ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Again, there was no one in the breakfast room with me at 0400 in the morning. I am on the second sock madness sock. Going down a needle size, it is an improvement. Thinking about reknitting the first, but later, much later ….

(still on the DHs computer – there are a bjiillion symbols on the 88 or less keys making typing really, really frustrating. Need an accent, umläut? Not a problem, but try finding the parens, delete or return key. Aargh. you will get pix later).

After the Bat Mitzvah, we headed downtown Minneapolis to a different hotel for our last night.

The crew was hungry again. Together with my long lost step-brother & wife, we headed into the maze of the Skyway system to find lunch. Ms Copper and the Mole were willing to sit still long enough for me to take pictures (new camera lens….)

as well as Jan was a good sport

Taking up a seating area in a café, I finished up the sock (you know which sock) while we visited.

All of a sudden four hours had passed and the place was closing. I could not completely avoid being in at least one picture.

The kids had disappeared a while back in search of manicures, hair cuts and other primping for an evening dinner at the Minneapolis Club.

Why is it freaking cold in April? It is not supposed to be below freezing. Now imagine a large, elegant drafty restored old mansion. Right, tights, dress and jacket. Still cold.

I took along the camera, but wound up not taking any pix at all.

later, I am wiped.

A day spent at the Mall of America.

(all pictures were added once home and on my own computer. (my DH has this really weird keyboard that is driving me nuts. It has no touch pad; instead one of those little red rubber things in the middle of the keyboard making navigating on the page totally insane)

But first – last evening. Arriving at the hotel, I checked us all in and was left with the problem of how to find my planned entertainment. Knitters are generous, one had offered to give me a ride to O’Shaunessy auditorium. She was felled by what ever is going around along with her entire family.

I managed to get to Summit Ave in St Paul, a nice Gold Star cab with GPS solved the problem.

The Harlot was worth the trip.

Even better there are Cathy-Cate and Deb . The first managed, in spite of the weather to make the trip from Eau Claire, bringing along lace weight Nit Picks so that I could do this round of Sock Madness. Kilos of yarn I have in the stash and nothing that is even remotely lace weight. Deb, saving me a seat and making me feel a part of her whole circle of knitting friends. And then there is the wonderful Stella (I don’t have either her Ravelry name or Url) who gave me, a total stranger, a ride back to the hotel on this windy snowing, sleeting really weather ugly night.

None of us stayed for the book signing, there was just a little bit of a line with weather getting worse by the moment.

Which leads me to this morning – or the whole day actually. Mall of America. Building this huge, insane maze of a place and the shoppers come. Completely indoors (this is Minnesota, it is freaking cold. April and it is snowing – go figure) it sports over 450 constantly changing stores and amusement park rides. Enough eateries that anyone should be able to find food along with screaming kids.

We did the family meet up regularly. I bagged the place about 1800. IHOP was the hands down favorite since it was right next to the hotel.

Crashing was next on my list, since I had been up since rather early. Like well before 0500 early. You see, I had this pattern, and lovely, lace weight (ack) yarn for Sock Madness – round three.

Winding yarn (400 yds of one and only half the skein of the other).

by 0930 I was here -

and finished the first sock today; the second half of the sock taking all afternoon due to the shopping interuptions. It is a fast pattern and I probably could have finished this one up and gotten at least of the second sock done if I could have just knit…. (But really, this is only a sock knitting contest. And it was Mall of America and the kids were interested in shopping).

Which reminds me – you know serendipity? It is when you go into the Ritz Camera Store on level three to replace the lens cover you lost yesterday and get waited on by a pleasant young man in his early 30s. I looked at his first name on his tag and the neurons fired. I don’t think I had seen him since his Bar Mitzvah, his parents and I knowing each other since we were all students at the U of MN. In fact, this particular young man was borrowed at age not 4 to be the ring bearer in our wedding…

Arches

{Imaging the picture – till it was uploaded}.

Marquette Hotel – Hallway 13

-Holly

As it turns out, the boiler problem the other day was just a hiccup.

Some time last night it died completely. Since I was shown how to reset it, I managed that about five times over the evening. It only managed to stay on if set to almost max. This morning, the switches were on, and all the little indicator lights were dead. Resetting the power didn’t help, nor did turning it on and off a couple of times.

The water that had leaked in must have just taken a few days to short it out completely.

Since it was 9 degrees C at 0900, I don’t think that I am going to freeze to death. Now the pertinent question – how many days is it going to take Modern Housing [non]Solutions to deal with it?

(more than just today it seems).

Since the computer system at AMD is also on the fritz (on the list for replacement in the next few months, so no one is willing to invest anything in support), there are frazzled people all over the place. Never thought I would hear so many people complaining about not getting their email.

Sock Madness

The sock is named Reversai. I finished the first and second sock. My hands did not feel happy, mostly due to the yarn.

On the feet, admiring them no less as I was throughly sick of them by the time I had finished.

And the official photo I posted to prove that I had knit two socks (should be obvious that I didn’t cut and paste to get two socks in the photo.

But the key to it all is

which includes three reversals (or Reversai – cubed). From checking the numbers on the web, looks like I was the 9th or so to be finished over all. My division seems to be off to a slow start. There are two of us done (one of the other divisions is at  6).

I like the heels -

which look fine from both the outside and the inside. It is all really techie stuff.

back to DSs vest and Bone Harvest by Mary Logue.

-Holly

As apposed to reorganisational madness.

This morning I joined several others from AMD on a short trip over to Keogh Barracks to hear the out-come of various top level structure studies.

One might want to be nice and say that these were all driven from love, good humor and the wish to do the right thing. In reality, Whitehall is going from its present three buildings down to one. In the process, there are about 1700 people who will no longer have desks. Some of the jobs will just go away as several HQ combine and others will get relocated. The medical portion will go from 126 -> 20. Yes, that is a rather significant decrease.

