Tag Archives: shawl

Which yarn?

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I told you which pattern? Right? Silver Belle – here on Ravelry. The Ravelry pictures are much better than the original Vogue picture. As Alison H and I were discussing – take a tiny model and drop on an XL. It might make for an arty photo or waif style but it doesn’t nothing for interest in the pattern or a clue on what the finished product will look like on the average body.

I went and shopped the stash – I have a red aran and four different Silky Tweeds (Rowans all) of which I have more than enough and no project to which they are committed.  Looking at everyone’s project pages, I actually like several of the tweedy sweaters more than the solids. They seem to have just a bit more life. Not sure that is going to be applicable with either the purple or smoky. But I could always surprise everyone and knit something in spinach, green or the whatever teally-blue that I found. I also have enough Lima in a neutral. I am leaving out the Red Rowan Aran I found – just decided that the color was not all that exciting.

without flash

with flash

I am giving you both pictures – the colors from right to left are Jazz, Inky, Lima, Smoky, Conifer. The Inky and Grey colors are closer to real life without the flash and the others with.

All opinions are welcome!

In other project updates – Radical Changes is done and blocking

48x32

edges

the columns

the point

Then there is also Leif – which has the bottom portion, the waist, the front cross cable complete. I am starting up the right front, then will do the left before finishing with the back and hood so that there is a prayer of things matching side to side (not worrying about front and back).

the front

shows the initial split to the waist, the change from panels to waist cables and the start of the split for the front

the back

shows the bottom garter stitch edges, the paired cables in the back and the side reverse stockinette panels before it all goes into the waist shaping. The yarn is Brunswick Impression which I know I have had prior to moving to Muenchen (1999) knit on 12,00 mm needles triple stranded. It actually doesn’t knit all that quickly because I am altering the pattern as I go and it really hurts my hands.

In case you are wondering why I would post pictures of a present here prior to the particular birthday, I don’t think that Maus bothers to drop by…

Building Numbers

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Blue Nose at the Library

Imagine, if you would, a town without street addresses. Sprawled across an area approximately 5 x 20 miles (hey, not my fault the US persists in using Imperial Measurements). There are hundreds of buildings. Now exactly how do you find your way around?

The answer, for military posts, is building numbers. The numbers are not randomly assigned but are clumped in areas. The end result is that, given a building number, you know exactly where it is. I don’t have to have been there before, I don’t even have to know specifically where. All I have to do is know that the “47xx” numbers are in a particular section. When I arrive at the general location, all I have to do is look for the large numbers painted on the side of the building. Most likely they are also on the sign posted in front to the building.

Some buildings – such as MACH (Martin Army Community Hospital) do have a number but no one bothers since it is the tallest building on post complete with the name writ large near the top. Others, such as sheds, almost have a conflict between number and a place to set the door.

So, when I registered a number of paperbacks prior dropping them off at the bookshelves, I thought about adding the building number – 4716 to the zone, but decided no. Anyone here at CRC could find them from the description of being on the MWR or Chaplain’s Shelves while someone at the other end of the post really doesn’t need to help themselves to some of the few books that are here given the number of people.

Progress

Made it through medical with a few more holes than is particularly fun (took four attempts by four different people – two at CRC and two at the hospital lab) to get blood out of this turnip. Sat through the required JAG briefings.

After dinner (I adore bagels and cream cheese – so much more tasty than MRE scones with cream cheese) I even got off post for a couple of minutes. We are issued uniforms, but not patrol caps. A quick trip to Commando’s, 10 minutes and I had my hat complete with sewn on rank.

Knitting

Dove Shawl


Dove – Sharon Miller
1 skein of Opal Hundertwasser knit on 4.0mm needles.
It proved more than useful on Sat as I sat in the freezing chapel with both woollen blazer and the shawl snuggly around my shoulders.

detour

Holly Doyne Posted on by

after spending the day in Upavon (Trenchard Lines) I was completely brain dead by the time I returned home.

I couldn’t face anything complicated.

Straight stockinette with some increases – possible.

30 rows down

and only a couple of dozen to go….

(150 gm ball of Regia in color Irland. 6 fach on 4.5 mm Nadels)

Burns Night

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Certainly you remember Robbie Burns and sing a song from one of his poems every New Years.

