Flagel Knitting Files

If one is of a certain age the images beside this writing are familiar as clothing from the 60s and 70s.  As a member of the Baby Boomers you recognize the hat or poncho.  These types of hand knit or hand woven wear could be found in most hippie shops and were very affordable to boot.  The distinctive colours and designs clearly marked them as having been made in South America. The story of how the end products of these skilled wool artists got to a worldwide market is a story told in many cultures.  Native individuals, often at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, would find a way to sell their traditional wares to a global market.  (I will speak more about this in a few weeks after a class I intend to take.)  Peoples, generally women, from South America, India, Africa, and even North America have found ways to support themselves by using their crafting skills.   Cardiologist, Franz Freudenthal,  from La Paz, Bolivia, has t...

I lived in greater Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota (twin cities as it were separated by the Red River) for a full 20 years about 20 years ago.  And although this part of the U.S. was approximately 500 miles northwest of my place of birth in Wisconsin, it was worlds different.  Here's a quick list I remember off the top of my head: Some in Fargo/Moorhead or F/M for short actually wear cowboy boots and hats and go to rodeos on a regular basis.  F/M felt like the start to the West, at least from my POV. ¨Mountain Removal Project Complete¨ was a sign on Interstate 94 near Bismarck, North Dakota.  It was to assure drivers that it wasn't just their perception, North Dakota is really flat.   ¨Snow doesn't melt in the spring, it just wears out,¨ another colloquialism.  A 20 mph wind is a breeze in F/M and there was always a slight breeze.  There's nothing to stop the wind so snow, even small amounts of it blows around until something stops it. ...

I am been working to up my photography for the past few months.  It is arguable whether I have improved much, but I am getting to know the settings on my newest camera much better, that cannot hurt.  Let's just leave it at this:  There is still a whole lot more for me to learn. Simultaneously there has been this persistent downy woodpecker asking to be photographed just outside my living room window. As a kid I watched Woody Woodpecker at 9 am on Saturday mornings and since have developed a positive affinity to woodpeckers in general.  In the past we have seen a pileated woodpecker out the same window, but lately it has only been this pesky downy. Woody Woodpecker  My downy is a pesky fellow for two reasons.  a) Three times a day around sun rise, sunset and noon he has a habit of pecking at the wooden pole supporting our bird feeder.  The feeder is made of aluminium so you know this pecking reverberates loudly.  Sunset and noon are fin...

A friend wrote to me about yesterday's post regarding products that are half done:  ¨ There's beauty in the unfinished!¨  And she's right.  This got me thinking and looking until I found the following quote. Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring -- these are even more deeply moving.  Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with faded flowers are worthier of our admiration. . . . People commonly regret that the cherry blossoms scatter or that the moon sinks in the sky, and this is natural; but only an exceptionally insensitive man would say "This branch and that branch have lost their blossoms. There is nothing worth seeing now."   In all things, it is the beginnings and ends that are interesting. . .  The moon that appears close to dawn after we have long waited for it moves us more pro...

This adventure does not require any contact with an institution of higher education, BTW.  When I say Ph.D . in this context I am discussing finishing P rojects h alf D one.  And again it seems I have a few to do. Remember those two Fiddlehead Mittens?  If not here's a quick reminder and another .  It seems I have two mittens completed, one with an off-white background and one in charcoal.  Both need the other completed. There is a half done Ashton shawl in a denim colour that showed up here , that needs to be done within the month. Ashton Shawl #3 And I have the second Badger mitten to complete.  It is not  f~l~y~i~n~g off the needles as I had suggested it would just last week.  At Knit Nite on Thursday I skipped a row on the chart somehow and it has sit alone in the bag I carried it in all weekend long.  So what did I do?  I started something new that will be revealed later. I am not the only knitter who suffers fro...

Yes, I am wearing green today and with reason.  Dad recalls the story of one of his sets of grandparents leaving Ireland on a ship to honeymoon in the U.S.  The voyage was so bad my great grandmother vowed to never sail back, and they didn't.   I am legitimately Irish - one-eight, and even although the name Flagel doesn't directly conger up Irish, there's a wee bit of Irish in me. Besides wearing green, there were Irish cupcakes made to take to my former colleagues at work today.  These cupcakes include not only Guinness, but also Irish whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream.  Now before you ponder how much alcohol one is consuming in eating one cupcake let me be clear both the Guinness and whiskey are cooked meaning there's little or no alcohol left, only flavor.   Here's the recipe if you are interested.  They are called Chocolate Beer Cupcakes With Whiskey Filling And Irish Cream Icing and I can assume someone had a lot of fun practicing as they came...

