Spun out

Warmed up the house a bit more today with open windows and doors. Of course, I will need to be reminded about how cold things were once we get to the two weeks of summer when it will be too warm.

About the time I was really settled in back with the spinning wheel there were a few drops of rain.

The clouds sense of humor and mine just aren’t the same

Socks on the line

Spinning

From Sakinaneedles I have this merino silk roving. In fact, I have two of them at 4 oz each. Spun the first into a nice fine singles and will tackle the second tomorrow.
Colourway temptation

From the same dyer also comes Rufus in BFL; four ounces spun as well with another 8 to go.

Colourway Rufus

Books

No DvDs today, the computer seems to be crashing every 5-10 minutes meaning I need to do some backing up. Instead, it was listening and reading hard copy . Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman.
Hard Truth by Nevada Barr. Finished today. Train Man by PJ Deutermann, started and finished. Good story for spinning or eating desert. Think strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate.

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Sunshine

Admittedly, I did feel a little bit sulky when I noticed that the temperature in Heidelberg was 24 degrees while it is a whopping 15 here. Still, I had sunshine for a good portion of the day. Enough so that I could enjoy all the small blooms in the back yard (ok, garden. I will learn the proper British terminology one of these days. Right about when I finish and head back to Germany.)

When I figured out that it was much warmer outside than inside (heat? what heat? It is May, no one runs heat in May. Even if they had working heat which I don’t.) I opened up doors and windows. With a nice cross breeze I might have suceeded in raising the temp a degree or two. Seems like brick walls hold the cold stubbornly not giving up without hours of coaxing.

I have flowers

Blossoms

Apple?

flowers
Pink buttons
Purple Bells
yellow

None of which show what the lawn is starting to resemble
more flowers and grass

At least, that is my excuse for not cutting the grass. All those little flower heads would be decapitated. Given a choice, I would much rather have long grass than lose all the flowers. And I would rather look at flowers than do laundry. With a clothes line and sunshine, I didn’t see that opting out would be all that smart.

Spinning

Took the wheels outside

The Paulitz
The Paulitz
Dutch Wheel
The Dutch wheel.
Finishing up the first two bobbins of singles
The Singles
It gives some great colour combinations when plyed. Lazy here – just going from one wheel directly to the Dutch Wheel. A bargin off Ebay a few years ago, the bobbins will hold a good 300 gm of finely spun yarn. With the low ratios, it take forever but is makes it easy to avoid over spinning.
2 ply

Socks

Anyone else remember the old Sockknitters Listserve? When one new sock knitter mentioned how weird her socks looked, I told her to go and look at the Museum of Odd Socks.

The Barcelona pair doesn’t qualify for membership. I rather like them.

Barcelona FrontBarcelona Back

DvD

The BBC production of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple: The Moving Finger and At Bertram’s Hotel.

Great productions to knit by.

-Holly

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Traditions

You don’t talk at breakfast it seems in the British Officer’s Mess. Squeaking into the dining room five minutes before the end of morning serving time, I was greated by a wall of silence. Carefully spaced out around the table with at least one space between each person, everyone had their eyes down reading the paper and eating.

Custom it seems is all important. Unlike other Messes, you don’t need to wear your hat here to be left completely alone.

Having a warm breakfast was nice. The most energetic I will ever get at home is oatmeal. I still clearly don’t understand toast racks; just appear to be a device destined to make your toast get cold immediately.

Knitting

The mail run this afternoon turned out to be a good deal. The four boxes that I had mailed to myself all showed up.

So once again, I can get back to the Hodge Podge,

Hodge Podge

adding a few more rows to the upper section.

Socks

And it was on to finishing the foot shaping on the Barcelona socks.

Going down the foot on Barcelona

SKP2008 pattern also came out. I had forgotten completely. Since it was a 1900 or so last night US release, I could have pulled it this morning. Dropping out of competition on Sock Madness made me sensibly look at the projects I want to do and where I am going to spend my time over the next few months. I will knit all the pairs for SKP2008 (as long as they are not too stupid) but I am reserving the right to bail, just like I am skipping the optional pattern for Madness.

