Flagel Knitting Files

A certain someone in my life has a birthday coming up at the end of November---Paul.  In the past I've knit him the following each outlined in this blog:  a stuffed dachshund , a pair of socks  and a nightcap .   So the question was, what do I give him this year? A few weeks ago a friend sent me information about a company she'd found named Camas Creek Yarns .  The company appears to specialize in securing the rights to incorporate U.S. college and university logos or mascots into knit patterns.  (For my Canadian readers you'll just have to trust me there is a real market out there to be able to make knitwear using the mascot and logo of your own college or university.  We U.S. citizens love our college football!)  A light went off in my head.  I know someone very loyal to his alma mater, The Ohio State University.  But having grown a bit older and wiser, instead of just ordering the stocking cap or toque pattern I thought it would be ...

Between seeing friends near and far, packing away work stuff (I left the Saturday morning after my last day of work) and sorting through clothes, there has been a fair amount of knitting. Here's the lace shawl so far: My Ashton Shawl  It is impossible to read the ruler in this photo, but here it is about 19 inches/46.25 cm at the spine.  Unfortunately the shawl is off the needles, not because it is finished, but because I found a mistake back about 6 rows.  So since it would be possible to see its shape, I took time for a photo. I thought I had been doing a pretty good job of applying my own lace knitting rules, but apparently not consistently enough.  In a lace knitting chart there is always a certain segment that is repeated several times to get across an ever growing length.  (For example, in the pattern below, the 8 stitches in pink represent the repeat segment.) I have learned if I just keep counting the number of stitches knit in that re...

Today, the second Monday in October is Canada's Thanksgiving.  It was proclaimed an official holiday in 1957 to celebrate the harvest bounty Canada is blessed with each year.  Since 1971 when the U.S. moved its Columbus Day observance to Mondays, the two celebrations have coincided.  Canada's celebration of this holiday may seem early for those from the U.S., but it aligns with the English and continental European, Harvest Festival.  This helps explain why it doesn't match the late November celebration in the States.  (As we all know, Canada has been closely linked to Great Britain throughout its existence.) Paul and I, like many fellow Canadians, celebrated with a traditional meal yesterday (except we substituted a roast chicken for the turkey.)  Paul was kind enough to take this photo before diving into the meal.  What is not shown is a pumpkin pie that used maple syrup as the sweetener instead of white sugar.   Paul says it makes the pie li...

I enjoyed knitting the Hurricane boot cuffs so much so I decided to create another pair.  The first set was knit in an appropriate gray colour allowing the simple purled moving swirl pattern to show through.  The yarn used was worsted acrylic with an i-cord cast on and bind off.  The end product is heavy weight making this pair suitable for seriously cold climates. Hurricane boot cuff The second pair was knit using variegated lighter weight sock yarn called Sassy Stripes by Moda Dea.  I love the blend of browns, blues and whites.  It is common knowledge that when one knits with variegated yarn any pattern within the fabric knit will more than likely will be lost.  Of course, I decided to ignore that common knowledge and added the swirling purl to this new pair.  Let me show you the results. Second pair of Hurricane boot cuffs This yarn has created with a lighter weight pair of cuffs making them perfect for a milder type of climate.  ...

A crocheted wedding dress Should you be an avid Reddit reader you more than likely are familiar with this story, but should you be like me, not a follower, this particular story might have eluded you. Chi Krneta, a Seattle architect, was planning a summer 2014 wedding to Milan, her ex-Vancouverite groom.  Her wedding had several do-it-yourself touches; she made the bridesmaid dresses, her own bouquet, table decorations, but the crowning DIY effort was her wedding dress. Krneta learned to crochet from her grandmother when she was about 8 but didn't continue with it until 5 or 6 years ago when she started commuting on public transportation to work.  She has a 50-60 minute commute so she decided to use that time to crochet a wedding dress.  Krneta had made a shorter dress in the same pattern and was quite confident it would work as a wedding dress.  Taking five months' of commuting time and less than $30 this crafty bride was able to create a gorgeous dress...

I did promise photos of my trip last week heading back to Western Canada.  I don't intend to say much about them except what I put in the captions.  The trip started in Minnesota, through North Dakota, Montana, the Panhandle of Idaho to Washington.  I then drop south to Portland, Oregon for a short visit with Paul's son.  Finally the trip ended heading north to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. There were approximately 1,800 miles or about 2,900 km traveled.  The temperature as I left Minneapolis was a comfortable 72 degrees F/22 C.  As I moved into the plains the temperature shot to 94 degrees F or 34 C.  Finally as I crossed the Rockies the temperature dropped significantly to 65 degrees F/18 C.    Here are my photos in chronological order. Last corn fields seen in Western Minnesota Granaries in North Dakota Rush hour in Western North Dakota  Temperature at one point on day two between Bismarck ND and Bo...

My surprise knitting So can you figure out what these are?  They are a pair that do match one another although my photo would perhaps cause you to question that statement.  Each is 8.75 inches long and 6 inches wide (22.25 cm long and 15.25 cm wide).  Each is knit in the round so there are no seams.  And because I liked the look of an i-cord cast on and bind off both techniques were used instead of what the instructions recommended.  I knit them using acrylic yarn because the odds are good they will be washed from time to time.  And BTW both were knit up in less than 5 hours. Any guess?  Paul thought they looked like really baggy fingerless gloves and my knit night buddies were totally baffled.  I have been wanting to make these for about a year but from some reason always became sidetracked.  They are a piece of clothing, rather an accessory.  The Wordnik dictionary defines them as:   A form of cuff worn in England in the eig...

On October 2, 2011 I started this blog with a post about knitted donuts, long johns and donut holes all saved in a Tim Horton's box .  (In fact I just visited that project over the past weekend!)  Three years later, I am still knitting and writing about those projects as well as other knitting-related items that pique my interest. In these past three years 393 posts have been written with 383 published.   (Those drafts will either be used in the future or deleted because even I didn't have enough information or interest in the topic.)  There have been 68,117 page views at this writing with the bulk, almost 75%, being read in the U.S.  The remaining nearly 25% are read here in Canada.  Yes, I have readers from all over the world, but their page views are minimal in comparison.  Many readers now seem to not be using a search engine to find the blog, they are coming directly to it.  (Google gives a blogger all this information daily for free, BT...

The trip back from Minneapolis in the States to the Lower Mainland of Canada was safe with nothing to cause concern.  I was paying closer attention this time as I drove through the Rockies.  I realized why I hadn't taken any photos of the Rockies; one actually must be attentive to driving in the mountains.  This contrasts dramatically from driving through the plains where for hours you are on the wide open road virtually alone with nothing but a ribbon of highway all flat and straight laid out in front of you.  There will be photos soon, but for now let me bring you up to date regarding the light gray Fiddlehead mitten.   (If you need all the details about this click on the name, otherwise just read on.) This story was left on a rather sour note.  There wasn't enough of the light gray background yarn to knit a second mitten.  So I had abandoned it for a charcoal gray and started a new pair of mittens.  Uncharacteristically for me, I had taken th...