ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

(pictures without and with flash) A nice large bump of red/natural brown Romney Roving? It is about 1500gm, so there is more than enough for a sweater (I had planned an aran or gansey). It spins easily altho there are a few neps that managed to get through the carding process. I was looking for red, and this is more of a rust because of all the brown.

So I think it would be happier at someone else’s house. It is not superwash, so recarding and felting would also be a possibility. Please drop me a comment if you want it (only thing I am looking for is postage).

It even motivated me to work some more on the trash heap -

I still need a working surface

but you can start to see the floor!

As well as the spinning wheels which are much more entertaining than finishing.

Books & Audio Books

I am also sorting and packing up books. I have a couple of boxes to head downrange and more to go on the local swap shelves.

And the there are the old Suspense Theater Radio Broadcasts complete with advertising of the time. Car makes no longer exist, and Ronald Regean in radio roles.

-Holly

Just the oddest things catch your eye while walking in the neighborhood.

That is when you look inside gates and along stairways leading up the mountain side.

Spinning

There is this rather large bump of roving that I purchased some lifetime ago. Might have been over eBay, I have no real idea, only that the label says that this handdyed Romney was $14US for 3#- and it weighs out at almost 1500gm).

And it spins to singles looking about like this -

I don’t mind the pink, it gives it nice highlights. but there is a lot more natural brown in the carded roving that I had imagined. I think I am going to stop and ply some to see how it appears.

Audio Books

The Three Fates by Nora Roberts on the cassette player in my studio, and another Stuart Woods’ Stone Barrington in the car’s CD player. Ever notice (both authors) how the characters and plots get recycled? It is more than tropes, it is huge story elements that sound the same (to include dialog). Ah well, one is good spinning background and I certainly am not going to worry if I miss a track or five of Barrington’s behavior.

-Holly

More importantly than doing my presentation today, or finishing up our conference. was buzzing back over to the office in the middle of the day. You see, I am planning on using up a few more days of leave. And to do that, it always helps to have the paperwork in ahead of time.

There are several of us in the same situation – more than 60 days of leave on the books – and the clock resetting to 60 days on the first of Oct. Plus, I have an AF Resident coming in at the beginning of Oct. It would be really nice to have everything planned ahead of time so that I can keep him fully and gainfully employed while he is here. Especially, as it turns out, since I have a couple of TDYs now scheduled.

Anyway – we finished up the program and got people on the road punctually. After leaving home at 0600 for a second day in a row, I am glad to be heading home today close to on time. The dog has been having the lonelies during the day, manifest in paper shredding.

Spinning

Plyed and skeined. Around 450 meters (around 200 gm). Now to decide what I want for a project. I like the yarn, but there is too much brown in it for my personal use.

-Holly

This was the first day of our 3rd annual AI/PI conference. A attendees have been here in previous years, and I think they are bored. After talking to several, they had not been sure that they needed to come, but their commanders sent them. Ah, what wonderful confusion (one more thing on my list for the AAR) since this is not truly an annual conference, but rather a training course for newly appointed public health emergency officers.

The day went well, with all speakers finishing up on time or early. Something that was appreciated by all of us.

Particularly me, since my commuting time has increased by a good 20 minutes each way as a result of road construction. 125 km is not that far, as long as it is at Autobahn speeds – 140km+/hr. When I am at the point that well over half (no, I am not kidding) of the journey is being made through construction zones posted 80 km with a stretch of the old mountains being 100km/hr – it takes a while to get either to work or home. If the Politzei were not peppering the route with portable speed cameras that they are relocating on a daily basis….. The positive side effect is that a tank of diesel lasts a lot longer when driving at slower speeds.

I was cleaning up, and found some yarn I had put aside from Wolle-Lust. Aren’t those great sheep? Her shop is here. I think these are some great color combinations in her handdyed of sockwolle. I refuse to think about how much total sock yarn I have on hand at the moment. That is why I am spinning.

But I have these which are going to make bright and cheerful socks one of these days.

-Holly

I thought this was a day of a lot of meetings. Turned out they all had been canceled or put off. So instead I spent the day polishing up a lecture that I am giving on Wednesday.

