ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

On my list of various things to do – attending the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally-Pally (Alexandra Place) was rather high on the list. It started today, 6 Oct and runs through Sunday. THe company that pulls this off also runs them in Dublin and Harrogate. (If you are US – think Stitches, or better yet, Maryland Sheep and Wool held inside a large Victorian exhibition hall complete with trim and stained glass windows accompanied vendors for sewing, quilting, embroidery, beading, cross-stitching, a few textile charity importers, reps from all the major sewing&embroider machine lines and … the inevitable man demonstrating a magic mopping system. Yes the floor equivalent of the Ronco Slicer-Dicer. You get the idea.

Starting from Guildford, catching the train to Waterloo was a pleasure as compared to Camberley. There is a direct train that takes under 40 minutes for the farther distance rather than the bumble train that stopped at every station that I used to take. Leaving at 0854 mean that while I was still in high cost, the number of passengers had dropped significantly, I actually had a two person seat to myself, I could hike through the underground to the Northern Line without getting knocked over and find a seat on the north bound train. From Leicester Square (pronounced lester for all of confused non-brits) a change to the Piccadilly line east provided a long, calm opportunity to relax all the way to Wood Green.

Exiting the train, I happen to fall in behind a group of three women about my age. Not asking, this is a presumption given their grey, short hair, unlined faces and the presence of empty carry bags.

Ah! I thought – fellow stitches in search of treasure. I followed them out the door, across the street (waiting for the pedestrian light of course). Boarding the W3, we rumbled along passing blocks of what I would call townhouses sharing walls and tucked up together like a row of dowager women gossiping. At the Alexandra Station stop, they exited the bus. Shrugging, I did the same. Ahead of us was another line of women, about fifty all told queued up to board a bus which was signed “Alexandra Palace” alternating with “private charter.” The lower interior was packed tighter than clowns in a car leading me to eel through the standing passengers and pop up the stairs to find more than 50% of the seats empty on the upper deck. Not being the only one imbued with common sense, about 15 women followed me.

leaving the train stop, the bus rounded the curve while crossing the tracks and trundling up the hill to Alexandra Palace where I stood in line to buy a concession ticket (anything with a concession/discount per UK speak) since I am past the magic age of 61. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping, fondling yarn and otherwise engaged in fibber bliss.

After making large number of plans for today – I blew them all off. George was not exactly feeling up to snuff and managed to snore most engagingly for a good portion of the afternoon after wiping out on cold remedies.

It is also the first of Oct – I could lift my ban on new knitting/sewing projects. Or maybe alternate new things with finishing old?

In spite of my promise for nothing new in Sept – I managed three scarves (traveling and out of knitting), one test knit (a cowl) while frogging 6 items and finishing up three shawls, a baby pod, a vest, a cardigan and a pair of socks. The UFO/WIP pile has been diminished. In fact, it all fits into one container (well, it will as soon as I put away the yarn) and add the SOA which has been hanging around since before Kuwait. I think I had forgotten about that one. I even had started finishing the Norwegian Star Vest (1999) and was doing well till I ran out of yarn. As soon as I figure out which of all of those boxes has the last skein of grey – it can be completed as well.

So – should I start something new? Or continue up the back of Chess for George?

In other events – the crew took me out for dinner last night. We tried The Sahara at 165 Hauptstrasse. The food was ok, the service was horrible. Not because the waitresses didn’t care, but simply there was no way the three waitstaff could cover the entire restaurant, outside eating area and counter when the weather was lovely and the take-away was brisk. It is back to Cedars (Hauptrasse 105) for me.

One of the things that had not occurred to me when I retired was that checking the mail was to be a pain; similar to when I was in the UK. Not exactly local, although a few miles each way is much more convenient than 65 miles each way, I have to actually plan and execute the trip.

Plan it because it makes no sense to arrive at a time that the post office is not open in case I might just have a package. Executing the mission is just one more thing to add to the day. It doesn’t happen when I am out of town. Almost all financial correspondence comes these days electronically. Periodicals arrive via the German Post. Certainly we get enough junk mail and shopping flyers to fill the paper bin each month.

So when I get asked if something has arrived I answer without ever thinking about, or mentioning the last time I even checked for mail. Nope – nothing.

Instead of – yes – I have packages!

Including this totally pathetic and abused package. Please ignore my coffee cup. There were two books and a comic from a fellow SciFi fan in Baltimore. First mailed to my deployment address in Afghanistan it was forwarded to the 62nd’s rear detachment at Joint Base Lewis-McCord since we had all left end of March. One of the sergeant’s there figured out that I wasn’t in the unit and sent it on to me here. Only took a bit over 3 months all told.

I also received a number of patterns ordered from Reconstructing History.

Most importantly, there was a package that left California 30 Aug 2011

a card and this luscious scarf tucked into a bag for save keeping.

A wonderful shade of red, this scarf is so soft and airy yet warm. It will brighten up my winter and coordinate beautifully with my grey coat. I knew it was out there in the mail only because Alison had inquired when I hadn’t said anything a month after it had been sent. So no, it wasn’t lost. It arrived at our local APO about 13 Sept, after my last visit to the post office prior to catching that Space-A flight from Ramstein.

From now on I will have to caveat everything with “please remember, I only go to the post office every 2-3 weeks and haven’t checked my box since (fill in date>.”

