The Plague Strikes (and other sundry matters)

By and large, we're a pretty healthy family. If kidney stones are crossed off from the list of Things Requiring Medical Attention NOW, I think we'd have to go back into pre-blog history for a time that illness necessitated a trip to the doctor.  And that week, Filia had bronchitis, my mom had bronchitis, two had bronchitis, and the rest of us just had a cough that was taking 6+ weeks to depart. 

So, when Filius commented on Monday that he wasn't feeling well, it was time to mention hydration and lots of rest.  By the end of Tuesday, he was feeling better, but still possessed of a cough and no energy.  I should have mentioned a home remedy (because I'm the only one that likes them, but the mere MENTION of them helps everyone else feel MUCH better. No thanks, mom -- I feel better already!) but I didn't.  And this morning, he's feeling better yet - and has a temp 5 degrees lower than yesterday.  I wonder if anyone else will succumb? 

The counterpane is moving along nicely.  I'm up to 12 completed squares, and am half done with the next.  To balance out my cotton knitting, I have some alpaca and wool on the way for a few test knits. 

Friday - after I wrote Friday's blog post - I got an e-mail saying my harp was ready for pick-up.  Happy dance!!!  Saturday, Filius (before the plague) chauffered me out to Red Wing and we packed my new harp into the van.  We are getting along together wonderfully, and I am looking forward to playing in church on Sunday.

My book-reading seems to ebb and flow, just like the rest of life.  Currently, it's flowing.  I'm working on Gabe Lyons' The Next Christian (which my mom just finished) and will dive into Liturgy of the Ordinary after that (once mom finishes it.  Isn't there something wrong when one adds a book to one's mom's book order, and she starts reading it before even telling you that it arrived?).  And then comes a book by Tim Keller on Prayer, which was in the same order and which mom will probably snag before me as well.  The current audiobook is Vanity Fair.  It should last me through quite a few Counterpane blocks. 

The auger on our pellet stove jammed, the very day the furnace was to be cleaned so we could use it for a secondary heat source with confidence.  What lovely timing!  (Except, the furnace guy didn't come, and we ended up getting it cleaned a few days later.)  Vir and I dismantled the pellet stove, and the auger and motor are still firmly stuck together, but sitting on the kitchen counter surrounded by Eau d' PB Blaster (which is like Liquid Wrench, but not helping).  I hope we can get the parts apart, and then put everything back together, in time to have the stove up and running for drying test knits later next week!

Hard Water

In our town, we have hard water.  I'm told it's not your run-of-the-mill hard water, or even your average very hard water (over 10 grains), but that  it's in the 'over 40 grains' category. I amuse myself by thinking this means I actually DO make dehydrated water in my amazing tea kettle.

Flakes of water

My tea kettle is amazing in that, unlike others that I have owned, this one comes close to being self-cleaning.  The hard water deposits build up for a week or so, and then, marvelously and amazingly, the kettle sheds them.  I'll be boiling water, and hear some popping noises come from the kettle, and voila ... flakes of deposit have sprung free from the bottom of the kettle.  The largest one in the photo above is over 4 cms in each direction.  Except for thickness.  Previous tea kettles have needed scrubbing and soaking in vinegar and a bit of chipping to remove the build-up. Over time, that results in tea kettles needing to be retired because of holes in the bottom.  

I have some actual knitting content this week!  One of my recent projects was a pair of gloves. Now, I'm a mitten knitter, and mitten-wearer.  I had a pair of Isotoner gloves eons ago which I used before I became a Serious Knitter, but really ... mittens are such a gorgeous canvas on which to create designs, why make gloves?  All those fingers, and differing finger lengths, and ... 

Then along came a test knit for a pair of gloves several years ago.  I knew I could do it, and didn't have another project in the wings, so I accepted it and quickly knit up Anu's Gloves as a practice 'how does this glove thing work, anyway' sample.  Then I knit up the test knit, sent off the gloves, and didn't pay any more attention to them for several years.  Except to note that really, they DID look nice in the professional photos.  So I decided to play with lovely, skinny yarn and knit up a pair of Sanquhar gloves from a free pattern.

They were surprisingly easy to knit, and gorgeous, and I let them marinate in my stash of finished knitted items for YEARS before I decided that, despite how lovely they were, I should still use them.  And suddenly, I became a glove-wearer.  And a glove-knitter.  It took several pairs of gloves, but I no longer have to give myself a serious pep talk before beginning a pair.  I'm always surprised at how FAST single-color gloves knit up.  Stranded gloves at 12 sts/" take a bit longer, but they're so lovely!

Checking for fit

Admiring the design

Sometimes, when one is knitting merrily away, one misses a mistake -- like, having a red square where a white square belongs, and vice versa.  I discovered a mistake in the second glove when I tried it on as I was about to start the fingers.  The mistake needed fixing, and I *thought* I could do it by laddering down over the 22-st section and reknitting the blocks in the correct order.

While I thought about it, I knit two fingers.  If my repair attempt didn't pass muster, I'd have to rip them out as well to get back to the top of the thumb gusset, but, oh well.  I didn't want to rush into things. 

I'd seen a photo of a tortuous lace repair in which the strands of yarn were pinned out in a lovely arc, and thought that might come in handy for keeping track of which two strands of yarn went together, and in what order they should be used.  This was a lifesaver.  32 pre-knit strands of yarn floating around randomly tangling would have been a nightmare.

Halfway there in the reknit!

One by one, I reknit the rows, then un-reknit them after noticing the white stitch at the left edge of my repair which had not laddered down with its fellows, and re-reknit.

And then it was time for another pot of tea.