There are two items I want to offer updates about in this post - Spring and the Badger Mitten. Apparently I kept referring the other day to this mitten as a glove.  I do know the difference but it seems last week when I wrote about it I didn't.  The first mitten is done except for the thumb and the second one is already on the needles.  Want to see the first?  (I plan to knit the thumbs when both mittens are complete.) The buttons came in the kit, I like them Paul suggested this claw might traumatize Mike, the cat The Kitchener stitch was used to close the opening at the top of the mitten.  This creates a nice two-stitch wide white band that mimics the two stitches of white on each side of the mitten.  And although the Kitchener stitch is not one I remember how to knit when it is needed, it is always available from  YouTube . See the two white sttiches at the side and the top I am happy with this result and now have the process of...

March 15, the Ides of March, up until 35 years ago only commemorated the date Julius Caesar died.  But 35 years ago it also became my oldest son's birth date.  Today I want to honour him by putting in words a few of the ways he has contributed to my life. Being my first, I learned more from him than he ever did from me.  He had (and still has) a tenacious, inquisitive mind already at the age of three.  It was not unusual on our 30 minute ride home together from my work and his childcare centre to ask questions like this Which is stronger a bull or a lightening bolt?   How close to heaven do air planes fly? Why is the sky blue? Science was never my forte, but he was interested in it from the start.  Surely he just wanted a simple answer, but me, I wanted to try to explore how to give him an answer so we'd discuss each topic, which only brought on more good and unanswerable questions for me. If I said I didn't know he'd say something to the...

I have gathered many monikers during my life but one of the most enduring and endearing has been Badger.  (Well daughter, sister and Mom are right up there as well.)  My alma mater is the University of Wisconsin - Madison which has both strong academic and athletic prowess.  It is the type of institution that has made Wisconsinites very proud over its nearly 170 years of existence.  (There will be a knitting connection to this post, but first I need to explain a few things.) The University of Wisconsin - Madison was established in 1848, the same year Wisconsin became a state, and its recent history at the time was kept in mind as a mascot was selected for the school.  Lead miners came to the state in the 1820's through 1830's and lived underground in the tunnels they created.  Thus the University took the badger, a tunneling and fierce part of the Mustelid family ,  as its mascot.  I wrote some about the badger  here  in 2011. I...

There are in Minneapolis several large walls that need something hung on them.  That's the good news; the bad news I have vague ideas about what I want to see on them, most will be homemade.   It is bad news because some of my ideas will take a while to create.   For instance, while at Yarnia recently I had them combine several colours in red merino wool for me.   It contains three colours of red and one coral coloured thread.  The fact the coral actually worked and pulled the other three together was quite a surprise to me.  More about that when I actually get to using this special yarn.  Don't hold your breath though, it will be months before it is done. Recently StumbleUpon sent me this:   31 Amazing DIY Paintings for Your Blank Walls .  You know this just grabbed my attention, especially #16 - Melt Crayons.  (But check them all out, the teddy bear one is unique.)  I am drawn to colours on paintings that seem to run into one a...

Here's what Day 2 of the Rose City Yarn crawl held in store for me: Close Knit - 2140 NW Alberta Street.   This funky little shop is located in the   Alberta Arts District of Portland and seems to capture the attention of a younger yarn buying crowd.  The area was a lot of fun because of the vibrancy on the street. The Naked Sheep Knit Shop - 2142 N Killingworth - This shop, located in a northern suburb, feels like it is a suburban yarn shop, meaning there were a lot more shoppers my age there.  It was here I got the best buy of the weekend, 5 skeins (over 1,200 yards) of a dark blue Cascade 220 for less than $30.  It will be used to make something for myself.  (Portland does not tax yarn, making it a very affordable place to buy yarn.) Let me just rattle off the names of the other three stores.   Twisted - 2310 NW Broadway, Happy Knits - 1620 SW Hawthorne Blvd and Yarnia - 3773 SE Belmont.   Yarnia has been mentioned here befor...

For the last few days I have been away.  Paul and I traveled to Portland, a trip we considered to be heading South not only in direction, but also in temperature.  The days there were sunny and about 70 degrees F or 21 C.  We walked around in short sleeves and took in as much sun as possible.  On this short trip we were able to spend ample time with Paul's son, take in two plays, one museum, a couple of discount stores and I didn't count the number of meals out.  Our ¨near-stay-cation¨ was an all around great time. Close In addition I was able to take in 9 yarn shops within a five-mile radius of our lodging place in two half days.  My time away at these shops meant the guys could have time alone together.  We all got to spend time doing what we enjoy. Here's a brief outline of some of the high points of the first four shops: Northwest Wools - 3524 SW Troy Street  - This shop is located in the sleepy little suburb of Multnomah Village ...