Anyway…

Spinning

There is also this project which had been at a standstill for a while.

Spring Colours Merino

Books & all

The RAF Croughton Library is being returned to its old, renovated quarters. Since it will be closing for a couple of weeks, the librarian increased the length of time one could check out A/V materials. ANd the number, that is also important. Not only is this great for some of us at a distance, but it makes good logistical sense; the more items are out on loan, the fewer to get moved and shelved in the wrong place.
In my bag heading out the door were several Miss Marples, two Inspector Morse and a Hamish McBeth. Never let it be said that I have anything against British Programming.

Arches

Last Friday morning I was in Munich. Not having enough sense to come in out of the rain, I went prowling around the Rathaus. Some of entry ways are arches set with metal gates, going in or coming out.

Munich RathausMunich Rathaus

Posted in Arches&Doors, Books & Tapes, Knitting, socks, Spinning, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Headers

As should be pretty obvious, I am playing around with the blog again. I still like the simplicity of my original theme the best, but since there is still an unresolved copyright question I am not going there.

I played with MistyLook for a while. It has some nice clean lines which it seemed that everyone in the world loved. The theme itself didn’t like the random header plug-in and I really can’t make up my mind which picture of the back garden I like the best. It changes. Now, obviously, so does the header without any work from me. I suppose that I could do knitting pictures, but that might be work. The main background of snowy branches became a bit too much, so it is now grass in sunshine. I keep thinking that something other than blue is good.

This theme started out as Mandigo. There are still fixes needed. I don’t like the basic css for the pictures as I have to remember to add certain things on every line at the moment. There is also the issue of the galleries not working properly, but I think that is a side effect of two sidebars. I will try taking them out of the childpages and see if things improve.

Socks

All of this takes time away from what is important – knitting. In this case the Barcelona Socks

The Barcelona Socks

Spinning

And spinning some more of this wonderful merino roving. Finished up the first bobbin last night and started on the second

Spinning progress

Audio Books

While starting a new book – Hard Truth by Nevada Barr.

-Holly

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In-box

Reality time

Pat sent this link to me from the New Yorker. In a very clear way, Jared Diamond makes his point about governments, tribal societies and personal/governmental roles. I have always found him to be excellent in his writings in Anthropology, using the material to make a good assessment of the current political scene.

For those of you who are having trouble understanding why the US policies are not working in the Middle East, I would strongly recommend his books and articles

Treasures

In the regular mail came this from Australia.

Program book for the Beanie Festival

Hint – a beanie apparently refers to headgear in general, and not just those with propellers on top.

The Alice Springs Festival is coming up.  Kathryn sent me the program book to remind me that there are otherthings besides yarmulkas to knit. Even so, one has to wonder at the number of geographically different that have independantly developed essentially the identical headgear.The non-art versions that is.

And then there is this from Jen –

110 yards of Quivit

Lovely, brown and 110 meters just looking to become a soft and gentle project. Lace scarf I am thinking to make it go the farthest. Or perhaps a cowl? Needs just the right pattern….

Books

Read Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger (aka Mary Kingsley). A bit light in the character development and with some gaping holes in plotting, I still found this cozy a fun and quick read. The wrap up was fine, leaving you wanting the next story in the series.

On the last CD of High Country by Nevada Barr. I appreciate a protagonist who is not in her 20s… Call me shallow, but my book tastes have been changing as I, too, have gotten older.

-Holly

Posted in Books & Tapes, Prose, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Useful blogging stuff

If you have been looking for % bars – let me recommend the elegant solution by Yarn Tomato. A simple script makes bars in the colour and % of your choice. Her explanations are clear and easy to follow. She also provides links to where you can find the code for the particular colour that you want.

For straight text buttons – there is Adam Kalsey’s Button Maker. There are several commercial packages out there (read, costs money).

For those of you who want to support Ravelry for the great work they are doing – head to the site and make a donation. As proof – well – Angeluna has made some great Ravatars for your button pleasure.