Being in the UK, it is easy to join the tradition of celebration when his birthday rolls around every year.  This marked my third (and last) Burns Night celebration at the Mess.

Altho there were about the same number of people as last year, someone got a bit more creative with the seating, making up five tables of 9-10 diners rather than a head table with long lines down the sides. It made for much more congenial conversation at dinner.

I had managed to complete another Lotus Blossom Shawl, never mind that I blocked it last night.  Note, blocking board propped up against a register leads to rapidly drying shawl.

Lotus Blossom

tossing it over a fancy white blouse, floor length plaid skirt and country dance away the evening.

Shawl – Lotus Blossom from Fiddlesticks Knitting. Three skeins of Louet Gems in Pewter knit on 3.75 mm needles. Started in SF and finished up a few days ago.

Scarves

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Can you tell that right now I need fast projects for a short attention span? I keep promising myself I will head back to things that need more than one 50 gm skein of yarn but I keep getting distracted….

Revontuli

76+rows

76+rows

Is what I wound up with just before running out of yarn. And

blocked

blocked

almost dry with just a couple of hours in the sun.

Since I had two balls of the multi-color yarn – I decided to go ahead and try a scarf with the second ball – Ostrich Plume scarf from Knitspot.

a couple of patterns repeat

a couple of patterns repeat

The basic pattern is 32 rows long. In reality, there are only two pattern rows with three knit/purl rows between.

In case you hadn’t seen enough pictures of my Phoenix – it is now finished, blocked and drying…

done!

done!

inside looks pretty good too!

inside looks pretty good too!

Panic Attack

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There I was, down to the last three repeats of the border pattern on Scherezade. On the second half, just so you understand.

I reached in my yarn bag, but there was no more yarn.

None.

For the next several hours I tore apart the house: living room, dining room, office, bedroom, sewing/fiber area. I even went through the three kids’s bedrooms without success. Thinking back, I am not sure why I didn’t clean my way along, it certainly would have made my life a lot easier.

This is the shawl for the Eldest’s wedding this coming weekend. The one that I finished up the first half quickly, then ignored for several months while I knit other projects.

It was rather late in the evening when I decided, just for the sake of form to change the sheets on the bed.

This turned up.

natural color, Louet Gems

natural color, Louet Gems

Distractions

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I know I should be taking more pictures of Scherezade. I finished the first half, complete with the edging and the first chart pair of the second side. I am now well into the second chart pair; leaving me the third, part of the fourth, the fifth and the sixth to go. I have eliminated almost a full chart from both sides in an attempt to make it a more reasonable length (daughter’s request).

At this rate, I should be on to blocking this weekend.

Meanwhile (grin), I took a detour to the second Phoenix sleeve, picking both a different chart portion and a different color.  The color changes are both the yarn and the lighting.

the sleeves

the sleeves

I like the cuffs –

completed cuffs

completed cuffs

which are bound off with both strands to give a slightly firmer control. I also knit them fairly firmly so that they are not floppy, nor will they particularly push up.  If I have calculated properly, they are going to be too small around for any of my wonderful daughters to poke their lovely paws through.  

Audio Books

Moving on to Haunted – Kelley Armstrong. This is Book 5 (as I remember) of her Women of the Otherworld series. I read them all a while ago. The narrator is doing a credible job and I am enjoying how well Armstrong has dropped hints of character twists, relationships,  and turns for later novels.

Attention Span

Holly Doyne Posted on by

of a gnat sometimes.

I am back at work and perhaps today will be able to stay awake long enough to make it worth being here.

A pile of business cards is sitting on my desk; my notebook is open along side the computer. A long list of tasks is staring me in the face. I start the first and hit a distraction which leads me to research a question which takes me down another hole.

Since this one is not going well, I try something else.

The whole morning goes like this with the knowledge in the back of my mind that I have left not only the teens but my husband unsupervised at the house. I think I forgot to mention that he arrived yesterday.

Knitting

Heartland Shawl – just needing to be blocked. Knit of Silky STR from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

Heartland Shawl - Evelyn Clark Pattern

Heartland Shawl - Evelyn Clark Pattern

Knit on my knit-picks circs (3.5 mm?) with only 3 meters left at the end.

Actually, not at all sure why I am on this shawl kick. Ms Blonde (currently back to her original hair colour) is happy for any that I will make her and it is turning out to be a great way to use up a skein of sock yarn. Seems to be taking me less time that the other option of socks.

