The End of the Year

The week between Christmas and New Year's is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only is it REALLY Christmas - as opposed to Advent - during which there is a bit of tension between 'celebrating Christmas' and 'observing Advent' in my head - but there is such a wonderful opportunity to organize. There's a year to wrap up, and a year to plan for.  My happy spot.

Yum!

We spend Christmas Day at my mom's house.  We spend Christmas Eve there, too -- so after a wonderful Christmas Eve service, we opened up the box of Jólabókaflóð bon bons (all soft centres this year), made up a tray of sausage and cheese and crackers (a present from the family I dog-sit for), and curled up with our books.  I had picked Americanah, to mostly finish off my 2018 Reading Challenge categories  Mom dipped her toes into the waters of Agatha Christie with Murder on the Orient Express, while Filia read about Lucy's Bones and Filius started off in a thick tome but ended up re-reading Murder on the Orient Express and checking in with mom every 5 minutes or so to get her latest thoughts on Who Done It. 

Vir et Filius

The next day held a Lessons and Carols service at church (with harp prelude and piano for the first half of the service provided by me, and the second half by our other pianist, so we can BOTH enjoy sitting and absorbing the service.  Pianists can't typically just absorb a service, as that can lead to awkward silences when a hymn is  supposed to be starting and the pianist is contemplating what was just said.)  And it also held a second December kidney stone for Vir.  A few aspirin, and he was ready to continue with the day.  Ouch.

Mater et Filia

The Filius returned to his flat, and the rest of us returned home, and we settled in to enjoy Christmas week.  Our corn stove is behaving and I discovered that Corn Stove Glass Cleaner is a Thing.  It's a wonderful thing, and works as advertised.  No baking soda, scouring pads,  razor blades, dish soap, and elbow grease needed.  It's a thing of beauty.

Currently on top of the stove is a pair of drying gloves. Can I call them my first project of 2019?

Today I have plans for Christmas baking (stollen),  Christmas letter-writing (a letter a day will get all my Christmas letters answered), pattern editing, work on Demosthenes: Research Project for Classical Writing, some time of the bike (indoors, while finishing square #58 on the counterpane), and other miscellaneous things.

My last year's goals were to publish 6 patterns on Ravelry, and knit 20 or 24 counterpane squares.  At #58, I can say I met the last goal with room to spare.  The first goal, well, didn't happen.  I started to, really I did ... but the yarn for the first pattern I'd selected was discontinued, and one of the mittens had vanished so I would have needed to reknit them in new yarn, and then  I got busy, and ... my heart just isn't in self-publishing.  I did design two items for Cast On -- but that doesn't count as meeting the goal.  I read books in all the categories I laid out for myself, except 'Nominated for an Award in 2017.'  (Unless you count Americanah being selected as a book for the city of New York to read?).  Arabella of Mars has been requested from the library to fulfill that category, and if it gets here by Monday, I will be sure to finish it this year. 

I'd be nice to finish the counterpane in 2019.  I have SO MANY THINGS on my knitting wishlist.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm planning to read by categories again, from the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading list. 

How are you wrapping up 2018?

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Do you ever feel like you're in a season of transition or upheaval ... and then, when you step back and look at life around you, wonder why it feels that way?  I'm somewhere between that state and wondering why it doesn't feel MORE upheavally. 

Our pellet stove, courtesy of someone who knows more about pellet stoves than I do and his trusty grinder, is now working again.  True, it's not been 48 hours yet, so it may still go Crrrrunch in the night and come to an auger-jammed halt, but all signs are that a little metal surgery on the auger flighting has done the trick. If practice makes perfect, I'm four steps closer to being perfect in disassembling the pellet stove.  

Just today, I have NOTHING on my computer to-do list.  That means I can knit all day! (So I'm writing a blog post.) 

I can knit all day, that is, except for when I'm talking with the AAA tow truck driver.  Because our faithful minivan failed to start this morning (Grandma to the rescue for getting Filia to work) and our wonderful auto shop from Amboy was pretty sure that a jump start would do nothing towards keeping the van running long enough to drive to the shop.  Again, I thank God that the minivan is having issues at a nice convenient location, rather that somewhere awkward.  (Two weeks ago, it failed to start at the auto shop.)

Filius has signed a lease on an apartment and is gradually transitioning over.  It's much closer to work for him, which will be wonderful.  I'll miss him and will have to re-shoulder the mantle of being Chief On-Site IT Personnelle. 

My favorite harp concert of the year (tomorrow!) has been cancelled (not tomorrow) due to the bronchitis of the harpist.  It's an excellent reason, but I will miss the inspiration to Practice Harder (so maybe, when I grow up, I can play beautifully too.) 

