Ill mannered yarn

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

Remember that Chinese Red Vest I mentioned yesterday? I picked it up this morning and started to knit, first completing the fronts, then the back to finish up the mainbody of the vest. And then came time to bind off the shoulders.

Fighting to stay free, the stitches kept jumping off the needles when I wasn’t looking. Taking a leap, they ran down away from the bind off. A springing yarn, the Gedifra merino had plenty of energy and obviously a mind of its own. Added and abetted in this endeavor by the ebony needles, I finally cried enough, sliding them onto one needle. Alternating the recalcitrant escapees from both front and back I forced them into submission with a K2tog and psso, locking them in pairs for the life of the waistcoat.

You think I could find my scissors after this? No, it was declaring its support for the integrity of the yarn by hiding.

I hate biting off yarn.

The first picture is as of 2004, and how it appeared for the last several weeks as it sulked on the living room window sill, waiting for me to finish up socks and baby sweaters. The second picture is after fmy victory on the shoulders. And finally,my status just before going out the door for services. The facings are done on the fronts, and the neck is finished. Although not without spending 15 minutes rooting through the stash before finding the remaining ball of yarn from the same dye lot. [I had decided I was not going to cry even if I was 20 m of yarn short]. All I have left to do is the armholes.
the red vest me me

Vacation Dreams

This is what I would really like to do, if I had all the money and the time. Just when we are in the midst of winter here, I would fly to Sanitago, Chile then board the boat for a cruise to Antartica. Failing the money for such a trip, I could instead sail from Kirkenese in the middle of winter, down the Fjords to Bergen on the Hurtigruten. It should be quiet; it most certainly would be dark. I am not sure how it would be for photography, but knitting should not be an issue.

Maybe it is not such a good idea that I have a day off. I find reading the vacation section of the Süddeutsche just full of good ideas.

-Holly

Not a cat

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

It took about 15 minutes to untangle the three balls of yarn attached to the top of my Chinese Red Vest (from Folk Vests). Having a tendency to like all the pieces to be the same length, I knit the body in one piece up to the armholes, then attached additional yarn balls and kept on going. After a while, those three balls of yarn have a tendency to fall apart and get tangled. I may have creeped up row at a time, but the decreases match exactly. Measuring it out, and counting the stitches – I had actually finished the decrease sequences and was at the point of continuing straight up.

Then I stopped, and the vest has been sitting since sometime in 2004. Last month I joined the Red Sweater KAL and committed myself to finishing it up. While I was at it, I listed it as my UFO to complete for a follow-on to the March Madness Sweater Group.. I have knit another 5 cm, leaving only 3cm till I start the neck shaping in the front.

This is progress.

And then there are the following Finished Objects! – the worsted weight Horcrux socks I started yesterday are complete. Knit on 3,75 Lantern Moon double points. The yarn is colorway Monet from Collinette. There is also the Sweater Vest designed by Mac & Me which is finally blocked (and really needs a nice decorative closure.) This is, of course, the obligate mirror picture since otherwise I would have to ask one of the kids to take a photo for me.

Finished Sox the finished sweater on

Audio Books

After buzzing directly through ‘5 and #6 in the Stephanie Plum series, I started Finding Moon by Tony Hillerman, who is primarily known for his Navajo Mystery Stories. On the surface, this is a simple tale of a man traveling to Viet Nam in Spring of 1975 to retrieve a young daughter of his recently deceased brother. Set against the background of the collapsing regime in Saigon, it is a shrewd look at the chaos of the time. The characters are excellent, and more than realistic of those who inhabited that time, living and surviving off the needs of the governments and the Company. Sometimes I forget how long we have had the tradition of contractors for those jobs which the US Government does not wish to do directly. Perhaps it would not be as interesting to someone who was not old enough to have personally experienced the VietNam era, but I found it intensely interesting.

Other

And then there was the Bris late this afternoon. Given the absence of a local mohel, it takes a bit of organizing to get the services of one from either Strasbourgh or Zürich. It was quick, with almost no ceremony or ritual attached. Given that it is also Pesach and the Gemeinde’s Kitchen was closed with a prohibition against bringing any food, poor Sarit was not able to even offer anything afterwords. The kids and I gifted the new baby the one sweater that I just finished up last night. Since Emma’s parents were also in attendance with her, we were able to present her with her present as well.

