Flagel Knitting Files

Retirement in my mind has always been the stereotypical relaxing days of sleeping in, lounging around in your pjs til noon or later, and just plain chillaxing filling days with things one enjoys doing.  The shoulders move away from the ears with less tension in life, the pace of life may be a bit slower and, well, you get the picture.  I'm really, really ready to get to this state because the pre-retirement wrapping things up phase isn't anything remotely close to relaxing. Perhaps I've put a bit much on my plate.  There's a new person to train at work, a house sitter to get up to speed with the responsibility of keeping Mike, the cat, happy, files both physically and electronically to move, a car to pack up with extras from our home, all the financial and personal paperwork to complete and that's just the past week.  At times it can be both physically and psychologically draining, but at this point this labour is so short-term.  I have 4 days of work left with on

This post contains no breaking news flash, as if any of my knitting posts ever would, but I just watched the movie, Enough Said released in 2013 with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini.  I was in the mood for a rom-com, and wanted to watch Gandolfini in one of his last roles.  (He died last year on June 19.)  Additionally, although it was not a huge commercial success, the movie seems to consistently be critically acclaimed by movie reviewers. To my delight this movie didn't use the typical romantic comedy formula:  girl/woman mets boy/man, there's an attraction, a misunderstanding happens, girl/woman and boy/man part ways, in the end they find one another, clear up the misunderstanding and true love breaks out.  There are of course elements of this formula in this movie, it is a rom-com, but the story is about adults both divorced with daughters preparing to move away to attend university.  From my point of view it was a more sophisticated and complicated story line th

You may recall last week I struggled trying to make 74=82 but finally found the error in my thinking and did get to realizing only 82=82 with regard to the Fisherman's Pullover.  There has been a fair amount of progress since then.  (By the way Pam and Tena, your work is not the only in-progress knitting photographed for this blog.  The photo below is showing something clearly not finished or anywhere near it.) My Fisherman's Pullover  The front and back of this cabled sweater are now both complete.  The tightness of the twisted cables that caused me to think about taking the back apart, now seem to have relaxed and from my POV are not noticeable.  Blocking will definitely improve the entire look. The left sleeve (showing on the right side of the photo) is about 50% complete.  It has 3 of the twisted cables running down it surrounded by seed stitches.  The right sleeve will be picked up between the two coloured clips.  Finally the cowl collar will be picked up around th

If you have ever stepped foot in more than a few LYS, you've met them.  They are the yarn crafters who insist that one is truly not a real knitter unless they use quality wool products.  Often these yarn snobs are put off by those looking only in the bargain bins or for single small hanks of yarn.  You can recognize them easily, the ones who roll their eyes or say something rather mean spirited when big box discount or craft stores' names come up.  Or universally, they'll say something like:  "Well if you are going to invest all that time and energy into knitting something, the least you should do is invest in a good quality wool."  These yarn snobs can be fellow customers and even those working in the store.  This attitude can often be off-putting to those who are not only interested in using wool to create knitted items. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good quality wool as much as the next person.  It has a smoother, softer feel and often literally slides

I had a bit of problem with the front of Fisherman's Pullover yesterday.  It was started over a few times and there exists a piece of paper with several different ways of adding up the stitches on my needles and what's needed to create the cables of the front.  But the worst of all had to be that the stitches worked out the way they should for the back of the sweater a few weeks ago.  (For the first two-thirds of this sweater the front and back are exactly the same.) The whole time I was trying to make 74 = 82; even though I am quite confident only 82 = 82.  During this time of trying to accomplish the impossible frustration was high, perhaps some unladylike words were uttered and a new sport of doing The Angry Tink was created until the instructions were reread.  There between the 1" of ribbing and the details for setting up the cables was one sentence.  "Evenly distribute 8 stitches to bring the total number of stitches to 82."   It was then I finally realiz

