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. 

More April snows

The projected winter storm hit as projected, and was significant enough to get elevated to Blizzard status and cancel church services.  Unhappily for my sugar consumption, I'd made treats for our fellowship time after church and had an abundance of salted nut bars and chocolate molasses chews.  Willpower for opened treats in the house is not my strong suit.  Some yet survive in the freezer, though!

I took before/during/after pictures of our weather, and my tablet is refusing to upload them.  I'm giving myself 30 minutes to work on the upload, and you will know I was successful if this post has weekend photos in it. 

Today's winter storm got downgraded to a winter weather advisory.  School districts less than 30 miles from us are either closed or closing shortly, so I wouldn't be suprised if it got upgraded to a storm again.  It's currently snowing at a calm, deliberate pace.  And Filia is at work, 17 miles of country roads away.

So much for Minnesota weather.

In other news, I'm plotting to abandon Facebook and use a simpler platform called MeWe that has the delightful features of letting me choose what I want to see and in which order, and also no ads.  The only drawback is that lots of my friends aren't there yet.

Knitting-wise, I'm back to the counterpane.  A Hap for Harriet is completed and blocking behind me.  A sample knit is in the mail to me.  I've a pattern proposal to submit, and some new yarns to figure out what to do with.  Plenty of activity there, in other words.

New Felted Clogs

A Hap for Me, In Progress

Gardening isn't going so well.  Last April, I was busily cracking my shin on a wheelchair, bike riding, cleaning the yard, making nettle soup, and other such outdoor activities.  This April, the nettles aren't even up yet and cleaning the yard has involved shoveling snow.  I am debating whether to repot my tomatoes, or not.  Vir's tobacco seedlings haven't, with one exception, bothered to emerge from the soil yet.  My decision to direct-seed kale may not have been a good one.  The seeds aren't in the ground yet, at least!  But warmer weather is in the forecast, so perhaps there will be time to garden before the first frost.  To give you an idea -- to qualify for crop insurance in MN, corn can be planted no earlier than April 11th, and soybeans by April 21st.  It's the 18th.  Farm tractors still have snowplows attached to them, not plows, harrows, and seeders.  Fieldwork does not usually include bulldozing the snow off the field.  And oh, it's going to be muddy when the thaw hits.

Morning, April 13th

Morning, April 14th.

Morning, April 15th

Between the April Snows

We're having a fun April.  I left Minnesota last Tuesday in the midst of a winter storm, arrived home the day before several inches of snow fell, and a winter storm is supposed to hit this weekend.  After an inch of rain.  Meanwhile, my tomatoes and other seedlings survived my absence and are looking lovely.  Except for the 6 peppers which haven't bothered to sprout yet. 

There's not much photographic evidence that I took a trip to Dallas.  I thought about making sure that I had photos of me and all the people whom I now have more than a virtual acquaintance with ... and decided against it.  I didn't want to focus on orchestrating photos -- so I didn't!  Other people have that gene, and I was part of at least 2 group photos, one of which is on Ravlery.  That leaves you with the following assortment

The Airplane.  A Study in White

The Mustangs of Las Colinas

The Intriguing Dishcloth

Trust a knitter to get a picture of a variation of Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth, and totally skip getting a picture of her hostess!  Regardless, I had a delightful time.  I saw Cheryl for the first time in a decade or more, met all my co-workers at Dallas Afterschool, spent time with a wonderful assortment of knitters, including several Master Hand Knitting Committee members I'd not met before, and had a bit of time for knitting around the edges.  (My traveling knitting ended up being the counterpane AND a scarf.  Good things, too.  The scarf was in a splitty gray yarn and made for Very Bad Airplane Knitting, so I worked on the counterpane ... until the cable separated a bit from the needle (on a fixed circular), when I switched back to the scarf, until the vendor hall opened on Friday ...  three more squares done, and I'm about halfway through the scarf now. 

It was a delightful trip. 