Yesterday, we also transitioned from the Large Christmas Tree Era to the Smaller Christmas Tree Era.  Filius wasn't available to help pick the fattest and closest-to-a-9-ft-ceiling tree on the lot, so I picked something skinny that I could carry.  My, does it look different! 

And I've got three projects on the knitting needles. 

So is this upheaval and transition, or not? 

Not. 

My week in pictures

I'm sure I could turn this into a haiku, but not today. Today is too nice and sunny to spend staring at a computer screen, coming up with just the right words for a clever blog post. And so I present some pictures of what I've been looking at of late.

This last one is one of my favorites, and also covers where perhaps 30 hours of my life has gone since my last blog post.  I imagine that Excel is trying its hand at a winter landscape.  (Well, winter portrait, given the orientation of my crop),  Snow, clouds and patches of blue.  Trees silhoutted against the sky.  Frozen.

That job is DONE and I have life beyond Excel, at least until Monday, when I will be ready to tackle anything once again. 

Catching up at the end of November and in which there are Photos

The last time I sat down to write a blog post when life was quiet, a full tide of activity descended upon me and did not ebb for a week or two. After a delightful period with much scope for usefulness, quiet has again descended on my little sphere of life and I turn my attention to writing a blog post. Most of the busyness has been in computer field, and that makes for very poor blog fodder. Creating fields, granting permissions, and uploading 45,000 (total) rows from 30 spreadsheets into a database - twice, since one critical column was missing from the first 30... only a project manager could read that with pleasure. Knitting is more interesting. I delight in how God sends me knitting just when I need something to balance the computer's siren call. First, there was a test knit. A few days later, I had another request - and scant hours after that, a third. I finished off the current counterpane square, wound cakes of yarn, and dove in.

Let me have cakes!

Hours of fun!The cakes in the back left have become cycling knitting.  I'm not crazy enough to try knitting while riding my bike outside (especially in a Minnesota winter -- knitting in insulated gloves?  That would require too much concentration) but since I have a bike on a trainer (turning it into a stationary bike), I can exercise and knit in peace - and listen to an audiobook, if so inclined.  To make sure the yarn doesn't get caught in the chain, I have the ball sitting at about elbow level next to me.  The delightful red and white yarn in the front became a swatch.

Swatch

The size of a finished knitted item depends on a lot of things.  The yarn used, the needle size used, the number of stitches, the stitch pattern, the knitter, the blocking ... and even the knitter's mood (which affects the stranglehold, or lack thereof, she exerts upon the yarn while knitting) and needle material.  This swatch was worked up to see what range of gauges would work well with the yarn. I always love an excuse to get out my needle case labelled 0 00 000.  (4-0 through 6-0 are also in there). 

Swatch and a friend

Once I'd finished the swatch, the need for another arose.  Different yarn, mostly the same needle sizes, and a whole range of different gauges.  

Our next knitting photo comes from Filia's knitting. She hasn't been bitten by the knitting bug lately, but we've had a few craft gatherings lately - and when one attends a knit-in with one's mother who happens to be me, one MUST have a project. But it needed to be not just a project, but something that could conceivably get finished.  And be useful.  There are enough abandoned WIPs and non-useful collections of looped yarn in the world, more need not be created.  And it had to be something that could be assembled from what was available to us, with about 30 minute notice. 

What one knits when one's mother cannot tolerate inactivity at a knitting gathering

And so, after assessing the available yarns, I decided that she could knit the Cape Spear coverlet.  A task not unlike copying the Rosetta Stone, for lack of other material to copy. Except this, I think, will take longer.  So long as I acquire the rest of Lisa's stash of cotton carpet warp in this lovely blue color, Filia should be set for maternally-dictated knitting for the next few score of years.  And I, should I finish my counterpane and be at a loss for what to knit, can knit up a triangle or two while pondering what to do next. 

The rest of life:  My new bullet journal and I are getting along famously; Christmas gifts are knit and awaiting wrapping, but I need to find a good source of not overly-chocolate-coated espresso beans, our pellet stove is beautifully caulked and keeping us warm (and drying my swatches overnight), and all is well. 

Until the next blog .... adieu!

The Long Darkness

Daylight savings time is here, and with it, darkness has arrived.  For some time it's been dark when I get up - and now it's not only dark when I get up, but it's dark at suppertime as well.  Darkness is excellent for indoor activities -- knitting, stationary cycling, listening to audiobooks.  Triple-tasking!  In the summer, I go for 2 hour bike rides and do nothing on them but cycle and think.  Now in the other season, I knit-listen-cycle and sneak 90 minutes of activity into 30 minutes.  How will I ever get back on my road bike?

