ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Whether or not you are a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, the fact remains that many of us make them and few managed to keep up the good effort for more than a few days to weeks.

Then along comes an idea that is just made for signing up and actually completing. The Flashback Challenge, started by Aarti, a young Chicago book lover, is based on a Robertson Davies (you know, the Canadian novelist, author, journalist, professor) quote -

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

The Challenge is simple – go, sign up, and commit yourself to re-reading somewhere between 3-12 books from earlier times in your life. If really ambitious, there is nothing stopping you from reading more. Three books in a year, that is not an overwhelming number. You don’t even have to decide which books right now. Read during the year. If you have energy, you could even use each as the subject for a blog post; you could right a review.

I haven’t decided which books yet, but I am going to re-read classic children’s literature and what I consider true early classics of SF/Fan. Perhaps a bit of Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain or Kenneth Grahame (if your mind just went blank - Wind in the Willows was first published in 1908). Then there are the books I read as they were being published in my childhood and early teens by Andre Norton, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Walter M Miller, and Ursula Le Guin.

Yes, there are a lot of new and very interesting books being published. Perhaps by doing this and writing about it someone else will become interested in a particular book. It couldn’t hurt.

And you know what is really special about my plan? It is totally and completely vampire romance free…….

They finally arrived from the US this morning after an overnight flight on British Airways from BWI, Ms Soprano and one of her friends from school. Looking a bit tired around the edges, they napped for a good portion of the day. Their luggage arrived without difficulty.

On the way home received a call from the DH. Luggage located. Still at the distro point near Heathrow.

After dropping the girls at the house (see above) and picking up the DH (claim slips are really important) we merrily followed the GPS lady around, over, beside and through all sorts of places on the back side of Heathrow that I had never imagined. We found Rico’s. The nice man there found our luggage.

We drove home. Everything was still there five days later. The Maus had all her things plus new underwear, cosmetics and two Bench outfits to the good. My DH was just relieved to see his good running shoes.

And me? I am going to celebrate by turning on the heat!

They are getting rather brave, the red foxes who live on Camp. Other than vanishing whenever I grab the camera, mid day I see them in the back garden. They appear and disappear along the road at night like red-eyed demons peering out from the fog.

The number of ducks and geese seems to be reduced from what I remember last year. It might be the foxes, or just the burst of cold weather that has put ice on the pond.

More of the hats and scarves

and Ms Maus and I are watching NCIS.

and why are we not surprised?

the DH made more than a few calls to the Airport, the station manager and Lufthansa.

I took the Maus shopping. She had not left much here (meaning not much useful) and the ability to change bits of clothing might be considered quite important by most of us.

Continuing on the generation of feltable hats and matching scarves (not to be felted).

As most of you who live on the east coast are aware, there has been a bit of snow.

And then there was the cold in Germany. So cold (well, not by Canadian or Minnesota standards) that a track cracked. Of course, Ms Maus and DH were on their way to the Frankfurt airport via ICE when this occurred. What is normally a 45 minute train trip turned into more than two hours. First they sat, then the train had to go back to Mannheim to change tracks before proceding to the airport.

Only the fact that their flight was delayed meant that they came in last night.

You can not trust the on-line listings about plane departures, please trust me. If a plane has closed its doors, it has departed even though it has not taken off. Explains why a slightly more than one hour journey with a departure time from Frankfurt of 1750 arrives in London at 2107; lets not forget the hour time change.

Two hours later, they are still waiting for luggage. 30 minutes after that, DH forces the station manager to come clean and make an announcement. It seems like there is a slight problem. Baggage handlers are on strike and luggage is not going to be unloaded tonight. Meanwhile, a number of the hire cars have departed assuming that they have just missed their passengers.

Obviously, the Mole and I gave up hanging in the waiting zone by 2000 (for a 1915 pickup) and had parked in the short term parking.

We arrived home after midnight, putting the early morning departure for Edinburgh on hold. Probably indefinitely.

Meanwhile,

I was able to finish up la cloche sans peur (Brunswick Impressions – one strand of wool and one of mohair held together on size 13 US needles) which now needs ends woven in and a trip through the washing machine. The designer is Alicia Weisberg-Roberts (both links are Ravelry).