Maundy Thursday

I'm really terrible about writing a marketable blog post, paying careful attention to titles and tags and photos and first lines -- but if you've read more than two posts of mine, you knew that already.

One test knit is completed and mailed off; the second ought to get finished tonight, blocked tomorrow, dried on Saturday, and mailed off on Monday. On Tuesday, I'm going to need some traveling knitting, and I am dithering about what I ought to start.  The Counterpane is a great standby project -- but white cotton on a cone is not an ideal traveling companion.  If I keep dithering, though, maybe that's what I'll end up with. Socks are a possibility, but I don't have enough of any one color in my stash to make a hard-wearing pair (and that counts using a contrasting color for tops, toes, and heels.  Tune in two weeks from now to find out what I ended up with.

Since it's verboten to publish pictures of test knits ahead of their time, here's a photo of "Minnesota Morning Sunshine on Hard Water Deposits from Tea Kettle."

Minnesota Morning Sunshine on Hard Water Deposits from Tea Kettle

I'm pleased to say I'm doing a MUCH better job using my tea in a timely fashion than I used to do.  This morning I used up the last of the black tea in the house, leaving me with my Sunday Puer Mini-Tuo Cha, a few tablespoons of a herbal blend, and a jar or two of mint leaves from last summer.  Well, not the LAST of the black tea in the house ... but the last of the black tea that had been in the house the previous morning.  I visited our local tea shop yesterday and came home with a nice stash.

Spring does seem to be happening outside.  We had a delightful lot of snow just after my last blog post, but the sidewalks are already clear (even the ones we didn't shovel) and the remaining snow piles are merrily melting. My tomatoes are putting out their first sets of true leaves, and all my peppers except for 6 California Wonders and one Jalapeno are up.  I hope they survive my travels.

Vanity Fair ended much sooner than I thought it did.  I think that means the book was much more coherent the second time through, and I could follow who was who, and doing what where.  I cast about for another audiobook (being in the midst of test knits) and thought that perhaps I could use Thackeray as my 'read 3 books by the same author' author.  After a VERY slow start (which I will probably find not so slow if ever I listen to the book again), I am now enjoying The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne.  And after that shall come The Virginians.  For my paper book reading, I WAS working on Timothy Keller's book on prayer. Upon reaching the chapter where he looks at what Augustine, Luther, and Calvin said on prayer, I quickly detoured myself to  read Letter 130, "the only writing wholly devoted to the subject of prayer which he (Augustine) produced."  The sentences are not easy, but the words are ... and I'm thinking how fun it would be to work through the letter in Latin.  I do great with bunny trails.

My new harp has developed an annoying buzz from the sharping lever on the E above middle C, and the little wrench I have to tighten the screw simply does not get enough purchase on the offending loose screw to fix it.  Happily, most songs don't call for lever changes from E-flat to E, or E to E-sharp in the middle of a song, so I simply tune the string as needed.  That fixes the buzz, but it doesn't fix the... woof?  twang?  bark? of the adjacent F which is more pronounced with the sharping lever on.  A trip back to the maker may be in order one of these days.

A test knit calls.  Until April!

Another week flies by

I'm up to 21 squares completed on the counterpane. With the advent of two test knits, a forthcoming traveling project, and travel to Dallas just around the corner, that number may not go up much for a while.  Happily, so long as I knit 3 more squares this year, I've met my goal for the year.

Filia had an outpatient procedure with anesthesia done on Friday.  I took the counterpane along as my project to work on in the waiting room. I've learned that I get very little done in pre-op, and nothing in post-op, so my plan was to start seaming squares.  I did, and also managed to get red popsicle drippings on the counterpane in post-op.  Argh.  At least it's white, and there are such things as bleach pens. 