A slightly nutty but fun group of people who like Icons can be found at IconBuffet. A free site where you can register, send, receive and otherwise play with icons. They also have stock Icons for sale, not surprisingly. I have been contemplating cranking up the graphics program and creating a set of knitting/spinning/weaving icons.

That is, of course if I was any good at graphics programs.

It has been another quiet day. Major meeting at work, other wise just piddly things.

Didn’t turn on news, radio, audio book or DvD. Didn’t knit either.  Just read a couple of quick books and conking off to sleep.

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Did I leave?

Hard to tell, coming back in on a Monday.

There are a few emails in my work box, a couple more in my pseudo-work email account. There is a spindle of CDs that I need to finish burning. Some papers I need to write.

It is raining, there is no heat in my house (don’t need it anymore), and the fridge is as empty as when I left.

grumpy here. I think we all have these kind of days.

Finished a couple of books and went to bed early. Might even go back to knitting tomorrow.

-Holly

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Sock Madness – Round 5

In which I get extremely frustrated and hang it all.

Imagine the following:

    1.I have to head back to the UK today.
    2.Round 5 on Sock Madness is about to start – with the pattern to be released between 7-10 am in the US. That comes out to be 1300-1600 my time.
    3. I have to catch the Strass at 1329 to make sure that I make my train connection in Mannheim. I could leave later but if the Bahn is wonky then I have flight issues.

Did I mention that I had doodled away most of the morning running errands with the Voice (currently hoarse)? Sprinting through the house and packing like made, I checked my email before turning off the computer.

S-Bahns run on time, trains don’t. Leaving early turned out to be a great idea as I made my connection in Mannheim. From there I call home, get the teen to log into my email box just in case and wait.

As I am pulling into the Fernbahnhof at Fraport, my handi rings. It is CelticMemoryYarns calling from Ireland to make sure that I had the pattern since it had been out for almost a couple of hours.

Nope, I am on the train. She texts me the pattern. (Is this woman great or what?)

Meanwhile, I drop off my bag at Lufthansa (life is easy) and get through the first security check point.

Sitting on the floor of Terminal B with my yarn

The Yarn

I knit the first toe and look at the pattern.

the toe

It doesn’t compute. The stitch numbers don’t balance. I txt Jo, she checks and gets back to me later with the corrections. Meanwhile, I am prepared with extra needles and knit the second toe.

Starting the pattern, it seems strange, there are issues with second row as well, but I am now on the plane.

It is still Pesach and the sandwhiches are turkey. Now cheese would have been fine – I would wipe the bread off the cheese. But turkey? I eat more nuts from my trailmix bag.

the sock back

I fight the socks, and they fight me through Immigration, bagagge claim, customs, the bus, the train, the wait and the second train.

Knitting while walking from the Camberley Train Station to the Royal Military Academy just is not in the cards. It has gotten cold and I left my fleece jacket in Heidelberg.

Rolling into the house – it is now 2030 I go on line first thing. I look at the pattern. I am not knitting the pattern, I am knitting something else.

But this is not the pattern

I have two sock feet done, ready to fight with the heels. But that second row of the pattern – it is P1, K31, P1 – just like Jo txt, but I wrote it down P1 K3 P1. I had quit taking pictures while on the plane, it just didn’t make sense and I wasn’t having a lot of fun documenting that everything looked strange.

So I am not going to show you two feet done incorrectly.

I just am going to hang the whole thing. Getting sleep tonight and going to work in the morning fresh is much more important.

What I have learned from this pattern and the last is that test knitters are critical. They have to knit the pattern as it is written, from charts and from words. Mistakes do happen, we are all human. When you are writing a pattern for a contest, it is not the same as writing for open knitting where people are free to change whatever doesn’t suit them. It has to be precise and explicit. Every word has to be checked and accurate. Repeats have to be defined as to how many.

Spinning

Making me much happier is this bobbin of fine wool singles.

Singles

Yes, singles. The roving was a tri-colour white, light blue, and black. A delight to spin, I varied the amount of each as I went to arrive at a progression of change. I have a nice contrasting light grey alpaca which will be the second ply.