Watchless

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Thursday morning was the last time that I saw my watch. It is nothing fancy; a $20US Timex on a well worn velcro band. And that probably explains why it has gone astray. I have been meaning to buy a new band, as soon as I can find one that fits.

Yesterday, functioning in the office wasn’t all that difficult between the Brit Army computer and my own laptop, the time was continually on display. I didn’t start noticing world slippage till evening. Between the Northern latitude and daylight savings time ambient light can be quite deceptive.

Hunger certainly is not a good alternative driver for monitoring the lateness of the evening.

Today it became a completely different issue.  Digging out an alarm clock, I needed to be up early enough to pack. After all, it would not do to be too organized.

After the trip to Keogh, I turned into a civilian at the office. From then on, it was just follow the crowd and see when trains appeared. I might have a schedule, but I was an hour early and didn’t have a clue when it really was.

Reading was a bit of a challenge with a track change, delayed train and sheer luck on finding a seat.

Central Back-Packers is located in an industrial area below the BullRing and quite near the Coach Station. Almost but no quite what you would expect of the area around a Greyhound bus station in the US. Located in a former pub, they have managed to keep their liquor license but only serve those in house.

Backpackers

Backpackers

We had an informal get together planned for Penny Blacks – (not Penny Lane’s, the song which had me walking up and down the Mailbox twice till I spotted the pub)

Knitting

The Candle Flame Shawl is grafted (completed between Ascot and Reading).

I cast on the facing for the first sleeve on the Viking Sweater, taking away all question of UFO. Problem became managing it on dps. when I tried to move to circulars with Magic Loop, it was just not cooperating.

Which left me to cast on for a baby jacket – with the number of people producing additional off-spring I am sure that it will find a home.

Pictures? I have them on the camera, but haven’t conquered the Mac’s editing software….. end of the weekend, I promise!

Military

Turning around, I went back in the house and put on Class As, the proper uniform for the Environmental Health Tech graduation at Keogh Barracks. Between my vague time sense and worry about the traffic pattern generated by the Farnborough Airshow I managed to be 45 minutes early.

I find it quite interesting – the US, like most of its allies, had a relatively short course for training its techs. They are then assigned to work under supervision for yeaars, no one really expects then to know much of anything. The 2LT Environmental Science Officers are usually a new University science grad with a short course turned lose.

In contrast, the Britis have a 2yr. training curriculum which includes extensive academics, an extended supervised internship and a final academic phase (we will not talk about all the exams). The students who are graduating are privates -> corporals. with frankly the knowledge equivalent to most other armies mid-rank captains. But not the Brits, their Environmental Science officers, all of whom spent at least 10-15 years as a techs prior to selection to graduate school and eventual commissioning.

The graduation was a combination of boring speeches, presentations and some well executed ribbing complete with slides on the part of both the faculty and the students followed by a reception.

Arches

Pix to be uploaded at the end of the weekend – see above.

Rental Row

Rental Row


In case you don’t believe me – here is the sign on the entry way –
To Let

To Let

Found ’em

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I might have mentioned back more than a few weeks ago now that my good glasses had gone among the missing. They aren’t anything fancy, but they fit and have the right prescription. In the unfocused blur that is my world without lenses, I have searched the house more than once. I had also sent my DH looking when he was here.

In the interim, I have been wearing one of two pairs of old glasses. The script is not that far off, but one pair is scratched so badly that it is almost impossible to see through them and the other pair is crystal clear but frequently comes apart in the middle. (Any guesses on which pair originated during my Kuwait time?)

I since I can’t see without my glasses, normally I am extremely careful about where I put them down (all the usual places – any handy surface, the top of my head, the shelf in the bathroom – would that I was really as careful as I claim). The Mole has not been here or they would have been found. For years he was known as Eagle Eyes and finder of lost things.

You can see where I am going with this.

For some unknown reason, I awoke this morning with an interest in cleaning. I had two choices – go back to bed with a book till the fit wore off or give it a try. Looking around my bedroom, it would do one of my teens proud. So I got up and started to organize. The whole process got out of control. Before 1100 I managed to scrub the kitchen including the floor, two bathrooms, and vacuum the house. This included that bedroom together with the living room and dining room. The excavating unearthed the laundry basket necessitating three loads of laundry after adding in the towels, tablecloth and bed linens.