Hopefully, as soon as I drop off the last baby sweater on Tuesday and collect a couple more pictures from parents, I will post a gallery of babies in handknit sweaters.

Tomorrow starts a four day weekend. I have knitting and spinning planned as well as something with the kids if they are willing.

-Holly

FO x 3 Baby Sweaters

Holly Doyne Posted on by

After attending meetings all morning, followed by the “wonderful” experience of getting my DA Photo updated I was more than willing to stop at the mailroom on the way home. Of the packages, one was for me – some really neet stitch markers that I had ordered from Zero on Esty in tiny sizes to work on my sock needles.

Audio Books

Kirsten mentioned LibriVox. A lovely site similar to Project Gutenberg, devoted to creating and making available as audio files, all books currently in the U.S. public domain. Solely with the use of volunteer readers, the site already has an extensive collection available. I downloaded a couple of books. The quality of the reading varies, but it is a great opportunity to listen to some of the classics as well as volunteer if you are a good reader.

Knitting

It has been a long evening, but a highly productive one. I finished the last two Back-Zip baby sweaters. The yarn is Siena-Stripes, a washable merino from Rödel, 125m/50gm. The pattern is found at Fiber Trends – CH39 and takes 3 balls of the multi-color and one of contrast knit on my 4.0 mm ebony needles. I had sewed in the 9″ zippers with the opening on the bottom. On the two previous I had used a 12″ zipper and had to double over the ends. This time I just closed up the back a small amount and left the tabs long at the bottom.
Back-Zip Baby Sweaters Back-Zip Baby Sweaters
Then there is the Half-Circle Baby Sweater by Shibuiknits. It is done and sewn together. I am not as pleased with it as I could be, and probably will wash and block it. My daughter thinks it looks better than the model because she likes the pink and the stripes. The yarn is Siena-Stripes, a washable merino from Rödel, 125m/50gm. The yarn is Siena-Stripes, a washable merino from Rödel, 125m/50gm and took a bit more than five balls. Part of the yarn issue was my desire to match stripes.
Half Circle Cardigan
I also finished up the first Horcrux Sock today and cast on the second.
First Horcrux Sock
Which means I am running out of excuses to not pick up my Chinese Red Vest which I have promised to do this month. I still have the first Niagara Falls sock on the needles from Chameleon Colorworks.

Quilting

The oldest dropped by to use a sewing machine. It is baby quilt time, and she found some wonderful fabric.
Bright Baby QUiltBaby Quilt Detail

It is getting late, and I am already sick of Matzah.

-Holly

Making Progress

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Spinning

I have made progress – the Fire Colorway looks like this on the skeiner and in close up:
Skeined 2 ply Skeined 2 ply

Knitting

The last three baby sweaters are close to finished. The half circle just needs to be sewn the rest of the way together. You can see that this is similar to an EZ type of construction. You just don’t have a complete feel for the item till it is finished.
half circle partially sewn partially sewn, laid out in correct sequence
I have the last one of the Back-Zips to sew-up, then this one as well as one more need zippers.
partially sewn, laid out in correct sequence
And finally, I just had to do it – and cast on Horcrux in merino (125m/50gm) color 101 from Collinette. The pattern is by Susan Pierce Lawrence. She has also contributed the pattern this cycle for the Six Sock KAL, a fingering weight version which I will cast on as soon as I have the baby sweaters and these two pairs of socks complete.
partially sewn, laid out in correct sequence

Books and Audio Books

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

-Holly

Chag Sameach

Holly Doyne Posted on by

We have a really great vacuum cleaner. It is one of those no bag models; you just empty out the container when it is full. This seems to be all the time when you have a golden retriever in the house. Even when fairly full, it has a powerful suction; strong enough to suck keys off a laptop computer. You don’t even have to ask me how I know that, do you?

Noah was my hero, managing to find the tab key, the small plastic interlocking spacer, and to get them properly settled back on the keyboard such that they actually worked.

Knitting

I am certain that I do not have to appologize for not getting much knitting done today. I managed another 15 rows on the 1/2 circle sweaeter and am doing the gusset on the first Niagara sock.
just 20 rows to go Niagara - gusset started

Heidelberg Community Seder

Kathi and Louis started with the cooking at 1500, I got there about 1630. My set up crew actually arrived in plenty of time to do the tablecloths, plates and everything. Final number in attendance was 45. Besides US and Germany, we had members with origins in Turkey, Hungary and the Form USSR. Our youngest attendee is 6 months old, our oldest? Well, we know she has passed 80 a number of years ago. And of course, you have to make sure that you sing all the songs now, don’t you?
setting up for the community seder at the start at the start al most done with the cleanup just to make sure that all the songs have been sung

It is back to work tomorrow. Good grief, that is only 6 1/2 hours from now!