Books

Since I wasn’t knitting – I went back to The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison. It is the 6th Rachel Morgan book. I am enjoying it, the sub-plots are interesting. Don’t be put off by the blurb, which is not an accurate reflection of the story. Good review here.

-Holly

Posted in Books & Tapes, socks, Travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Six Words

I haven’t yet been tagged – but this one is worth doing. I picked it up from ScrabbleQueen.

What is your philosophy of life in six words?  Think about it for a few moments.

For me it is the essence of Tikkun Olam and my obligation as part of my existence.

Make the world a better place.

If you want to participate –

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you/where you found it.

2. Post the rules.

3. Share a 6 word philosophy of life

4. Tag at least 3 other people – ok – Carmen , Amanda, Marit and  Jinx:
and post in language of your choice.

(Gee – and I am also hitting four countries – isn’t the Internet great?)

Spinning

Before I get to today’s Spinning- I have to really fill you on on this past Monday. The part that did not include Sock Madness. A couple of the Heidelberg region knitters were able to come over for a few hours of spinning. Once again, I didn’t arrive in time to make the Knit Meet up last Saturday (might have been something there about Pesach preparation in the way also).

Monday Afternoon Spinning

We had decent weather and I hauled out three wheels – my steadfast S10 Louet, a Dutch wheel I picked up off eBay.de a couple of years ago and my Timbertops.

Today – I finished up the bit of roving that I started on Monday – only a couple of ounces total and started some alpaca.

Well, it was just sitting there.

Evening spent at the Zwinger1 (part of the Heidelberg Stadt Theater) seeing Verzeihung, ihr Alten, wofinde ich Zeit, Liebe und ansteckenden Irrsinn? by Christian Lollike. Translated from Danish to German by Gabriele Haefs.

The acting was good – the play itself left me a bit cold. I don’t think it was just the translation – I found the world view and the over blown stereotypes a bit much (see above – building the world better). A friend of my husband’s is in the play. As the program notes state – he has not gone quietly into his retirement, becoming active in theater.

I’ll find the rest of the Heidelberg and surrounding pictures for tomorrow. After all, it will be more interesting than another train trip to the Frankfurt Flughafen.

-Holly

Posted in Home, Spinning, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Washed by rain

Munich this morning felt washed by rain. At 0730 there are fewer people on the streets. It still took almost half an hour to get a picture of the Toy Museum unencumbered by too many buses or trucks.

Toy Musem in Tower

And Karlstor still appeals to me

Karlstor

The right side never cleared out, but the left
Left tower in Karlstor

Golden Shadows

Obviously I had yarn left over from Sock Madness. Enough that knitting at least one Kippah was a necessity. The challenge was to take the leaf pattern and convert it so that the numbers and the shape came out correctly. I think I have it – four doubles (31 stitches on each of four sides) but have to really see how the X on the top appears once it is blocked. I also have to finish writing it up.

Golden Shadow Set

Socks

Facing a train ride home, it was easier to start a new sock than to work with the bulk of the Hodge-Podge. Regia in Barcelona of the City Colour Series. I am adapting a stitch patten and will see if it is worth posting when finished.

first sock leg

It feels nice and springy I bought this ball and one of Stahl yesterday. The other will be used for the next up Sock Madness.

Books in various formats

Finished Poison Sleep. Enjoyed it enough to go back and purchase the first book in the series.

Finished Time Crime (H. Beam Piper) in Podiobook. Written in the mid 50s – some of the technology used seems extremely old fashion today – and then some of it seems wildly predictive of the present. A quick and fun listen, the reader could have been better.

Started Serve it Cold by Ronnie Blackwell- produced at the Dancing Cat Studios. I haven’t decided whether or not I like the story – but the production is fantastic. A veritable audio play, but not hokey like some of the old time radio programs.

Reserving a seat next to a plug on the train turned out not to be of much benefit. Lovely old man next to me plus a lot of glare proved to be more than enough in the way of watching a DvD while I knit so Disk 2 of Charmed Third Season will just have to wait.

