Time flies!

My weekly blog post has been absent of late - not because of an internet outage, failure to pay the bills, or my exit from this world.  I've just had a full slate of activities, and blogging got sent to the bottom of the list.  No, it got dropped FROM the list.

But here we are, the last Saturday in July, and I do NOT have a full slate of computer activities for this morning, so I'm darting about here and there - updating this, learning about that, chasing down an errant cobweb that catches my eye (and cleaning the shelf above the washer while I'm at it, which led me to notice that the dish soap was placed behind the wallpaper stripper on top of the bathroom cabinets, instead of inside a cabinet where I'd look for it....)  It's bunny trail day!  My family should be glad that these days don't happen often.

The major recent event in my life is that the 'reference item' in so many of my weather photos has, after 20 years of life, passed into firewood and chips.  It's been at least two years in the making ... a dead bit here a dead bit there, then two very dead branches last year... and this year, 80% of the remaining tree was a lovely skeleton.  Great for seeing birds and squirrels and chipmunks running around in the tree, but very bad otherwise.

As of yesterday afternoon, we have either a very tall stump, or a very unfinished totem pole in our front yard.  And some rather squished flowers.  They'll recover - if not this year, then the next.  Unless the sun does them in.  The jury is still out as to what kind of tree will be planted next.  Not a willow, certainly -- two in that spot was sufficient, and I'd like something that doesn't shed quite so much.

My flower garden by the streetis flourishing.  This is the season of Purple Coneflowers, but the daylilies are getting their say in.  The irises bloomed earlier this year, and the lupine - well, winter must not have agreed with them much.  I had one lupine come back, and several wee plants that didn't bother flowering.  Perhaps next year!  The oak tree which was planted when the street project wrapped up is growing nicely.

I got a box of yarn since I last blogged.  It's turned into swatches for a TKGA project, and let me tell you -- it was strange to work with wool.  My 'backburner' project for the past 18+ months has been in warp cotton.  It's coming along nicely.  If the above box hadn't arrived, it *might* have been finished in time for this year's fair -- but the box did arrive, so the completion date is definitely going to be after fair time. 

Adieu!

April Showers

I've been ignoring my blog.  And I've been ignoring everyone else's blog, too.  Life has had Real Things happening in it of late.  Since I last wrote,

• The projected flooding happened; I saw a river higher than it's been in 23 years due to an ice jam
• Filia bought a minivan
• We delivered a minivan to a shop for modifications
• I traveled to Dallas, TX
• I returned from Dallas
• We collected a modified minivan from the shop
• We had a blizzard the day after we collected the minivan
• Filia no longer relies on Mater to get to and from work, or anywhere else
• The last counterpane square has been knit
• Test knits arrived, were knit, and got sent off
• Much systems administration work has been merrily completed
• Some systems administration work has been uncooperative
• I've dog-sat 13 times.   
• and lots more

And today, the storm clouds of work and travel have cleared, and the day stretches open before me.  Except it's 9:03 CST on a Monday, which means other people are getting to work.  I fully expect my inbox to start dinging with things to keep me delightfully occupied.

Marching Forward

It's March now, so I can stop posting about snowstorms on the weekends right?  Actually, no.  We're dancing around the edge of a major storm tomorrow, and are in the 3-14" range, based on projections from the last few days.  Wet, heavy snow, they say - with lots of warnings about how shoveling wet, heavy snow can impact one's health.

And then next Wednesday, it'll rain.  With possible flooding, since the storm drains are all iced in.  Fun!

Knitting actually happened in February. I worked up two wee little cardigans in unspun yarn

How to Weigh A Cardigan

Two Cardis, Two Motifs

I learned that the yarn was VERY unprocessed.  It was clean, so far as debris goes - but my 42g cardi lost 2 g in the wash - almost 5% of its weight!  Imagine losing 5% of your body weight in the shower. 

The Counterpane made decent progress, too.  I finished the second short border, and am going to switch back to knitting squares.  Just 15 left!  And then sewing on a border, verifying the length, knitting two long borders, knitting the edging ... in other words, I'm not 'almost' done yet.  I've added a test knit to my knitting plate, and am starting to contemplate a Christmas sweater as well.

I leave you with a photo...

Mug on Hot Pad

More white!

Speed Limit for Very Short Vehicles

The Road

Mount Snowmore?