-Holly

Easy Off? Not hardly

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There are spring cleaning rituals and customs in many cultures. I am not sure that as many come with all the stipulations and rules as cleaning for Passover. But we are ……

Done. The kitchen is clean, as is the house. For that matter, with two friends + their daughter and my son we managed to get the kitchen at the chapel completely scrubbed. Additionally, the teens cleaned up the floor, set up tables and otherwise were an incredible amount of help. Looking at the state of the stove, refridgerator and oven, we decided that it probably had not been cleaned since we did it last year. Once we finished, we taped up both doors leading into the kitchen and placed big signs saying that the kitchen had been kashered and to come back on 3 April. Just to be safe, I will stop by in the morning and talk to the NCOIC as well as the senior chaplain.

Fiber Stuff

Not surprisingly, I did not get a chance to do much in the way of spinning or knitting today. I skeined the merino roving – comes to about 500 meters of 2 ply for a fraction less than 450 gm. I have only 5 cm to go on each of the second sleeve and second curved extension.

Perhaps an unforseen benefit – I hardly had time to drool over new yarns or pattern ideas with everything that needed to be done today. no browsing webstores, no spending of my hard earned cash. I downloaded the pattern for the 6 Sock KAL, and it will be fun. There are a lot of yarn choices already in my stash. The Socken-Kreativ-Liste is not on the same month cycle, giving me a chance to do a new sock every month for one or the other. Now, it also should be time for Chameleon Colorworks to send me another challenge and then there is STR. Two pairs a month? It should be do-able.

-Holly

So little time, so many crumbs

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

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

Half Circle Baby Sweater

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

Spinning

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

Passover preparations

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

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

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

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

-Holly

Sweet and Mellow

Holly Doyne Posted on by

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

chocolate

Spinning

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

Audio Books

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

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

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

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

Very Bad Deaths

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

Elena

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

Waiting in vain

Holly Doyne Posted on by

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

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

waiting for the family

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

Spinning

Since the two bobbins of “fire” singles have been sitting there for a few days:
two bobbins of fire merino
I decided that they needed to be plyed.
starting to ply
The wheel is a second hand Dutch wheel I bought last year for teaching and loaning purposes for under 100€ off of eBay.de.
Dutch wheel in use

Knitting

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

Other than that?

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

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

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

-Holly

Maximus vs. WordPress

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

I am still trying to find my copy of Folk Vests. The red vest is partly started as I mentioned in a previous post. Being more than happy to double count a project, I am planning on it being my UFO for my March Madness group as well as for the Red Sweater KAL.
Niagara – I have turned the heel (progress is slow, I really don’t like the yarn or pattern this time around) and have finished the 118 rows of body, to be able to start the second set of short rows. Putting this together is going to be like origami or the EZ Baby Surprise Sweater.

General Ignorance

After almost 20 years in the fun world of main frames, I started in the wild world of electronic communication with email in 1986 (yes, almost 21 years ago). Joining Fidonet in 1991, I ran a BBS using Maximus and Opus on my OS/2 Warp system. The Three Mausketeers (1:109/172), came down in 1993 when we moved back to Germany. Phone costs were so prohibitive that I could not afford to go back on line in Zone 2 and just settled for ASCII email and USENET groups.

And I have maintained a mailing list since I deployed to Bosnia in 1998 – but this is my first foray into blogging software. So you have to believe that I was astonished to find that the “moderation” section had caught six comments. Worse, they had been sitting there for over a week. I had set filters to catch anything with a link in it. Well, in capturing originating IP, WordPress algorithms considered those as being links and held them. I extended my appologies to the kind knitters who had left comments and hope that they come back sometime.

New Books

The following all arrived in the mail today, and it is an interesting mix of Urban Fantasy along with a Spinning Books:

Color In SpinningMoonshineProtector Of the FlightUnshapely ThingsTempting Evil

Which means that the cassette recorder will be put away in favor of books in the hand. I can do mindless knitting at the same time. Multi-tasking occasionally really works.