As I am sitting in Heathrow T5 for hours on end I am wondering at why I did this to myself.

Oh, right! $600 savings, that is why. Changing planes was cheaper than a direct flight, especially with only 7 days advanced purchase (and a return date more than 1 month in the future). Thinking about it now, I should have taken the puddle jumper to Philadelphia and then Singapore Airlines, but I didn’t.

Anyway – somehow I missed read the time I got in vs the time my flight departed. We arrived ~ 1100 after circling London a few times on the flight path merry-go-round. My outbound flight was 1645. That is almost 6 hours – and Ocean Nessie – complete with beads

was finished and I was out of knitting.

Can you believe it? The woman who always travels with 4-5 times the number of knitting projects that could ever be completed was out of yarn! I wasn’t out of reading material and after trawling through the shops it became obvious that I was not purchasing anything (sorry, but L465 for a leather iPad cover is really stretching it, even if it is by Mulberry. At least in the opinion of someone who bought a great padded leather case for her iPad on sale at less than 30$US).

I read from London to Frankfurt. Took the train from Frankfurt to Mannheim and actually managed to connect to the WiFi – letting my three at home know that I was on my way.

Exhausted, I got off the S-Bahn connection from Mannheim at the Heidelberg Westadt-Suedstadt stop to find Ms Soprano and the Gwennie waiting for me. Hiking home in the dark (now going on 36 hours of wakefulness) I was more than grateful for the company and someone else to carry the back-pack and computer bag. The Gwen behaved like a perfect lady on the leash which was good because there is no way that I could have held on should she have bolted.

Being home, in my own bed is wonderful.

Before I forget, if I hadn’t posted a completed picture of Fluffy Nessie – here she is

complete with lots of small, glittering bits hiding here and there. One skein of Patons Lace (acrylic, wool and mohair…)

Travel

In the US, travelers are now accustomed to air lines charging for just about everything from checked luggage to drinks and in-flight meals. I have heard of some of the same on some Midland’s flights in the UK. The US airlines have been charging for alcoholic beverages for years on international flights (and you get the best bargain with US$).

I have also seen a trend in charging extra for what certain seats on the aircraft; primarily those which give you extra leg room.

However, I was floored when I discovered that British Airlines wanted to charge me for making a seat reservation ahead of time. I believe the charge was $15. To make a seat reservation, especially with the caveat that the airline could change it if they needed to…. That one is just a bit beyond the pale.

Flying BA

In spite of all of that, I managed to have a comfortable flight across the Atlantic on BA. Leaving late (and arriving at the airport in time to turn in the rental car so as to not incur an additional days charge). I cast on another Nessie to keep my hands occupied. BA actually had my veggie meal (pasta) and the flight was not completely full.

OK! Donna is done after only 16 months in progress. Ok – after maybe a couple of months knitting while I was in the UK followed by more than a year of fallow time and completed with a burst of energy this week.

She was joined by this nice pair of socks

that were started ~ Dec 2010 in Afghanistan and then put on hold when barely 1/2 way down the first sock.

I would call this day highly successful. Projects completed. In fact, everything I brought along to finish up is done so I feel completely justified in rewarding myself with starting a Nessie -

Rather warm and humid today in lovely rural Virginia, we ventured out to drop by the post office (I could carry some fabric home but the mail is so much more convenient) before returning to home made ice tea with mint from the garden and some more knitting.

I am actually making progress – on knitting Donna

the second arm well started and the collar sewn and the I-cord trim complete.

We will not talk about the sewing. It is something that I had totally forgotten, or perhaps not permitted myself to remember. Falkenberg has this nasty tendency toward too many seams, weird edgings and only rare provisional cast ons. This is a sweater that would have been markedly more simple to knit had there been a provisional cast on at the front then picking up stitches and knitting the collar all of one piece after the shoulders had been sewn together.

I also found that knitting the arms in the round was much simpler than knitting back and forth with yet another edge to seam.

Other than that – we just hung out, and generally had a quiet day (this is in Toano, VA)

Not surprising, I was tired getting off the plane picking up the car and getting to Carmen’s house last evening. The car knew how to get there which was a help for me  as I have ceased to do time zone changes with any kind of equanimity what so ever.

It also explains why, again I was awake in the middle of the night, having fallen asleep on top of the couch wrapped up in my usual LLBean sleeping sack while I had waited for Carmen to get home from an evening out.

Since Carmen teaches English as a second language classes at her church on Saturdays (well, actually she runs the whole program including a luncheon [bribe] for the other teaches following the classes) I had the morning and early afternoon to traipse around looking at patterns and fabric. I didn’t find anything at G Street for which I was sincerely astonished, but did find several useful items at Hancock’s in Gaithersburg.

<h4>Nessie</h4>

There is this fun free pattern on Ravelry called Nessie. When I got bored and tired of working on the green baby pod, I decided that I could work on this.

this Nessie is knit on a 4.00 mm needle out of Monarch Sport Weight sock yarn (350 yards of which there was less than one left). Composed of both short rows and one long set of increases, it curls most delightfully

up to layer comfortably about the neck. In this light it might not be clear, but the lemon yellow, bright grass green and orange remind me strongly of sherbert.

The baby pod is also finished.