In case you are wondering why I am so far ahead of the curve, it has to do with the admin person for the course wanting to burn off the CDs this afternoon. Additionally, since we can’t use thumb drives anymore, it is not like I can take it with me. In fact, as it turned out, I could not email it over either. I wound up having to post the stupid thing on the shared document file space so that Beth could pull it. Then I found out that any one can post things. But once they are there, only certain people can kill them. That special, secret membership does not include the person who loaded the file in the first place.

Another improvement for computer safety and productivity. I just love “Data At Rest” new procedures.

Books

At least Book Crossing is not on the banned site list, leaving me able to log in another half-dozen books before dropping them on the library swap shelves.

I also returned Hit Parade and picked up Hit List (Lawrence Block). After listening to part of a Anna Quindlen and being bored out of my head (I find nothing interesting about rich people in New York and could not get past the first chapter. This might be a good book, but I need something more than characters who are so wrapped up in sibling issues and their own angst that they do not see others. But these two were just boring. I was surprised to see Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler suggested as similar writers. Both of them write interesting novels about relationships and real people, not plastic mannequins.

Finished up an old Iris Johanson from the old Loveswept Series- An Unexpected Song that was in the library on CD. Just the right thing for spinning: reasonably clear plot line while not too complicated. Which meant no need to pause for this and that.

Spinning

And it is the second bobbin.

Remember it is Azur Sky. Certainly looks purple to me!

-Holly

Surely I have mentioned before how quiet the house in on Sunday evening? After a day of various errands, pushing to get the kitchen cleaned up, stopping at the library, I dropped the three off at the train station shortly before 1900.

There is almost a train an hour that runs between Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Last year, usually in the winter, they elected to catch the 17xx train in order to arrive before it was too dark and freezing cold. Since the light is still holding out in the evenings, usually it is the 18xx that is the most appealing.

Tonight they did not want to hurry and took the 1914. Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, it wasn’t the packing that delayed them, more like the fact that we actually sat down for dinner together, followed by a test run of the green nothing foam desert. The vote was decent from two of us, ok but I won’t do it again from a third, and the fourth was sure she had been tricked because she ate it before finding out that it contained something that was on her “I never eat that” list.

George is stateside, starting and ending in New York City with a detour to Rochester in the middle.

The kids and I were able to empty out, clean and reset up one set of shelves in the studio today.

Audio Books & Books

Finished up Hit Parade by Lawrence Block, which certainly is a different sort of story and started one of the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods on the car CD.

In hardback, I picked up the Saturday Wife by Naomi Ragen, Absolute Fear by Lisa Jackson, and The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews. Quite a range of material I think. In Audio – two different books by Alexander McCall Smith.

Spininng

Completed the first bobbin of singles (that Crown Mountain Farms corriedale pencil roving in Azure Sky) and have started the second. Since I have 2 8oz batches, this is not going to be an overnight project.

no knitting, but am thinking about it…..

-Holly

In 1978, the 10th of Sept fell on a Sunday. Which is what you would expect, since that is the date we were married. Several years ago, I counted up and wrote about all the different places we had lived (number over 16 at that time), cars we had (I know that we are past 9) and the four wonderful children we have. Now I have to amend it to an outstanding adult daughter and three pretty terrific young adults (late 20s and teens are just worlds apart). Like all couples, we have our ups and downs. Never would have guessed, that hot September afternoon that we would have wound up where we are. Together yes, but on the other side of the world and dealing with the military, the world of venture capital and with four children? Not in a million years. Seems like a long distance for a couple of barely making it young professionals.

Tonight for company I have our golden retriever who has stayed close to my side all day. She is missing the teens and is not about to be left alone. Have heard from the DH several times today from his office in Switzerland – he will be home Friday.

I took a day of leave and, after an early morning PT session, returned home to work on this disaster of a house. I have mentioned the amount of dust generated by the renovations:

and I am piling, sorting and trying to containerize things. I am waiting to empty the left three sections of this bookcase until I have help. At that point I am going to move the higher section toward the middle while properly pegging a few shelves that have been living at an angle since I put them up.

Audio Books

While listening to

there have been six loads of laundry, some dishes washed and a brief visit from the plumber after I went into our new bathroom to find water on the floor. It looked like it was coming up from under the tile near one corner. And turned out to be a faint drip from the newly installed heating unit.