-Holly

Niagara Fell!

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

As I was working my way down the leg of this sock, I took a good look at it. And at the needles in my hands. Oops. There was obviously something wrong with the way it looked. I had been wondering about the flimsy feel of the fabric hand. And I had been blaming the slightly limp yarn that really has limited resiliency. But it was designed to be knit on 2,0 -> 2,5 mm needles. Not on the 3,5 mm that were in my hands.

You see, I had just finished up that vest on 6,0 mms and grabbed the rosewood double points lying inocently on the table next to my chair. Anything feels smaller after fat yarn and equally fat needles.

Leg on first Niagara Falls Sock

You can see where I identified the problem, just at the bottom of the stockinette portion. The lower round of lace is knit on the finer needles and looks much better. The heel is done in seed stitch. I do like the blue, but really don’t care for splatter pattern yarn, or the lace pattern, which is why I have eliminated two repeats in favor of the stockinette insert.

I am a bit farther on the 1/2 circle Baby Sweater –
27 March 03 Progress on the 1/2 Circle Baby Sweater

Books & Audio Books

It took a second trip, but my brain re-engaged this morning enough to grab the bag of library returned. After checking in everything, I was down to one cassette set (for some reason, the PHV Library has a sticker on every tape rather than the box) and one book. This meant I felt free to check out a 3-CD Radio Broadcast entitled Superman Lives Again, High Profile by Robert B Parker and Puss ‘n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown.

This was my reward for staying awake this morning in the Joint Force Health Protection Working Group briefings and to strengthen me for more of the same in the afternoon. I am enjoying the sunshine, what I can see of it from the window. What is worrying me is the birch tree across the library parking lot. It might not have survived.

Birch tree outside Landstuhl Library

And tomorrow looks like more of the same.

-Holly

Piled up and bagged

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Books and Reading

When I looked at the pile of books on my window sill in the bedroom and even more on the floor next to my chair in the living room, I realized that I have become significantly in arrears in reading. And also in cataloging the books. Since I am PC based, I am able to take advantage of the lovely program BookCat to keep track of everything. After all, with publishers re-releasing books with new covers, I have saved the original price of the shareware just by avoiding duplicates. And, if I do wind up with duplicates, there is always
Bookcrossing as a means of setting books free to see where they go.

None of this explains why after carefully packing up all the CDs, audio tapes and books that I had finished to be returned to the library, I walked out the door this morning without the bag. When I stopped in, it turns out only one thing is over due. And it is a book that I think one of the kids borrowed, since I was done with it over 2 weeks ago. I have also finished up the 9CDs of The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson.

Knitting

I have managed a few more rows on my Niagara sock heel and another 40 rows on the ½ circle cardigan. I will do update pictures tomorrow, when it is actually possible to see progress.

Should I mention that I found a nice source of yarn for dyeing on the web? Wollatelier-Schlawin has Sockwolle for €1,75 per 100gm, I will see how it is for quality and then either get more, or move on to one of the other sources available for weborder here in Germany.

Oh, yes. I was at work today and actually managed to get a few things accomplished.

Swapping Out

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Home

When we bought this house in 2001, there were some items of furniture that had been left from the previous owner. Along with the color scheme, shag carpet, and horrible wallpaper, these obviously dated from the low price end of the 1960s. All one could say for them is that they did not cost anything.

As time has gone on, we have gradually fed various of these furniture relics to others or the recycle center just as we also worked on renovating several of the rooms.

One of the last remaining rooms, except for our bathroom and the ½ bath in the upper hall is George’s office. There are ceiling spot lights directed toward the built in books shelves, the wiring circuits having a hunger for expensive bulbs. There is otherwise no lighting in the room that is not supplied by a couple of cheap floor lamps.

Several months ago now we held a clean out the office weekend on George. The end result is that his desk was excavated, shelves and cupboards emptied, boxes put in attic storage and a way cleared through so that you could easily walk from the door opening to the living room to the one leading to our bedroom hall.

But we had left an old daybed, not having a couch to place in the room. My feeling had been that this was an extra place for company. But what it had really been doing is serving as a dumping ground for extra stuff.

Today, while George was running, I took advantage of Shana and Frank’s visit. Clearing off this piece of upholstered junk, Noah and Frank hauled it out through the living room to the back patio. Then, they brought up the futon couch that had been in Shana’s old room. They were just rounding the corner from the back hall to the living room when George got back to lend them a hand.

