Flagel Knitting Files

I have people who care about me who don't really know what I am up to and are worried that I haven't been writing much on the blog.  How fortunate for me to have people from thousands of miles away checking in to make sure everything is OK.  I am doing very well.  There has been the much talked about furniture shopping and then another recent trip to my parents' place where internet connectivity has improved greatly in the last year, but it is difficult to write about knitting when there seems to have been little or no time free to knit. So let me write about a few new developments.  My new chesterfield, couch arrived on Friday, August 15 first thing in the morning.  Let me show you how it looks. Finally my living room is starting to look like something I then rushed out that day to get some new lampshades that match said divan as well as some new pillows that you see above.  Why it is almost as if I have a plan here with things coming together. ...

I have to say decorating on a budget would be exasperating except for the fact I have time on my side.  In a major metropolitan area like where I live there are tons of thrift shop options to review.  There have been eight such stores in my recent past and there hasn't been one I've walked away empty-handed.  However, one needs a good deal of time to make this work.  First there's the time needed to plan, like making decisions about the style, the colour, arrangements etc.  Then one needs time to measure the sizes for the pieces and recording these measurements in a way that is useful when shopping.  Finally, one spends a great deal of time in the shops themselves, speculating about whether something there will work into your now revised plan because they have something like what you have in mind, but not exactly the thing.  Using that intuitive part of my personality, the part that enjoys contemplating possibilities, has been very helpful.  Havin...

I will admit it, my heritage took over yesterday.  My name and at least half the blood coursing through me can be held responsible causing a craving for good sausages.  Let me name some of my favorites:  leberwurst, knackwurst, bockwurst, frankfurter, blood sausage and of course my all time fave, bratwurst, aka the brat.  You may choose to argue whether leberwurst (liverwurst) or blood sausage are good, but once one tastes them, these bits of ground or shredded meats can be wunderbar.  (It also helps to know what is actually in these sausages, the names are a bit off-putting and downright deceiving, they contain things like roast pork, rice and other good things, but I digress.) Yesterday I was grocery shopping and low and behold the store carried Johnsonville Bratwursts .  Read the story at the website to get the entire history of how brats became so popular about 40 plus years ago.  I haven't eaten this magnificent brand of bratwurst in over 15 ye...

The term truthiness was coined by Stephen Colbert during his show The Colbert Report in October 2005.  He defines it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."  The American Dialect Society in January 2006 stated truthiness is "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true."  So today I'm going to reveal a real truth about my lace knitting; it won't be the truthiness version, because the way I want it to be,  well that doesn't exist for me. For starters I am an intuitive type in MBTI terms.  You can read the definition to see what professionals say it means.  Let me define it in terms of what it means to me.  I will live in the world of possibilities for about as long as I can without getting seriously hurt.  It means the here, the now, the present, although the life blood for approximately 75% of the population, does not regularly capture my attention.  It mean...