Arches

There are not all that many buildings where you drive through …..
Under the museum building

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Munich

Located in Bavaria, Munich (look for the British Flag on the bar) combines both modern technology and building practices with a lot of old world charm. (Tourist booklet here.) Not strictly a place of high rise cement or square corners, I happily walked around with my camera.

Never mind that I wound up buying yet another umbrella.

There is absolutely no way that I can explain the fact that it never rains when I pack an umbrella. And why would I pack an umbrella when it isn’t raining? I don’t even think about it. Which explains why I was getting wet while walking from Odeonsplatz to Marienplatz, passing by the Residence.

Under construction, I still like both the Residences outdoor gardens and the painted drop cloth facing the street.

The arch is quite commonly seen and I was in time to hear 1800 rung on the main clock as well as watch the whole cycle on the clock. (Yes, I know that all the tourist information says that they ring the clock at 1700. This is daylight savings time folks, they don’t change the time of clock ringing – we just hear it at a different time)

I ended up in the area around Karlstor.

Did I mention that it was raining? Or that if you want sock yarn, Karstadt is cheaper than Kaufhof Galleria?

(Hopefully the pictures should stay in the order loaded. If you click – a larger version should load)

No knitting pictures today – not possible to put them here and keep them out of the gallery. Besides, you saw enough yellow on Mon and Tues that you should be able to make it till tomorrow.

-Holly

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Lustheim

One of the Tagung traditions is that there is an official dinner at the end of the first day of the meeting. It doesn’t matter if you are speaking about the Medical BioDefence, Chem Defence or Rads Defence. All three Institutes hold that dinner for their respective conference. In the last few years, it has primarily been held at a Gasthaus that is within walking distance of the SanAk’s caserne.

Not this year. As dinners go – these are fine. Business civilian attire suffices and there are less than five minutes of speeches or announcements. It really is just a friendly dinner out with all the conference attendees. 225 of your best friends, when you add in the occasional spouse.

We were bused to Lustheim, just north of Munich. Of course, there is a castle – of the manor house variety.
Schloss Lustheim

Complete with moat. If you want me to add in the obligate picture of a swan swimming, I would be happy to oblige.
Schloss Lustheim

After dinner, I headed outside to see more of the castle grounds. The gate was closed. All I could do was read the directions sign while I waited for the bus back.

I supposed I could have walked

Never mind I slept last night like the truly burned out, at 2200 I was ready to finish catching up on my missed sleep.

-Holly

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Shadow Socks

Ok, yes I finished the socks prior to getting on the train. I posted pictures to Flickr, but just didn’t have enough time to post them here. Taking the 1515 train was a better idea than the 1715.

Sock Madness

By1130
at 1130

I had made it this far. There is this small issue of when to do the heels….After thought heels are perhaps my least favorite kind of heel. From a colour control point of view, they help you avoid the whole issue of colour pooling for most patterned yarns. The cost is poorer fit due to the lack of a gusset.

If you are in Germany, and your scissors are in the UK – you can make due with a glass sided pepper mill and a knife to cut the waste yarn so that you can insert that after thought heel just discussed. Scissors would have been easier and a lot less scary, but I didn’t want to take the time to go shopping for another pair.

If you don\'t have scissors to cut the waste yarn

I had taken a break from knitting the second sock to complete the first heel, just in case there were adjustments that I needed to make prior to committing myself to the second.

While I was at it – I finished up both heels, before heading down the second sock to the toe.

first sock done and the second well on its way

Both socks complete at 1305, European Daylight Savings Time with pictures posted about 20 minutes later. Yarn is dyed by Michelle from the Sweet Sheep. Called Golden Ticket, it was part of the Spectrum challenge in 2007.

Golden Shadows - done at 1305

Packing then complete, I caught the train, got to Munich and arrived at the SanAk while the conference office was still open.

I won’t tell you that I knit on the train or during the evening. It would be too much

Books

Poison Dream by T A Pratt.

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Round 4 – Sock Madness

Obviously, I am mad or at least insane. Pattern landed in my mail box about 1630 this afternoon.

Also had some company (spinning) followed by taking my DH to the Bahnhof, my friend to her house. Walking the dog.

Making another run to pick up the DH from the train station.