Next, I started a variation of Breckenridge from French-Press Knits

out of the same yarn combination. The cable crossing is going to be more subtle given the mohair, but I am happy.

Both patterns are well written and fast to knit. Something to be said for instant gratification after knitting kilometers of 3.00 needle garter stitch.

Feeling sad? Feeling lonely? Don’t get enough SPAM?

Well I have a solution, a secret, that I am wiling to share with you for free.

That is right, no money now and no money later. To get almost unlimited SPAM for your blog just follow my easy instructions.

Place the word “Russian” in the title of your post. Like magic, you will receive increased comments in your SPAM filter. Not just for a few days, mind you, but lasting for weeks. I am sure that the entertainment value would be even greater if I could actually read Russian. Perhaps it is better that I am spared some of the scurrilous comments. It is definitely a way of being assured that your blog is being picked up by some search engine or another.

You could experiment, go one better. Put the word “penis” in a blog title. The resulting viagra SPAM could send your count to a new high.

Now back to regular insanity and knitting.

On this, the last night of Hanukkah which just happens to fall on the 18th this year,

I found food for thought provided in dialog about the difference between spirituality and religion. Although this particular discussion is Judaic in its grounding, I think it may well resonate in several other faiths. It hinges around what is for self and what is for others: self-interest vs obligation. See what you think.

Probably more importantly Ms Soprano

turns 21 today. A milestone she celebrated at school last night (along with a sleep in this morning). If you feel like adding greeting to her inbox – you can find her at ninadoyneATt-onlineDOTde. She might not have a clue as to who you are, but she does have a good sense of humor. I get to rescue her from Heathrow on Sunday morning, provide BA does not go on strike or the airport close.

The Mole is home from school. Kent received the brunt of the latest UK Snow storm. The boarding school sent them all out the door three hours early to make sure that they were on their way before the trains stopped running. My phone had completely gone on the fritz, so we were unable to reach each other. As a competent soon to be adult, he managed to get himself home from the train station. Being a guy, he doesn’t seem to need all that much.

Minimal knitting progress today, but more planned this evening on the baby cardigan. Yet another day has passed without the little Ms putting in her appearance so it leaves me a bit closer to being finished. Cat, I think does have the right of it. New little ones need their hind-paws as well as their heads kept warm. I have also been admiring the lovely baby things just knit by Lankakomero – see those socks at the end of the post? All those bright Finnish knitters can’t be wrong. Of course, since my ability to figure out a Finnish pattern is almost non-existent, I am grateful for all the wonderful photos. I can figure out the pattern from the photos…

Beautiful to see, even displaying its art on my car windshield

and on the sides, rear windows and body of the car

Yes, it was cold. Below freezing for more than a few minutes with patches of ice  on the drive, black ice on the road and a few bruises on me for not paying attention.

at home, finally after a conference call kept me till close to 2000.

The advantage to conference calls over, let us say, video conferences, should be obvious. Multi-tasking should be possible and progress can be made on baby sweaters. The little dear has not yet arrived, so I might just have a few days.

I weighed the remaining yarn and have more than enough to finish and make a matching hat. I suppose socks should be in order too?

Another candle supplying a glow of light while snow continues to drift down outside.

Not much snow, but the reaction here to the faintest breath of snow is similar to what one sees in many of the warm weather locations.  According to the gossip, there has been a major run on Marks & Spencers as well as Tescos for supplies.

In Minnesota terms – that much is nothing.

As you can see, work on the cardigan continues. Now that I have heat, I suppose that I no longer have an excuse about sewing the steek. I still have to decide what I want as an edges finishing. Might just go with I cord up the front and around the collar.

RAF Brize Norton is a bit west of Oxford and south of the M40. My lovely (not) GPS had taken me from the M4 at Healthrow north to the M40 yesterday morning before routing me around Robinhood’s barn to get there.

Today, on the return, I was gong to be more sensible. I planned on going south and a bit east, cutting across country to the A34, then south to the M4 and east to my usual exit right near Bracknell.