Remember theses? My Sockapaloozas from my great pal feeling so comfortable on my feet (I took off the sandals so that you could see them better). Did I mention that she is from France, living and working in Berlin and is really computer savvy?

Spinning

became my mental health break. I think I showed you this 3-ply rainbow yarn finished up around the beginning of the month now looking for a project.

I plyed the first two bobbins of the M44 from Winderwood Farms and am very pleased with both the handling and the way the colours are working out. I will be using it for a fairisle vest where the long colour repeats will be just what I need.

Socks

These are “those” spiral socks – with the spirals showing a little more clearly.

And finally – TISA has arrived from New England along with some goodies in the package. I am knitter number 4 on the sock, and i get to turn the heel! I love heels. Now I just have to restrain myself and follow the pattern directions rather than ad libbing.

This cooperative sock knitting is fun, and this particular little friend just made its fourth trip across the Atlantic. Once I have done the heel, I think I will take her up to the castle and to work before sending her on her way. I would take her to Switzerland but I really don’t want to hang on too long and slow things down.

The dog has long since gone to sleep, and I have accomplished at least something tonight with the shrank cleaned and organized as well as a start on these corner shelves.

-Holly

After spending most of the morning in the dental chair (we will skip the next few hours of patients and friends) I came home and thought about how much knitting I am not doing. I am still spinning.

And reading. And listening to Audio Books.

Books & Audio Books

A quick read and quite funny – The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sara Strohmeyer. This is not Literature, but she does deal with a number of issues that are probably important for the single woman of today. I have my frog and I am keeping him (grin).

On tape – Jennifer Crusie. I picked up a couple of her books on MP3 and cassette from Audiobookstand. Getting Rid of Bradley is one of her best. Originally published in one of the Harlequin/Silhouette series (hey, hanging out on BiH bases in the late 90s- after a while you expand your selection by reading just about everything on the shelf) it proves you can write good books without either vampires or werewolves.

Renovations

The shower, we are done.

Arches

Canals lead through bridges in Tongli.

-Holly

Since work is a total pain at the present, I will not dwell on it.

I am still loading and organizing things on the computer and am about to tackle my studio. AKA Mom’s trash room as it is referred to by the rest of the family. Unless of course, they need a sewing machine, some craft supplies, a quiet place to work, a printer, or a location where they can try out something nefarious with minimal chances of getting caught.

This is the studio, several views in fact. And after these shelves have been emptied.

and the hall leading to the rest of the house.

I have been home two weeks and can no longer ignore the fact that the house had turned into a total disaster.So much has been moved around for the bathroom renovation which was finally finished this morning.

And there I am – piles of books, papers and well, just stuff everywhere. There is white dust coating my studio and the back hall. Some of it made it into our bedroom. I can’t live like this anymore. But it is going to take a while to dig out.

But plying is so much more fun.

-Holly

There has been another improvement in the computer system at work for our pleasure, convenience, satisfaction, and productivity. Blogspot is blocked. I can get to Blogger and load the Dashboard. But not the blogs themselves – nope, no way. This goes right along with the new improved file encryptions – stopping all use of outside thumb drives since the system encrypts anything it which gets hooked up.

I can still read email for now, but can’t cruise many blogs much less get to Flickr or upload anything unless I bring it in on a CD. Going back in time and technology I guess.

On the renovation front – tomorrow the shower door installer will be coming to fix up the shower. Also the repair man for the fridge since we have a door that is no longer shutting.

Spinning

I have these lovely rovings that I purchased over a year ago from Winderwood Farms. I have decided that I will spin the two wheels I have of the first one before going on to the rest.

The fine singles look rather nice if I do say so myself.

Books & Audio Books

Marcia Muller’s most recent Sharon McCone mystery is The Ever-Running Man. Although not always easy to follow, I really enjoyed it. With roots to motives and characters going back to the Viet Nam era

For those of you who do not like readers who do voices – you might want to consider Lawrence Block’s latest book in his Keller ‘Hit” series. He does his own readings. I enjoy the stories, but his gravely voice is a bit too close to a monotone for my taste. Others just love his readings.