'Twas Winter...

'Twas winter, and the slithy toves, 

Did gyre and gimble in the drifts. 

The Intersection

It's almost Wednesday, and February 2019, which means the roads must have been noteworthy once again. We had a wee bit of a blizzard over the weekend - not much actual snow in our location (unlike 50 miles to the east), but sufficient winds to remind mankind that plows are not the solution to everything. Sometimes you need a road grader, or a front loader, or a tank. And sometimes, not even a tank can manage the job. By mid-day Monday, though, the intersection (see previous posts) was clear.

The bridge over Perch Creek was clear. 

Looking left after crossing Perch Creek

The road after Perch Creek had a nice cut in the drift, wide enough for a car to get through.

A drift near Deer Corner also had a nice cut in it. This photo was taken from almost the same location as the fourth picture in this post.

Truck.  Stuck.

The cut there had a little added attraction -- a southbound truck, sitting in the northbound lane.  That definitely explained why the northbound lane wasn't clear!  Happily, there was excellent visibility, so two-way traffic took turns using the available lane. Or shoulder.  At this time of year, we're not picky about those things.

Do you see the antenna?

The roads were good, all told.  Definitely winter driving, but not in the 'top 5 worst days of commuting to work in February 2019'.

What will March hold? 

Road? What road?

Looking out to the street

The crevasse

Standing in the gap?

The word from the farmers chatting at the hardware store is that this weekend's storm is going to bring more snow than today's....

Another road report

Yes, if it's Wednesday in February 2019, the roads must have been up to something bloggable the day before.

The crossroads.  There's a road to the left of the power lines.

Approaching Deer Alley

On the way to Filia's work, there's Deer Alley and Deer Corner (Deer Curve, really.  I'll have to rename it.)  Just before the crest of the hill (forgive me, you who have real hills in your terrain), there's a house on the left which has a mailbox.  After two years, I no longer see the dark shape and think DEER!  Except yesterday ... THREE mailboxes?  No.  One mailbox, and two imposters.  They exited the road as I approached.  Because I was driving, all the photos I got by holding by balancing the tablet on the dash with one hand and tapping where I thought the proper button was, were pretty bad, and I will spare you.

Hoth

I leave you with a drift.  The road doesn't go straight forwards -- it's not THAT bad (well, not unless I was on the return trip, about a half mile down from this location).  The white stripe that isn't snow in the lower center is the stripe at the road shoulder, and the yellow dash at the left edge, half covered by the growing drift, is the center stripe.  Decent driving, so long as one didn't need to share the road on a few stretches.  And - like last week, when Vir said the conditions were the worst he's experienced in 23 years, we heard from another person yesterday that the afternoon commute was the worst in 15 years. 

Continuing with the travel trend..

Stopped at the crossroads on Friday

Stopped at the same crossroads yesterday

 When the forecast calls for 1-3" of snow, you don't think much of it in February. But when Vir calls mid-afternoon to say the conditions are the worst he's experienced in 23 years of Minnesota driving ... one looks outside to smile at the flakes drifting quietly past and wonders what the roads will be like when Filia finishes work for the day.  Not bad, actually - if by not bad, you understand that in comparison to last week, they were very passable. 

 Having a skid-loader with a plow blade go past just before I backed out of the driveway was a nice touch of providence which I greatly appreciated.  The plows hadn't been out in town yet, and the 1-3" was about 6" deep.  Once I got  out of town, the first 4 miles were plowed ... and then, they weren't.

Thanks to the fluffiness of the snow, driving in a few inches of it wasn't a problem. And thanks to 2 years of experience on this route, I knew where the road should be.  Normally on the corner in the picture above, I'm looking carefully for deer.  Yesterday, I was looking carefully for the road.  (Carefully = at 35-40 mph) 

When I *wasn't* looking carefully for deer, they decided to run in front of me. I'd not been carefully looking because a) I was watching for the road, and b) I was watching the oncoming pick-up truck, making sure the two of us agreed on where the road was and that we were agreeing on where the left half and the right half of the driveable area was. (Sometimes, this means that westbound traffic uses the eastbound lane, and eastbound traffic uses the shoulder (paved and/or unpaved))  No 25 yards after we passed each other - DEER!  All seven of them managed to cross without interacting with the car.