 

Thank you all for the wonderful offers but I think I will decline coming to organize and clean your houses as soon as mine is complete. First of all, I am not sure that I am going to live that long. Secondly, if I ever get this place under control I have all this knitting and sewing that is in the planning stage.

I sort of figure that if I get the center of the floor cleared out, it doesn’t matter if the edges of the studio have things stacked against the wall. Don’t get me wrong, we still have a ton of space up in the attic. But putting things in the attic means out of sight, out of mind. The same holds for the storage rooms downstairs which just might be next on my agenda.

The whole house is like those old pick up sticks – everything is all tumbled around, interlaced from room to room and pulling out one small little bit causes an incredible mess that extends beyond the local limit.

So what does any sensible woman do? She gets her Mole out of bed to load some furniture in the car. They drive to Mannheim with the GPS which accepts the street but not the house number. They park said car and spend the next 15 minutes tramping around on foot to find the location (at which point I realize that I don’t have a name). Oh, that last name on 67 is the same as half my friend Nana’s so it just has to be her sister.

Car moved, cabinet and night stand off loaded, we head back to Heidelberg to drop off Noah and have lunch at Red. And sit at Red for hours knitting and chatting. I managed to frog three socks and some small Miscellaneous things, knit on a couple of projects and give away a bag of wool and one of yarn.

Dinner guests rounded out a lovely day.

I owe everyone some photos …. which I can get off the camera as soon as I back up a few things to free up hard drive space!

Knitting

As I woke up this morning – I had missed a few things on my list

1. the shawl started on my cross Atlantic Cruise with Mole in May 2010
2. the Hoxbro Shadow Jacket started in San Francisco in July
3. and the Meg Swanson stranded project started in New York.

As September rolls around every year, I take stock and try to do some sorting out.

It is not just that I am thinking on an academic school year calendar, it is that Fall (and the High Holidays) seem more year-end to me than does New Years. Academic calendars really don’t impact on me directly – more on the off-spring. Medical personnel get on a 1 July schedule with Internships and Residencies; a fact that is reinforced by the military summer PCS cycle for docs which happens in July as soon as training is finished giving an underlap with those who departed in May/June to meet the 1 July starting date.

It is more taking the month of September and using it to clean up and catch up. Sorting out the studio, finding homes for things that I am never going to use, and frankly – not starting new knitting projects. Not buying any yarn is a good secondary goal. Or fabric – let me not forget to avoid buying more fabric. I don’t have quite enough fabric and patterns to start my own shop (unlike perhaps with yarn) but I could get close given half a chance.

I have convinced myself that a couple hours a day of cleaning and organizing followed by knitting time with audio books really doesn’t sound too unreasonable. After all, besides the studio there is the back hall, the entry way, the living room cupboards, the office and probably about 3000 books on various book shelves.

We made a start today. Ms Soprano gave me a hand this afternoon and logged about 80 books onto BookCrossing while I emptied two more good size boxes and put together another two bags of yarn looking for new homes.

The following is probably only of interest to fiber folks:

I took stock of knitting projects and am not surprised at the number of partly completed things:
1) I have a couple of things listed on Ravelry – they have been uncompleted for years and I am not sure that I really care, but would be too much a pain to rip.
2) then there is a heavily cabled sweater out of handspun that is 3/4 of the way finished. Started in 2003, I was headed down the body when I left for Kuwait. Knitting wool in 50C was not an option and knitting pretty much fell by the wayside for those 15 months.
3) between 2004-2007 – anything that was started has either been completed or frogged (Rip-it party in 2008)
4) however I now have several large projects just begging for finishing, all but one started prior to Aug 2010 when I headed for Afghanistan
a) Lastrada – a Hanne Falkenberg pattern in two pieces. The first is done, the second about 1/3. I am still at the infinitely long rows of garter stitch stage
b) Donna – another HF pattern. The body is complete, only needing the collar grafting. The first sleeve is half done and the second one is only a few rows into the pattern.
c) Swing Coat – body is 3/4 complete (only part of one front remains) and the first sleeve is done. This is an Australian designer and there are going to be a ton of ends as the garment is made of mitred diamonds. I love the colors and design, but not sure in which life time it might be completed.
d) Chess – Men’s Sweater started this spring (2011) when I got back. the Front is complete and I am 1/2 way up the back. I had lost the pattern for a while. Then found the pattern but lost the yarn. All are now in the bedroom on top of a bookcase so I have little excuse…

5) Digging through bins and baskets – three half done first socks turned up all of which will be frogged (two are plain and the third an intricate twisted stitch pattern, but I have no idea which pattern…). I have already frogged six different shawls, none of which were beyond the first 10-20 rows. No patterns with any of them – so what is the point in leaving them on needles?

Then there is the forever afghan which is 30 cm high and 500+ stitches long in feather and fan.
And the green pod for the Eldest to use in her photography.
And Nazo (a really cool vest for me for this fall).
And Aeolian Shawl (beads on stems, slows you down but looks really cool once you get the hang of a 1.00 mm crochet hook)

Time to crawl off to bed – I am tired just reading the list!

Our first stop is Ketchikan. George is off on some physically active adventure. I am feeling slightly better this morning, almost up to walking more than 50 meters without screaming.

The scenery reminds me of Norway – which might just explain why so many Scandinavians ended their immigration along the fishing banks of Washington, Alaska and British Columbia.

Since we also gained an hour, there were few people up this morning.