-Holly

Did I mention that the youngest went and dyed her hair pink within 48 hours of our return from China? One of those wash out after forever kind of dyes. Pink on top of blond takes more than 26 washings, trust me.

Apparently she took my “You can’t do it before the trip, we will talk about it on your return” to mean that once she was back it would be ok. It is bright pink. Really. But no pictures. It is a fine time for her to be getting shy, not even showing up till hours after the deed.

Rumor has it the current colour is toned down from the original. In which case I am glad I did not see what it looked like before the first half-dozen shampoos.

Spinning

Did I show you my new wheel? The plans were purchased from the UK about six-seven years ago. I hadn’t done anything with them except to look at them, deploy downrange for a while, come back and look at them some more. Annette carries spinning wheels in her shop. Her husband builds spinning wheels. In Dec 2005, I asked him about the possibility of building a Norwegian Wheel. He didn’t have plans. I did. We came up with a deal. I was not in a hurry and the plans could become his. Since I have a Timbertop’s Chairwheel, I did not inquire about Connecticut Chairwheels built from scratch. Not that I can find those plans – or the sheets for a large warping mill. Since my small Harrisville was destroyed in the last couple of moves. Looking around – it looks like David Bryant Craft Design Plans can be found here.

Back to my wheel.

I found a lovely short history with pictures here. Characteristically, many of the wheels had a flat bed rather that the more familiar slanted bed of the Saxony Wheels. The placement of the lazy kate underneath is common in most of the contemporary wheels I saw in various Husfliden’s in Norway.

It spins like a dream. I am a happy camper. Not that I needed a new wheel.

-Holly

The Kauni is sitting there – just looking at me.

The weather is decent, and I have no interest in knitting. Spinning, on the other hand. I can take a spinning wheel out for a whirl.

I have a lot of options on wool. Less now that before 2003-4 when the m*ths got into my stash, but still.

Now to just pick which wheel (like that takes any brains since I have the new one).

I have shown you pictures before – but here it is again!

Please excuse the mess – it is not only my studio that needs a bit of organization. The mother-of-all on this Norwegian style wheel is wonderful and I am having a great time with rainbow.

Books<>Should I admit that I am reading through junk and trash? Between spinning in the sun, and reading in the sun, I had a lovely day.

-Holly

16 August 2007 Suzhou #1 Silk Mill – Shiny – just for me!
Suzhou, China

Come to think of it – I should be putting in Province names along with the country. My history and geography sense is getting better, but it is still not great. There is a decent book on Chinese history that I will pick up at the airport on the way out. Generally, we are book buyers on trips. Excellent things to have – but can become an issue with weight after a while.

As you probably guessed – there is a day trip every day – sometimes more than one. Be warned. There are a lot of pictures in this post. If it gets to be too much – I may split it in two.

First up – gardens. Apparently the city of Suzhou is known for its gardens. Well known to the Chinese and full of tourists – so that the rest of us now know as well. I am finding the biggest challenge being to get photos that are not completely full of strangers.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden – full of small pagodas – winding paths (paved) and loaded with tourists of all flavors.

And if you are hungry –

You can buy the lotus roots to eat.

With the occasional peaceful corner, the kids and I just sat along one of the canals in the garden and waited out the rest of the group.

As it turns out, Suzhou is a city of canals –

With the river still showing the effects of all the rain and flooding. You can see the kind of broad, flat bottomed boat on which we rode.

But now we get to the highlight of my day – Suzhou #1 Silk Mill.

After a short discussion of the (very) short life of the silk worm –

We walked through an open production area – first seeing the very young worms much their way through chopped up mulberry leaves.

Eventually spinning themselves into cocoons

Which are then sorted and graded

Before being cooked (skipping the pictures of buckets of boiled cocoons and going directly to the reeling process where the cocoons in groups of eight are reeled together while continuing to float. in water troughs below the reels.

Then the smaller reels are combined to make the thread – that is an end number of 40 cocoons reeled to make one fine thread.

If the moth “wins” – surviving to eat its way out –or if two larvae do their thing together – which results in a mass that cannot be unreeled – you wind up with silk caps.

And here they are turned into silk comforters. Yes, the stuffing portion made of layers of hand stretched out silk caps and placed one on top of the other.

.