Spring is around the corner (but snow is in the forecast for tonight)/  I've got little Jiffy Pellet Pots sitting on top of the pellet stove (how appropriate!) with parsley, thyme, tomato, and pepper seeds.  The peppers will take their sweet time in sprouting, but everything else has jumped above-ground.  The parsley was helped by hanging out in a damp paper towel for a week or two before I put it in the ground.  My new garden plant for the year is going to be the humble Turnip.  And Vir discovered that the Calendula I planted last year, and dried petals from, is also called a Marigold, and that he has been buying pills that contain calendula extract .... so I think the bunnies and Vir are going to be competing to eat the flowers this year.  Vir reaches over the fences better.

The end of last week saw as many editing hours as I could squeeze in, and this morning had even more edits calling for my attention.  I think I'm done for a while, until summer comes and it's time to switch hats and start editing curriculum.  Time will tell.

Progress on Vanity Fair is going slowly.  Now that I've two test knits, I expect it will pick up, once I can wrest myself away from the computer and spend some time with them.  With the warmer weather, walks will also be competing for my attention.  I think I saw two Pileated Woodpeckers on yesterday's walk!  Canis loves walks, but his back legs don't always like walking (or holding him up, for that matter).  I'm hoping a wee bit that regular exercise will help, but the truth is he's getting to be an old dog with some neurodegenerative stuff going on, and exercise doesn't reverse the clock.  It sure gives him lots of good smells to check out, though!

The tea kettle is again shedding nice thick flakes of hard water, making it 6 weeks for things to build up to the proper 'shedding' thickness.  One flake this afternoon was shaped rather like Australia -- 3" across by 1.5" tall, until I dropped it in the sink and it cracked, making Queensland, NWS, and Victoria their own island. 

More winter

Several years ago, when Bible Study was on Tuesday evenings, the general weather pattern was "If it's Tuesday, we're under a tornado watch."  This year it's "If it's Monday, there's a winter storm."  Around half of our studies this year have been postponed due to weather.  But we're in March now, and March storms have lots of accumulation (since the snow is fluffy, as a rule, rather than small crystalline structures that sting) which melts quickly.  Theoretically.  Monday's storm was more slush than fluffy, and Tuesday's drive to the Cities was an interesting trek.  Not white-knuckled, thankfully, but definitely affected by the road conditions, or lack thereof. 

Knitting.  It's been counterpane, counterpane, and more counterpane.  I'm at 19 squares today, and will start #20 in a bit.  I need to figure out what I'm going to knit in Dallas next month, since white cotton on a cone makes for bad traveling knitting.  Filius has been wearing a vest I designed back in 2012 or so, and I'm going to get the pattern hashed out in multiple sizes to submit somewhere.  And I came across a lovely gansey for him in some of my editing work, so I'll need to order some yarn for that.  But near-black is not good traveling knitting, either.  I think it'll be socks or a scarf. 

Editing.  I'm in a lull between edits at the moment.  Perfect for spending some time developing a template for patterns from Carolyn Vance Designs.  Except I'd rather find something to dust.  Maybe clean the caster wheels under the piano?  Surely they need cleaning.  One of my goals for this year is to self-publish 6 patterns.  If I spend an hour a week on the template, it'll get done and then I can move on to picking a pattern to stick in the template, and then pop it up on Ravelry.  I just have to quit procrastinating. (Is 'quit procrastinating' a separate to-do list item from 'work on template'?)  I think I'll give myself a pep talk about it while working on the counterpane. 

I finished reading Liturgy of the Ordinary, by Tish Harrison Warren, this week.  It's a fairly easy read (unlike Out of the Ashes), but full of good things to think about.  I hope to come back to it in a year or two after some thoughts have marinated.  My next book will be Tim Keller's book on Prayer, by my mom has to finish it first.  Vanity Fair on audiobook is moving along nicely. 

The pellet stove is behaving itself nicely.  It doesn't keep the downstairs as warm as the hot-water-in-the-radiators does, but it much cozier for gathering around.  The blower doesn't SOUND that loud - but I've have to double the volume on the audiobook to hear it over the blower.  I love the sound of silence when the stove is off.    

Until next week...