With a wooden frame and cream colored fabric, it makes the room look much more comfortable as well as professional. I just have to move something next to it to serve as a small table and place some lighting on that wall as well. It does fold flat, should we have an excess of visitors. It also neatly covers the LAN plug-ins along the baseboard of that wall while not blocking access should we want to take certain rooms downstairs off line.

The house is now quiet, the kids are settled back at school, Shana and Frank have headed home, and George is at work in his office. Since it is a work day somewhere in the world, it is another evening of conference calls for him.

Reading

I have listened to all the audio books currently checked out from the library. This includes the first three Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, read by Lori Petty.

The Attack by Yasimna Khadra I started The Attack by Yasmina Khadra and decided it requires too much concentration to be a knitting or driving book. It has received mixed reviews, the positive ones from the original French and mid-Easterners. The more negative ones coming from the English speaking reviewers. From looking at his website (the author is actually a former Algerian military officer who, after completing his military service left for exile in France for his personal safety), it is obvious that the translations of his works may be good, but are lacking in English.

Knitting

Ah yes, the important update with pictures. I finished the toes of on both pairs of socks (Hope and Inside-Out) and am in the process of updating the pix on the 2007 Sock Page. I also finished up the Sweater Vest and it is now blocking.

So currently on the needles are the Chameleon Colorworks March Sock of the month – Niagara Falls. and Baby Half Circle Cardigan in Seina-Pink for an accent with the main portion being in Siena-Stripes.
Chameleon Colorworks March SOM-Niagara Falls The Baby Half Circle Cardigan from the Shabui Knits siteThe Baby Half Circle Cardigan started

And then there is the joy that only a dog can feel when enjoying her current best thing of the day –
The dog - Elena

-Holly

Push the button, I need to find a phone

Holly Doyne Posted on by

A long time ago, and in several countries, not all of which are now far away, telephones were simple objects.

You got your phone service from a national phone company that controlled, organized and regulated everything. It could take weeks to get a phone in your house. Your choices of phone was relatively simple – with or without a unit meter. The billing system itself was extremely complicated: it was all about units. But how many units you were charged depended on the time of day and where you called. Even local calls had a charge.

We adapted.

In 1984 when I PCSd to the Washington DC area, I was appalled to find the phone system had been privatized. It was extremely complicated. Not only did I have to figure out a carrier, but I had to go find my own phone. There was a blinding selection of shapes and colors, none of which made any sense to me. The quality of service had seemed to decrease, the long distance carriers offered deals so complicated that graduate degrees in reading fine print were essential. And, dialing was out and pushing buttons was in.

I was relieved to escape this madhouse, but found that Telekom seemed to be on the same track. I had to procure now my own phone. Since none of these models featured meters, getting the results of the phone bill every month was a surprise. Additionally, since nothing was itemized, it was a real challenge to break the code on getting a real bill so that you could tell if those were really your calls. The attitude on Telekom’s side? We billed you, so those must be your calls.

Then the wall came down. Suddenly there were people all over who came from places where the only phone in town had been at the local Inn. Where the infrastructure was not going to support extra phones and the waiting list for a personal phone was rumored to be 5-6 years.

It was right about then that hand held phones, independent of a physical location first came on the market. These Handis were neither attractive nor light, but had the advantage that you did not have to wait years, nor be tied to a particular location. And the trend started spreading.

By 1995, even the military was starting to buy these cellular telephones. The miracle of modern technology meant that you could find someone anytime, anywhere. More reliable usually than the old brick radios, I sent mine along routinely on the long distance ambulance runs.

They got smaller, fancier over the subsequent years. Home phones did not become a thing of the past, but the other technology lead to changes here as well. Not just satisfied with the old fixed phone system that allowed only one phone in the house on the circuit to be active at a time, combinations were now available with base stations and phones that were portable.

This leads me to the problem which has persisted through to the present. This lovely, programmable handset charges when sitting in a base station or charger. It uses electricity steadily from the battery when not docked. The more it is used for calls, the faster the phone goes to empty. When it is uncharged, it is silent.

Living in a house with a number of others, three of which are teenagers, it is not uncommon for someone to go off with a phone. Or, when the call happens to be for a downstairs inhabitant, the nice ringing phone is handed down to the requested recipient of the call.

When the call is completed, in principle the phone should be returned to a base station or the original location so as to make it easier for others to use; or to answer, when the next call comes in.