I took a side detour to look at the four lovely jacquard looms.

Would you want to work here for a base salary of around 100€/month?

But was not really interested in much in their showroom, I really could not see the point in a silk comforter. As it turned out, that was just the first of multiple sales rooms. The good thing was that I had almost no money and not a credit card with me. That might have been the bad thing as well. There was wonderful silk fabric as well as scarves and clothing. I did find some silk embroidery threads – but no silk caps for sale. George tried asking, and the sales people could not understand why anyone would want to buy cocoons or silk caps. A couple of small bags became my souvenirs.

Sadly, we left well before I was looked out.

The last stop of the day was the Master of Nets Garden. No waterways –no lotus blossoms, just intriguing natural stone to contemplate and wonderful wooden buildings with fascinating carvings.

Since the tour is full pension – I probably don’t have to tell you that we had the usual number of meals today.

And in case you are wondering where on earth is the knitting content – socks on the bus!

-Holly

Is not just a song by the Rolling Stones. It is the fervored wish of my teenage son. The object in question is the door to his room. We have compromised – he can do whatever he wants to the inside of the door, as long as he takes said door outside to accomplish this task. And carefully tapes and preps the door frame and covers the floor before a drop of paint comes into his room for the trim. The renovations are finished.

Not an hour after arriving home, he had moved in a desk, borrowed the second bed from the youngest’s room. He has bookshelves and his Mac is wireless. Happy camper that boy to be out of the family room and into his own room where he can shut the door and keep his disorganization out of parental view.

Now if I can get him to clean up the family room, bit of a mess wouldn’t you expect after the last few weeks?

Tour de Fleece

The first stage of the Tour de France is complete. In Canterbury, McEwan the Australian beat out Norway’s Hushovd, with Belgian Boonen coming in third. In honor of one of the main Australian industries, I decided that merino was in order. That singles from yesterday fit the bill. For further information – the home page of Le Tour is here.

Socks

After contemplating both Kauni and the Sockapalooza for, oh, about 10 seconds, I came to my senses and went to find a train knitting project. Socks work. Anni has designed a lovely and quick knit in her Serpentine socks (July Sockmania). Deciding to try Tofutsie again, No clue on the colourway name, but it is a cheerful pink, yellow, bright pink with purple combination. The youngest likes these colours, and she doesn’t like much more than anklets. With three trips to make this week, I should be able to finish them just with the train rides.

Kauni

With nine rows of squares, the underarm is long enough to make me happy and I am ready to embark on the next set of squares as well as the armhole steeks. I thought about decreasing the number of stitches on the steeks. More than 1 or 2 on each side and it might disrupt the flow of the colours. Because of the pattern, the height is a constant. Proportionally, taking out 12 on each side and putting in 9 or 11 rather than 13 should not affect it that much. The odd number of stitches makes sense – the line on which to cut.

Audio Books

After listening to Northern Lights – Nora Roberts and Bet Me – Jennifer Cruise, I am headed to Monkeywrench – PJ Tracey. The retriever doesn’t care. She just likes to be around people, preferring the sunshine (several hours) to the showers (only when the laundry was hung out to dry).

It was either when I was at Graf that I made a major miscalculation, or perhaps it was today. But I went into our bathroom, took a look, then measured. When I was finished, the rest of the family at first thought I was completely out of my mind. Now, I am not sure what I thought before, but where fixtures look to be right now is not where I agreed they would be.

And the attempted rational discussion from my DH in DC and Boston Airports did little to placate me. There were major assumptions made on both parts that are just not working. These have to do with swinging doors on showers and on location of toilets. The job of the people in plumbing and fixture stores is to sell things. And those items are normally the ones that they stock. I understand his point about having to make decisions and I was not there.

But when one size or shape of an item does not work, the first thing that occurs to me is to try another size or shape, not to change the location. We are still at the point where changes are possible, at least as far as fixtures that were not going to be available for 6-10 more weeks. It will take more tile with my new plan, and he will get a bigger shower. It is not all bad.

And yes, I am at that point where I am wondering why ever wanted to start this project in the first place.

Spinning

Now, I am trying to figure out of this Le Tour de Fleece is the same as the other. In any case, a day later with a clear head, it still sounds like fun.