In which the Pellet Stove is again functional

My last post ended on a note of hopefulness that was not to be.  Despite repeated applications of PB Blaster, and the purchase of a vise, and much prying and pounding and the best attempts of anyone who wanted to give it a shot, the auger and auger motor are still stuck together. So - given that we were not sure if the motor would have survived the separation attempts - we ordered a shiny new auger and guaranteed-to-still-work new motor. 

The items arrived promptly (Thanks, Vicky!) and once I got some caulk for the hopper (since I'd had to remove the hopper to get the auger out), I was all set to put things back together.  Filius and Filia chipped in with assistance, and things got put back together.  I turned the stove on and the motor worked, and the auger turned, and ... the auger was a lot harder to turn than it was when last it worked, and the motor didn't behave quite the same as it did when last it worked.  Had I forgotten to add some lubricant somewhere that needed it?  I emailed the stove tech help line and got a prompt answer:  No. 

And so, I added some pellets and started up the stove.  After a few weeks of silence, hearing the hum of the motor was odd.  But it WORKED!  And although the room blower didn't kick on, another email to the tech help line resulted in a troubleshooting step which solved the problem (THAT's what those two wires are for!) and we've  got a functional stove once again. 

The test knits had to dry on their own, though. They were delightfully fuzzy and a total change from my cotton counterpane yarn.  I might need to design a shrug or cowl or something with the same yarn -- it would be like wearing a cozy insulating cloud, minus the damp clamminess.  If the cowl was dry.  If it was damp and clammy, then it would be JUST like wearing a cloud.

I've two pairs of glove and a pair of mittens in my mending pile.  All of them have holes in the thumb, and all the holes arrived within 24 hours of each other.  They belong to three different people.  What are the odds of that?  (And they were made and/or last mended in three different years, I think.) 

This week has held editing and lots of harp playing for me.  And a bit of knitting.

Also, some Sudoku problem-solving.  My mom gives me a page-a-day Sudoku calendar, and I keep up with it throughout the year.  She came across one which stumped her, and popped it (in black) onto a nifty dry-erase Sudoku board she has.  I tackled it (in blue) and came up with the sticking point, which was solved by the X-Wing method.  I snapped a picture of it after erasing some of the 2s which the X-Wing showed to be impossible, and circled the 5 which I was able to place as a result of the extraneous deletions.  And from there, the puzzle behaved itself.

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.

A Counterpane Post

The Counterpane Square tally stands at 8 completed, and #9 was more than half-done when the yarn for a test knit arrived. I'll be finishing that off tonight, and can then resume working with cotton carpet warp.

After I finished #8, I made a pretty little stack of the four squares you see above and noticed that #7 had a definite blush to one corner of it.  I think what happened is that I'd not totally scrubbed the red dye off my hands from a previous knit, and the yarn got colored as it passed through my fingers.  I've soaked and washed the square a few times, and the pink is next to invisible now.  Hooray!  It's also much whiter than the other squares.  I should have expected that -- the yarn was made who knows how many years ago, and is on its third owner.

One of my blog readers asked me what my most-used needles and yarns were.  Hands-down, size 2.75mm needles are my most-used, when left to my own devices.  They're my go-to sock needle, to the point that when I was doing a year of socks, I wore out a few sets of birch needles before putting some Signature dpns on my Christmas list.  2.75mm needles + fingering yarn = happy me.  I could easily use nothing but that size for the rest of my life and not run out of things to knit.  They're perfect for socks, and if I jump up to 14" dpns and Frangipani Gansey yarn, perfect for ganseys.  Although the Frangipani is a bit rough on the hands, it wears like iron and I wouldn't mind having a lifetime supply of it tucked away somewhere.  The Counterpane is being worked on 3.00mm needles -- just a wee bit bigger, for a nicer drape to the square.  They'll be my most-used needle until I finish the project!

I'm also a fan of Shetland Lace. Fleegle's Gossamer Web Etsy store is dangerous for those who like tiny yarns.  I've only worked with Phoenix (52/2) but have made a square shawl and a nice long stole from it, on size 0 needles if I remember aright.