In the case of Medical – it is to some place in the Midlands near Birmingham. There will be a Joint Medical Command (which is replacing three other organizations) holding responsibility for secondary care, education, training and a lot of plans and policy.

I have lots of details, I don’t really think that you want my five pages of notes.

In the afternoon, the AMD chief of staff gave a briefing on the Army reorganization and the medical reorganization. Of course, these processes have been done relatively independantly of the above mentioned studies.

On the Army side, it means that numerous HQ, AMD included will all become part of Land Component Command. New location, but not before 2010 will be Andover.

Now, I have nothing against Andover. It is just out in the middle of the Salisbury Plain and near nothing. And if I can avoid a 40 minute commute at these petrol prices, I will be pleased. One of the main issues about Andover is that there is no where near enough housing for all the people that will be moved out there.

As you would expect, this is a case of more to follow.

There was sunshine today.

After getting back to the house, I decided that it was warmer outside that in. Which leads me to

Sock Madness

Essentially this is a world wide sock knitting contest. At the beginning, everyone is divided up into four divisions and you compete within your own division. The rules are simple: you have to knit the pattern exactly as written (you can go larger but not smaller). Post at least one progress picture and a final picture of the socks on adult feet on the Flickr group page and email the information to the score keepers.

Pattern is distributed at a random time to everyone at once by email. That starts the clock which keeps running till enough people have qualified. Half the participants are eliminated in each round. This round will take the numbers from 160 down to 80.

There is obviously an issue with time zones. Depending on when the pattern is issued, some places have a definite time advantage. Staying up all night to knit is stupid in the early rounds, but there are those who are doing exactly that.

there is a garter stitch heel

garter on the sole

and I managed to finish the first sock. This particular yarn sucks – to put it bluntly. I wanted the colour changes, but my hands are suffering for it. Plus it is taking forever (like three hours to knit a sock top not including the heel). Something about 72 stitches around as well (rather than my normal 56-60).

Rather than keep going, since I am a working person, I am going to do the sensible thing and go to sleep.

-Holly

in here. I know there is supposed to be heat, It was even in the contract that I signed. Modern Housing Solutions…Ha!

I have done all the basic checks, in between climbing back into bed under the covers. The thermostat is set. The programing box is set for system on (as apposed to twice a day where it normally is). The gas stove works. The registers in the used rooms are turned on.

But all the registers are stone cold. Chill your hand if you are silly enough to leave it connected for very long.

I will call the [un]fun service people in the morning. There is no point in bothering them tonight. It is not an emergency; I have no small children or ill persons in the house. If we get really miserable, we can do to the living room, wrap up in afghans and turn on the electric fire place.

The DS and I drank warm beverages and knit.

That is correct. He decided that he needed a scarf (and something to do with his hands while he was watching a James Bond movie. Being 17, he chose your basic black (colour 70), a skein of Sheep Shop Yarn Company – Sheep #3.

He wandered back over to his computer to knit

Socks

My final pair for the 52 pr plunge is complete!
Please meet WildCherry Chain Link knit from Cherry Tree Hill’s Wild Cherry wonderful sock yarn on 2,25 mm Susan Bate Needles (the old steel kind).

Vest

I took the young man to dinner at the Mess last night. It was Thai night. Needless to say, he had not brought particularly appropriate clothes. Living in jeans, sweats and t-shirts like others of his age, he hardly owns a shirt, much less brought one with. We solves the shirt problem at Marks & Spencers. Nothing like a sale. But the vest/sweater/jacket issue was a bit more challenging.

He allowed that it would be nice to have a simple vest for such occasions. Could I knit him one?

Colour me thrilled! We went through the yarn on hand. He chose Shakespeare from Artful Yarns in color #09. Purchased from Webs when it first went on discount, I am knitting it at a denser gauge – than recommend on the ball band (4/1″ on US 9-10). It feels like it will be warm but light weight. Think of it as an inexpensive Lopi alternative.

The patten is English Slipover from Folk Vests by Cheryl Oberle.

Audio Books

Have you found Podiobooks? They do podcast novels in serialization. There are no fees, but contributions are requested of which 75% goes to the authors. Besides some real stinkers – there are some really great books including a pair by Mercedes Lackey & Steve Libby. You can set the broadcast schedule to suit your needs.

heading back under the covers

-Holly

Taking the small roads home from RAF Croughten, we drove along the A321 through this lovely little town on the Thames ( Being the left-sided driver on the British side of the road – I turned the camera over to my son when we found a stopping point ).

I think it must have been Henley-on-Thames.

In any case, there was this lovely house, just facing the river …..

with its combination of field stone (ever gone rock picking? seems like fields always have stones and haven’t yet seen a mechanical method that really does a good job of getting rid of all those rotter chewing rocks).

Socks

Couple of wonderful verses to add to the Charge of the Sock Brigade. I’m going to give it a couple of days – then see how many gifts of sock yarn I can make. It is not like my house has a lack of yarn…..

Meanwhile – all but the final cm on that second sock toe!

Other Updates

The dragonboats head is taking shape

Those skull armlettes for one of my daughters? The ones that have been languishing in the basket? Since I haven’t printed out the bead pattern and needed a take-a-long project, I started the second one. Not really great progress, but I think this puts them back in the WIP category.

Of course, this may turn out to be the all time dumb idea. As I sit here thinking, it occurs to me that
1) the stripes will be reversed.
2) what happens when I get to the beaded portion? If I cut the yarn and restart from the same end as the first, then the stripes won’t even match on the same arm.
3) If I don’t do that – then I have to pull beads for meters and meters and meters of yarn…..

Glad I didn’t get any farther on these!

