcing the recipient out of play. The idea is to knock off as many people (playing it forward so to speak) as possible before being “killed” by receiving a pair of socks from your assassin.

It has made a few papers – showing up on Reuters, and elicited some wonderful photos.

A lot of success obviously depends on the post. If your target is local, it is easy. If your assassin is from half way around the world, you might just be golden.

It was supposed to start off at 1200 GMT. Thought I had lucked out because the Supreme Commander lives in Northern Ireland.

The fates were against all of us. Not only had the SC suffered a major death in her family immediately preceding D= 0 , T= 0, but her email conspired against her as well. Large number of posts with mail merge seemed to equal a server hitch on her side. Perhaps the numbers hit the “gee, it must be spam trigger.”

End result was that almost no one had either pattern or target as the minutes of Friday ticked away. Only the fact that she placed the pattern up on the website saved the whole battle from crashing and burning.

My sense of humour is still intact. After all, I signed up late not knowing if I was still going to be playing in Sock Madness and with a pattern I can at least get started.

Would have been nice to have had everything, I could have probably posted off socks by noon tomorrow.

The View

Arches

I just could not resist. Land Rover provided me with such a great opportunity at the Tattoo the other night. It isn’t just the US that is into SUVs.

-Holly

Why was I awake at 0630 this morning? I didn’t crash till well after 0100.

It must be the morning light, perhaps the house front faces east? I still have no sense of direction here other than the Motorway is that way (points) and London is sort of that way (points again) and Tescos is this way (pointing over the other shoulder). I should just figure it out and be done with it.

But I get light in the morning, fresh sun streaming into my window from quite early. Leaving said window open adds in not just birds chirping cheerily but the sounds of the A30 as trucks rumble by on the otherside of the fence and foliage.

I didn’t knit much, just half a leg on the second of a pair of socks while waiting for a confirmation for Sock Wars III. With the insanity of Sock Madness now passing me by, I thought it might be more fun to war than to knit another round of Madness since I gave the last pattern a bye.

<h4>Reading</h4>

Instead, I spent the eveing reading:  he most recent Dante Valentine and two Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle.

This is Windsor Castle (or here, if you prefer Wikipedia links

Home to the Queen of England on weekends and the grounds on which the 2008 Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo is being held for the next few evenings. The program is on the sight and will be broadcast on the BBC, Sunday 11 May.

What is not mentioned is that there is a 7 May performance, tickets open to the military. Beverly reminded me this morning that we had tickets for this evenings performance.

The post is picture heavy. I limited the size of the pictures in the post. You can click on them if you want bigger. Almost all were taken with the telephoto lens on my Cannon EOS without benefit of flash. They are posted in performance order. (Commentary to be added when I am awake).

When we arrived, this lot was out on the field, practicing and milling around. Remember them.

At the start, for the benefit of visualizing several pre-recorded clips and closeups of the field, we had the wide screen panel over the band’s stage.

Enter the horse artillery

performing maneuvers

while pulling cannons that weigh a couple of tons.

prior to firing all eight.

There were also the mounted Horse Guards.

A firefight complete with smoke and more smoke (flashs, bangs, booms and an aircraft sound track).

The midpoint did not feature Zambonies.

Instead moving on through several groups to Cossacks

The Musical Ride, complete with the drum horse

And massed pipe bands

Joining at the end with

and the same blokes you saw out there earlier, only now dressed up.

finishing together with the pipers

For this is what it was all about

On a foggy morning I was looking out the window and thinking.

When I was young and could not spell, no one put a fancy name on it. I just swapped letters around and made consistent mistakes; rewarded with having carry over words for next week.

At some point, probably university level, I learned to spell dyslexia and was able to put a name on my number swapping and reading misadventures. By then it didn’t matter, I had learned to compensate by keeping a dictionary handy. Looking up words became a matter of habit even when a word just didn’t look quite right.

Along come word processors followed by word processing programs. Built in spell-checkers were incorporated and I lost track of my dictionary.

