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About Holly Doyne

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!

See the couch, see the floor!

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Posting in haste. In spite of another trip here from Telekom this week, once again we are without Internet all evening. This time we have telephone, which is leading me to suspect the router is malfuntioning this time. After 20 minutes worth of flipping switches and reset buttons, it is up for the moment.

Clean Up

The dog had been outside this morning. I had not noticed her trip to the water dish, leaving the floor spattered with water. Discovering this when heading to the microwave, I was amazed at how far a cup of coffee can splash.

Having this unexplicable urge to rearrange the living room furniture while the other half is on the road, I drafted the teens. To move my chair to where I was not directly near the TV and had good light meant that the couch and chair needed to be moved. To be able to tuck somethings away in the Shrank, we had to sort out everything dumped there for the last five years. Since I was on the kick, we restrung the audio wires, rearranged the extension cords and vacuumed. Trust me, you don’t want the details of the other five cupboards that got caught up in my organizational frenzy. But I now have two shelves in the shrank right next to my chair for patterns and some bags of wool.

disaster in process clean me

Knitting

Finished up the first Niagara sock finally. The four twisted stitch sock I was working on yesterday is also complete and have the mate past the ribbing with the second Niagara waiting in the wings. I am letting the vest sit. I went through my entire stash and I don’t have any yarn that I can use without cancelling another planned project. My alternative choices are dark grey, navy or (surprising for me) a forest green. I was not able to get to Rödel today, so looked on line. Haven’t ordered yet as I am not enthused about investing a lot in yarn that would be difficult to return.

The cleaning turned up another UFO; this funnel neck sweater. I remember starting this sweater while visiting Angela, a Bundeswehr officer who was the commander of my partnership unit. We were sitting together with our families in the kitchen of their farmhouse and talking about renovations. That places the neck knitting back 10 years ago. I have located it off and on over the years. Sometimes with the pattern, the most recent time without. Each time it turns up, a bit more gets done. Since it is only the last sleeve to go, I think I can manage it without.

f course, it is now spring and I will not need it until next winter.

funnel neck sweater

The kids just realized that the Internet is up, so I am uploading this before the connection gets overwhelmed.

-Holly

A long week

Holly Doyne Posted on by

European Geography is not a subject well taught in most American Schools. Nor, honestly are the details all that much of a concern in daily life to those who live to the West of the Atlantic puddle. As a result, when I mention that I have to be in the office four days this week, it might not make much of an impression. After all, I am only driving from Heidelberg to Landstuhl (where ever those might be).

Somedays I even have a sense of humor about the commute. That is as long as the traffic is not too bad and the CD player in the car is working so that I can listen to books as I drive. After all, it is only 125 km each way….

My sense of humor really appreciated the following, currently making the email rounds about traveling from NYC to London:

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on “maps” (above the search box)
3. click on “get directions” (under the search box)
4. type ” New York ” in the first box (the “from” box)
5. type ” London ” in the second box (the “to” box)
6. Click Get Directions
7. scroll down to step #23

Knitting

The obligatory socks on the needles – two different pairs in progress

WIP, twist pattern sock and Niagara

And then there is Cottonwood. The knitting is going well, and I really like the colorwork pattern. But I am not completely happy with the appearance of the colors when knit.

The sample I did was small, and it looked fine; it could have been that particular section of handspun. There is a fair amount of red in among the golds in my yarn. Burgundy as the solid main color is ok. I do not care for brown as a background color. But I am starting to wonder if I would be better frogging the whole thing and picking a blue (marine or navy) as my solid color. It seems a shame to put in a lot of work and have all the color work almost vanish if you are more than a few feet away. Honest opinions would be really appreciated.

cottonwood slightly fuzzy detail

Arches and Doors

Bowing to the minhag of the web, I will add to the Friday observance. Most of the locations are unlikely to be familiar to anyone outside Europe. The locations will be posted a day or so later if anyone is interested.

Beck Caserne, Sonthofen Germany

-Holly
Shabbat Shalom

Teens and Tigers

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was one of those times when you really have to remind yourself that you like your children. Love them? Of course, but liking them? A whole ‘nother world.

I must have been totally and completely out of my mind, asleep perhaps when the youngest quietly reminded me that she had not had a birthday party last month. Would it be all right if she had a few friends over for a pool party the second week of vacation?