-Holly

with apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson (to read the original poem ). In case you need the reference – the charge of the British Light Infantry occurred in 25 Oct 1854, Balaclava, Ukraine in the Crimean War. Other references include this one, this one and this one.

Charge of the Sock Brigade

Half a sock

, half a sock

Half a sock onward

Into the Valley of Panic

knit the one hundred.

‘Knit, 52pr Plungers!
Go for the line!’
Into the valley of Panic
Knit the one hundred.

‘Forward, on 52 Plungers!’
Was there a knitter dismayed?

Over committed they knew
They had blundered:
Theirs not to make whine,
With hands full of pain,
Theirs but to try, and cry,
Into the valley of Panic
Knit the one hundred.

Yarn to the right of them,
Needles to the left of them
Patterns in front of them,
Cables and Laced.
Overwhelmed with choices and blogs
Boldly they knit well
Into the Jaws of April
Into the mouth of Hell,
Knit the one hundred.

Back to my final sock….

-Holly

(and since I didn’t do anything neat for my blogversry 11 March – help finish the poem. Best contribution for each of the remaining verses will get sock yarn).

The three seasons again today. We had crisp and cold, we had snow and sleet which morphed into rain. Sun managed to break through only a couple of times. The DS came in by train. He negotiated the train station crossing in Paris with little difficulty. Some how, I don’t think any of us really thought about it. Taking the Chunnel is like taking a plane. Security, immigration added to the hassles of Paris.

Knitting

At those times when you live by yourself, taking photos of a sweater on gets to be a challenge. Seems like you are limited to you, your camera and a mirror. Or you, your camera and a tripod if you have a lot of time.

In the first case, you need a sunny day. May I remind you that I am in the UK where sun seems to be at a premium right about now? In the second, a lot of time and patience to get the proper angle.

I finished up the vest except for the button loops. I am not doing them until I find the right buttons. And frankly, it may be finding a Fimo/Sculpy addict to make me the right buttons.
vspace=”4″ hspace=”4″

While I was at it, I took pictures of the Red Kimono Vest from Rowan.

Socks

This is my last pair for the 52-Pair Plunge. Translates to– I have knit half a sock short of 52 pairs of socks since 1 April of last year. I have been good this year about not leaving socks on needles, nor do I have any orphan socks.

and on to the second sock to the heel flap.

BTW – Cold weather seems to be plentiful. I really like Ms Grayjeans, it spent the rest of the day on me. As it turns out, the fabric is a bit lighter than I would have thought. It certainly was comfortable underneath a blazer and my arms stayed warm!

-Holly

some of the towns around here on a blustery Saturday. A friend had called to ask me to come along. The shoe place – good basic sturdy shoes – didn’t have anything that fit me.

The big craft store in Aldershot was gone, replaced by a printing placed called Lime.

The other craft store was so crowded that you couldn’t move and didn’t have the jewelry findings.

But the Home Brew Store was fun. From simple kits to complicated set-ups, you can make your own alcoholic beverages completely legally. Juice in a can, with some help becomes wine. Bags of grain turn into beer and ale.

If I could drink, I might be really interested – it looked like fun.

Becoming sensible, I spent the rest of the day snugly tucked into my house before venturing out in freezing weather for dinner.

Computers

Thanks for the comments about the blog changes. I don’t have the sidebar completely under control, but at least it is there. I need to figure out who to put in non-blogroll links and the photo widget. Then tackle the page tabs. All else fails – I will copy the text out, set up new pages from templates and go from there.

Do you care about your web software? Want to encourage and support those applications that you find key?
Webware has opened the polls for the 2008 voting. Go and express your opinion!

Socks

Mingus is fun, Mingus is cool. Mingus is too complicated to knit while serving as the navigator or dinner company.

This Wild Cherry was just sitting there in the Sox Box

asking to become socks. Great colour that matches my light weight fleece top and sweatshirt. (Sounds like a good reason – right?)
Winding it into a ball was just the work of a moment

Followed by a decision to crank out a pair of Chain Links.

Heel detail doubles the number of slipped stitches to 2/1 (from 5/1).

51 1/4 socks done and a sock and a half to go prior to 1 April.

-Holly

It was quite this evening. The moon rising full as the sky faded into darker blues.

A clear, cold night balancing day and night as we head into spring.

(With just a tripod and an ISO setting of 800-1600, my digital camera actually does quite well.)

Socks

I am afraid that I really didn’t make much progress today. I was over taken by work, reading and the Age of Emeralds. No clue why I am having such fun building a village, but perhaps it is because it is a no pressure, mindless, relaxing activity? Not a game against a clock.

I do like the way it is looking, but Becca mentioned Firestarter as a great match of pattern name, yarn colourway and toe up. I need to do that one too!

The sky is headed for deep navy while the lamps are lightening from yellow. Time to hang it for the evening.

-Holly

The alarm goes off at six this morning jerking me out of this horrible dream about wild things screaming in the night, my garbage cans burping out bloody body parts and police swarming around the front of my house. Having called them because I was scared witless by this monster attacking me, they want an explanation for why there are pieces of murder victims from across the country strewn on my drive way.

Yes, I know that today is garbage day and I needed to get up and take the trash cans and some left over shipping boxes to the curb before seven – but this is ridiculous. I must have been watching too many strange episodes of something on DvD combined with mentally trying to remind myself that I have missed several pickups for lack of having everything at the curb early enough.

Socks

Deciding that I needed to get going on the last pair – I decided on Mingus (Cookie A) so that it would be a bit of a challenge. Not sure when I talked myself out of doing another toe up pattern as practice for SKP2008 and Sockmadness, but it just sort of happened.
Anyway – taking my lovely merino fire and knitting for a bit – I have the twisted ribbing and the first 16 rows of the pattern. I normally knit this portion on 3 needles with the fourth in work. I just might go to five total so that I don’t have to track and count on the instep stitches.