There is a difficulty with depending on your word processing software. It has to have your word in its data-banks. All the words are simply not included, there are too many of them. Technical words and specialized jargon are the least likely to be included. But other words which to me seem quite ordinary might just be missing. Judiciary was one such word several years ago, as was bureaucratic.

What choices did I make, did most people make when complicated words or grammatical forms were not compatible with the program? Make is simpler, make it easier so that there are no red underlined words.

Dumb it down. Use fewer words. Contract rather than expand word usage. Otherwise, it is work, you see to find that dictionary and look up a word or go on-line to one of the extensive dictionaries to figure out what it was that you really wanted.

Haven’t you noticed that we are using a smaller number of words, quoting others and repeating ourselves?

My excuse is that I can’t spell ….

Knitting

Hodge Podge has come out of hiding. I have been working a few rows on the sleeve piece here and there. It is time to switch from straight to in the round and just buzz down the sleeves. Once I figure out where the right sized dps are, that is.

Spinning

Two more ounces of Rufus BFL went from roving into singles while I enjoyed the back garden this evening. Since the weather was holding, I went ahead and plyed up the four ounces of singles that were taking up bobbins on the Paulitz.  Even in bright light, the colour variations are fairly subtle. As a contrast yarn in stranded colourwork, I am hoping by spinning in this particular manner I will have the effect of multiple yarn colors while saving the effort of changes with all those ends to weave in.

Books & Audio

Too many books, too many locations.
Black Ice in the car and Blood Work in the living room. Both by Michael Connelly
Latte Trouble by Cleo Coyle just finished in paperback.
Spirits that Walk in Shadow by Nina Kiriki Hoffman just started in hardback.

-Holly

The sounds are summer; birds commenting or quarreling nosily in the trees, Lawn mowers munching through the grass with a midrange burr while traffic swells and recedes in the background. My spinning wheel mummers quietly along, the spokes swishing gently, the footman silent and the flyer’s chatter soothing as the bobbin fills. Colour follows colour pst the hooks winding onto the core, layer upon layer of muted silver and copper, creams and rusts of fall.

Without music or audio-book, I am tuned into the wildlife around me. Squirrels do battle with determined black and white birds for seed and treats. Not on purpose am I perched on the bench without electronics. The MP3 player needs to be recharged, there are no near outlets and we won’t talk of batteries.

Once again, the sunshine is warm and soft breezings are clearing the cold from the house through open windows bringing freshness to rooms grown sick of winter’s damp chill.

Bank holdiays are also apparently taken by yarn stores. I know know where both Park Lane in Basingstoke and Fibrecraft in Guildford are located. There are lots of lovely small roads along with back country rude drivers. My money is safe in my pocket.

Warmed up the house a bit more today with open windows and doors. Of course, I will need to be reminded about how cold things were once we get to the two weeks of summer when it will be too warm.

About the time I was really settled in back with the spinning wheel there were a few drops of rain.

The clouds sense of humor and mine just aren’t the same

Spinning

From Sakinaneedles I have this merino silk roving. In fact, I have two of them at 4 oz each. Spun the first into a nice fine singles and will tackle the second tomorrow.

From the same dyer also comes Rufus in BFL; four ounces spun as well with another 8 to go.

Books

No DvDs today, the computer seems to be crashing every 5-10 minutes meaning I need to do some backing up. Instead, it was listening and reading hard copy . Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman.
Hard Truth by Nevada Barr. Finished today. Train Man by PJ Deutermann, started and finished. Good story for spinning or eating desert. Think strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate.

Admittedly, I did feel a little bit sulky when I noticed that the temperature in Heidelberg was 24 degrees while it is a whopping 15 here. Still, I had sunshine for a good portion of the day. Enough so that I could enjoy all the small blooms in the back yard (ok, garden. I will learn the proper British terminology one of these days. Right about when I finish and head back to Germany.)

When I figured out that it was much warmer outside than inside (heat? what heat? It is May, no one runs heat in May. Even if they had working heat which I don’t.) I opened up doors and windows. With a nice cross breeze I might have suceeded in raising the temp a degree or two. Seems like brick walls hold the cold stubbornly not giving up without hours of coaxing.