In the knitting world, I've got a finished Christmas present sitting to one side of me, and two cakes of yarn for a test knit on the other side of me.  Another test knit was mailed off last week -- and I'm up to 51 squares done on my counterpane. Knitting is most definitely happening.  I'm hoping to knit up a pair of Sheringham Mitts for Beth Brown-Reinsel's KAL, too -- and am dreaming of what I'll knit after the counterpane.  Sweater dress?  Gansey?  Stockings?  Gloves?  It'll be fun.

My first bullet journal got all filled up, and I decided to continue the experiment into a second one.  I upped the page size from 3x5 to 5x8, more or less, and have a lot more pages.  It will take me a few weeks to settle in to how I want to use the pages, but I do appreciate being able to make longer lists. My overflow to-do list from yesterday would have more than filled a page in the old journal.  Lots of little things - nothing overwhelming - but enough to juggle that it's good to have it written down so as to not lose track of any piece. 

Curious thing of the week:  A few months ago, we replaced the toilet seat in the bathroom.  Nothing extraordinary -- just a plain white 'slow close' seat with two hinges to replace a plain white seat with perhaps 1/3rd of one hinge left.  And yesterday -- I noticed that the portion of the seat that one sits on (but not the sides in the back ... the part with actual contact to an average body) is turning BLUE.  A very charming, pale blue. 

It's an imponderable.

My season is here

It's fall.  I have a greater appreciation for summer these days, and can enjoy the feeling of warmth soaking into my bones after almost two decades of Minnesota winters, but the change to fall brings delight.  And maybe a bit of a fall cleaning urge, which - for the sake of family harmony - I try to keep mostly under wraps.  Mmmm.  Delightful, lovely, crisp fall.

And then comes winter, which may be my season even more than fall. Fall has getting-the-yard-ready-for-winter chores. Winter has no such thing.  I can hibernate inside with a pot of tea, a blanket, my knitting, and knit/play harp/system-administrate to my heart's content. Except for when I have to go out, of course. 

Hummingbird Feeder with Ice Cube

One of the things I did yesterday in my winter prep was bring the hummingbird feeder in.  The sugar water in it was frozen.  The day before, I picked all the peppers (and some of the plants).  The last few butternut squash got picked today, and the squash plants taken down from the trellis.  I've left the pole beans up for a bit longer.  I'm hoping to get more than a cup or so of shelled beans out of a 6-ft row.  Maybe Jacob's Cattle Beans needed a longer growing season?  We'll see what the yield is after giving things another week or two to mature/dry out, and I pick anything that remotely looks like it might have beans in it.

 

I finished my Print O' The Wave Stole, and apart from wishing it were a foot or so longer, like it very much.  It's 5' long, and despite my careful calculations, I ended up with enough yarn that I probably could have worked another repeat or three, or left the insertion in on the edging.  Initial calculations showed that I could work the insertion, and have roughly 60" of yarn left.  That was NOT enough margin.  I'm back to working on the counterpane now, and hope to finish up square #45 this evening.  I rather looked forward to starting up again, and am amazed to discover I no longer find bobbles irritating to work.  And after 1400 of the little critters, I unvented a small modification in how I make them. 

It's the little things that are delightful.  

My next library book, The Obesity Code (Fung), arrived in the mail today. More interesting things to read and learn about!  

And how can this have been a 15-minute post already?

Adieu!

Beans, Beagles and Burgundy

Canis

Canis is now 16 years old, best as we know from the adoption paperwork, and we've been able to see for a while that his hindquarters were going to be the first thing to go. There's a definite right sag to them, which leads him to shuffle his legs to the right to keep them under his hips -- until he comes to rest against a wall, or door, or wheelchair.  He'll break out of a slow, faltering amble only for Very Important things -- like, perhaps, another dog walking through the yard.  And then he'll try to walk fast without falling over.  Sigh.

The Print O' The Wave stole is a rich, wine red.  Not that you can tell it from this photo, but it is.  I blocked a nice chunk of it to get an idea of dimensions and yarn usage and the like, and have come to the conclusion that if I use a narrower edging that Eunny Jang's Print O' The Wave Stole (which is only reasonable, considering that I've not followed much of her pattern yet -- I cast on a different number of stitches and am using the chart from Heirloom Knitting), I can probably squeak 42 repeats of the main pattern in without running out of yarn.  I might try knitting the edging from the outside of the ball, starting by working across the cast on edge, then up one side.  I'll be able to see how much yarn is left then, having done 2 sides of edging, and will know if I need to undo some of the center or not.  Maybe?  Apart from tangled yarn, I'm not seeing any pitfalls.  (Which might be like saying, "apart from Florence, the Carolinas aren't expected to get any rain this weekend.")