Shawl-Collared Vest

Binding off the first shoulder, time to get the sewing machine set up for the steeks. The stripe pattern is just irregular enough not to bother me, and the restart with the wider steek area was the way to go.

I have made steady progress on this (and socks for the last two weekends) which means that Viking is languishing. But since I knit a couple of stitches every few days, it is still a WIP not a UFO.

-Holly

project I think.

The second floor of this old English house has a separate water closet (loo, toilet, WC, to hit multiple vocabularies) and bathroom. This does not explain why I was curled up on hall floor with my comforter and pillow at 0400 in the morning, or maybe it does. No clue what I ate that gifted me with cramps, but the room itself is tiny.

For a couple of hours, I just felt sorry for myself, too tired and weary to even knit. Several hours later, I was fine and determined to treat myself kindly for the rest of the day.

Socks

First Round of Sock Madness is complete. Finished – Bruised Zombies (Black and Blue). Taking breaks here and there to do exciting things like brew some tea or change DvDs in the CD drive, I closed up the toe of the second sock.

To make it official, I posted the pictures to Flickr and sent off my email to the contest mums.

Vest

I am past the armholes and have started shaping for both the arm scythes and V neck. Actually, I am stuck at the moment till I go locate another needle since there are two few stitches left to use the current one.

Books etc

Dead Zone and tried out the 4400 (which I have yet to decide about). Hero but flawed guy with his bright but socially cluesless professional partner is beginning to be a bit worn.

I have books!

Did I mention picking up the mail yesterday? Amazon and Books-a-Million came through for me.

It is not that late, but funny thing – I am wiped. Now I just need to clean tomorrow and get back to the Viking Ship and put together my Woolly Board and read and spin and …

=Holly

Course finished today, car fog light is repaired and I had a lot of packages at the mail room. Also managed to get refills, dental appointment scheduled for the youngest and dipping chocolate & fresh berries at the commissary.

Zombie Socks

The trouble with driving places and being in classes is that it all cuts into my knitting time. Never the less, I managed to finish up the first Zombie completely and get a couple of repeats done on the second. The dropped stitch pattern looks ok, but for really strangeness, I actually like the parts with the stitch loops sticking out.

Audio Books

A Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg. I am still not sure what to think about this book. At the core, it is the reflections of an extremely self-centered, immature woman of mid-fifties who becomes a widow. The prose and ideas at times are flowing and as brilliant as a clear stream under summer skies. At other times, you wonder just how many ways there are to say that this character is having problems coping. Nah, und?

I am having more fun with Dead Like Me – the library had the second season on its shelves and The Dead Zone, both of which are excellent as movies to watch while knitting Zombies. The first is actually good at times- looking at the issues of growing up for those just leaving the nest and the second (other than one character who you just really want to smack and say “make up your flipping mind – your idiocy is messing up everyone elses life).

If I start talking to the screen, does it mean definitely too much time alone?

Arches

Passing through locks at night along the Yangtze River, there is spookiness of camera shots without flash. Almost as bad as what is happening to the river itself (if you want scary…).

-Holly

Arriving home at the end of the day (we will not talk about the wagon that managed to have a tail light go out today, sometime between when I left home and arrived at the vehicle testing station) I did household chores before checking my email to see if the Sock Madness Pattern had arrived.

This – (and you can see the pix on the contest sight) is Zombie Socks. Scary? Only if you don’t really want to deal with drop stitch patterns.

I had rewound a couple of different colours. Perhaps I should have gone with a solid-blood? perhaps? But instead I went with a normal sockyarn in Black & Blue. Closest to Zombie that I am going to get and it appeals to my sense of humor.

And yes, this is a contest, a time race contest. The first should not be that bad, one only has to be within the top 40 in your own division to survive. The good thing is that this is a top down pattern, 64 stitches which means that I have to go down to 2,00 mm and then there is the fact that I left my good needles in Germany. The Roedel needles weren’t nice at all, so I am now on Inox Bamboo which hopefully will be better.

The dishes are washed, laundry is done and hanging to dry. Now it is time to put the Dead Zone in the DvD drive. Other than Dead Like Me, can’t think of anything better for Zombie knitting.

-Holly

Today must be about KALs and insanity.

SKP2008

Since I was awake this morning and the house was quite, I picked up the second Jacobean Sock from where I had dropped it last night. Not all that long later I had turned the heel and was working my way down the foot.

We had planned on leaving to pick up the dog well before noon. It was about 1000 when I realized that if we took off, I would finish the sock on the way but would be unable to post pictures. The clock stops on your entry when the pix is on the Yahoo group.

Since there was not all that much left to do – I finished them obviously.

and wound up being the 9th to finish. As of now with 16 having posted socks, the vast majority are those of us in Europe. I don’t think it is that we probably started earlier than those on the North American east coast it is just that we have this tendency to crank through what we started.

Socks

On the way to and from Schoellenbach, I finished up the Komet socks.

and then wound the next skein of sock yarn since I now have only two pairs of socks to go in the 52 pair plunge.

Thinking I would see what I wanted for the next pattern, I cruised over to the Blogger Dashboard and I remembered…

March Sweater Madness

Last year I joined a small group started by Michelle of TheSweetSheep with the commitment to knit a complete sweater in March. Miriam was the lucky person in our household and she has actually worn her blue sweater more than once.

This year, we nagged till the group revived and started again. I think we have grown from 5 to about 20. There are three patterns in worsted weight yarn to chose (all free) and I chose Mr Greenjeans from Fall Knitty. It is a nice, top down raglan cardigan that doesn’t do much for a button band. Since I never seem to button anything, it would be a waste. There are several sections of cables and ribbing.