Or I was hoping that most of them would still be on vacation, but certainly not thinking clearly. After all, who willing undergoes the noise level that can be created by 14 year olds?

Next I was to find that this was going to be a mixed group. Ok, I can deal with that.

(Notice that she is leading me on, one step at a time?)

Then came the request for some of the kids to sleep over. This is an issue. I don’t want them in the house if there is no adult present. George is now out in LA and I am here. Ick.

Who was she thinking?
The whole group.
Nope, no boys, you are too old for that (or not old enough, but I am not going there). She settled for requesting a few of the girls.

The shopping completed last night, my final words were that she and her siblings had to have the house completely cleaned up for company.

I made in home barely before the first guests were due to arrive. As I came up the steps, I heard Nina rehearsing her performance piece. Noah was going to be downtown with friends.

Do you think for a minute that the house was clean?

Knitting

Opal Tigers, completed pair At first they were going to be for my husband, but they turned out to be too bright for him. I thought about my son, but his feet were too big and he has this lousy habit of walking around in his socks.

But the 18 year old daughter thought they were really cool, and they were tal enough that she can wear them with her ever present boots (as long as I shortened them a bit in the foot).

So there you have it – the original (2000) Opal Tiger knit on 64 stitches. They are 20 cm tall and 23 cm long. Knit on 2,5 mm needles.

Audio Books

I finished up Very Bad Deaths by Spider Robinson, The Witness for teh Prosecution & Other Stories by Agatha Christie and have just started on the Sue Grafton series from A is for Alibi.

Bread

I have Graham Wheat bread down pat with the bread machine. Doesn’t it look nice?
Receipe
1 cup buttermilk, 1 egg, 3TBS molasses, 1/4 cup oil, 2 Cups bread flour, 1 cup graham flour, 1.5 tsp yeast and whatever herbs you like (2 TBS dried onion flakes and 1 tbs chopped ginger) placed in the break machine in whatever order required and baked on the large wheat loaf cycle.

the loaf of bread ready to eat

I am now going to be brave and go into the kitchen since the kids are all downstairs….
-Holly

Goodies

Holly Doyne Posted on by

What a wonderful thing, four pick up slips in my box today when I careened through the mail room right before their window closed. There was my box from The Woolery containing bobbins and dyes. There was this nice, small box. Inside were lovely stitchmarkers from JL Yarnworks for both regular knitting and socks/lace so that I have a chance not to lose my place in lace sock tops.

Also in the extras are my new sock blockers. Sold by The Knitting Haven , these are probably the best available for the money. Unlike some others that I have purchased, these are absolutely smooth on the edges making it unlikely to catch and pull on the sock.

To further my happiness, my yarn came in from Wollfactory. In it were four balls of Regia Silk Shine in mocha (on sale for about 2€ each) which are destined to turn into one of the Cookie A patterns., Additonally there was a ball of Art Socks 2 [Trekking in color 131 ] and…..the real find – five hanks of Trekking Sport – skeined and bound for the dyepot. If that was not enough, the aprons from CoolAprons.com arrived to please the teens with ghosts and skulls (don’t ask – they are teenagers).

Finally, there was this little box from New Orleans. I sat there. I don’t remember ordering anything from New Orleans. The box says Pralines By Jean. Now I have been very good and simply have avoided ever cruising on the internet for sweets. Inside is a beautiful presentation box, with a note saying “Thank you for the STR yarn” and signed by someone whom I do not know. I am now completely confused. I had sent my extra yarn from the first go round of the STR Rocking Sock Club to a lovely woman in California. Further down the pile was an envelope from her. The note inside explained: she had finished her second sock and had yarn left. Passing the good dead forward, she mailed off the remaining yarn to another member who was short yarn in Louisiana.

the box of goodies, and the socks of the controversy

Now it was clear. From BFMA in area code 503 to me in Heidelberg Germany, to Los Angeles, California to New Orleans, LA. We have all heard of the traveling sock. This is the traveling sock yarn. There is a bit of that skein now in socks in Germany, Los Angeles, and the Gulf Coast. Not bad at all for Monsoon….

Knitting

Not much was accomplished today. I managed a couple more rounds on the Cottonwood Vest (it seems to take forever to knit even one round and there are only 226 stitches on the needles) and finished the leg and heel flap on the second tiger. Life, work and needing the frozen groceries just got in the way. But I now have another picture to post, this is baby in her Half-Circle Cardigan.