Speaking of rain, I think we must have been having a wet summer.  My shelling beans are sprouting in the shell! Bean sprouts are a thing, I know, but not in my shelling beans. I wonder if they're still edible?

Mother Stallard Bean Sprouts

 

 

Jacob's Cattle Beans

My pole beans this year are FAR from sprouting in the pods (bean pods? Bean shells?  Bean _____?)  They're barely beginning to dry.  We're still enjoying peppers, and I'm enjoying chard and kale.  Butternut squash is ripening - including the odd dark green ones, which are acquiring a butternut squashy color - and that's about all that's going on in the garden these days. 

I discovered that my wonderful bike light disables my speedometer (aka 'bike computer').  Drat.  Supposedly, wrapping the entire light in tin foil will help.  Except the lens has to be wrapped too, and then it's pretty much useless.  Still, I did get to use the lights on Tuesday when my ride went a bit beyond sundown. 

Adieu!

Fall!

September is here, and with it, the promise of fall weather.  The promise is being realized today, so my planned morning bike ride has shifted to the afternoon when the temps are supposed to be out of the 50s and into the 60s.  Ahhhh. 

The bike tail light (and front light) have been added to my collection of cycling gear.  Next up will no doubt be something with long sleeves.  Ganseys, while perfect for staying warm at home and walking around the town, are probably not going to be my go-to top when it's 40-50 degrees on a bike.

I've taken care of the 'everyone who has pedals with clips goes over at some time' business.  A week ago Tuesday, as a matter of fact, I decided I would try clipping in with my right foot first.  Bad idea.  It was also a bad idea to continue down the driveway for a ride after I got back up.  Shortest.Ride.Ever!  0.1 miles was enough to tell me that I really shouldn't expect a bit more use to ease the ouch, so I circled round the block, UNclipped carefully, and got an ice pack. 

And two days ago, I - by the grace of God - came to a safe, rapid stop along a US Highway when a piece of wire got tangled up between my front tire and pedals.  Clankety clankety clankety cling!  Brake-unclip-stop safely. The change in speed was enough to let the wire sink to the pavement and be left behind me.  So I got going and clipped in again, came home, tried something new on the unclipping side of things ... and plunk - learned something else that doesn't work!  Ahem.  Today's ride will be a medium-for-me-distance, exploring some new roads. 

The cyber world has been busy this week, from hunting down accounting items to testing workflows and LOTS of stuff in between. And there was an imponderable.  What *is* the non-printing character that looks like a small, hollow circle, sitting just above mid-line? 

Another buzz cropped up on my harp.  I'm not sure if it's going to be a persistent buzz, or just a 'Friday the 7th of September, 2018' buzz.  Time will tell. 

Knitting is proceeding apace.  I haven't stopped to figure out how large I can make my Print O' The Wave stole yet, but I expect I'm about half done with the body.  One of these days I will have to stop knitting and make some calculations.  I'm at the stage of the project where I'd normally be plotting my next project - but that's the counterpane, so I've nothing to plot.  A sad, sad state of affairs.  

The rest of my day is calling -- adieu!

Another quick post

Setting a timer for 15 minutes and writing seems to be an excellent way to keep up with posting.  I've got a spare 15 minutes before heading out... so welcome to this week's post!

Behold, the mummy!  Not the same mummy with two glorious black eyes in the previous blog post, but an 'it's not winter yet, but this newly knit scarf will be GREAT for keeping the wind off the face' mummy.  One weekend, 4 skeins of chunky yarn, a stitch pattern book, and voila.  Cozy warmth.

Last week's mummy was the result of an unexpected and abrupt meeting between a face and a concrete sidewalk, courtesy of a sudden unbalancing tug on a dog leash, resulting from a dog catching sight of a rabbit in the shrubbery.  I'm not sure who was more startled - mom, dog, or rabbit.  The dog now avoids that section of the yard on her constitutionals.  Despite mom's avowal that she didn't need stitches, the nurse at church thought otherwise so we popped over to urgent care in lieu of the church service, and made it back in time for the fellowship meal afterwards.  Despite the doctor's considered opinion that the faceplant would not result in black eyes, the gloriously purple rings were evident within a day.  Now, almost 2 weeks later, they've sunk beneath the cheekbones and add a greenish cast to the face.