I have flowers

None of which show what the lawn is starting to resemble

At least, that is my excuse for not cutting the grass. All those little flower heads would be decapitated. Given a choice, I would much rather have long grass than lose all the flowers. And I would rather look at flowers than do laundry. With a clothes line and sunshine, I didn’t see that opting out would be all that smart.

Spinning

Took the wheels outside

The Paulitz

The Dutch wheel.
Finishing up the first two bobbins of singles

It gives some great colour combinations when plyed. Lazy here – just going from one wheel directly to the Dutch Wheel. A bargin off Ebay a few years ago, the bobbins will hold a good 300 gm of finely spun yarn. With the low ratios, it take forever but is makes it easy to avoid over spinning.

Socks

Anyone else remember the old Sockknitters Listserve? When one new sock knitter mentioned how weird her socks looked, I told her to go and look at the Museum of Odd Socks.

The Barcelona pair doesn’t qualify for membership. I rather like them.

DvD

The BBC production of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple: The Moving Finger and At Bertram’s Hotel.

Great productions to knit by.

-Holly

You don’t talk at breakfast it seems in the British Officer’s Mess. Squeaking into the dining room five minutes before the end of morning serving time, I was greated by a wall of silence. Carefully spaced out around the table with at least one space between each person, everyone had their eyes down reading the paper and eating.

Custom it seems is all important. Unlike other Messes, you don’t need to wear your hat here to be left completely alone.

Having a warm breakfast was nice. The most energetic I will ever get at home is oatmeal. I still clearly don’t understand toast racks; just appear to be a device destined to make your toast get cold immediately.

Knitting

The mail run this afternoon turned out to be a good deal. The four boxes that I had mailed to myself all showed up.

So once again, I can get back to the Hodge Podge,

adding a few more rows to the upper section.

Socks

And it was on to finishing the foot shaping on the Barcelona socks.

SKP2008 pattern also came out. I had forgotten completely. Since it was a 1900 or so last night US release, I could have pulled it this morning. Dropping out of competition on Sock Madness made me sensibly look at the projects I want to do and where I am going to spend my time over the next few months. I will knit all the pairs for SKP2008 (as long as they are not too stupid) but I am reserving the right to bail, just like I am skipping the optional pattern for Madness.

Anyway…

Spinning

There is also this project which had been at a standstill for a while.

Books & all

The RAF Croughton Library is being returned to its old, renovated quarters. Since it will be closing for a couple of weeks, the librarian increased the length of time one could check out A/V materials. ANd the number, that is also important. Not only is this great for some of us at a distance, but it makes good logistical sense; the more items are out on loan, the fewer to get moved and shelved in the wrong place.
In my bag heading out the door were several Miss Marples, two Inspector Morse and a Hamish McBeth. Never let it be said that I have anything against British Programming.

Arches

Last Friday morning I was in Munich. Not having enough sense to come in out of the rain, I went prowling around the Rathaus. Some of entry ways are arches set with metal gates, going in or coming out.

As should be pretty obvious, I am playing around with the blog again. I still like the simplicity of my original theme the best, but since there is still an unresolved copyright question I am not going there.

I played with MistyLook for a while. It has some nice clean lines which it seemed that everyone in the world loved. The theme itself didn’t like the random header plug-in and I really can’t make up my mind which picture of the back garden I like the best. It changes. Now, obviously, so does the header without any work from me. I suppose that I could do knitting pictures, but that might be work. The main background of snowy branches became a bit too much, so it is now grass in sunshine. I keep thinking that something other than blue is good.

This theme started out as Mandigo. There are still fixes needed. I don’t like the basic css for the pictures as I have to remember to add certain things on every line at the moment. There is also the issue of the galleries not working properly, but I think that is a side effect of two sidebars. I will try taking them out of the childpages and see if things improve.

Socks

All of this takes time away from what is important – knitting. In this case the Barcelona Socks

Spinning

And spinning some more of this wonderful merino roving. Finished up the first bobbin last night and started on the second

Audio Books

While starting a new book – Hard Truth by Nevada Barr.

-Holly