For colorwork, I love Jamieson and Smith yarns, but have only worked with them once.  For Latvian mittens, something a bit finer is better.  Well, better if one is aiming at 15+ stitches to the inch.  The finer the gauge, the more time I can spend knitting and the less time planning the project!  (In retrospect, that sentence isn't exactly clear.  As the stitches get smaller, the amount of time required to knit a given project increases, while the planning time stays about the same or increases just a bit.) 

After the storm

We had a wee bit of a blizzard come through on Monday.  I've got a one-minute video of the snow falling, but it's too big to upload and I have no idea how to make it smaller.  Trimming it with Movie Maker results in a file type Blogger can't use, alas.  I do have some still shots of 'looking at a window', however.  It was much prettier in real life, trust me.  

We ended up with around a foot of heavy snow -- sufficient snow that most schools were closed on Tuesday as well, to allow time for the roads and parking lots to be cleared. Filia was able to reschedule some things at work so she could stay home; other employees got in early before the accumulations hit and just planned to spend the night.  Vir left earlier than usual on Monday to get where he needed to be before too much of the blizzard had happened, and landed at Ground Zero for accumulation in Minnesota -- 17".  In a white Chevy Spark, which almost looks like a snowdrift to begin with.  He made it home safely, with stories to tell.  

But the fun story this week has to do with a message I received on Friday.

Oddly enough, my harp was just a few feet away from me when I got this message.  But -- I was looking for a harp with a few more bass strings.  So I immediately became all ears (eyes) and we spent the next half-hour or so in discussion.  The next day, Filia and I went on a road trip to check out my harp.

And before we left the shop, I had a new harp.  Or rather, the shop had my new harp.  The harp was so new, it had only been wearing strings for a day.  And new harp strings need tuning (and tuning, and tuning....)  The harp is going to stay at the shop a while, getting tuned, getting sharping levers added, and a few other final touches, and then I'll bring it home, sometime when we're not having a blizzard.  

Filius learned to drive a manual transmission earlier this month (which is very good, since the car he bought was a manual transmission) and driving out and back would be good practice.  But -- will my new harp fit in his car?  (Imagine how silly it would be to drive for 2+ hours to get a harp, and not be able to get the harp.)  I brought my new harp's case home, the better to see how it will fit, or not, in the back seat.  It also makes for a nice size comparison.  29-string Logan Meadows, bag for 34-string Marion.  And me.  (My apologies for the lack of readable book titles in the bookcase photo.)

 I've finished up the test knit I was working on last week, and am working on the counterpane while awaiting yarn for the next knit.  Seven squares down, 73 to go!

It's been a little bit on the cool side

My knitting chair is right next to a window.  In the afternoons, and in the summer, it's delightful to have natural light for knitting by. My Ott light, a gift from my mom when I was about to knit a black sweater, is on the other side of my knitting chair.  It's seemed a bit cool lately, and I thought I'd stick a thermometer on the windowsill ('in') with the external sensor next to my feet ('out') to see if this coolness was all in my head.

 

Perhaps it's not in my head after all!  Cold temps outside (and in) aren't all bad, though.  You know how, after making a batch of stock, you're supposed to let it cool before putting it in the refrigerator?  At this time of year, I can just set it in the back room to cool.  And then notice it's frozen, and leave it there for a week or two until I'm ready to use it for soup.  

 

I have to remember to reinterpret cookbooks at this time of year. "Have ingredients at room temperature" is best understood as "place ingredients on pellet stove for at least an hour."  I made a batch of cookies on Saturday, and the butter re-solidified after I creamed it with the sugar because the flour and molasses weren't pre-heated.  I warmed the whole mixing bowl on the pre-heating oven for around 5 minutes to resolve the problem.  

I got a gift!  I was quite impressed with the gift bag it came in.  It's not quite the right shape for a knitting bag, but I am sure that it will see some use.

This past week's knitting has been of the incognito type. I'm halfway done, though, and will post pictures when I can.