Needless to say, I am no where near as far as I thought I would be on this picky pattern

Both cuffs were done early,

Then I decided to knit both sock tops before continuing on to the foot. Picky patterns (lace) deserve to be knit once…

at the end – I am going to have to fiddle with the required afterthought heel.

Train to Munich is at either 1315 or 1515…

Not much time to finish.

Like I said, insane.

Posted in socks, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Simple, nuh?

I have three lenses for my SLR camera; the 18-55 that came with my camera, the zoom that my kind soul got when he traded in Lufthansa frequent flyer milage last fall and the new 50mm close up lens I purchased last week.

Two of the three lenses work fine, the one that came with the camera not. It wasn’t focusing. Somewhere, in the back of my mind there was this thought that there had to be a problem with lens. Two of three functioning said that the camera body was working as advertised.

On the web are some wonderful articles about how the focusing mechanism works, the averaging and where in the light/mirror stream all the sensing takes place. It makes sense now, but doesn’t answer the basic question – what can I do when a good lens goes bad?

20 minutes on the web, and I had not found anything brilliant, so I went lusting after fancier cameras on the Cannon site. After all – there was this nice little opportunity to compare three cameras side by side.

As I was reading across from cheapest to most expensive, the site noted that the cheapest, unlike the more expensive cameras, did not have a switch on the lens to change from AF to MF. And the flash explodes in my head. Right there, on the lens is this little switch in the 7 o’clock position set to – you guessed it – MF for manual focus.

Duh. Oh, blast, the photos I missed last night because of not being able to use something other than a close-up/wide angle fixed mm lens.

OTOH, think of the money I saved as well as not looking incredibly stupid.

There I would have gone tomorrow into a German camera shop. Told the wo/man working there that my lens wouldn’t focus. And it set to have me do it manually, rather than on auto focus

I went outside to visit the flowers

and took it along when we went out to pick up the dog

who apparently had a good time visiting, even managing to deal with the goats.

You can see the sunshine – this is not England. The weather was warm

and I had a lovely rest.

Hodge Podge

AKA tubey from the bottom up.

After finishing the bottom half – I placed markers in reverse for the two sides, the center back and 16 stitches into the front on each side.

After doing a provisional cast on for the first sleeve – I started purling back – attaching the one edge to the live body stitches by purling two together

turning the work, slipping a stitch from the right needle to the left

then passing the “two together stitch” over the slipped stitch before returning this stitch

to the right handle needle. The next step is to knit back to the currently open edge before repeating. To make the number of rows work with the number of stitches I occasionally put an extra stitch in the purl together.

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Seder

Oh joy, it was raining when I crawled out of bed this morning with less that 5 hours of sleep. Getting dressed was not that rough and my suitcase was packed. I even located my car keys, cell phone and passport.

There was the particulary jobsworth at the train station.
Informed me at 0610 (train comes at 01618) that I should have bought my ticket from the vending machine

Vending Machine didn’t have a place for a discount.
Yes, it does.
Well, I could not easily find it and could not see my way clear to paying full fare when I am can use HRM Military discount.
It is right there.
Fine, but you are here to sell tickets, aren’t you?

South West Trains

80 minutes later I am at Heathrow, much of it slow train, waiting and even slower bus time. No way could I have taken the 0718 and made the flight.

I have preprinted my boarding pass. The first gatekeeper stops me – your wheeled carryon looks too big. I demonstrate- it fits in the size thing. Been taking it on the plane for two years. Never mind that the airlines have dropped the size of their overheads, I can make it fit (grin).

Heading down the runway – I got to see the infamous Terminal 5

Terminal 5 - Heathrow
with its line up of British Airway flights (can you spell Lufthansa? Nicer and cheaper).

Yes, it was raining – rapidly ascending through the clouds

The extremely kind, wonderful guy to whom I am married even picked me up at Frankfurt. At stop at the commissary and we were home in plenty of time to wash, chop and cook vegetables. The youngest two pitched in with minimal complaints. The Mole did wonderfully and didn’t even blink at being up and about.