The buildings are wooden

One of the tourist buses

and stores offering more than just the usual

is well worth the climb to the second floor. Hundreds of bolts of cottons compete with local artists kits, designs complimented by a great, knowledgable and friendly staff (and they have an online store as well here).

I finished the morning at

which doesn’t just have a wonderful selection of crafts and beads, but also a great cafe, free WiFi (wondering how I was posting this?) and a yarn store….

Is home to a lot of high tech and intellectual people. There are start ups galore (which is why we made the trip south) and it was on the reason for heading to SF in the first place.

Unfortunately for me – Purlescense is moving this week. Makes the fourth time in the Bay area since 2007 and I still haven’t managed to get there.

After attending two meetings in the morning I had a planned detour while the DH attended a luncheon meeting.

Palo Alto is home to Alison. We were able to get together the last time I was here – but that was a long time ago meaning it was before I deployed putting it somewhere in the 2010 early time frame. She was kind enough to let me drop into her home which meant we had a lovely few hours just sitting and knitting (except for a detour into a wonderful goat cheese with blueberries that melted in the mouth).

With regret I had to leave to make a 1600 meeting. It was one in which I have a lot of interest and I can’t wait till this fall when the App gets released so that I can play a lot and recommend it to everyone (this is in the Medical education and communication arena – not knitting but still).

Ending the evening with a great dinner at PJ Changs (they have vegetarian and vegan solutions, they have a gluten free menus and most importantly great, educated service), we rolled back to Berkeley well after dark. And well too late to knit in the car.

If you are not aware, there is a Lace Store and Museum in Berkeley.

I have seen the adds and notes on Lacis for years, but it had never struck through to me that it was accessible. When Ruth

agreed to head into the area (trains are actually possible)

After finding out that Article Pract opens at 1100 (finally found a nice cafe and coffe/tea with a couch for knitting) we cruised through there before arriving at Lacis not long after it opened.

Besides having an extensive historical (and recreation) pattern section, they also have threads, hundreds of books and vintage lace, shoes and clothing. Not only the customer service is terrific, but we got a personal tour of the current exhibit on historical underthings.

(which means you now get pictures!)

You need to visit if you are in the area. If not now, then Sept-Feb when they are having an Estonian Lace exhibit.

At the end of the day – I went back to the courtyard where we had lunch and waited for the DH who was kind enough to take me to K2tog where I found a wonderful yarn shop with extensive yarns (and very little overlap with Article Pract) where I finally found some lovely red…..

If you are a knitter that is – (and I wasn’t hauling the camera)

there is Article Prac which is on Telegraph in Oakland. Fabulous collection of yarns – mostly higher end with extensive choices in lace and fingering yarns. The help is cheerful and knowledgeable.

There is Stone Mountain Fabrics on Shattuck in Berkeley. They started discontinuing their yarn section in May and it is pretty well cleaned out although they still have a few hundred knitting titles on the shelf waiting to go home with someone for 1/2 price. But that is not why I stopped here – they have all the major indie designer patterns and an incredible selection of fabrics. (I bought patterns – fabrics are a bit heavier than I want to carry).

And then there is K2tog on Solano in Albany(you should have heard my DH trying to pronounce the store name. Unfortunately, it was closed, so am going to have to attempt this one on another day.

and I don’t remember whether or not I posted this -

which I finished up on the weekend.

Just so you know that knitting has not fallen completely off the radar – I finished Polo (the original out of the HF kit before I started all the variations).

Knit on 4mm needles in the round with the purl ridges doubled shetland. Next time I do one of these, I will not follow the directions exactly so that both ends will match.

and started – yes – I admit it – another Volan – this time in basic black and some incredibly cheerful Cherry Tree Hill.

Have I mentioned how I absolutely detest driving through tunnels? There I sit in the passenger’s seat – two 3.00 mm needles, each with knitted ruffle of slippery yarn valiantly trying to escape as I attempt to join the two into one when darkness abruptly falls and the stitches sing in joy as they fly off the needle.

That is an incredibly long tunnel thought which the 81 leaving Stuttgart bores through a rather significant mountain. I experienced somewhat similar joy earlier Sun morning when staying left meant a trip through one of the hills surrounding Stuttgart on our way to picking up Ms Maus and cousin.

For whatever reason, the driver was anxious to get home. After delaying him as much as I could, we stopped to get the girls. It was early and of course they were not ready having gotten home so late that it was morning from graduation celebrations. Traffic was horrendous on the way home with getting stuck in Staus here and there till we were almost home.

Did I mention the tunnel? Of course I did. Still managed to get one scarf finished and a second one started.

Still, these are nothing like the tunnels of Switzerland or Austria through the Alps where you swear you have become a gnome never to see the light of day again as kilometer after kilometer passes. I have managed a few of those, preferably asleep so that I can not feel tons of mountain over my head.

Being on a ship, inside, under the water line doesn’t bother me – there are clearly marked escape routes which might/might not work but you are never more than 150 meters in worst case from the open air. A tunnel? Forever from the open air and kilometers of stairs facing you. That is, of course, if the stairs were actually available for it seems to me that whatever would take out the tunnel should effectively trash the escape routes.

Does that explain why I never have taken the Chunnel?

There is a noisy bunch of old dudes – excuse me – mature men having a good time on our terrace. George celebrates his birthday every year by inviting the members of his Stammtisch (read Thursday night men’s discussion group) over to grill.