Bicycling -- the smiling providence of a flat tire, perfectly timed to avoid a deluge, turned into a trip to town the next day for a new tube, a replacement tube, possibly a new tire tread, and a Serious Consideration of cycling shoes/pedals.  I came home with two tubes, two new tires (mounted!), new pedals, AND new shoes.  With a bit of a bike realignment/tune-up and bike fitting tucked in there, plus practicing How To Unclip While In A Trainer.  A few minutes clipped in on the trainer clued me in to the fact that I might be using different muscles now that my feet were affixed to the pedals, so I decided not to overdo things with a long ride right away.  Maybe 5 miles would be a good first ride?  So, after getting home, I headed out, and decided after a few miles that a loop round the block shouldn't be pushing things too much.  13.5 miles, check.

The next day was a normal riding day, but I didn't want to overdo things - so I planned a 20-24 mile ride.  Except around 24 miles, I was having too much fun so decided to ride up to my mom's for an ice cream sandwich.  40 miles later and 5 towns later, I was home.  (That's total -- not from the 24 mile point.)

So, with Saturday rides of 30 and 40 miles, what was I do to this past Saturday but something a bit longer?  I plotted a route to Truman (45 miles), left mid-morning so I'd be home before the sun was blazing hot, TOTALLY underestimated how long it would take the fog to burn off, and had fog dripping off my helmet the first two hours of the ride.  One hour in, my glasses were consigned to my jersey pocket.  And I had a delightful 3 hour ride -- followed up by a 5 mile jaunt with Vir (his first time on a bike in several years) to make a total of 50 miles for Saturday.  Will I do 60 miles this coming week?  We shall see.  I think my next bike-related purchase will be a tail light. 

The 15-minute blog post

Let's start with some yumminess.The above was a gift from a family I dogsit for. This dog doesn't require much ... I open the front door for her to come in, then she and Bandit spend the rest of her stay either sleeping, riding in the car, or taking one another's sleeping positions.  With a little bit of 'when is my family coming back' thrown in.  The shiny spot on one muffin is a QUARTER.

Counterpane update! I reached 40 squares and am taking a counterpane break to knit a stole for myself.

Yarn for stole

I've decided to use the Print O' The Wave pattern, from Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting.  The problem is I have just ONE skein - and I'm going to live dangerously and work the edging last.  Worst case scenario, I have to frog a whole lot of edging and back up a repeat or few.  Really bad worst case scenario is that I have to do it twice because I calculated wrong during the first frogging.  I've about 1.2 repeats (out of 3-4 dozen) done. 

I've also submitted a design for the next issue of Cast On, and it's been accepted, and the yarn arrived today.  So the stole isn't going to grow particularly fast.  Oh, and I had a test knit last week too.  And SysAdminning has been busy.

So I've needed a bit of balance in my life, beautifully achieved by riding 20-30 miles on my bike a few times a week.  Except this morning, when I had a flat tire.  A rock embedded in the tread was the culprit.  And my spare tube was spare because it had made a lovely hissing sound from the valve once upon a time, and was only still around because I hadn't been able to figure out WHY is was making that noise, once it was off the bike.  I put in on, and voila -- hissing noise and decreasing PSI.  No bike ride this morning.  So I picked tomatoes.  A lot of tomatoes.  How a lot?  Enough so that my stock pot couldn't handle all the product of the food mill, and I had fresh tomato soup  for lunch.  I think the stock pot is going to be simmering for another 3 hours or so to get down to 'half'. 

Oh, and it POURED rain about 90 minutes after my ride was deemed cancelled.  So much for TWO weather apps telling me I had 4 hours before the rain was supposed to arrive.  The frowning providence of a flat tire produces quarts of tomato sauce AND the lack of a drenching. 

I still have a lovely harp -- with two things that need fixing (move a lever, move a string).   Are things really shifting around on it, or did I manage not to notice, for four or five months, that one C lever was not aligned with the string?  And that the D next to it isn't equidistant from the C and E strings?

15 minute buzzer went off.  Should I save the story of the last photo for the next blog post?  It'll give me something to write about!

Lazy days of summer

I hope I never cease to be delighted with the ebb and flow of life - from a full slate, to an empty one.  From days when there to-do list is there and waiting to be addressed, to other days when the hours stretch before me, waiting to be filled. 

Once upon a time, late in June, I began a blog post this way.  And then I remembered that I had a webinar on the fascinating topic of European Data Privacy Laws to watch while I knit.  So I tidied up my computer desktop, setting the post aside for completion after the webinar, reached for my knitting, got logged into the webinar ....