Socks

The american flag coloured socks are almost complete. If I don’t finish up the second toe tonight while listening to the last of a JD Robb cassette, it certainly will be completed first thing in the morning.

Next up will be the May SOM – Jacaranda from Chameleon Colorworks. The eldest put in her claim for this lovely lilac merino/tencil yarn.

Knitting

By the time fall arrives, I want to have this cardigan knitted. As is common with popular projects, the Kauni Cardigan has a KAL.
My yarn is coming from Astrid’s Shop in the Netherlands. I have chosen EC and EM as my two colorways.

My exercises are a bit easier today, the kids walked and bathed the dog, and Lean Mean 13 was a real hoot.

-Holly

Feeling sorry for myself as I read Yarnstorm’s visit to New York City and our favorite Canadian grad student’s wanderings in London , I tried whining to the oldest. My unsympathetic daughter reminded me that I had chosen to stay home this week, rather than go with the DH to Washington DC and Boston.

Oh. Once nudged, I do remember him inviting me along and me demurring, not sure how I would be doing after surgery. The teens reminded me that they are perfectly old enough to watch house and dog for a few days. And I feel stupid for second guessing myself now that it is too late. There is also this slight issue of renovations on the house and my being too cheap to spring for airfare when the money could be put to better use upgrading the armature for the shower.

Sigh.

So I went cruising around the internet after enduring a torture session in physical therapy. Congratulate me, I have discovered that it is possible to create pain in my shoulder where there was none before my the judicious application of range of motion exercises and a cheerfully smiling PT technician. I am supposed to continue this fun several times a day at home and go in again on Monday. Glad I did not toss the large bag of ice.

Spinning

As you might have noticed, I have joined a lotfew knit-a-longs, mostly related to socks. In order to balance out, I am joining le Tour de Fleece. This is the spinners equivalent of le Tour de France where we spin our wheels while the riders spin theirs. Even better, I am even on the right time zone to catch most of it live. Organized by Star it seems like a fun thing to do. Perhaps I can call it therapy? Or at least stash reduction. Starting 1 July on TV and spinning wheel near you.

Socks

It never ceases to amaze me how long it takes to knit the boring foot on a man’s sock. And this is for a guy who only wears a size 11. I#ll finish it up tonight. The colorway is American from the lavendersheep. knit in 4/2 Ribbing on 2,5 mm needles over 72 stitches.

Audio Books

Arriving in the mail today was the latest Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich. I am already through the 3rd of CDs and finding it a real hoot.

Arches

Through the open door to the hof, a riot of flowers climbing the trellis.

שבת שלום

-Holly

Spinning

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

Knitting

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

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

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

Books and Audio Books

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

-Holly

Knitting

Honestly, it really is not a mobius. Of course I have managed to twist the sleeve around a couple of times while knitting back and forth. I find that I have a tendency to change gauge if I add another needle. And I really do not like to put stitches on and off a stitch holder. As you can imagine, this can lead to the most interesting contortions as I wind up working on three – four sections at the same time. I have less than10 cm to go on the second front and am 1/2 down the first sleeve.

And if you are looking for an absolutely great and elegant men’s sock pattern, Colin has written up his Bavarian Twist Sock pattern. It has enough patterning to be interesting while not being fussy. Socks for my DH in something other than my standard slip stitch or 5/1 rib have just moved to the top of the sock line.

Spinning

The Corriedale “Fire” roving from Crown Mountain Farms is plied. After it rests on the bobbin for a couple of days, I will then skein it after which it will appear here with the rest of what I have finished. Once I know for certain how many meters I have, I can decide whether it will become the Shibori Vest or the contrast yarn in Celtic Lattice (both are found in Folk Vests). It was worth the slow ratio on this wheel to have a large enough bobbin to hold the entire 8oz. I really dislike breaks or joins in my yarn.

Passover preparations

There is less than 48 hours to go until the first Seder. For the second year in a row I am organizing it for our community. Since we are holding it at MTV Chapel Fellowship Hall, this gives me two kitchens to kasher. Naturally I spent a large amount of today either cleaning or pushing the four members of the family in residence to do their share. After a few flare-ups (no, I don’t give a whit about the grass length, no one can see it and doing email during daylight hours is not essential) I managed to brow beat the guys taking a large amount of trash to the recycling center and vacuuming.