They start with snacks, wine and beer. They progress to salads, more snacks, vegetables and things from the grill (steaks, burgers) with more wine and beer. At 2200 the sun has finally dropped below the horizon and the group is more jovial with passing time and years.

Since he started this tradition (Maus and I think this celebration dates from the summer after we bought this house which would put it around 2002). It is a good way to celebrate. For whatever lucky reason, the weather is nicer and warmer this evening than it was this afternoon when rain with cold and grey threatened to spoil a good time.

We had an alternate plan and the living room was set up for either the initial party or whenever they chose to move inside.

Sewing

Paired with the top she is planning on wearing – the skirt is done except for

is the hemming!

Knitting

and the MTV Group which means every couple of weeks on Thursday morning has a couple of members knitting these -

If I claimed to be a loving wife would you believe me? George turns 63 today so here I am with him in Switzerland so that he will not be alone on his birthday. Alone – with a day in the office just chocked full of people who know that today is his birthday. (birthday greetings if you want to gr AT aeris-capital DOT com . Since he is a Crackberry addict, that ought to make his day a bit more challenging, especially given the time zones).

Rather than hang out there today, I stayed in the apartment with great wifi access, a basket or two full of handwork projects and a camera loaded with the rest of the Mallorca pictures. Of course, that is about all there is here. The guys rented this place at least three, and I think really four years ago. Kitchen area which has the normal cupboards, a few dishes, fridge, microwave and coffee pot. The common area has a rectangular table with four chairs serving as both eating and work space. Additionally there is this squared edge orange couch of the IKEA variety and a small table with flat screen TV. In keeping with the low cost method of living – it is about an 18″ diagonal augmented with two old PC speakers.

Otherwise there are two bedrooms, each with a bed and a lamp. There is nothing on the walls. There are wires dangling from the ceiling because they would have to buy light fixtures if they wanted overhead lights. The closets are bare. The bathroom sports a small cabinet – each of them having a shelf.

My plan for the day is progressing nicely. I have managed finally to get the pictures for 2-3 July posted, have done the finish work on three scarves,

and the hand sewing on two jackets

with another scarf in progress

and the waistband of a Maus skirt to go, but I am going to take a break since we are headed out to dinner tonight!

Finally got around to taking pictures of a couple of knit projects – the first is a Hanne Falkenberg pattern which is obviously not knit with her yarn. Rather – I grabbed a skein of wool/bamboo blend sock yarn and paired it with a skein of lilac bamboo of a slightly heavier weight that I purchased at Downtown Yarns in NYC. It is about 120 stitches around with 10 rows of stockinette in the sock yarn followed by four rows of the bamboo in reverse stockinette. All of which were knit till one of the yarns ran out. Beginning and end are the bamboo. Having no particular love for purling – I flipped the cowl and knit it inside out for the reverse stockinette areas

Volan is the second project.

Knit from two skeins of sock yarn – again bamboo blend it has small paired ruffles on the upper edge, a steadily increasing body, then ends with two larger ruffles. After messing around, I found that one solid paired with a multi-color yarn gives the best contrast. Add in a couple of extremely long 3.00 mm needles and I was all set. Other than a couple of rows where I am either knitting together the first set of ruffles or the row which splits the body into the bottom ruffles, this makes for great mindless knitting.

Other than that – the weather was wonderful – there were only three of us at Red this afternoon for the Heidelberg knit get together. None the less, it was a lovely time. I am not going to be able to make it again till August. At least one of the other women is also a Book Crosser. We were lamenting the demise of the Heidelberg Treffs. It occurs to me that it would not be a bad idea to bring along a bunch of books the next time…. just in case there are any takers.

We had friends over for supper. Being able to eat out on the terrace was great, so was talking to another adult (while the guys just had to watch soccer championships).

The theory of my making some particular clothes for the Maus is that she puts in some time and assistance. To a large extent, this has happened. When she vanished partway through the day, I went to find her. All this clipping, pinning, snipping and ironing apparently has taken more out of her than planned.

Knitting

Just to show of totally and complete pictures of the City Sweater ….

A Vivan Hoxbro pattern that came in a kit – I substituted the red for the two shades of yellow/gold that were supposed to be the contrast trim. Knit in Harrisville Shetland on 3.00 mm needles in a very dark charcoal and natural, the Shadow knitting make the pattern. Not exactly garter stitch but close, there is a lot of back and forth – more knit rows than purls and, since each section is worked from the outside in, one has the pleasure of each row getting shorter and faster.

Books and Audio Books

I have been doing well in various Bookcrossing Virtual Book Boxes having been able to send off several books to people who are interested and picking up a few more that I would like to read. That takes care of the Dead Tree side of things. Unfortunately, Audible has another sale, so my “to be heard” queue is actually longer than my TBR pile is high. Go figure.

As the various personnel from George’s office arrive and check in, I am astonished by how many are seeking me out to say hello and to express how glad they are that I have returned safely from Afghanistan.