Seder

From getting ready (anyone want to explain why my brain kept telling me 1830 like every other year when it turned out the starting time was 1930? I could have taken a nap. Really could have used that nap).

To holding the service –

to the six (hard to get both sides of the table with this particular lens) who sang every single last concluding song. One way to entertain while a few of the rest of us cleaned up.

Turning the Voice lose with the camera – she even proved that I was there.
I was even there

It was well after 2300 when we returned – turkey and leftover tzimmes in tow. Staggered toward bed, it was a really long day, to be topped by a week of eating flavourless cardboard (excuse me, Matzah!)

Knitting

He was willing to me take pictures of him in the completed vest
Front View

What I am not going to do is post pictures of all the Kippot – go here if you want to see a good number

Kippah - STR yarn

Books

High Country – Nevada Barr – almost through disk 4/5 in the car.
Time Crime – H. Beam Piper (Podibook – current recording of this 1956 classic.)
Small Favor – Jim Butcher in Hardback (yes, the latest Dresden File .) His page is worth visiting, and the short story is what you might call unexpected cute.

Posted in Books & Tapes, Jewish Life, Knitting, Travel, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Panic preparations

Sometimes I don’t mind daylight savings time. It was lovely, having that extra hour of daylight this evening. I didn’t even realize that it had gotten late till my computer told me that it was 8 pm. After all, I had rolled in before sundown, had lit candles and had eaten while it was still light out.

It was about then that I decided to do an on-line check in for tomorrow’s flight.

Oh. Now it makes sense that I wanted to arrive in Germany in plenty of time to pitch in on Seder preparations. But what exactly made me think that I wanted to catch a train at 0618 in the morning? Insanity or a brief attack of the stupids? Perhaps I was confused with weekdays where the 0648 (and another 30 minutes of sleep) would be a possibility.

I thought about it – 0718 train takes 47 minutes to get to Feltham followed by a bus for 20 minutes. Boarding is at 0920 (or you could lose your seat). Not much time for security, much less waiting for, or missing connections.

Nah, I will be crabby, cold and on the 0618.

Which means that this is not going to be a long or interesting post with blogging, knitting or other erudite discussions. Just the above, I am afraid, along with the lovely list of what came in the mail. Mail is such a thrill when you only collect it every 10-14 days.

Books

Professional Reading:

    Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response (The Sphere Project)
    Refugee Health – An approach to emergency situations. Medecins San Frontieres.

Fiber Related Mysteries

    Sins and Needles – Monica Ferris
    Died in the Wool – Mary Kruger
    Murder Most Crafty – Maggie Bruce, ed.

Yarn

Following links from Ravelry may not always be a good idea. My lace weight yarn (remember those socks last weekend?) arrived.
Misti Alpaca lace
along with some nice merino Artyarn.
Merino Art Yarn
and some Sandes Smart for a couple of projects.

Fiber

I thought I was decreasing both the yarn and the fiber stash when I managed to spin and send off some BFL to Isobel. As a thank you, revenge or request – this showed up in my mailbox.
Merino roving

It is lovely, soft merino. Now, where in the queue does it go?

Sock Madness

The next round of Sock Madness is released next Monday. Calling for a light solid or semi-solid yarn, I pulled out some sunshine, this time I am planning ahead.
Golden Ticket
Golden Ticket is left from a Sweet Sheep Project Spectrum shipment. Must have been waiting just for this.

Arches

or, rather another hallway. One I could have sworn was level at the time.
Sinfonia Hall

Shabbat Shalom (and hope that your chametz was easy to find and clean out this year….)

-Holly

Posted in Arches&Doors, Books & Tapes, Fiber, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Learning then and now

How we have learned our craft has changed over the years. It used to be that you learned from someone, usually a mother or a grandmother.  To learn new things, you found someone to teach you. It is really only recently (a few decades) that there have been books as well as an increase in magazines that feature both methodologies as well as pattern collections with a wide range of interests.

The Knittyvritti made comment on grandmothers as she used what she calls her Virtual Grandmother to help her.

Thinking back on my two grandmothers: one did an extensive amount of handwork during the 30s. It was the depression and they had little money. To her it was a necessity, not pleasure or joy. Once she could afford store bought, Esther never looked back.