And what is absolutely the best, I was able to pull some yarn off the shelf. The yarn has been resting since ~1995. Brunswick’s Impressions in colourway New York. It is a barely spun singles and makes a lovely, light weight fabric. I had tried it once doubled to make Bebenhausen (sweater in Knitters a long time ago) and did not like the look. But this seems to be perfect.

And yes, the needle is pink. Enameled pink Inox that I bought in Switzerland over 20 years ago. I only regret not getting all of the sizes and lengths since I haven’t seen them in over a decade.

I am stopping at the end of the yoke and will divide out the sections when I start up tomorrow.

Tomorrow it is off to two passport offices, credentials at two hospitals, the mailroom and a clinic in the afternoon. Oh, and the PX to look for a couple of birthday presents… Gee, it is all going to get in the way of my knitting!

-Holly

Last weekend the DH and I talked about my plan to drive back to Heidelberg today.

He convinced me that it would be much easier to take the plane. Why did I not really think this thru before signing up for another British Airways flight?

The excuse today was “storms in Europe.” Ok, I can live with that.

I was already a bit ahead of schedule since the nice man at the Camberley train station gave me a route to Heathrow that cost 6,40L rather than 14L. That is a good thing – 0718 to Ascot. Wait 10 minutes and change toward Waterloo, exiting at Feltham (about 20 minutes or so). Stand in the freezing cold for 15 minutes to catch the 285 to Heathrow Central Bus Station getting me there well before 0900.

Of course, Heathrow is the airport where they don’t put up your gate till 45 minutes prior to the flight. Juggling coffee, juice and a muffin, I finally found a small table along a bench in one of the central areas. For the next couple of hours I worked on a sock (more about that later) while chatting with a college student from Missouri. She is on break from Boston College, headed to Milan for a week to visit her brother on his year abroad.

We did a cattle car load onto the plane. And then we missed our slot because the luggage wasn’t all loaded. Seemed like BA had not counted on the 36 young airmen headed to Germany complete with two large and heavy duffel bags each.

The plan of course was packed, and more carry-on that there were people. This was my view for a long, long boring time.

Almost three hours later we took off. According to the DH, the flight was still on the Frankfurt board as arriving, when it hadn’t even taken off.

Hint – don’t take the bus from Terminal 2 @ Frankfurt over to the train station – walk up stairs and take the shuttle. It is much faster and you won’t miss your train. Natch – the next train was 15 minutes late before taking over an hour to get to Mannheim (35 minute journey).

It was 1830 before I made Heidelberg, by far too late to make the 1600 Strick-Treff at Cafe Maximos with the rest of the Heidelberg Knitters.

Did I mention that we had dinner scheduled at 1930 with friends?

Long day. And it never takes me 12 hours to drive between, even counting the Ferry.

SKP2008

March first started the Sock Knitting Pentathlon. A totally crazy group from at least 30 countries that is committed to knitting five pairs of socks – one pair every two months and speed counts.

The first pattern was posted at 0000 EST (GM+5) so I downloaded it around 0600 this morning and packed my yarn and needles. I attempted to do the toe up cast on while waiting for the train and on the train. Forget that – and switched over to top down.

I had this lovely skein of burgundy Fleece Artist that is wool, silk and kid merino.

Making good progress I had lots of time to knit on the plane.

And was to here before heading out to dinner –

The nice thing about top down, is that I was able to integrate the toe decreases with the final diamond of the pattern.

If I can, I will start the second sock tonight and finish it to post in the morning.

-Holly

Or, the ceiling. You see, there was an earthquake here in the UK back a day or so ago that was reported to be 5,3 on the Richter Scale.

Can’t prove it by me, I never woke up. But this morning there was a bit of a problem in the one of the halls here at FASC. Or, more than a slit bit of a problem for those who have offices along this hall.

The earthquake is being blamed. One of the guys and I think it is just water damage that got extensive enough to make things come down. Otherwise it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that this portion of the ceiling would decide to fall down where other places with long standing cracks held up.

meanwhile, I am avoiding walking the hall directly over this location just in case the hole wants to widen.

Socks

Have a good start on the second sock of pair #49 using Komet – the SKL Pattern for Jan 08. I really like it and will probably use it for another pair. It has just the right amount of patterned and plain areas while being extremely easy to memorize.

I could finish this sock tonight, but came home after making a drop off run. Let me just say that taking the wrong exit out a round-about cost me almost an hour and many miles on a 15 minute journey.

-Holly

It has not been a short while, no, it has been since I first moved into this house. The windows and doors are always quiet in the room where I am sitting and the doors still. Somewhere else, usually on another floor there a bumps and thumps.

If there is a stormy wind outside, I can easily imagine the panes rattling in their tracks. The blustery air catching the edge of the door. After all, this is an old house and there are air leaks everywhere.

But on the nights where there is no breeze, I still hear noises in the house. Items don’t seem to be where I left them. It couldn’t possibly be that I forgot where I placed something. Like those two pairs of jeans that seemed to be lost for a week, appearing like magic in the airing cupboard when I was giving a friend the house tour. Me? Why would I have carefully set out two pairs of jeans to dry….

Oh, right.

Never mind. Can anyone tell me why the ghost is not finishing up my knitting? Doing some vacuuming or washing up the dishes?

Leaving out milk and cookies for Brownies didn’t work – so I was hopeful that the ghost might be of use.

No luck there either. I must have watched too many TV Serials while knitting.

Socks

The finished Rose Socks -

With the left and right

and then there is the first Tencil Sock. I really dont’ like the way the top turned out, so it is on to a different pattern for the top of the second sock.

Vest

I mentioned that it was done? And that it might look a little bit better on me than on the chair. Usual disclaimers about photos taken in dark rooms with mirrors.

The pattern detail looks like this – and the front bands are a broken rib that is knit as part of the garment.

Since I actually have some nice slatted shelves in the airing cupboard – aka the boiler room – I am going to see how it fast blocked garments will dry.