And got a chat message.  Did I have time to help out with a project?  Of course!  So, keeping an ear on the webinar and an eye on the chat window, I learned about the new project.

And then my phone lit up.  Could I possibly help out with a few tasks?  Of course!

And the blog post quietly faded into the background.  I think it lived in a browser window for three or four days before I laughed and closed the window.  My days ebb and flow, and I delight in them ... and it's definitely been a flow lately.  (Literally  AND figuratively.  Flows with External Resources, or Quick Actions and Process Builders invoking Flows, anyone?)

A quick recap of the past few weeks:

• The counterpane is progressing.  I'm on square 37, and have decided to take a break after square 40 to knit a Print O' The Wave Stole.
• Tomatoes and Cucumbers and Kale and Swiss Chard are delicious, fresh from the garden.  I have an oil trap for the earwigs (sardine tin + olive oil.  Dump and refill as needed) and they're not decimating things too badly.  More like vigintimating.  
• I'm learning lots of lovely Salesforcey things.
• I spend much of my day being officially helpful to others.  (Yay!)
• Spraying the town for mosquitoes kept things mosquito-free for about 3 days.  And I wish I  knew what the non-mosquito bites I have are!  
• I've been going on a few bike rides here and there. I hope to head out on one this afternoon.
• Cinnamon blondies are delicious.  
• Cinnamon blondies are cooking on the stove now.  Gotta run!

Quick picture ... Calendula Tea steeping

You know that eventful things are happening in my life when I lead off with a picture of hard water scale.

Hard Water Deposits ex Tea Kettle

I've never had such a large deposit break off in one piece before!  It was exciting. 

Vest - in progress

The vest is now completed, and the pattern spreadsheet is ready for one last reality check before I start plugging numbers into the pattern and polish it up a bit.  The vest, in keeping with a Bavarian Twisted Stitch theme, uses a lot of twisted stitches -- including double decreases: left, right, and center.  Some unventing happened to execute those decreases, and Cast On's tech editor had a fabulous way to describe their execution.  (Wish I would have thought of executing them that way!)

As I was about to sew the last seam on the vest, my Ott Light died and bad ballast-y death.  Yesterday, black yarn arrived for a test knit.  Guess what's on my shopping list for today?  A good floor lamp.

Another thing that arrived in the mail earlier in June was a set of HolstGarn Coast color cards.  Sigh.  There are SO MANY colors I'd love to knit up a sweater in.  I propped the cards up next to me so I could contemplate them while I was knitting. Maybe I should run a poll ... Take a look at The Yarnery's offerings and report back in the comments (or colors) which color you like best.

The garden is growing by leaps and bounds, and I really need to get out and spend some time weeding and training a few vines when it is a) not raining and b) too windy for mosquitoes.  The turnips need thinning; kale and chard are making their way onto our dinner table regularly.

Must run ... mom's taxi duty calls.

We interrupt this blog absence to bring you a post

Summer has arrived with a wee bit of a vengeance, and my garden needs work.  Today has enough a breeze that I think I can get some weeding done without being eaten by mosquitoes.  They were out in droves, swarms and several other groups yesterday!

Much knitting has been happening.  And I even have photos!  I worked on some projects to demonstrate yarn dominance.  Does it exist?  Is it a figment of some knitters' overactive imaginations? 

A Pair and a Spare and a Sock

 Assuming that the analysts will grant that the samples were knit by a competent knitter and do not suffer from tension problems, I think the projects show that yarn dominance is indeed A Thing, but is more of A Thing with some patterns than others.  I began my little experiment with the leg of the sock, and quickly discovered that carrying my yarns willy-nilly didn't produce the atrocious results I was looking for.  If you look closely at the sock, you'll see that the band of diamonds DOES have some black diamonds (the rightmost two) are a bit smaller than the others visible in the band.  And there's a bit of kettle-dyed effect going on, where the red darkens in patches. 

Except the yarn isn't kettle-dyed.  It's as solid as Brown Sheep can make their lovely Wildfoote sock yarn solids.  I switched to another pattern, hoping for worse results, and got them -- but only upon careful inspection.  So, another project was called for.  Norwegian Mittens! 

After my somewhat failed sock sample, I decided that yarn dominance fails probably stick out best when there's a yarn dominance success story to compare it to -- so I worked up a pair of mittens with white dominant, and then launched into a third that begins with green dominant, and switches to 'whatever' after the thumb gusset is set aside. 