Now, I don’t particularly get many phone calls. Those from work who want me routinely call on my cell. The teens get a fair number of calls. George gets calls.

They all use the phone, then leave it lying where ever they were. Discarded as unimportant, locating a phone only becomes an issue when there is an important phone call to make. But these two phones always seem to have migrated somewhere.

Pushing the button on the side of the main base station is supposed to make the phones ring. When they ring, I can find them. Provided, of course that they are not out of charge.

-Holly

Nice Ice

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was snowing this morning when I awoke. There was slush and ice on the roads and the driving conditions were listed as amber for my community. As I stood there looking out the window, I started to wonder why I would want to drive anywhere.

Calling in to the office it was quiet, and not snowing. There was nothing that needed my signature, no meetings and no crises. And I have a computer with which I can VPN or webmail. I.E., there was every reason in the world to telecomute and none to drive. A side benefit is that I can do mindless knitting while reading email at home, something I normally don’t do at work.

In between emails and document reviews, I finished the second sleeve on the last of the back zip baby jackets. Then, I started looking around for something new, something quick. I looked at the Sweater Vest pattern #081 by Mac & Me which I had purchased a few months of ago. I then pulled out a number of skeins of Great Adirondack Yarn Company’s Berkshire in color Chili Peppers purchased on sale from Webs on sale a while back. Since this is a bulky weight yarn at 108yds/100 gm, I also pulled out the 6,0 mm needles. Altering the pattern for a gauge of 12/10cm rather than the 24/10 cm of the original pattern, I happily altered the pattern as I went

Knit from the neck edge down, I am well past the rejoin for the arm slits. In fact, I think I am over 1/2 way done. I should be able to complete it tomorrow, along with all the finishing on the socks and zippers.

Chameleon SOM has arrived

At the mail room today, which I got to because I was in town, was my March kit from Chameleon Colorworks. Looking at the pattern, it is pretty straight forward and I should be able to knock off the first one of them tomorrow as well. So spoilers tomorrow.

Otherwise, there were a dozen of us for services tonight, which is a pretty standard number. I think that we are just about organized for our community Seder till the night before when the chapel kitchen must be tackled.

Books and Audio

I am finishing “O” is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton on CD, picked up some of the first Evanovich’s on tape, and stayed up too late last night reading the latest Diane Stabenow.

-Holly

Allgäu

Holly Doyne Posted on by

You can’t graft sock toes on a train, even one as smooth as the IC from Frankfurt to Salzburg that stops in Heidelberg at 0914.

In retrospect, this should have been obvious. The train speeds along at close to 200km/hr and I am comfortably sitting with my feet propped and the Chameleon SOM-Hope propped in my lap.

Did I mention that I had changed the design so that the cables neatly meet together in the middle, right before the end of the toe?

The train zigs, I zag. Leaving me to carefully pick up several stitches that manage to escape down several rows. My tiny crochet hook is at home. That fact that the yarn is a lovely, soft, non-slippery bamboo-merino may have been the only thing that saved me from extensive reconstruction of that toe.

But doesn’t it look really nice?

Chameleon Colorworks SOM - Hope Toe Detail

I was on the train to Sonthofen to attend a conference held at the Allgäuer Stern. My choice had been a nasty drive, or a comfortable 3 1/2 hour train ride with only one change; in Ulm.

The snow came late to the Allgäu this year. Like much of the rest of Germany, it has rained, causing economic hardship in this area known for skiing. From the hotel it was obvious that the snow had finally arrived.

Allgäu
Allgäu

I was able to knit about 1/2 of the second Falling Leaves sock out of BMFA Scottish Heather getting the heel flap completed on the way down. I finished it up on the way back. I used a tighter guage on the second sock to see if I could get striping rather than pooling on the leg. [Pattern: Falling Leaves, ~60 stitches on 2,5mm needles).

Falling Leaf Socks
Falling Leaf Detail . And yes, I knew better than to mess with the toe, just placing the last live stitches on yarn till I graft in a non-moving location.

The fourth baby sweater has only 5 cm on the last sleeve and the hand sewing to be complete. I have one more now to do, but I am going to find a different pattern.

Audio Books

Miss Marple is finished. I had brought along N or M? which is also by Agatha Christie. It is out of her Tommy & Tuppence series and I did not care for it at all. I had a similar reaction to A Postern of Fate. At the time I blamed it on the reader, but now I think it is a matter of style and characters which I find so stupid, unbelievable and flat that I will skip any others.

