Flagel Knitting Files

I like knitting, in fact, I like knitting a lot and I like a lot of knitting.  But in addition to the act itself, I enjoy reading about knitting, be it in news feeds, blog posts, articles, on line, in print.  There are also a few good authors who work knitting into their genre of writing.  I wrote about Debbie Macomber , a prolific New York Times best seller several times over.  Her books at the start focused on the relationship women formed as they took a beginning knitting class, but over time she has written less and less about knitting and more and more about women´s relationships.  And as I indicated in the post I wrote, the formulaic style where there is always a happy ending can be repetitious.  So I have been on the look out for a different author. Imagine my shock when in the staff pick section of my local library was this book.  (Someone has my kind of taste in novels, thanks Irene.) A Fatal Fleece from my rather quick research seems to be one of eight books so f

I have a case of startitist again.  All I want to do is start knitting projects and once I begin to find them tedious I start a new project.  This works great actually when one is working on projects that take only a few hours to make, like fruit.  By the time my interest begins to wane I am done.  Of course the fruit is not yet complete; there´s a pear, lemon, lime and orange yet to make.  But instead I have moved to other projects to complete with deadlines.  (I have plenty of time to get the fruit done, she says with so much confidence now .) Photo from Camas Creek Yarns This University of Wisconsin Bucky Badger beanie has been on my radar for over a year.  It is a must wear for any fan and since winter is beginning to make itself known, now is the time to start it, so I have. You can see the lower half of the face shaping up and I have to admit the photo makes it look pretty fantastic.   Intarsia is used to create the face.  Since only the face of the badger i

Paul and I travelled to Portland for a few days last week.  It is an easy trip to drive, the weather was supposed to be good and we could spend time with Paul´s son and his son´s future bride.  There was a purpose as well.  Paul is looking to buy a home there as an investment.  We filled two days looking at homes with and without a realtor.  The market in Portland is so hot most homes sell above their asking price unless one is willing to purchase a fixer upper.  I enjoyed the trip a lot and when I have no worries about making a purchase the entire home shopping process is actually a pleasure. When I looked at the weather forecast in preparations to pack for this trip it appeared we would be in for a lot of sunshine, so I packed accordingly. Not surprising, though, the prediction was off and we looked at homes for a half day in pretty heavy rains. Luckily for me I decided at the last minute to throw in my Mare´ Ashton shawl for good measure. It was worn over a denim jacket in typi

This post will not showcase fruit thus making it fruitless.  Instead it will focus on the other thing Miss M´s mom asked about for her birthday, a scarf. Here´s my not so happy girl all dressed up in her new snowsuit for winter.  She has on her favorite hat and rain boots too.  What she doesn´t understand is why her mom and dad aren´t letting her out to play in this outfit on a rather warm day a few weeks ago.  BTW, it looks like the snowsuit is a perfect fit. So this is the pink colour to use for inspiration for a new, small scarf.  As I was looking for zippers last week I also did some searching for the right colour in pink.  I had just the right combination in my stash. The band was missing so I don´t know the brand, but it a very soft wool This variegated yarn should somewhere in all those pinks, peaches and maroons have the right colour to match and it doesn´t look too babyish either.  Then there was a need for a pattern and Ravelry offered several toddler ones to c

This is the type of day it has been. View out the window midday on Sunday.  Yup, all cloudy and raining Then later in the day it became sunny and rainy, a beautiful combination for a huge rainbow It was breezy which may have caused our electricity to go out for an hour and one-half and a mild panic for me.  My Green Bay Packers were actually on television starting promptly at 5:20 pm.  Not to worry though, the electricity came back with 30 minutes to spare.  The rain and lack of electricity made it just perfect to knit and  I was able to put together the following: Inspiration Knitted Version Inspiration Knitted Version, it´s even has fuzz So after a variety of weather today, I have a bowl full of knitted fruit.  (Karen, do you recognize that bowl?)

 Therefore I have just created a  finger  of banana.  Want to see it? So one banana is done, which leads me to a discussion about my search for the zippers yesterday.  I was pretty sure I knew where they should be but after having inspected those places it became clear secondary spots had to be searched, leading to a need to identify unexpected spots.  And sure enough I found the zippers in the least likely space.  To myself I said:  Of course, I found the zippers in the last place I looked, a colloquialism from my childhood.  Then giving it a second thought it occurred to me what a silly statement that is.  Who looks for something after it is found?  Logically one always finds what they are looking for in the absolute last place looked unless they have some weird affinity for unnecessary searching.  Perhaps this phrase is one I should drop since it states the obvious. The finger of banana is happily hanging out with the punnet of strawberries.  Next a red delici