The girls were supposed to be working on the kitchen and their rooms. Well, they have spent a lot of time in the kitchen and made some progress. But mostly I have been hearing their voices raised in harmony for the last few hours with interludes of solo opera from Nina. So I don’t think all that much is getting done. There are no cleaning or sorting sounds.

I am on load #8 of laundry and the turkey is thawing (the only kosher meat the commissary carries is turkey, chicken drumsticks and hot dogs. Since I did not have time to make a run to Strasbourg, turkey it is. No way is this crowd going to settle for a vegetarian meal.

I don’t see that I am going to have time until next weekend to update my projects webpage. At that point coding is going to look easy compared to eating more matzah!

-Holly

The dear man brought me chocolate. A 400gm Cailler bar of extra fine dark chocolate. And since it might contain wheat (it says so on the label) it will have to be consumed prior to the start of Passover. Oh, and now that it is open I can hardly give it away now can I?

Spinning

I gave up last night on figuring out where I had mislaid an audio book for my cassette recorder, and just spun for an hour. The bobbins on this wheel will hold upwards of 200 gm. I am about 1/2 through the plying process.

Audio Books

It seems one of those universal knowledge items: most people can read, but very few write. And even fewer really write well.

I will now add a caveat to this: just because you can write, does not mean that you can read. Or at least that you can read out loud such that others are going to enjoy the experience. They may have written it, but no—as a oral reader they kill the book.

Since I have made it through the first and second line audio books in the library, I have expanded the sampling in order to not go nuts on my commute. In the process I have discovered the above. Reading for audio books is a skill, an acting skill just like Radio Theater. It requires a pleasant, interesting voice on the part of the reader. Characters need to be clearly distinguishable if there is dialog; and delineation indicated between action and background information.

In fact, the six or so authors I have listened to thus far has ranged from adequate to so awful you could clear a room. Or perhaps I should not say listened to as none of them, with voices ranging from whiny to endless monotone, lasted more than two tracks before I ejected the CD in disgust. So it was with trepidation that I put the first CD of Very Bad Deaths by Spider Robinson in the slot this morning as I started my drive to work.

A mellow voice informed me the title of the work, then started in so comfortable and pleasant a manner that I felt we were sitting side by side in front of a fire while he recounted his personal story. It is this exact manner of telling that make his redention so compelling. If you are interested in details or review, I recommend the SF Site.

Elena

Who is keeping up her end of the bargin, providing colour coordinated decoration. Not a bad dog’s life.

-Holly

Four feet dancing with excitement, Elena welcomed me home at the end of today. Anxious from spending time alone, she followed me around the house for the next couple of hours. But after eating and going outside, it seems that I am forgotten. Put aside in favor of more important people.

But no matter how much time she spends sitting at the gate waiting for George, tonight she will be disappointed. He left for Switzerland this morning and will not come home before tomorrow.

What will be excellent for her is that he will bring 2-3 of the teens with him. The plan is for him to stop in Stuttgart on the way home and rescue them from school. This starts the two week of vacation and they just might have more than the usual amount of stuff to drag home. A ride makes it easier than schlepping everything on the train; or at least for Noah with suitcase, backpack, E-guitar and amp.

Spinning

Since the two bobbins of “fire” singles have been sitting there for a few days:

I decided that they needed to be plyed.

The wheel is a second hand Dutch wheel I bought last year for teaching and loaning purposes for under 100€ off of eBay.de.

Knitting

No progress. Absolutely none. I was in meetings today where it would not have been a good idea.

Other than that?

I spent almost three hours tonight trying to find my back up hard drive. A journalist had asked me for pictures from downrange to complete a story she is writing. Since I am a laptop or two past the one I took to Kuwait in 2003, the digit pix had to be on CDs (somewhere) or on the festplatte. But it was not in my studio, our bedroom, or in the dinigroom where I had last seen it.

I discovered it downstairs, on the floor in my son’s room under a pile of things. He had borrowed it to move files from one computer to another. Apparently returning it just fell off his list.

After a significant amount of time rooting around, I located a couple of pictures of me in uniform. I don’t have many of me, I am the one with the camera. After doing some cropping, I emailed them off. I would be interested in reading the article when it comes out, but I don’t read Russian.