-Holly

After a few hours in the office (and proving to a number of people that I really do have a husband), it was time to drop him off at Heathrow for his flight back to Germany.

Not even 96 hours on the ground. Phooey.

Since I was already 1/2 way to RAF Croughton, I went the rest of the way to pick up mail. This was good, as I had three packages in the mail. Ok, two mailing envelopes and a box, but that counts as three as far as I am concerned.

Stash

From the Loopy Ewe, I had ordered some roving and some sock yarn (SKP2008 coming up)

and some wonderful colour combinations from Crazy4Dyeing (including one she did just for me) to increase my choices of sock colours. Ordered in two batches, each took only a week to get here. Now, since I only go to the post office every couple of weeks, it was double the fun.

Vest

My red vest is done

and just needs some blocking.

Socks

As are the Rose bamboo socks making pair #48 for the 52 pair plunge challenge

knit on 2,00 mm needles over 60 stitches I will get closeups of each sock tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have pulled some pink/blue tencil/merino yarn out for pair #49.

Audio Books

After dropping off five audio books as donations to the library, I checked out Flight Lessons – Patricia Gaffney and Salmon of Doubt – Douglas Adams. I decided to load them onto the MP3 Player for my trip back to Germany this weekend and started Into the Storm – Suzanne Brockman. I also picked up two TV Series on DvD – Dead Like Me and Ghost Whisperer. The first was all right – and very familiar if you have survived teen agers. The second I never made it through the pilot. Boring and worse acting than the other shows it mimics.

-Holly

The 0717 to London (that lovely, direct train) was quite packed this morning. And it always amazes me the people who sit down on the outside of two seats, place all their items on the window seat and then get upset when someone asks them to either move in, or move their things. Far as I can tell, purchasing one ticket entitles you to one seat. Even if it is at a table, you really can’t claim two.

I had an all day meeting at MOD (Ministry of Defence) – located in Whitehall, Westminster. Since it is an easy walk across the Thames (yes, there are several bridges) from Waterloo Station I don’t normally bother with the Tube.

Following the meeting, I hung out in London for the afternoon killing time before the planned dinner at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese located just off Fleet Street. Surprisingly, there were a couple of great vegetarian options on the menu; an occurrence that is much more common in the UK than in good ol’ Germany.

Rather than deal with changing subway lines, I just hiked back from Blackfriars to Waterloo. My energy was up for it. My feet were not; so much for trying to wear something other than clunky shoes.

Socks

I did manage to finish up the first Rose Sock and get the second one started. Almost made up for the fact that my MP3 player decided to freeze on me.

It was almost 2300 by the time I finally had managed to hike back to RMAS, pick up my car and motor on home.

-Holly

After looking at my sock cupboard here -

I realized I was missing a few colours and went looking on line for a few more colours of sock yarn. It is not like I probably don’t have about 50 skeins here and there. But looking at the picture – there appears to be entirely too much blue and pink which is really funny because I mostly wear black, red, grey and white with the occasional denim and navy thrown in.

Socks

I am making good progress on the Rose Bamboo socks. Rather than a random yarn selection, these will go perfectly with my new favorite blazer. Since I normally wear clunky, comfortable shoes, there is no reason not to wear cool, handknit socks.

Audio Books

Flashpoint finished up, and on to the next in the series.

-Holly

Last March, I joined a totally insane bunch of people who made a commitment to knit a pair of socks a week for the coming year. Counting them up this morning – I have 47/52 pairs to go. All the ones that I have knit have been adult socks, sizes 38 E and up. I managed 38 pairs last year (with no sock knitting in Dec and early fall) and nine since the first of the year. That leaves me only five pairs to finish prior to 1 April.

This year’s socks can be found here and all of last year’s are here. I don’t have all of the links updated yet, but should get there in the next couple of days.

I am wavering between going back to the Viking Sweater for a couple of weeks, or just cranking off the rest of the socks to be done.

Socks

Progress on pair #48.

Down the top, heel flap completed and turned.

Viking Ship Sweater

A few more rows progress.

-Holly

This morning, it was the windows -

and the back garden.

yesterday’s blooms

and frost flowers on cars.

Making it much nicer to stay in the house

Spinning

The Blue Faced Leicester only needs to be skeined, washed and mailed.

Leaving me free to take out a very spring looking Tussah/Merino blend hand-painted Roving from Winderwood Farms.

Practically glowing in the sunshine, it makes such a cheerful singles.

After spinning about an hours worth, I finished up the toe on

Socks

The Trekking XXL Art Yarn socks

The next socks up will be of Opal Bamboo

keeping in the cheerful colour theme

Viking Sweater

In my effort to crank off socks, I haven’t worked on this at all this week. Working my way up the mountains, I now have 44 cm finished.

That is the good part, right along with being spot on with my revised gauge (no way did I want a 121cm sweater, instead preferring 100 cm). The catch of course is that the row gauge is also affected, which was what I expected.

Given where I now am in the pattern, without further lengthening the sweater will be 58cm long instead of the printed pattern’s 67cm.
To see an example of the pattern knit as writ – you can look at Anni”s on Ravelry.  I have the choice of inserting some rows of just white (and fussing with the front and back so that the edge pattern stays intact) or lengthening the diamond pattern at the top.

What do you think?

Audio Book

Disks 4-8 of Flashpoint. Much as I am enjoying this book (and believe it or not, this is one that I have previously read), I am beginning to suspect that I really prefer abridged books. My attention span is just not up to 11 CD stories. I never take more than a couple of days to read a book, why would I want it to take 11 hours to hear it? Yes, I do miss some of the descriptive settings, but it balances by making most mysteries and thrillers move a bit faster.

Fair amount done today I would say, as I head off to read blogs.