Cottonwood 04112007 half circle cardigan

And I dropped off the last back-zip sweater today. I am going to have to try something different for the next batch.

-Holly
11 April 07

Tigers on her feet

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was back to work today and very little time for knitting or anything else. I managed to find and return all but two books to the library, which means I am completely out of borrowed audio books for the moment. I dipped into the “purchased for emergencies” stash to have something other than noise on the car’s CD Player.

I even tried to be the good mom, and stopped for groceries on the way home. This may be the only time all year when I don’t get flak from the teens on unloading the car. After all, how else are they going to get at all the wheat products that they have been missing? Tortillas, pretzels, noodles, breaded chicken wings, and ramen: my crew has pretty eclectic tastes. Since I made the stop an hour away from home at Vogelweh, I skipped all the frozen goods in favor of a short trip tomorrow to PHV on my way home.

From the stash

leg on the second sock
The yarn as I mentioned yesterday is Tiger, Opal yarn from Wolfgang which I bought directly from the factory in late 1999 as it turns out. This is prior to Opal coming to the US via Mary Lou at PT Yarn .

Which reminds me, if you need the sideways sock (especially for long repeat patterns) Mary Lou has it posted here.

But anyway – the first sock is now complete and the second is 15 cm down the leg. I thought they would be for one of the guys. They both looked at me like I was insane and muttered something about not looking masculine enough. Sheesh. So the next on the list was the 18 year old. She is the one who wears army boots with her skirts. Other than the fact that the first foot is too long, she thinks they are cool. Now, I am knitting these top down. Shorten the toe by a couple of cms? No problem, the work of 15 minutes. As apposed to frogging them completely for fewer stitches around if I want to keep them for myself.

Lastly, since my knitting this year seems to be unlimited sock KALs of one kind or another interspersed with some bigger projects, I decided that I really needed a spreadsheet to keep track of all my committments. So far I have four fairly simple pages to the workbook: one for patterns that I have (including where they are), one for the stash (important things like year, source, fiber and amount), one for the commitments and the last for the completed socks. But I am not going to run totals on the supplies page, that would be TMI. I will post it for download as soon as it is completed if anyone is interested.

Seeking Sweets

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Home

They’ve cracked. Totally and completely lost it. Bursting into the house after being outside for over an hour this evening walking the dog, the three teenagers demanded candy.

We have none in the house.

Nor is there any gum, nutella, or anything remotely resembling deserts.

Now, during the regular portion of their lives, the teens will go days without needing sweets. But this is the last day of Passover and they are desperate. Wanting candy badly enough, they even contemplated walking or taking their bikes to the Shoppette, but it is likely to be closed before they get there. Not wanting to take that chance, there was prowling in the cupboards.

Even practical here, I suggested that they make candy. We have cocoa, we have butter, and we have sugar—have at it.

After first denying any interest, I am hearing sounds in the kitchen. The complaint was that they didn’t have a receipe. But the cocoa tin has directions for chocolate frosting. What is frosting but spreadable candy?
ok, we will do this nothing left
I have no idea if they succeeded, there was no offer to share.

Cottonwood Vest

knitting the facing then extending into the pattern with the steek in place binding the facing to the front just past the second cable cross
Rather than tackle another UFO, I cast on the Cottonwood. 230 stitches on my 4,0 mm needle. Ten rows later I did the purl row, increased the needle size, joining the body in the round with a five stitch steek. After knitting enough rounds so that the facing was flat, I pulled out the provisional cast on (crochet around the needle method) and bound off the live stitches with those in work. Being careful to make sure the facing was the second stitch so that only the front color showed. There were also a few stitches decreased in this round.
This is not mindless knitting. I can’t listen to books while knitting this vest.

That means that I got to start another sock. This is out of Opal’s Tiger, which has been hanging out in my house since about 2000. Yes, this is an original ball, picked up at the factory in Hechingen. The pattern is vanilla sock on 64 stitches, so it is likely going to George.
Tiger Socks, one down, second to go

Audio Books

While hunting around, I also found The Audiobookstand with a fairly decent bargain section. When I am done with audio books, I normally donate them to the library unless there is an overwhelming need to keep them.