The kids are completely amused by me. Of course Papa has talked about you at the office. Of course everyone knows where you have been and what you are doing. Huh? It would never have occurred to me to discuss much of my family, their occupations and doings with colleagues on a deployment. Perhaps it was because I was an augmentee to the unit or perhaps it is because I am senior. As such, if I want to talk, it forces other to listen whether or not they have any interest in the subject. In trying to not inflict myself and my interests on others when it is not relevant to the task at hand it seems that I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the family. There is also the compartmentalising factor: when away for a long time it is easier to assume that everyone is fine than spend a lot of time fretting or talking about them. I concentrate on the “now” and leave to those who can effect short term family issues.

The official program started today with a couple of optional activities:
1) Golf. Forget that noise – absolutely the best way to ruin a perfectly good walk.
2) Marineland. So there I was – one of eight adults in a group outnumbered by those under 120 cm. In fact, I was the only adult in the group not accompanied by small fry. We got to see the dolphin show, the parrot show, walk through a small aquarium, observe some shore birds, seals and reptiles. I am not sure why the monkeys – but they certainly were cute.

Knitting

Four projects have occupied me since I headed out on vacation.

1) The City Sweater. When I packed it the only portions remaining to be completed were the one side section, the collar and the sewing. I can report that it was all finished on the final sea day.

2) The Downtown scarf. Named because it is a take off on a scarf I saw in Downtown Yarns I took slightly less than 100gm of a self-striping long repeat sock yarn and came up with this lovely, flirtatious scarf. I will post directions as soon as I can get Maus to hold still for proper photos.

3) Volane – English instructions for a fun ruffled scarf by a Finnish Designer. Not a planned project, but it just seemed like the thing to do with the yarn I had on hand. Of course if I had read through the instructions to the amount needed I would not have started. I did some adjusting as I went, but still ran out before completely the second bottom ruffle. Since the white with pink and grey is pretty specific, I am going to have to go on a yarn hunt for another ball…..

4) Chess. Casting on just before I left – I am just a couple rows short of the neck in the front and started the back since it was easier to take along on the Marineland jaunt.

Now – on to the partly fancy dinner tonight!

Has been a long time since I have done one of these. Photos on Friday that is. Traditionally I did doors and arches.

There is also Sewing

You do remember Ms Pink – right? Ok, she is currently being referred to as Maus; but she fell in love with this fabric (mild stretch denim) which only has the hem and yoke facing to hand sew.

and Knitting

Bought a couple of kits from someone who was destashing. This one is called Chess – and is in Colorway #1. It has been a long time since I knit anything for the DH. It should be safe as long as I sew a big dry clean only tag in the neck.

and finally puzzles

was finished and

was started.

I like being retired!

It is a German, EU holiday and probably a bank holiday in the UK. It can’t be Whitsun – because that falls on Sunday (well, duh). But for those who are familiar with many US federal holiday habits, it would be a shame not to give people a Monday off. Especially since this is June and everyone needs a Monday off in June, right?

What it really means is that I have a household full of people with no where to go and not wanting to do anything. We have a dead bed which the Mole is dismantling for me. I have plenty of things to sort out in the “office,”the studio,” and let us just leave it with my bedroom organization has not survived several trips by both of us. It needs a few hours of sorting and putting away.

I think the key may still be the storeroom downstairs, but I am not sure that I am that brave.

Knitting

Meanwhile – it it project completion day. Three knitting projects – two versions of Solo (Hanne Falkenberg) and Leaf Lace (Evelyn Clark) not that most of you cared.

If you don’t get it – just skip this post. The photos are from both today and Monday.

You see, on Monday I cruised a few (well, more than four) yarns stores as well as some locations that carried trims, buttons and the like. Today I was meeting The Yarnarian at Penn Station and we were going to look for trims (she has become a bit distracted from PennyRose Yarns in favor of sewing doll clothes). I was going to be the person in jeans wearing wire rim glasses knitting outside the station entrance  and she was going to be the tiny person lost in the crowd. Given that we agreed to meet at a location which, as it turns out, does not exist, I am still amazed that we found each other. Perhaps it was the combination of the knitting and grey hair?

Anyway – we spent the rest of the morning (and perhaps more than intended) in the Japanese book store looking at book after book of wonderfully illustrated knitting, crocheting, and patchwork ideas. Illustrations are excellent for all of us who do not read Japanese. After lunch at an Indian Buffet, we then cruised for trims and never got the yarn stores at all.

I am hoping Ruth managed to get home safe and dry – the temperature started to drop on the hike back to the hotel. I had not been back all that long before the skies opened up, allowing me to watch a steady stream of soaked pedestrians scrambling to get somewhere in a hurry.

Monday’s Knit Stores

Ok, color me amazed that a store can be several floors up in a secured building (1201 Broadway) and have any business at all. Quiet – this particular store carries high end and a wonderful selection of luxury yarns. School Products Yarns claims to be the oldest yarn store (60 years) in the city.

Located in the same building – Habu is what you buy if you want serious quality in yarn made of strange things – wire, paper, steel, linen wrapped with ….. you get the idea. Not for the faint of heart, but wonderful quality on cones.

Is located at 14 East 34th, take the elevator to the 5th floor. Warm, friendly, it is also tiny with limited stock which is balanced by the customer service.