-Holly

There are others that don’t feel obligated to work hard on the weekends.

As far as I can tell, they live at the main stables during the week and take a break on the weekend, with a total of seven of them visiting the paddox behind our row of houses. Not the sturdy outdoor horse of my childhood, but barn ponies needing blankets and a lot of care. I certainly don’t mind them; they are relatively quiet. But I do need to have a talk with their keepers. Since I am not a gardener – I have no need for the fresh manure that someone has deposited over the fence into my back yard.

Looking around on the way back in from the ponies

and the early flowers

Makes it a great idea to stay inside – listening to

Audio Books &

Suzanne Brockmann’s Flashpoint
or watching another DVD of Medium (season 3).

and otherwise spending the day

Spinning

having spun and plyed about 3/4 of the total roving.

and on

Socks

starting here -

and completing all but the toe on the second.

And completely leaving out the housework.

-Holly

Recipe (bread machine)

Dry Ingredients

3 cups unbleached flour
1/4 cup sugar
one TBS yeast

Wet Ingredients (add all into a 2-4 cup liquid measuring cup)

one egg
3 TBS of oil
3/4 cup no fat sour cream
2TBS of onion relish OR 2 TBS reconstituted onion flake
fill the remaining balance to the 2 cup mark with no fat milk
stir well

Place the ingredients in your bread machine in the required sequence
(mine wants dry, then liquids. This varies by manufacture)

Set for large loaf (white), turn on and relax.

A few hours later, you have this lovely loaf of bread

which slices up, showing bits of onion

and leads to dinner complete with spicy squash soup, tomato-lime chutney and a pomegranate.

Socks

There was definite progress on the art sock

The second JaWoll Sock is now complete

with the pattern simple, but looking nice even up close

Audio Books

Vanishing Point by Marcia Muller.

Arches

Obviously Caerphilly Castle, taken in Wales 9 Feb 08

-Holly

I had an American upbringing coupled with a rather strange sense of humour. Place names in the US make perfect sense to me: named after people, place of origin or adapted from Native American Names. After all, I was born in Minneapolis (Minnesota) and actually learned out to spell both names in the first grade. It was just how things were.

Living as an ex-Pat since 1993 (not counting the other five years spent out of the US in the 80s) I just accepted whatever town or village names were on the sign post. Really, who am I to criticize what another country uses for names. Not my language, not my right to question.

And then I moved to the England portion of the UK just last month (Jan 08). Not only am I coming into contact with names familiar to me from reading Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, but there are those towns whose names which I have just learned from Jasper Fforde. Places like Swindon and Reading, located just out the motorway from me.

Perhaps Woking gets the same reaction from children as does Temptation or Perdition.

But Middle Wallop? It is the home to the British Army’s Museum of Flying and otherwise doesn’t really exist. A local name to the area between Over Wallop and Nether Wallop, it is not a parrish or a real town. But you can address mail to Middle Wallop and it has a postal code, so I guess it does exist.

I found out about this and other interesting facts when I dropped in to the Army Air Field to meet one of the other US exchange officers today. Home to helicopter pilot training for the British Army, it is out in the middle of nowhere on the Salisbury Plain. Probably the most interesting event all year happens in July when there is an Acrobatic Air Show, set to music. It is on my list of things to do this summer. (Especially if Ray can provide me a place to park!).

Socks

There is this Art Yarn (trekking XXL) which looked like this in the ball

and like this after my socks were started -

Now if I could just explain why I started a new pair of socks rather than start the second of the cotton? Besides the fact that my hands just did not want to knit cotton this evening?

I am otherwise back to watching Medium and trying to choose the next audio book.

-Holly

Did you know that you really can’t easily get to the train station early in the morning?

My choices were the 0438 train, the 0547 train or missing my 0730 flight. And the road down the hill from us is still under construction. By the time I found a real street car stop, I was half way to the train station. Now, if I wanted I could spend 2,10 on fare to ride three stops and then walk to the train station. Or hike a long block and wait to take a bus to the train station, or, I could just save my money and walk.

Not that any of it mattered anyway. Once at the airport, and after hiking off the end of the earth and around all the renovations in Terminal 2 – gate area D I found that my British Airways flight out was delayed. There was heavy fog predicted for Heathrow. Gate hold is what it is called.

Only catch was – there was no fog…

more knitting occurred which would have been completely and totally fine, had not my MP3 player decided to freeze.

The second blue sock was finished and I pulled out some JaWoll Cotton that was hanging around, making significant progress.

But mostly, I contemplated an article that was in Die Welt. On the surface it seems logical – Brockhaus is giving up printing hard copy encyclopedias for an Internet based one. The major publisher for 200 years, this can be viewed as an historical change in knowledge distribution or a smart marketing decision since few people want that yardage of heavy books on their shelves. Those that have book shelves, that is.

The idea of an Internet based encyclopedia is not new – Wikipedia has been available on line for years. Free. Several of the US publishers have tried to have subscription services or CD based sales. In Germany, Brockhaus will be changing from password (cost) access to open Internet access.

The difference to what is already available? Non-wiki, that is to say articles all written by experts in their field with a major publisher standing behind the accuracy of the content. In many countries, there will be no change, but for German speaking countries I think there are going to be impacts. Students of today are more likely to look on the Internet for information than to do primary research in libraries. Wikipedia is a favorite source of information. There are times when the accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. I see major publisher’s encyclopedias free as an improvement all around. Those who care about wiki access might be motivated to improve the quality of what is out there. And all the small things that would otherwise never make a major encyclopedia will still have entries in Wikipedia. Increasing knowledge access about all subjects for everyone is not a bad thing.

Without an MP3 player, I obviously had too much thinking time on my hands.