As quickly as my knitting mojo left, it returned.  For the last week enough knitting energy was mustered to make four dishcloths, two in the traditional style found here and two in the Loganberry pattern located on this site . Two traditional style in the front and the two Loganberry in the back As I mentioned earlier there has been work done on the Churchmouse Crocheted Moebius.  It is growing, but I'll need a bit more time to get it completed.  Last night the Fisherman's Pullover was picked up again and for some reason (maybe it was a lack of good eye sight, to be described later) it didn't look nearly as bad as I had remembered it looking.  You know how it goes sometimes, you think something is a disaster, put it away for a bit of time, and then return to wonder what you were originally thinking.  That's what I felt last evening.  So the back was shaped slightly and the remaining live stitches are on a holder waiting for the front.  And the front was also sta

People know I'm a knitter generally because I keep telling them about this interest.  So it comes as no surprise when friends and colleagues decide to give me a gift it is almost always relates to knitting. My Flagel bowl containing the wool for the Churchmouse Crocheted Moebius which is moving along So because of my sharing this interest I now own this lovely personalized knitting bowl.   A knitting bowl is a container that holds a ball or cake of yarn.  It has an opening of some sort that allows a strand of yarn to stay connected to the bowl and yet still escape it through a slit or a hole in the bowl.  Rather than my trying to describe more about a yarn bowl, take a look at all the lovely types of bowls available by clicking here . As you see these bowls can be made from wood, metal, ceramics and wool.  Their singular purpose is to keep the ball or cake of yarn in one place as you pull from it while knitting.  Note the keyhole for the yarn can turn up toward the right o

Time for some knitting updates regarding who is knitting what. Pam, one of my knit buddies, has been working hard on her Notre Dame scarf knit with Ava yarn.  (Want more details about the pattern and yarn, click here .)  It is turning out beautifully, see: There's about 4 more feet or 1.2 meters yet to knit Look carefully at the closeup photo where you can see the sparkly silver element running throughout the yarn.  You say it doesn't look so beautiful yet, OK, you might be right.  It needs to be blocked and Pam mildly protested that it might be better to photograph the scarf when it is complete after she has blocked it.  But I said, nah, it's fine the way it is.   People need to know stuff in process sometimes isn't perfect. Notice the lifelines Pam has added to this lace pattern up at the very top of the first photo?  (They are hard to see on my brown counter top.)  She says they have been a real time saver for her.  Lace knitting is complicated and if

Knitting patterns for sweaters almost universally start by offering directions to create the back, followed by directions for the fronts and finally the sleeves.  The only exception to this order is when there are no seams at the sides; then the front and back pieces are knit together and stitches for sleeves may be picked up around the armhole.  So it got me thinking:   Why are the directions to knit most sweaters started with the back? The back of a sweater with shaping for the arms is about to happen next. Here's some possible reasons: The back is the largest piece.  If it is completed first, the biggest amount of knitting is completed when the knitter has high motivation. Perhaps knitting patterns follow sewing patterns in order of cutting.  Sewing projects generally have the biggest part cut first because smaller pieces can be worked into whatever fabric is left.  In the case of a sweater the back would be the biggest piece.  Perhaps the thinking is if yarn is tight

This happens to me every so often and it comes on so suddenly I'm really taken aback.  I'm tired of knitting right now.  I know, and if you think you're shocked, imagine what it seems like for me.  During Knit Night last Thursday evening I was so uninspired about knitting I started making a dishcloth; it is completely brainless knitting.  No disrespect to avid dishcloth knitters intended here; it's just that I have other things on needles that should be finished.  OK so I am knitting, just perhaps not what I should be knitting.  But the entire knitting enterprise feels rather rudderless for the moment. There are three different things that should be finished; well really there are more, but they aren't currently sitting around in the living room so I forget about them so they're lost in the count.  These forgotten projects are in deep storage near my stash and often just end up being part of the stash as I become motivated enough to take them apart.  But that&