You know all those fisherman’s knit sweaters that called for Lion Brand Yarn. Or afghan patterns or whatever? Lion Brand has a store (not an outlet). Their staff is young, friendly and not a one of them was wearing anything knitted or crocheted. It is the only time I have seen the full color range of several of their yarns as well as being able to touch all the choices on the luxury yarn table.  I bought a project bag made from Hedgehog fabric. What can I say?

is located, as you might guess, in SoHo (South of Houston for all of us who are not that familiar with the city). Easy to locate, bright and cheerful – there was a great selection of lace and fingering weight yarns as well as Malbrigo and Cascade for solid quality worsted weight yarns. As you might be able to see, they carry supplies as well for embroidery and quilting in a narrow, but brightly lit shop.

Doesn’t have much on the Web – but it does feature great yarns and Frankie. It turned out to be my favorite store. Not just because it was within five blocks of our hotel, but the staff is international, knowledgeable, sociable continually helping their customers who freely wander in and out. It is a place with obvious regulars who are greeted by name. They stock good quality useful yarns (Brown Sheep, Cascade), needles, books, patterns and a lot of patience.

I purchased the yarn here for the Cheryl Oberle Vest that I have been contemplating for a while.

All together – this week has been a lot of fun.

 

Brand new and Huge. LH400 from Frankfurt to New York’s JFK was via Airbus A380-800.

You know a plane is large when there are four (4) different boarding ramps. When row numbers run up to 94. When frankly the departure gates are separate for the business/first class sections and the rest of us mere mortals. Downstairs, below stairs, dungeon we are while rows 1-9 are First Class and 10-18 hold all those self important business passengers. Did I mention that they are upstairs? Penthouse view while we should be glad to have new seats, windows, decent over head bins and individual seat back displays.

The seating is 3-4-3 for most of coach. Lucky me with an isle seat in row 70 which turns out to be the last group to board the plane. Even better wis when you get to polite but insistent oversize people in the other two of your group of three who want to swap your precious isle seat for a window location. Now normally I prefer sitting next to the window. But my bag with camera was already stowed for the flight and there was not way that I was taking a chance on not being able to get out of my seat for the entire flight.

In an amazing turn of luck, the flight was not completely full. Just across the isle and up a row (69G) there was an empty seat which I nabbed just the moment the flight crew shut the doors giving me elbow room which translates to knitting room.

The flight was smooth, the food was barely warm (they are going to have an issue if they don’t properly heat up the food), and the peons had to wait at JFK while the entire upper class departed the plane through the single gangway.

I managed to find the bus to Central Station and a train in the direction of Scarsdale. Of course, it might have helped if I had managed to take along the directions so that I got off at the correct stop or had an easy time with the cell phone. In any case, I wound up at the right location with some small bit of insanity in time to snack, knit, read and crash for the evening after taking a short walk in a lovely neighbourhood.

Knitting

Started Polo II – a sock yarn version of a Hanne Falkenberg Cowl. The multicolor is African Grey (parrot) from Cherry Tree Hill Yarns and the grey is a sport weight from Louet.

Konkylie is a knitted collar/scarf – also a HF which I am knitting out of some sale coned yarn (with double strands as directed on 5.00 mm needles

Audio Books

Beach Lane – Sherryl Woods
Trick of the Light – Rob Thurman

A long plane flight is a great way to go through more t

from Scarsdale, NY

not a very exciting or witty set of headlines, but I am quietly working my way down the list. I am starting to strongly suspect that the only person in MDW who might be able to do something about my orders is on leave this week. (and not much the local crew can do without the other set of orders being rescinded. Will have to ask if this can be done after the fact.) Meanwhile, I am attempting to deal with all the rest of the paperwork.

Tomorrow I have to haul in a whole laundry list of items in order to sit down and get my DD214 (the magic form that gives all the information on service and separation) drafted. Then turning in Dental Records and meeting with finance.

Sounds exciting? Not.

So to cheer myself up – I tackled this mess -

You see – things were not all that organized before I headed for Afghanistan. The ladder was not sitting there – I brought it in today so that I could put sweaters in the upper cupboards. But all those shiny plastic bag looking things are vacuum bags from the move back from the UK. We will not talk about my partner in mess – his excuses are his own.

As I waded through things – I hit that point where things feel like they are worse than when I started.

After all – the easy stuff – sweaters, jeans folded into the closet. Shoes rounded up and more books identified for Bookcrossing. But there is all those “too good to throw out but I have no clue where to put them things.”  The good thing is that I can finally get to my suitcase that has been sort of serving as storage since I returned from OZ….

I still have a pile of papers and books to sort out. Now all I have to do is finish packing my suitcase for the upcoming trip to the States. And keep looking at George till maybe he does his half?

Knitting

and it knit/purl combination really does provide contrasting colors!

I told you the other day that I started the City Jacket by Hoxbro. I bought her book, at least I thought I had, a number of years ago. Come to think about it, perhaps I haven’t found it in my book stack because I purchased it in German or Danish?

Anyway – I have this tendency to buy all sorts of knitting books first and look at the second. It might be the effect of being overseas, or just that I am a book junkie. But a fiber related book comes in the house and it never ever leaves.

(Well – ok, I should really do something about the duplicates. Where was I now?)

Oh, yes, shadow knitting.

At the time I bought the book, I thought it was interesting and put it aside. A few years later I took up knitting Hanne Falkenberg designs and fell in love with interesting constructions, 3.00 mm needles and a high tolerance with garter stitch forever.