Arriving at Heathrow right around 1030 (this was my 0845 arrival) there was a remarkable absence of fog. The whole episode reminded me of Washington, DC when there is a predicted snow fall. Businesses and government shut down on rumours while the traffic snarls hours ahead of any dusting on the roads.

First sock finished by evening. Simple eyelet pattern.

-Holly

Today was almost a repeat of yesterday. I managed as well to get a number of items taken care of at CHPPMEUR over lunch. All my patients actually showed up on time (except for the last who canceled).

Leaving LRMC at a really reasonable time, I got home to a planned evening of just doggie and me. The phone didn’t ring and I peacefully ate my supper at the kitchen table.

Disturbed by a loud, nasty buzz from the house gate I groaned and went to answer. Turned out to be wonderful – Annette had tried to reach me unsuccessfully by phone; then took a chance on just stopping by to pick up my two Kauni sweaters. She has a show the end of Feb in Wuerzburg and wanted examples to hang in her booth. (my sweaters?). I also expressed appropriate appreciation for the three new bobbins her husband had crafted for my wheel.

Socks

More progress on the marine slip stitch socks this evening; nice to see the second sock under way.

-Holly

I was up early. Really early since I was going to be working at LRMC for the day. My commuting route, the A6, is often under construction. Since I hadn’t driven it in the last month, it was going to be interesting.

Heading down to the VW wagen at 0600, I was getting into the car when three other family members appeared. Apparently I was dropping them all off at the train station. Nice to know, since I would have happily driven off, listening to a Marcia Muller audio book, without a clue that I had left them standing curbside.

The computer medical records system that the Army (etc) has deployed is not user friendly. It is variously known as Ah, Hell, Lets Try Again (AHLTA) or Attila (the Hun) for the way that it ravages your time. I haven’t used it extensively. The Family Medicine clinic kindly did not book me patients every 20 minutes so that I would have time to get used to it.

It was a good day, I met some really interesting people.

My evening was quality time with the dog, music and knitting.

Socks

First sock in Marine is done except for the grafting. My darning needles, as it turns out, are all in the UK. Not worth trying to have one tucked into my carry on luggage

tomorrow is another iteration of today.

-Holly

This is the episode in which we go to the airport, fly to Frankfurt, are actually picked up and driven home. Since it is the eldests birthday, she gets presents.

Mostly, however it is about socks.

With ~1700 flights, we didn’t have to get up very early or head to the airport at the crack of dawn. The oldest teen was back in plenty of time to help with house clean-up and packing. We even managed to find the long stay parking at Heathrow. It is kind of a sad commentary when it is cheaper to park a car than pay for public transport to and from the airport – but we are not going to go there.

The teens were on Lufthansa, I on British Airways. Exiting the bus at Terminal 1 – I said I would see them outside of their baggage claim in Frankfurt since my flight left 15 minutes prior to theirs.

I think I jinxed it.

This particular terminal never posts the gates until 30-45 minutes before you can board. Lack of commitment that, but it makes things easy for the airport authority to change gates with little notice. Real pain for the passengers who then have to keep watching boards, then running to the far end for their flights.

It was lucky that I had brought along yarn.

A nice cheerful ball of Fleece Artist in colourway Marine that I had purchased last May in Vancouver. 100% Merino, clear and shiny colours.

As it turned out I had enough time to get my sock started and then some.

As you can probably guess, I had allowed plenty of time at the airport, not including the flight delay. We never did hear the full explanation. The portion that I overheard involved swapping crews, the new crew being inbound from Berlin and not arriving in London till almost an hour after we were due to depart.

The kids already were boarded on their flight, phones off. The DH had his phones going to mailbox and no one answered at home.

I finally reached someone to tell them I was late…after….I arrived in Frankfurt over an hour after the original predicted time. They picked me up.

The birthday celebration was pretty restrained. It was quite late and we were all tired. had brought along a couple of presents from the UK and we replaced her digital camera. Mine was not along, so she is spared pictures.

Audio Books

Working on Michael Palmer – The Society.

-Holly

We drove to Cardiff to buy some used car seats. I mean seats for the van, lest you be confused that I am looking to fasten small monsters inside my vehicle.

I am sure that I have mentioned a couple of times that some evil robbery ring ripped us off (for the second time), only missing one seat which happened to be in the garage that evening. Since April of last year, I have been limping along on two passenger seats + the driver. This does not work if you have three teens in country and need to get somewhere.

The first time this happened, they managed to get three seats as well. We have a considerable deductible on our van. The cost, including tax, was 2100 Euro before the deductible and took a month to get the seats. This time, I decided to be smarter. Used seats have to be cleaned up a bit. But the cost of 4 seats (head rests, working seatbelts and all) was less than the deductible by $150. I figure that I am ahead.

Can I buy yarn with the money saved? Or is it obligated for the car? In fact, I might have pre-spent it on getting the MOTesting. But I really don’t think that counts, since I had to do it anyway.

The car itself doesn’t get a vote. The kids want car seat covers since the new seats are not a colour match for the old.

By 1100 – we were loaded up on seats and looking for something to see.

It just happened that the Ruby Match between Wales and Scotland was being being held in Cardiff. Driving in to see the Cardiff Castle became a non-starter.

But Caerphilly – now that Castle is wonderful!

Surrounded by water, its origins go back to the 13th Century. It has everything you would want: towers, courtyards, guard walks.

Renovations started in the 1800s, but really were undertaken seriously starting around 1930.

Did I mention that the Sponge Monkeys were along?

But actually only two of the three since the third one passed on the trip to attend a wedding reception in London. So I only had the opportunity to capture two of the three with the camera.

And then we headed home, away from the Castle, from Wales back to England.

Socks

Finished – the Purple Pair!

Audio Books

Finished up the Marcia Muller in the car. Once home, per vote of the youngest – we went back to watching Medium while Noah thought SciFi was a better deal.

-Holly