Within the last day or so a total of four strawberries have been knit with a fifth close to completion.  The best part is as I knit away on these things Miss M is foremost on my mind.  And keeping her in mind reminds me the construction has to be strong enough to withstand the type of use/abuse a toddler will give them.  The tiny little seeds on the berries could have been beads, I own plenty in the right rich, red colour.   But beads are too easily pulled from their moorings on knitted berries, so yellow yarn embroidered in random locations has been used instead and it will survive much better. For perspective these four are in the top of a small peanut butter jar. But after a few day of knitting only the berries, I needed something different to work on.  A banana is another recognizable fruit that is also relatively easy to duplicate.  Unlike the berries that are knit on SP needles and then sewn together, the banana itself is knit in the round using DP needles.  This is what I

Remember when recently I wrote about being able to smell cedar in the air because of a log processing plant nearby?  (I used the term l og processing plant because I really didn´t know what they did.)  Well this sawmill has been processing cedar the entire 12 plus years I lived here and today it was time learn about it. The crane is tucked into the left side of the log stack This shows the tug near the center and another in the upper left-hand corner.  Note how neatly everything is lined up on the far right. It started this morning as I noticed a barge full of red cedar being unloaded in the inlet.  Sure I see the logs floating around in their corrals all the time (see the right side of the photo above), but a barge of logs was something new.  (In my defense, this work´s done during business hours and until last fall I wasn´t around to see it.  However, that doesn´t explain away the last year.)   Anyway, I watched as a flat boat with a crane rushed up to the logs and start

Technically the title above should read, ¨We´ve Only Just Begun,¨ a song released by The Carpenters in 1970.  But that is way too long for a blog title and in this case it refers to a couple of dynamics.  (Instinctively I knew some of you had to see a new photo of my girl.) My red, white and blue clad chef, Miss M, is fake eating one of her fake cookies.  And this my followers reveals a good deal about her rapidly developing personality.  Her parents are both interested in food (perhaps they could be called foodies) so it should come as no surprise she has started to show interest in not only the eating part of the enterprise, but also in the creation of it as well.  I suspect it won´t be long before her Mom and Dad will have all the help they can handle in the kitchen.  The point is Miss M´s personality has only just begun to reveal itself.  It will show itself slowly for sure, but I can´t wait to see what special interests, skills, hobbies, talents etc. she has up her sleeve.

British Columbia has since the 2010 Winter Olympics used the tagline: Super, Natural British Columbia.  From my POV this is totally appropriate.  The mountains, the water, the trees, the beaches, the sky, all that natural beauty is impossible to be taken for granted.  The summer away made me long for the evergreen, maple and oak trees of my home in B.C. which are an interesting contrast to my city dwelling in Minneapolis. As it became time to return I started looking forward to the walk I can do just outside my door in British Columbia.  There is an inlet to watch, often the smell of cedar in the air from the log processing done close by, and then there is the woods I can slip into and feel as if I am very, very far away from a city of 2.5 million.  That 45 minute walk per day gives me plenty of time to think, take in the sights and enjoy nature all wrapped up into one experience. Recently the weather has become slightly cooler and leaves are becoming fall-like in colour.  We don´t

Ok, a few of you have written something to the effect:  You talked about the vest you purchased in Dublin, but you didn't show us the vest.  What's up; just take a pic and show it to us.  I got the message. There is more about this vest.  The tag indicates Mary Lahane, from County Cork in the southern area of Ireland, knit this Sun Dance vest from pure charcoal coloured new wool for my comfort and enjoyment.  (That's exactly what it says.)  It will get plenty of use here in the Pacific Northwest where keeping one's core warm is important.   BTW it does have inserted pockets so expertly done you can hardly notice them on either of the two pictures. Now that we are up to date regarding my purchase let's take a look at a couple of photos from the third day in Ireland.  We left Dublin early in the morning and took M9 to Waterford.  There were two important stops made that day.  First we toured the Irish National Stud Farm near Kildare.

We have had wind and rain which means downed trees causing a power outage and a wet living room floor, in our case.  Let me explain.  These were the straight wind speeds on Saturday, August 29 in the Lower Mainland and beyond. These are in kilometers so multiply by .6 which means we had straight winds (there was no tornado or other storm to cause these winds) of about 48 mph.  And since I live on an inlet that comes right off the ocean, we had something like these wind speeds at my home.  The house did shake at times as gusts blew their way by us.  The Lower Mainland is a rain forest, meaning we have lots of rain which grows lots of tall trees.  When a strong wind blows through it has a nasty consequence of knocking down a few branches and trees as well.  And you know what that means, electrical lines get knocked or blown down as well.  At one point approximately 700,000 residents were without electricity of Saturday. I watched this poor black squirrel hang on for dear-life on S