-Holly

I don’t know where they have gone, the small snails that have left their homes behind. Littering the steps on the way up to the house, I try to avoid crunching on them as I go, laden down with backpack and bag.

Almost bowled over by the dog who is so happy to see me that she streaks down to street level and then back up, she barks and jumps, avoiding my camera.

The snow in Landstuhl never made it here, small flowers are blowing in the breeze and the mini-daisies are fine.

We spend a few minutes tearing around the terrace before retreating exhausted into the house.Since then she has been guarding the door, waiting for George. Which doesn’t make any sense at all, considering that he just called from Switzerland. Somehow, I had in my mind that he was home tonight and maybe leaving tomorrow. I had delayed going to the Chaos Quilters so that I could take the car with GPS, but I am just as glad not to have to drive home in the dark with the temperature dropping.

Fiber Progress

I have ony the toe decrease left on the “Hope” sock so I went ahead and cast on for the second Falling Leaves sock. The pattern is from Knitty.com and the yarn is Socks that Rock -
from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in
Scottish Highlands. I finished the first bobbin of the Fire Corriedale singles and filled about 1/3 on the second bobbin.

I am on the train to Sonthofen in the morning and back on Thursday night. I have to figure out knitting for the train: socks are always good. The poor pup, she will get checked on by Shana, but hates being home alone.

-Holly

It felt rather strange this morning, on a Monday, not to be headed to work. But it is a federal holiday, which obviously means that the weather is completely rotten since it is still “weekend.” Gave me the perfect opportunity just to stay inside, knitting, reading and spinning. And dishes and laundry, let’s get real here.

Knitting

Instead I finished up the second of Inside Out:


Rather than kill my hands or switch back and forth with needle sizes, I stayed with 2,5 mm needles through out. Including all the changes made with the second sock-I cast on 26 stitches for the toe, decreasing to 6 stitches at the tip. When the toe was complete, I picked up three stiches on each side between the front and the back sections of the toe. Distributing accordingly, I adjusted the number of 2/1 and 2/2 ribs to match the number of stitches. After the heel, I again picked up stitches along the edge to increase to 65 prior to starting the cable section (and to avoid any holes). I knit almost 15 rows prior to starting the pattern, adding in a 2/1/2 cable on the inside of each leg crossed every five rows for a total of 5 large cables plus the five stitch cable. They feel extremely comfortable and well padded.

I knit the heel flap, turned the heel and got half-way down the foot on the second of sock of my ChameleonColorworks Sock of the Month Club.

And finally, I have hauled out my Chinese Red Vest, from Folk Vests by Cheryl Oberle. I have tracked down at least some of the extra yarn (For You, Gedifra, 125m/50gm, Merino on 4,0 mm ebony circ). About 10 cm or more past the armhole split, I just don’t have all that much left to do. This is what I decided to get done as my first project in the Red Sweater KAL. My only issue now is locating my copy of the book, so I have the pattern.

Spinning

Taking a break, I pulled out the lovely corridale pencil roving that I got from Crown Moutain Farms in color fire. It spins like a dream and I am planning on a fine singles on the Timbertops chairwheel, then plying it on the Dutch upright that is currently being used as a roving holder. It should be more than enough to do some colorwork with, once I find a solid that I like for contrast. I am thinking of a dark red since brown would be boring. It should knit up on a 3,0 to 3,5 m needles.

Books & Tapes

The Sayers are all finished untill some more come in the library.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs is a lightweight novel that centers around a knitting shop in Manhattan. Since I don’t live there, I can’t address how accurate that portion of the novel is, but the research supporting other portions of the novel is extremely week straining my credubility. This story of a single mother and her daughter suffers from too many two dimentional characters, continually shifting times and points of view, and a forced ending. Sad to say, it will probably do fine in the book clubs but I can only recommend it if you enjoy reading any fiction having to do with people and knitting.

McNally’s Dilemma by Lawrence Sanders is currently in the cassette recorder. Boyd Gaines is the reader. Another in the Archy McNally series set on the Florida Gold Coast, the usual cast of characters is present, and the good guys win (sort of).

-Holly