Flagel Knitting Files

A few weeks ago I gave you a sneak peek of Tena's Antler Sweater . She used a Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn in the colour of Hickory.  It is a light coloured yarn with a lovely dark patina. I like the colour so well I attempted to replicate it in another brand, Ella Rae, Lace Merino DK. The colours are similar, but the Hickory has a better dark patina than mine. My attempt at matching Tena's Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn in the colour of Hickory At any rate, during our knit night this week Tena showed me her nearly completed sweater. It fits her very well and has the three-quarter length sleeves she wanted. Apparently the button band was more fiddly than she expected because it required several tries before it was satisfactory. But in the end, I think she's done simply a wonderful job with it.  But don't take my word for it, see for yourself: Tena's Antler Sweater Tena has the knack of finding the perfect buttons for her work. (I must take her button

There's something to be said about having friends that you have known for decades.  They can remember details about situations you've long forgotten or even remember the entire situation.   In fact, they can correct your perhaps skewed perspective of the past and otherwise be there to reminisce because of those shared situations. So it is with Linda and me.  We completed our undergraduate degrees together studying the same major.  This means in the last couple of years of completing that major we took lots and lots of classes together.  My recollection of those years was of Linda being the fun-loving, cheer-making part of the equation and I was the more sober (perhaps not always literally), let's work first and play later part of the duo.  We needed each other to have a balanced life. After college we both started our careers teaching and then I moved away.  That didn't keep each of us from standing up for the other's wedding and even though we lived far apart w

Generally speaking the words politics and knitting don't show up in very many sentences together.  It is like peanut butter and high wire walking or cars and bungee jumping; the noun and verb are incongruous.  So why am I talking about politics and knitting you ask.  Because they came together this week and brought down a Prime Minister. You may remember Julia Gillard's debut on the world stage when in October 2012 she made a passionate speech about sexism.  It was described then as: . . . one of the most scathing takedowns in parliamentary history. Earlier this week, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up in the House of Representatives to attack opposition leader Tony Abbott for misogyny and sexism in a video that has since gone viral. (Click on the link to the video for her entire speech.) So when Ms. Gillard's popularity was plummeting this spring too close to a September election, someone on her team thought it would be appropriate to characterize th

Yesterday my son and daughter-in-law used a clever way of letting family and friends know the gender of their child.  They used balloons hidden in a large cloth bag until the big reveal and drum roll please. . . . . . . . . . . It's a GIRL and I am beyond thrilled.  For starters I happen to be the oldest of three kids and the remaining two are boys.  Way back when, I dreamed of having a little sister when Mom was pregnant with my youngest brother, I was seven or so.  Then when I was starting my own family it seemed appropriate to dream of having a daughter.  When my first son was born both his dad and I were thrilled to have a son.  However, when I was pregnant with my second I was so sure he was a girl (because I carried him so differently from the first) I uttered a degree of disappointment when he was delivered.  It was the only time I was disappointed about his gender, but this story has become part of the family legend now for over 30 years. There's always been a longi

It is hard, I think, for my kids to figure out what to get me as gifts.  I have lived a full and easy life meaning I want for very little.  So when an idea for a great gift strikes me I share it with those who struggle to find something for me. Here's the end result of that great gift idea: My Malabrigo bouquet  I am a Taurus  which means my birthday and Mother's day inevitably fall in the same week annually. One of my sons and his wife have made it a standard to have a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered at home for these two events.  The flowers are lovely for about five days and then begin to wither.  This year I thought I might suggest an alternative:  a Jimmy Bean Wool bouquet of yarn.   The bouquet is put together in a rather clever way.  Hanks of yarn are wound together more tightly than usual so they "resemble" posies and then a SPN is pushed through the hank to act as a stem.  (I now have in addition to the yarn a full set of new SPN needles becau

My latest adventure took me to Minneapolis for work and fun.  It was great to see and spend time with my son and his wife (the pair expecting).  Mom-to-be has acquired the baby bump and the beautiful glow of a pregnant woman.  She is looking and acting strong and everything seems to be going very well.  The first night in town I was treated to another quintessential Minnesota meal of wild rice with mushrooms, onions and craisins with walleye and peas.  It seems to have become a tradition and I love it. My son had just finished his day job of teaching and was willing to take me around town.  So I took full advantage of this offer and asked if he'd take me to StevenBe 's yarn shop on 3448 Chicago Avenue.  The owner Steven Berg was someone I met at Vogue Knitting Live (VKL) in Seattle this last spring, so it was a plan to visit his store when I was in town. Before we talk about the shop, let me give you a bit of information about Steven.  He grew up in a yarn shop owned a

Yes, it is true this blog has been neglected for a few weeks but there's a good reason:  I have been away traveling and don't take my laptop with me.   The iPad just doesn't allow me to "adjust" photos in the way my laptop can.  So that's a long way to get to I don't write on the road. Here's a photo gallery that will generate discussion topics for posts in the near future: Stay tuned for more about each of these picture.  (I hope I haven't oversold this, but I do think it will be fun, if nothing else fun for me!)

According to Wikipedia an earworm in the venacular is:  ". . . a piece of music that sticks in one's mind so that one seems to hear it, even when it is not being played. One reason that this occurs is that melodic music tends to have a rhythm that repeats." This phenomenon became a part of our Sunday afternoon.  It all started when I got up earlier than usual yesterday because the sun was streaming into our bedroom, followed by my coming downstairs complaining out loud about it.  The ever problem solver, Paul, had been working on a plan to eliminate this situation in his head for sometime and was now motivated to act. He went to Jysk , a local discount home furnishing store, and purchased room blacking drapes and necessary rods to hang them.  Unfortunately we needed more of the drapes than the store had in stock and that became clear as we installed the three he brought home.  So rather than drive around the Lower Mainland in search of drapes, he let his fingers do t

The right sleeve was completed last evening and this morning the buttons sewn on.  Then my Sunnyside took a quick plunge and an ever so brief time in the dryer and then viola, Sunnyside is complete. Tenacity on the left and the fully complete Sunnyside on the right As I continue to do some much needed spring cleaning, I found my Pantone - 35 Inspirational Color Palettes book.  In it I found a set of colours called City Haze.  It is described this way:   Silvered skyscrapers and misty parks suggest a cosmopolitan palette of smoky tones.  Use these colors to compose a timeless and elegant daytime look, or a living room designed for witty conversation and evening entertaining.   Look how closely the colours from my Sunnyside match up with the four colours of City Haze.  BTW the colours from left to right are Polished Gray (Pantone Cool Gray 9), City Sky (Pantone Cool Gray 3), Spring Haze (Pantone 4545) and Early Olive (Pantone 451).  The olive green is the least prevalent of my colo