More blessings!  We also spotted 2 bald eagles and quite a few turkeys, making yesterday a good day on the Wildlife Sighting Scale.

Until next week ..

Almost wordless Wednesday

Extra layers for shoveling on Monday

This morning's commute - leaving us wondering if the thermometer stops at that temp

White stuff in January?

After several weeks - or at least what seemed like several weeks - without any white stuff, we had a delightful storm pass through last Friday. Light and fluffy, and not accompanied by any ice that disrupted our electricity. A delightful time was had by all.

The other white stuff on my radar is the counterpane.I've already decided that my Dallas trip this April will be accompanied by counterpane knitting.  The squares are small, portable, and I don't need the pattern. 

Except - I only have 15 squares left to knit.  And the borders, and the edging.  Those are going to be LONG strips, not anywhere near as nicely portable as the squares.  Not to be foiled in my travel knitting plans, I decided to seam together the 64 squares I had done, calculate how long a border needed to be, and start work on those. 

The observant reader will notice that 64 squares + 15  = 79, a very odd number of squares to need.  That's because seaming a queen-sized counterpane - in white - is NOT appropriate knitting for stationary bicycling, so I started, and finished, a 65th square.

Based on photos in Mary Walker Phillip's Counterpane book, the border seems to be seamed to the bias edge of the squares at about a 3:5 ratio. And since there are 159 rows in a square, that translates 1064 rows in a border.  With 47 stitches per row - maybe 21 hours for a short border?  Maybe a bit more, since the bobbles and wheat ears do add stitches , and there's a lot of turning. 

In other news, Filia and I have finished the Third Degree Martial Arts Black Belt Sudoku book.  We've had fun, and have some new strategies firmly in our store of tricks.  We've a fresh book of 300 puzzles to start tonight, and a goal - master the Y-Wing!

Until next time ...

First Finished Object of 2019

The subtitle of this post could well be "What a difference a dyelot makes".

Just over a week before Christmas, it came to my attention that Filia's favorite mittens were getting rather threadbare. I mended the hole which called this fact to my attention, and decided to knit her a new pair for Christmas.  And when one has 8 days to knit a pair of mittens (and live the rest of one's life), of course, one picks a nice Norwegian design in fingering yarn on size 1 needles, and uses yarn from the stash. 

But I ran out.  And ordered more, knowing that there's likely be a dyelot difference.  The base wool would be from a different shearing, as well.  Still -- what's a mitten without a thumb and a tip?  In Minnesota?  It's not a mitten. 

The yarn arrived with all deliberate speed, and Filia now has proper mittens, making them the first Finished Object of 2019!

Mending has also been happening.  My 2016 Sanquhar gloves were getting a bit thin in the thumb, so I duplicate-stitched a small area before anything actually became a hole.  While those were in the mending pile, I wore a different pair of gloves...

And they, too, attracted my attention for mending.  I reknit the thumb (it had been previously mended) and added some reinforcement to the other thumb, which hadn't given way - yet.

My goal of thrift/recycle/tossing an item each day has been happening, as have technique exercises on the harp.  Current audiobook is Augustine's Confessions (which is going along MUCH better than trying to read the Great Books version, in which I bog down in the second paragraph). 

Until next time ...

Happy New Year!

Reading Challenge 2018 was successfully completed, thanks to the library's prompt sending of and postal delivery of Arabella of Mars.  I'm all set for 2019 with the Modern Mrs Darcy's reading categories, and may well save A Gentleman in Moscow for my Christmas Eve reading this year.

Although I'd like to call the Sanquhar gloves my first finished object of 2019, they were finished in 2018, on the 29th.  And my next finished object was also finished in December. When the calendar changed to 2019, I had no projects on the needle.  

Twined Fingerless Mitts

That's only because I was between squares on the counterpane.  59 squares down, 21 to go -- and then the borders, and then perhaps an edging. My counterpane listening is The Laughing Cavalier, by Baroness Orczy.  I've two chapters left, and am looking forward to my listening time today.  There's a damsel in distress to rescue!

Today's thing to ponder: "Give heed to yourself..."  What an interesting way to start an instruction.  It's not "give heed to this instruction", but "give heed to yourself".  And so I contemplate -- why?   And what's the etymology of 'give heed' anyway?  What's a heed?  

Destashing 2019 is moving along nicely.

Happy New Year, dear reader!

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!