While this was going on, my neighbor had been left on his own by his wife who was out for the day with friends. He came charing over with the riding lawnmower and ran down the back lawn again.

Amazing what?

the lawn has been completely mowed
mowed

Honestly cut lawn without the benefit of horses.

close up

But the most important thing? I found my glasses, the missing pair. They were tangled up in the server cords under the night stand next to my bed. The cords are black, both fat and thin. The frames are a steel grey and have been there, just about a meter from my face for weeks but I just didn’t see them.

Shawl

Have six repeats completed on Hyacinth.

We Rogues of Wool

I rarely go to YouTube, but you need to take a few minutes, all ye pirates and knitters, to go here or here if you want author’s comments. If you want to see the rest of the strips along with the Charles Balwin’s blog go to LittleDee

Podibooks

Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty. A world of ordinary people, strange superheros and some minor players who are heros after all.

Shawls

Holly Doyne Posted on by

This is the time of year many of us have reunions, celebrate the graduations of various off spring and friends and otherwise reflect on where we came from and where we are going. What started me thinking about this was the Knitigator’s post on her college reunion. She mentions friends doing well and seeing members of the Class of 48.

I am not a fan of reunions. I have been to exactly two in my life – a high school reunion five years after I graduated and a 25 year medical school on. The first was a total disaster and the second was attended by hardly anyone that I knew.

Let me explain. I graduated high school in a rural small town with a consolidated school district. Five years later, out of 118 in the graduating class there were only five of us still involved in obtaining an education one of whom had just returned to school after serving in Viet Nam. My average classmate was divorced with two small children. Various class members were working on the family farm, in the family store, packing pickles for Gedney or shoveling sugar beets. College, much less graduate or professional school was not the norm. Five years out, a single nerdy woman, I had even less in common with anyone than I had while attending the school.

I left early and promised myself that I would not do that particular number again.

It was a promise I managed to keep for 27 years. Then 2000 rolled around and I was lulled into thinking about seeing how the University of Minnesota had changed. There were a number of good things about the trip. I spent time with old friends not related to school. I got to gape at Mall of America and I even found some clothes that fit. None of my close classmates bothered to come. Many of them are local to the area and probably saw no need to attend.

The only tolerable part wound up being my table companions for the dinner. I managed by some fortune to sit with mostly prior military scholarship folks. As a result, we actually had something in common. Since I was pretty anti-military going through school, I really knew almost none of them (in case you are wondering – there were over 230 who graduated with me. Since the group consisted of both 3 and 4 year program students, there was little to no chance that everyone knew everyone else).

Since I went to a large state university that didn’t particularly foster school spirit or camaraderie outside of sports or the fraternity/sorority scene, attending a reunion is just outside my realm. I have no idea what has happened to the hundreds who graduated with me.

In 1948 my parents graduated from University of MN and got married. My father after having served in WWII, my mother having spent most of her growing up years in a small town. Reunions? Not likely there either.

I am fascinated by the lives and experiences of others, but I am too old to want a do-over and regrets can waste a lot of energy.

Shawls

Perhaps the Internet is not such a good thing. I was able to cruise around and buy a couple of shawl patterns from Sivia Harding and Evelyn Clark. After one false start with Misti Alpaca – I tried the Diamond Fantasy Shawl
The first few rows looked fine.
Start of Diamond Fantasy
and the pattern clearly shows in a closeup
Shawl pattern detail
The yarn is STR medium weight; a skein of Bella-Coola that I got in the 2007 STR Club. I like the fact that the edging is part of the shawl. You should know me by now, lots of making up is just not my thing.

AudioBooks

Did a small bit of damage today at AudioBookStand. They had a number of kids CDs on sale. I have a tendency to buy and then donate to my local military library. They have plenty of cases, but no money to enlarge their collection. Plus free shipping and a couple of free audiobooks just made my day.

Podcasts

I don’t listen to fiber related podcasts. Rather, I spend that time on other subjects that interest me. Currently, I am listening to Spider on the Web. After hearing the first eight tracks of Variable Star I decided to download and catch up with his older podcasts. He has a nice combination of talk, music and personal opinion. I really wish he did a decent job of broadcast notes. Trying to write down URLs while knitting is fraught with errors.

-Holly