The Pair and a Spare in a Tea Shoppe

Sitting in a local tea shop on a hot day with a workbasket and some mittens to finish ... what could have been more delightful?  Can you tell which mitten is the spare? 

The May mail brought me a cardigan.  I had to put it on right away, to make sure the sleeves were as long as I had thought they were when I mailed it off to the designer.  They were!  I thought I'd have to set it aside until October, but we had a few cool days that allowed for its wearing. 

Grace: The Cardigan

In other news, our dog - like all canines, and indeed, like all people - is getting old.  He has a limp - unless it's possible to have more than one limp, in which case I'd give him 2 or 3 of them.  Arthritis in spine, hips, and shoulders, plus some neuropathy in the hind end, and we're not sure how much longer he will be getting around.  He still loves going on walks, and prances like a puppy for the first 30 yards or so, before settling in to whatever gait works that particular day.  When we were up at my mom's, he made several slow treks around the yard, catching up on the smells, before heading off through ditch and cornfield to see what he could find over in the woods.  He found a minivan with someone who stopped to see if the poor doggie was lost!  His new best friend!!

Quality of life?  He's got it. 

A friend asked for a photo of the counterpane progress, so I took a break from knitting it to get the 28 completed squares sewn together.  Voila!

I'd be roaring along on that, but another project cropped up with a deadline, so I cast on for a vest.  I knit up some swatches, made some gauge calculations, plotted out how many stitches to cast on, considered the increase after the ribbing, didn't like my figures, changed them, cast on, still didn't like the figures ....

 

and after a decent interval, pinned it out and took a photo.  Because photos lie MUCH less than the actual swatch does.  It's knitting, you know, and knitting stretches.  This photo is NOT of a 40" vest.  So I left it pinned out (because otherwise, I would convince myself that it was 40"), recalculated, re-cast on, and am merrily sailing away up the back of a vest.  

If I weren't, I'd probably be knitting a Nattroje in HolstGarn's Coast.  Or Frangipani's Falmouth Navy. Or .... so many ideas, so little time!  I've got some lovely skeins of yarn marinating in the stash, too, that should be lovely finished projects.  But one thing at a time.

Today's thing:  Vest + Weeding.

One week into summer ...

We seem to have gone from winter to summer, and now back to spring.  During the lovely warm spell, much yard clean-up happened, and the garden was planted with tomato and pepper seedlings, and beans and  cukes and turnips.  The kale and chard that I planted earlier, along with volunteer dill, calendula, and maple seedlings, are up. 

The maple seedlings are being pulled up.

Yesterday I spotted a hummingbird, and put out the feeder.  Today I saw an oriole.

Oriole

Same oriole?  Or another one?

At supper today, there were 5 male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks jockeying for position.

I finished the sample knit and got that mailed off, put together all the counterpane squares I had, knit #29, and have started in on another sample knit. In the SysAdmin world, I'm trying to learn more about how TransFirst works from the merchant end of things. There's always something to learn!

And, happily, always something to knit. 

May is coming in like a Cheetah

Whoosh! Just when I think that my days are going to lapse into quietness, and I will need to be disciplined so that I don't fall into sloth, something drops into my lap.  Usually followed by several other somethings.  Believe it or not, I said "No" to a new enterprise this week.

Really.  And no one twisted my arm, either.  There is hope for me.

Because things were slow, and because Certain People have been dangling lovely sweaters in front of my virtual eyes, I ordered some yarn so I could swatch for knitting up sweaters at fine gauges.  The yarn arrived (oh, and the needles arrived too.  14" stainless steel skewers at 2.0 and 2.15 mm. If anyone uses them for kebabs, they will need to replace them with shiny new needles.  At $1 and $3 a set, it won't hurt the pocket too much.)    And because I'm adventurous, I enlarged a photo on a website and attempted to knit a star motif from a photo.  The first half came out nicely, but different from what I was planning on, so I switched to a new pattern.  Hey, it's a swatch!

Swatch (HolstGarn Coast, 2.25 mm)

And it'll do beautifully for 'fine gauge.'  The swatch is 26 stitches across. The yarn comes in EIGHTY EIGHT colors!  I'm going to have so much fuuuuunnnnn.  After the Counterpane.  And Project C.  I finished the first iteration of it, but blocked gauge isn't cooperating so I'm reknitting the whole thing.  It should be done by Saturday. 

 

Meanwhile, summer is happening outside.  The plants are jumping out of the ground to catch up with the season.  I didn't have fresh mint for May 1st (although I could have gotten enough for a cup of tea had I snipped just about all the new growth I could find), but there will definitely be minty goodness for Mother's Day.  Here is what part of my patch looked like on May 2nd. 

