Skip to main content

Monday Update

There are two, well maybe, three or four things to report here from Minneapolis.  For starters the temperature when I arrived was warmer than in Vancouver.  I know, it was making me scratch my head too.  Generally in November, Vancouver temperatures hover around the 40 degree F mark or about 2-3 degrees C.  Minneapolis, however, should not be 50 something degrees F or 10 something C.  I was walking around outside in sweaters for the first days.

My MSP knit buddy, Susan, and I took in the Weavers Guild of Minnesota's Fiber Fair on Sunday the 15th during this heat wave.  It is a free and relatively small event, but the fiber goodies they had for sale packed quite a punch.  Needless to say we did not walk away empty handed.

Susan purchased a gorgeous large hank of cooper coloured wool and I scored some roving plus mohair curls.  Actually both Susan and I purchased these curls grown on mohair goats located in Mora, Minnesota.  These curls caused both of us to independently search the internet to find out about thrumming.  I knew there was a word but kept coming up with thumb instead of thrum but after 40 minutes of searching I got it.  Susan said the term dropped her into an internet rabbit hole as well for about the same amount of time.  (Should you too want to do some looking into this knitting term, the Yarn Harlot has a great post about it that you can click to right here.)  Here's a photo of my modest purchases.

50 grams of 75% Polwarth wool and 25% silk and yes it is a mauve colour.  Can you tell I like that colour?
Natural colours of mohair curls
The Weavers Guild also reminded me about their upcoming spinning classes.  Lo and behold during the time I am here they offer Spinning Wheels: Choosing the right wheel for you!  It is a one night class and the idea is to let students test drive lots of brands and types of wheels so the student is better informed about the type of wheel to purchase.  You know I signed up.  More about it later.

Then late last week, the day I went to see the musical, Beautiful, mainly about Carole King's early life, the temperature plummeted into the high 20's F (-6 or so C).  It was time to pull out my heavy wool coat and a wool cowl to make the walk to the play.  (That temperature really isn't bad except there was a pretty strong wind blowing as well.)   It was on or about that day Miss M thought the plastic pink flamingo still in her yard (it was part of her birthday celebration) needed something to keep warm.

The warm-headed flamingo
It is the butterfly hat I knit and wrote about here a year ago.  I love the girl's thought process; it is cold, so put a woolen hat on it.  Plus there was an adult who knew where the hat was and helped (I am sure) place it on the flamingo.  Miss M is a lucky girl.

I will soon be off to the farm to prepare for celebrating U.S. Thanksgiving with family.  Odds are good I will be logged out for a few days.  To my U.S. friends, do have a Happy Thanksgiving and don't spend too much on Black Friday.  I will be back after the holiday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms.  (BTW
2 comments
Read more

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing.  I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away.  Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close.  Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening.  As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend.  Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration.  I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and
1 comment
Read more

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or how about the longest piece of finger knitting that measured 4,321.4 m
Post a Comment
Read more