Flagel Knitting Files

The summer of 2014 will go down in my book as one of the greatest summers of my life.  And I have had some pretty great one, like the summer I met my sons' father, the summer I lived in Madison with friends, the summer I married, the summers I spent at home with my sons, the summer I moved to British Columbia, all in my top 10 greatest summers.  (Don't get me wrong I have plenty of top 10 other seasons like both springs three years apart when sons were born, the fall I met Paul and the winter all my kids and I spent the holidays in Hawaii.)  Let me explain why this past summer was so great. When one moves away from their family of origin one loses things like attending distant relatives birthday parties, weddings and funerals. One misses out on sharing the highs and lows of life with others known for decades.  One also misses out on all the unplanned visits that happen as people just drop in.  Or the support one gets from being close to lifelong friends and family.  And when

In addition to the Easy Drop Stitch scarf I also fully completed one of the charcoal gray   Fiddlehead mitten.  Since a picture or two or four can save 1,000 words, let's go with a few pictures. Finished Fiddlehead for hand 1 Pre-blocking Post blocking Inside of the second Fiddlehead The top photo labeled the finished product is just that.  One Fiddlehead mitten is complete, lining has been knit, it has been blocked and the green mitten has been turned inside the fancy outer mitten.  On Sunday it even got the Minnesota test by my younger son.  He blew hard into the mitten and declared it was a pretty good one warmth-wise because he couldn't feel his warm breath on his hand.  From his point of view this meant it would be capable of keeping cold weather out as well.  So in addition to these being Fiddlehead mittens I'm also calling them my Minnesota mittens. Turning our attention to photo #2 and #3 the pre- and post blocked versions

Last week was the last full week I will spend here in Minneapolis.  On Wednesday of this week I start the drive back.  But before I get all sentimental, let me show you some of the knitting completed this last week. First I want to show you the knitted car in action. The orange bug with my little love bug; with a "tire" in her right hand Miss M is mighty interested in those buttons. And yes, perhaps I should have rethought that idea even though I was super sure they are attached with reinforcements, but she is also very interested in the red tail lights. All those bright colours were a good idea. (BTW, just so you know it took about a dozen photos to get one of M looking at the camera, touching the car and me snapping the photo all at the same time. This little girl is on the move; she's got crawling down and will be walking before very long.) Second, I was also inspired by yarn recently purchased here in town.  It is a variegated green/blue/gray combination

Apparently on Tuesday, September 9 when Apple was introducing its new iPhone 6 it also showcased how well the new phone worked for games.  Gamers are often characterized as the nerdy type but Tommy Krul, a Dutch Chief Technical Officer for Super Evil Megacorp, seemed to break that mold, maybe.  Super Evil Megacorp is a company debuting a new game,  “ Vainglory,” with Krul simply demonstrating that the new iPhone 6 could be used by a gamer.  He was on the stage and did not speak.  Why all the chatter about Tommy, you ask?  This is it: Scarf Guy with his game He is wearing a scarf and not just any scarf it is an infinity scarf and it is purple to boot.  Well Twitter lit up with all sorts of comments about Krul, who was referred to as simply "Scarf Guy."  Want to read a bit of it, click here .  I guess a guy in a purple scarf is noteworthy in the tech world.  But then the knitting sphere got a hold of the image and posts like this one , this one , and this one began t

When we last left off I had a new Fiddlehead mitten with a charcoal background completed except for the thumb.  That has not changed one bit. However, I had also shown you this: A hot mess of a knitted car. It is the pieces for a knitted car.  All those green, purple, red and light tan strands of yarn indicate where the different pieces need to meet up when the entire thing is sewn together.  Although it is quite messy, the information about where to place parts together in the end is very helpful and makes for a relatively decently aligned vehicle, at least for one made of yarn.   The car is about 2 inches wide and high and 5 inches long or 5 cm wide and high and 12.75 cm long.  Want to see the finished product? Perhaps it should be called The Love Bug; it does look like a VW The red sphere on the left is one of two tail lights and the white one on the right, one of two headlights.  Duplicate stitches were used to add the orange colour to the windows and buttons wer

Back at my home away from home I've fallen into a frenzy of creative activity.  There will be approximately two and one half weeks yet to spend here in Minneapolis so if there are things to get done, now is the time to get them done. I can report the baby's reaction to her doll doppelganger because last evening I had a chance to see the two together.  And yes, it was a good idea to leave the eyes uncovered on the doll, even my daughter-in-law thought so.  My grand daughter spent some time last evening picking at the doll eyes and then trying to check my eyes as well.  Luckily for both of us my glasses impacted that investigation.  The baby girl doesn't seem frightened by the doll, and I look forward to making other clothes for it. Additionally my daughter-in-law had asked me to make baby M a knit car.  It seemed to be a very reasonable request, but then I started looking online for a pattern.  Remarkably, there is a real paucity of free or for purchase automobile patter

There have been several WIPs weighing on my mind since I arrived in Minneapolis.  Upon returning from North Carolina earlier this week I was determined to finish them up. First, there is the Fisherman's sweater knit for a pint-sized angler.  I pulled it out only to find I had forgotten to bring the remaining green yarn (there seems to be a theme in my yarn packing for this trip.  Apparently I didn't thoroughly check to be sure an entire project could be done.)  See this post for the other absentminded missing or perhaps nonexistent skein of yarn. There was also a need to finish the Love Bug shirt for the M doll.  As a reminder here's the inspiration photo. So on Friday, I located the pattern and revised it so that the shirt can be removed.  The removing part  required several small buttons and breaking the back into two parts.  Neither are major modifications to the pattern, but enough to make me pay attention to what needed to be done.  The shirt was completed

While in North Carolina the three of us were discussing something serious (I can't remember the specific topic) and to lighten the mood I said something to the effect:  Sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes the bug.  It accomplished what I wanted but got me thinking about the song it came from and wanting to revisit the entire set of lyrics.  So here goes the results of that investigation. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits wrote the song, "The Bug," in 1991 and the band released it that year as part of the On Every Street album.  It has been covered by others since then; my personal favorite was done in 1992 by Mary Chapin Carpenter with a country beat rather than a rock and roll one.   I have posted the YouTube link to Chapin Carpenter's version because all the words are there for you to review.  Some of the poignant lyrics to this post include these lines: One step forward and it's back to go, Sometimes you're the windshield, Sometimes you'r

Before we get into this post, I need to update you again.  I have been in North Carolina for the last 10 days helping a friend who recently had a rather serious auto accident recuperate at home.  I did the cooking, shopping and driving to medical appointments.  Between there was time to knit.  Having said that this particular post was written before the trip, but as is obvious, it wasn't posted until now.  There will be plenty of knitting updates soon, but for now, let's talk about baking. PS~~what I did before I left was put together 3 side tables.  In my own defense, each had 48 screws to insert, and I was using a hand tool, aka a Phillips screwdriver.  That's 144 screws, each tighted by my own knitting and thus soft fingers.  I wasn't lazy in my lack of posting this, just blistered. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This will be a knit free post due to the fact I have some WIPs, but nothing has been knit in over a week.  And since I am traveling to North Caro