130 km turned into a 4 hour trek. The going was not always fast, but it was not painful till I got on the M4 heading toward London.

Some foolish person or another, as it turned out, became confused in a construction zone. They managed to hit the barriers on both sides of the road before taking out five other cars before flipping their van up on its side facing the wrong direction. Needless to say, it took more than a few minutes to clear out the mess which was compounded by the fact that several idiots in the other direction managed to have themselves a complete tangle secondary to viewing the accident rather than watching their side of the road.

I crawled in the door four hours after I left, made myself a thermos of cider and climbed into bed.

I will deal with the world in the morning when I feel better.

Not being on line, I am seeing if the scheduling function works.

A much more realistic discussion of the “real world history” behind Hanukah can be found here in a great NYTtime Op-Ed. It is worth while reading and quite thought provoking.

Meanwhile, I am rattling around in the countryside west of Oxford.

My windowsills in this house are all wooden and too narrow on which to balance a menorah. I am settling for lighting in a safe place and visible at least through the kitchen window.

I am off in a few minutes to a friend’s in Woking. She and her daughter have an early flight to Australia – I volunteered to drop them off at Heathrow. From there, i am headed to RAF Brize Norton for a couple of days of teaching rads medicine. With any luck, I will be back on line Tues evening.

Update

Have not been doing all that much knitting. The mitred squares cardigan needs the front steek cut and the sleeves finished.

I had started one baby jacket, frogged it and started this one -

which I am knitting out of a couple of sock yarns. This garter jacket is modified from one of the Drops-Baby patterns. I loved the one I originally started, but rapidly became dissolutioned when it called for a color change every three rows. With short rowing, I just could not find a feasible way to carry yarns and I am not signing up to weave in a bijillion ends.

and then there are computer games, cleaning, and a lot of work at the office.

I never did find the Bookcrossing meet-up in Fleet which leads me to suspect that the auto notice has been forgotten by one and all. Contact person who was supposed to have the details never did get back to me. I had a nice wander around the town anyway…..

Lovely men they were, the first crew showed up shortly before 0800 with the new boiler and all the bits and bobs needed for installation.

The actual heating man and his apprentice appeared less than an hour later. Obviously competent, they drained the system, stripped out the old boiler, replaced what pipes needed replacing, refilled the system, tested and bleed all the radiators and were done by 1400.

I have heat in the house.

It meant that I could turn off the electric fire. relax with out shivering and take out knitting again.

One attempt to start a baby sweater ended like this

I decided that the colors were fine and cheerful for the young lady who is due to be born later this month, but a pattern change was in order

Taking some of the wonderful Lima yarn in sage green from Rowan that I scored on that Army-Navy sale, and needles, I pulled a pattern from Knitters’ called Chocolate Diamonds.

Finishing up the front, I decided to actually follow the construction directions. Seaming the first shoulder, I picked up all the stitches for the collar.

From there, it was knit in ribbing for a long time on successively larger needles

and then I went ahead and seamed the first side before finishing the collar

the collar looks a bit long, but when folded down, it really looks nice. And I do like the diamond pattern on the front (and back).

I was a good kid today. I did not take a train in toward London. I did not go to Stash (Yarn store that is going out of business). Somehow, 20% off did not seem all that great given the70% off at Army-Navy last month.

Of course, I will not mention that I joined a couple of friends on an excursion to Basingstoke. Nor the computer games I found extremely cheaply at one of the stores.

End result was that I listened to some podcasts, watched a few episodes of various TV programs and knit.

You see, it was like this – the plumber was supposed to show up this morning and replace something in one toilet to “stop the leak.” What he had failed to do was tell the Modern Housing folks that there was some residual damage that needed to be fixed.

Being a basically nice person, I could not see wasting time and effort on fixing something that was just going to have to be ripped out.

The engineer didn’t show up this morning either. I sat waiting, wrapped up in two blankets in front of the electric fire with my laptop.

After a run to the office this afternoon, I figured the day at close to a total loss.

Comes 1700 and there is a knock on the door. I am figuring one of my friends who drops by quite regularly.