Mint, May 2nd

Lupine, May 2nd

My computer work has picked up significantly, and in another sphere of life I've learned I'm developing a new program (it's important to read e-mails you're copied on all the way through until the end.  One never knows what one will learn about one's activities), and when a friend's life calms down a bit, the two of us are developing yet another new thing. 

And Filius' life has gotten busy too.  Jury duty AND interviews (2!)  Will there be lazy days of summer this year?  Stay tuned!

Spring!

I have still not managed to make my iPad talk to my computer about photos. I've started to use my camera instead. THAT syncs nicely by putting the card into my computer. Poof, photos. Weather is still an amazing thing around here. We went from blizzard with roads closed on the 15th, to sunny and bike rides in short sleeves on the 22nd. My blood is thinning already, and 55 seems cool. Last week, it was warm.

Some pretty photos from the snowy weekend ...  The bird feeders were VERY popular with our feathered friends, and I simply do not have the skills to do them justice.  There was an incredible variety of birds at the feeders, including a Fox Sparrow couple and a bird I have yet to identify -- somewhat like a Worm-eating Warbler, but the size of a chickadee. 

Three cardinals

Filius' Car

Shoveling the Driveway

Minnesotans in rural communities usually have connections to the farms in the area.  And when one has farm toys to play with ... why use a hand shovel?  Our neighbor's driveway -- make that neighbors' driveways -- are usually cleared with something akin to this, or a Bobcat with a plow attachment, or a John Deere tractor with a snowblower/plow set-up.  The others use snowblowers.  Our snowblower hasn't been cooperative of late, so we tend to get our exercise clearing the driveway.

With the passing of winter and the onset of spring, it's time for spring yardwork.  Willow trees shed, and for the next few weeks we'll spend some time each week raking up sticks from under it, putting them in our collection of trash cans, hauling them to the town compost on Saturday, and repeating the procedure.  Yesterday we cleared the garden bed immediately under the willow tree and have 150+ gallons of sticks to dump, plus some piles ready to put into the cans when they become available.  There are Lily of the Valley, tulips, columbine, daffodils, and irises peeking up already.  Bleeding heart, hostas, and the crocus have yet to make their appearance known.

Lupine

Next to the house, some Lupine is definitely anxious to see some sunlight. I removed the white collar from around the plant clump so it'd have space to spread out -- then remembered that the rabbits and chipmunks LOVE Lupine, so I replaced it around one plant.  It'll be fun to see where the Lupine has spread to this year.  My mint has some teensy leaves, and the oregano was more than ready to be uncovered from it's blanket of leaves and gravel from the plows.  (Snow plows, that is.)



A few weeks ago, I came across Tea Eggs on the internet.  Anything with 'tea' in it catches my attention, so I looked into it further and decided to make up a batch.  They're easy, and definitely turn hard-boiled eggs into a conversation piece.  I like the inside of the shell better than the egg itself for appearance.  The appearance changes more than the taste -- but I may still make them again.  

Chinese Tea Eggs

And I've actual knitting content!  Here's the blocked shawl from last week's blog entry.  Canis helped me block it by laying down on it.  ARGH! 

A Hap for Harriet

I'm now working on the sample knit I spoke of last week, but just have to share the chiastic structure which happened to my knitting last week.  I was offered a sample knit (A), and accepted it, and the yarn was put into the mail.  The next day, I was offered another sample knit (B), and accepted it, and the yarn was put into the mail.  And I said to myself, "I'll probably hear from C tomorrow with some knitting work."  C was early, and the e-mail popped into my inbox 3 hours shy of the next day.  C's knitting work was electronic, so I got started on it the next morning, and finished it up the day the yarn for B arrived.  Project B was in the final rows when the yarn for Project C arrived.    A B C C B A.  Chiasm!  Or in computer-speak, LIFO.  Last in, first out.

As if I don't have enough knitting going on, my friend Beth's Patreon posts this months have been about Danish Nattrøjer, and I am itching to knit one or more at a delightfully fine gauge.   (Counterpane, Carolyn.  You're knitting a COUNTERPANE!!!)  So I ordered some yarn for swatching, and some smaller-diameter needles for use with my knitting belt.  Fun fun fun!

Oh, I know!  In the past, I've had a yearly theme to my knitting -- The Year of the Sock, The Year of the Mitten...  I should do a The Year of Beth's Patreon!  Whatever she posts about in one month, I can knit up the next.  That would be so fun.  AFTER the counterpane is done.

Maybe.