In Jan 2009 I found a Vivian Hoxbro kit on sale in Berkeley at a lovely little yarn store. The price was great. Unfortunately, it was modular knit – and the vine leaves have languished, having the possibility of have more ends to weave in than any sane person would ever tackle. It was on sale, the proice was great but even I have to admit the colors were ugly.

Now – on to the City Jacket which is knit in rather large squares with a four row repeat.

What is really amazing (this is the right sleeve square?) is that I can actually see that the combination of color change and knit/purl does make the darker color show up on what will eventually be the front neck line and the lighter in back.

See?

I think this may just make excellent plane and ship knitting. Especially since I made a spreadsheet to avoid mistakes!

This is a reduced email distribution. Obviously, while most of us find knitting, spinning and other fiber stuff absolutely fascinating it seems to bore a few others out of their trees. Since it might be a long way down for most of them, I am trying to avoid injury in those fleeing what should obviously be something quite interesting.

Knitting.

I have a number of projects underway.

There is the baby pod for the Eldest to use in her photography.

There is Donna (this Hanne Falkenberg) which I had put on hold pending the arrival of more yarn. There is a slight problem with most of her newer kits. She packages in the yarn, but doesn’t give the length or weight of any of the colors. (Makes it harder to substitute). Since I just about always substitute as her color tastes and mine don’t match it is hard to tell how much I might need. With Donna, I liked the basic Chambray Blue, but the cream left me flat. After much thought, I decided to substitute a lovely midnight blue which I had on hand, left over from another HF. This sweater was started in the UK, then went on hold for the deployment.

Imagine my disgust when, with the body knit, I realized halfway down the first sleeve that I was not going to have enough of the dark blue to finish. I tucked it all back in the bag to await the arrival from Webs of more yarn. Arriving today, I will change yarns here on the sleeves, use the old yarn for the upper portion of the second sleeve then then new yarn for the lower portion. The dye lots are extremely close, but still – I want the both sides to match in color.

(process knitter? project knitter? Don’t have a clue knitter?)

Then there is the City Jacket by Vivan Hoxbro which I purchased on sale. The charcoal and pearl are fine. The harvest/fall foliage are not – so once again it is off to substitution city.

This sweater is constructed out of a number of rather large shadow knit squares. Unlike a lot of mitred projects, it does have sewing which is balanced by almost no ends to sew in. I tried a red I had on hand but it was extremely difficult to knit with.

After getting about ten rows past the border, I realized that my stitch count was way off. Frogged the thing, skeined and washed the red (add vinegar – red all over my hands and potentially the pearl color would not bee good). The yarn has now bloomed enough that my gauge ought to be fine and I do like the color!

If I am really ambitious, I will ignore my head which is responding to all the retirement processing stress and even go and update Ravelry.

Last night, after spending the afternoon alternating between emptying out boxes (eight of them) and doing laundry (five loads) I sat down at the computer to take a break. The DH was watching fussball (soccer for you US types). It is obvious that watching soccer is considered a man’s activity. The TV ads (batched into the breaks between periods) are completely different than what one normally sees.

Featured prominently are DIY building supplies, Media Markt (huge chain of electronic stores) and car supplies. The second round featured electronic games, a different hardware store and electronic shutter systems for the home. Other than that – can’t say that the games were all that thrilling.

Being the non-interested in TV sports person that I am – I put a bit of time into some knitting, computer and TV series watching (Bones Season 6).

This morning – I got back at the cleaning and organizing – and here you see progress!

 

I also managed to log in, then drop off another 15-20 books to BookCrossing before adding them to the swap shelves at the PHV Library. (I have take to using more or less safe places to drop off books since I have seen all too many books otherwise land in the trash due to train/bus/airport security &/or cleaning people).

Knitting

And progress – Baby Pod #3 in booberry. My plan is to have this and a hat finished in the next couple of days provided my wrists hold up!

and, my apologies to every one – the hats of which I was speaking are by Ann Norling – her pattern #10 which covers the range from 6 months – 2 years in the yarn specified which means you can expand the size range by changing the gauge and adjusting the stitch count as long as you stay with multiples of eight.

Actually, according to Bernat – this will be a cocoon. I think it is going to turn a small person into a pod critter. I finished up the yellow this morning and cranked through the leaves, then started on pink. Being the usual evil mom, I have decided that the Eldest can do her own sewing together (he he he – the part I hate the most)

Now, the only problem is that I don’t have a clue as to where I can find a yarn needle. Somewhere out in that disaster of a studio I suppose. The prospect is daunting enough that I just may go buy some more…..

 

Have I mentioned that the Eldest makes her living as a professional photographer? This obviously means babies, babies and more babies.

I have been promising her practically forever that I would make some of those cute fruit caps (Fiber Trends) from one of the older patterns with multiple sizes and choices. Then we found this pattern at Bernat – for a baby pod. (if you can’t see it – go to Bernat and search for Baby-Strawberry Cocoon.

Unfortunately for me (and my hands) the base stitch is trinity stitch which falls into my boring, painful and slow categories meaning I would much rather be knitting garter stitch any day.

Fortunately, I can do basic arithmetic. Substituting yarn and recalculating the gauge has spared me a few stitches and a lot of rows. This is one time that Red Heart meets the need. I am making three of them – a yellow followed by one in pink and one in blue. They are going to have to be laundered after each time they are used to make sure that there is no chance of transferring any kind of infection between infants/babies.

I managed to start and get through the first half today.