Tomorrow it is back to work. Bleh.
-Holly

21 Nisan, 6 La’Omer

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

The Bavarian Braid striped socks are finished. They are made of a German sock wool, knit on 2,5 mm needles over 60 stitches. The detailing is fairly simple, there is a twisted stitch braid running down each side, just to the front of the side marker and a double braid going down the back. The braid continues down the foot through the toe which is shaped inside the braid until the last several rounds. The color is actually much closer to the second two photos. Amazing the difference between indoor without flash and outdoor pix.

Bavarian Braided Sock in patterned blue sockyarn sock back detail toe detail

The fire yarn is now wound and some gauges have been made. I obviously (well to me) was going to have to do some adjusting. What it looks like is that I will wind up with is 25 stitches/10 cm. Doesn’t match any of the suggested ones for the Cottonwood. So I am adjusting the pattern down to 228 stitches, which will give me 4 repeats of the pattern on each front and 8 for the back with a couple of extra edge stitches to even things out.
I like the colors in the ball, and the burgundy seems to be a good contrast, and not as pink as it appears in this picture.
yarn and swatch started for Cottonwood Vest

Home stuff

Not a teen is interesting in counting the Omer. They are not interested in anything but planning the post Pesach dinner out. And you think that they would all help clean up the terrace and grounds? Noah pitched in for a while, but when I looked out – all I saw was George getting rid of the cobwebs. As you probably figured out, I was happily ensconced in a chair and knitting.
George still working on the terrace

Blocked on two fronts

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Knitting

Progress! I finished up the armholes early this afternoon, then dunked the sweater before patting it out to block it. The original pattern had called for one row of purls around the armhole, then bind off in knit. I thought it looked rather unfinished in the book picture, and it was even more so up close. As a result, I added a band in the same pattern as the neck, bottom and front facings, only narrower. I think it looks rather nice. The yarn is Gedifra’s For You in red, knit on 3,5 mm needles.
Chinese Red Being blocked neck and shoulder detail

I had enough energy that I pulled out one of the orphan socks and started to make it a mate. It was as good an excuse as any to test drive the 15 cm bamboo needles in size 2,5mm that I picked up at Rödel today. I like the feel and the flex, but they are lacking in the really sharp points that are nice to have if you are doing twisted stitch patterns. I should be past the gusset decreases before I call it quits for the night.
me

Next Project

I am going for the Cottonwood Vest out of Folk Vests. I picked up some burgundy merino today for the main color, and will use the fire roving handspun for the contrast color. Since I have no interest in a vest as big around as this one, I chose it because the patterning lends itself easily to gauge changes and reduction of stitches.
me me

What to eat?

Any other time of year I can go to the Fußgänger Zone in Heidelberg, plow through the crowds and head home totally oblivious to the food.

But not during Passover. I notice everything to eat that is for sale; all the people walking by with take-away in their hands. All the walk up counters that line the Hauptstraße seem to be teaming with people.

And things that would normally not interest me at all are starting to smell good.

I know it has to be related to the issue of “permission.” Since normally I could choose to eat almost anything, but don’t; it does not tempt me. But today, in spite of a late breakfast, I was hungry when I ran my errands downtown. With stomach rumbling, there seemed to be a bakery every 50 meters with luscious pastries on display. Nordsee fish shops had out their crusty baguettes filled with lox or fried fish cakes. The sidewalk cafés were open and starting to do business. Couples, families and friends sat relaxing over a beer and watching the crowds pass by.

It was about this time that I really figured out that even if I wanted something to eat, it was going to be unlikely that I would be able to find anything. Certainly not any of the shops serving things in bread, or breaded; not even considering the animals or creatures from which it had been prepared.

Then I started looking. Other than the fresh fruits and vegetables in Kaufhof’s Markthalle, the only possibility that I found (and unsurprisingly in the same place) was Matjesfilet. With sour cream and dill, plain, with onions or with a sour cream & beet combination – those would be on the edible list. All the other fish concoctions had sea food of one kind or another.

But the thought of herring just did not do anything for me, and I headed home.

Besides, they didn’t offer even plastic silverware with their containers of food.

Audio Books

Total mindless stories today. First one of the Gallagher Series by Nora Roberts which was much better as an abbreviated audio book than as an original read, then followed by Anne McCaffrey from her Pegasus series.

-Holly

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.