I also had packed McNally’s Trial, only to find it was a CD set. And me without a CD player.

-Holly

Margaret’s Dogs and Cats

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There was a package at the mailroom for me from Australia. I have known Kathryn now for a number of years. Meeting through a knitting list, we have kept in touch over email. Through her I have gotten to know Margaret.

We have swapped small things, and I, guilt free, occasionally dump excess sock yarn on Margaret since she does an extensive amount of knitting for charity. Raising money by auctioning off socks has always struck me as an excellent method.

Inside the package was a pair of socks. Always thrifty, these were knit out of left overs.

Margarets Socksl

They have stripes of jacquard pattern separating the solid stripes. There are rows scotty dogs and pussy cats with the colors reversing from the tops to the bottoms.
Margarets Socks - close up
And finally, there is a paw on the heel!
The heel detail

I am hoping that she kept track of the pattern as I think these would be fun for kids socks as well. It won’t be that difficult to turn it into a .pdf file and post it if she has the charts.

Reading

Finished McNally’s Dilemma, no surprises and a great reader.

A Carribean Mystery by Agatha Christieand have moved on to A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie, read by Joan Hickson. A perfect voice for the part of Miss Marple, Ms Hickson recorded this audio book just short of her 90th birthday.

-Holly

Left their homes

Holly Doyne Posted on by

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

emptyshell

Almost bowled over by the dog who is so happy to see me that she streaks down to street level and then back up, she barks and jumps, avoiding my camera.
blownflowers
The snow in Landstuhl never made it here, small flowers are blowing in the breeze and the mini-daisies are fine.

mini-daisies

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

Fiber Progress

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

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

-Holly

Needles & Spins

Holly Doyne Posted on by

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

Knitting

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

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

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

Chinese Red VestBottom border deatil

Spinning

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

Books & Tapes

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

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

-Holly

Baby Back-Zippered Jackets x 2

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Baby back-zipped x2

The Finished Twins Sweaters
The Finished Twins Sweaters They are done and we dropped them off to the twins this afternoon. At two months old, they have just hit gestational age. Although not particularly fussy, as early babies go, we stayed and visited only a short time before heading back to get our teens ready to head to school.

And, as you can see, I managed to hand sew the zippers into the backs of the sweaters without as much pain as it could have been. Clover dressmakers pins are both sharp and fine enough to hold the knitted fabric to the zipper without distortion.

From there, it will be on the zipper on the third sweater which I hope to be able to send on its way on Tuesday followed by the second sleeve on the fourth. (this baby has not yet been born). Nina left me the fifth sweater done up to the armhole split, so maybe I can get that one finished as well.

And then it was on to the second of the STR-Inside Out socks.

Through the heel turn – Inside Out And up the leg – Inside OutThe first sock is done, and I am now to the second round of cables on the leg. I am hoping to be able to finish up tonight. It has been an interesting experience. I normally do not care for toe-up socks, but there can be a real advantage to not having to graft toes.

Reading

The Hangman's Holiday. A collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers I just finished listening to Hangman’s Holiday, a collection of 12 short stories. Containing 4 Lord Peter Whimseys’ and a variety of others, they are vintage Dorothy Sayers. The actual quality of the production is fair at best and I do find Nadia May’s voice a bit iritating. Some of it might be the style of the time, it no longer seems to be required to read every last page, footnote and annotation. She also does not vary some of the voices quite enough, making the occasional character change difficult to follow when she reads a rapid conversation

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The Nine Tailors by Dorothy SayersIn contrast, Ian Carmichael turns in his usual superlative performance on the 11th Lord Peter Whimsey mystery The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayer. Set in the Fens, the story revolves around the ringing of bells at the old church. Subtitled – Changes Rung On An Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals – many of the chapter headings come from the technical terminology. I think it would be a fine read for anyone who is a student of hand bells (or church bell ringing-which seems to be mostly an English sport)

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Dream Hunter - by Sherrilyn KenyonAnd the current paperback for the backpack is Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dream Hunter, another in her Dark Hunter series. I am not far enough into it to have an opinion yet. OTOH, I am not going to stay up all night just to read it

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So I am off to update the pix on my finished and UFO pages, then to crash.

-Holly