No, it is the engineer. He looks at the toilet room. He looks at the flooring that gives when he bounces. Notes the fungus growing up between the cracks in the rippling linoleum. Down stairs in the utility room, he makes note of the obvious wet places in the ceiling.

Guess what? The toilet is going to need to come out, the floor completely repairs and the linoleum relaid. Only at that point will the toilet be repaired. Please note, the plumber playing with the float (which, by the way functioned just fine, the leak was at the base….) would not have solved anything. Collapsing floors are a really bad idea.

I am to call on Monday and start nagging about timing for the repairs…..

I’d rather be knitting.

Waiting for the electrician (Did I mention that the florescent lights have gone out in the kitchen? Both of them, leaving it a bit challenging to do anything in that room any other time than between, oh lets say, 0830-1530?) I figure knitting should keep my fingers warm. After I get through all the work related email that is.

For those who celebrate the Christmas Holidays and like to decorate – Garn Studios (those wonderful people who make the Drops yarn and put all of their patterns on the web for free) has put up a Julekalendar with a new pattern every day.  The link is also part way down the home page.  Not normally watching such things, I saw a note by Maria who is already started on some really cute and speedy projects.

(many hours later) – I now have lights again in my kitchen and a scheduled time for the plumber tomorrow (I think) as well as all day next week Thursday for the heating system to be fixed.

End result is that I discovered something else today that was not to my benefit. BigFishGames have now organized their MAC games, making it extremely easy to download and try new games. Unfortunately for me, there were a couple of new games I just had to try. Knitting time was impinged.

Books

Grave Secret – Charlaine Harris. Simple. Neither complicated in plot or characters, it is a nice change from her other paranormal series. Most of the ugliness is in the past, and a major mystery is solved in this book. All the same, it is probably about time she ends this one.
Missing in Death – J D Robb, read by Susan Erickson. Novella taken from a new story collection (this is the only one of the four stories available in audio so far – I think they are missing a trick or three). Slightly under 4 hours, it is quick, tightly plotted and wastes only a couple of minutes on sex scenes. Writing is more consistent than Kindred in Death (new out in Oct) which was quite uneven. Honestly? I would believe she changed ghost writers about an hour into the story.

Let me tell you about Boycott Farms.

all sorts of critters running around.  The alpacas were too far for me to get close.

Which leads to The Naked Sheep

Isn’t all that alpaca lovely? Fine 2-ply, 3-ply, aran weight. The owner also carries breed specific yarns from several local wool growers.

I was good and bought only a little to come home with me.

Now, you might be wondering how I managed to justify this on a work day. Well, as it happens, The Naked Sheep is only 15 km beyond RAF Croughton. Considering that I am entitled to goof off on a lunch time (yah, all right – a Croughton trip is a detour without frolic) it just seemed like a good idea.

Knitting

Getting back around 1600, it seemed most sensible to attempt to keep warm in front of the electric fire. Split my time between the garter squares cardigan (both shoulders complete, side seams closed and the lower edge started)

Giving my hands a break for a while, I finished up the first ball on the vest front.

Audio Books

The Divorce Party – Laura Dave. Bought on sale from Audiobookstand, I pulled this one out of the stack. Covering the interactions of the main players over the course of one day, the author unobtrusively weaves in background while moving the plot forward. I wound up thinking about several of the main themes after I had finished; which makes it a worth while read and not fluff.

One of the defining addictions of the 20/30s generations of women seems to be a love affair with shoes. Designer shoes, killer shoes, spike heels, open toes, expensive shoes. It has become a cliché in Chick Lit, on TV and in advertising.

Anxious, bored, upset? Get a new pair of shoes.

Other than yarn, books and CDs -the shoe shopping gene seems to have missed me completely. In fact, I don’t even own more than one pair of pumps. Black they are, and suitable to be worn with dress uniform. Not to mention that most of the time I wear my only pair of dressy flats for dress-up occasions.

This morning I counted. Yes, I have more pairs of military footgear (aka boots) than I do items for dressier occasions. What I have is comfortable shoes to wear when not at work. i have a decent pair of running shoes and several pairs of LLBean shoes that pull-on.

Exciting? Not really, but my feet never hurt, I can walk for hours and run if I need to.