My mother felt much the same way, viewing handmade clothing and sweaters as a sign of poverty. It was only when she was extremely stressed that she turned to knitting, sewing or needlework. Her background did not let her see that handmade=loved from the point of view of her two daughters.

My other grandmother did exquisite needlework which she used to decorate fancy outfits and sweaters. That grandfather had a good job and they sailed through the depression without worries. Ann had the luxury of time to enjoy her abilities along with a social circle that appreciated her creativity.

Neither of them, nor my mother were particularly teaching minded. I started with sewing in high school, it was a mandatory part of Home Economics in those days. All girls took Home Ec, all guys took shop. (the 1960s for those of you who can’t relate.)

I wound up finding that I learned best from reading. The pattern guide, a book, a pamphlet. I have taken a few courses over the years, but find them frustrating as I like to learn at my own pace, and not that of the class. I like to figure things out on my own, look them up in a book. Occasionally I will search things out on the web, but have never watched an instructional video, YouTube clip, or a DvD. Give me a drawn illustration, a few words, a graph and I am good to go. It is my hands that will translate those directions into something.

Now, I won’t claim that something is always correct or exactly what I intended. Serendipity and errors creep in all the time.

Knitting

Tubey
This may be the reason that I am knitting Tubey from the bottom up, rather than from the sleeves back out. The directions are rather clear, and having constructed garments before by knitting a piece in work together with a finished piece, it doesn’t seem all that hard (Vejborg – Lavold; several Noro garments; after though soles).

I just have to decide if this

17 March Hodge Podge

or this is long enough for the body

A bit farther with the remaining yarn

and what colour is up next.

The British Slipover is to here

British Slipover - neck

and the final 7 Kippot are blocking. Since I used Sox Pixies pattern only a couple of times before modifying it – I suppose I should write up the variations.

seven more Kippot

-Holly

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Heat?

You wouldn’t think you would need it from how it looks in my garden. Green and growing.

things are growing green

Not true. It has been chilly. The boiler actually worked this evening. I had not bothered since arriving home, figuring it should warm up any time now. A couple of evenings with an outside temp of 3-5 degrees wasn’t anything to worry about when I was asleep, but tonight I felt like I actually might be awake for a couple of hours.

Cold in the bedroom? Hello, Minnesota origin here. Put on another comforter and an extra layer of clothing. It is cold only if you get out of bed….

But I tried it, turned the thing on, and it worked. I had heat for three hours before it knocked off. Now, I happened to have it set to shut down after a while, so I lost only about an hour of warmth. Warm register, hot diggity! Leaning against it with my jar of peanut butter. Since I had lunch at the mess, evening became snack time.

Knitting

I managed a couple of inches on the Hodge Podge Tubey

basically ripping from the old sweater and knitting on to the new
taking it apart

I also made progress on the Mole’s Vest. One armhole ribbing is complete plus three rows on the neck. I will have to see if blocking will smooth out the arm, or if the pattern called for insufficient numbers of stitches (I just love frogging). I will add more on the second armhole then see. No sense in having to do both over.
Vest

And finally, the first batch of Kippot are blocking. From “Additional uses for Soup Bowls….”

Blocking Kippot

-Holly

Posted in Home, Knitting, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Upright, but not awake

It was a solid 12 hour sleep, making up for all the missed time in the US?

I don’t often do these, but the answers on this one just tickled my funny bone. Think about it!


Your Monster Profile


Wicked Worm

You Feast On: Olives

You Lurk Around In: The Ocean

You Especially Like to Torment: British People

Other than arranging a last minute briefing for one of the Brits on travels through Germany, my day was quiet, letting me head back to bed early…..

Knitting – I am hauling out the Mole’s vest and my odds-n-ends sweater.

The Mole? Name adopted from the 19 year old who claims her brother spends his weekends in his darkened den, back-lit only by reflection from his MAC. In turn, she is referred to as The Voice or The Singer. You have met Ms Copper and the Eldest along the line.

Posted in Home, Uncategorized | 2 Comments