Flagel Knitting Files

It seemed appropriate to take time this morning to review my blog for the last year and do a wee bit of counting.  By my count there were approximately 35 new knitting projects of my own shared in 2015.  I also shared 3 projects done by knit buddies and talked about 3 online or in-person classes I took.  There were news articles about a lace knit English garden fence, a sheep that avoided shearing for a half dozen years and a woman who knit while waiting to be freed from a loo.  You got book reviews and more spinning information than perhaps you needed.  Plus there was plenty of family and friends updates. In many ways 2015 was a great year, but losing Dad right before Xmas impacts my view, I am afraid.  In all other ways 2015 included lots of travel, time with family and friends and plenty of time for knitting and now spinning creativity.  And I still think I am one of the luckiest people in the world to be living my current life. As for my socks, they will be fraternal twins.  Althou

As I planned for my trip to the farm, knitting had to be a part of the things to go with me.  Since knitting food requires a wide selection of colours and sizes of yarn and needles, taking such projects was dismissed.  Instead I grabbed four small skeins of sock yarn and an Ann Budd book. Some time ago I purchased Ann Budd's  Getting Started Knitting Socks.   This book is perfect for a beginning sock knitter.  She takes the reader step-by-step through types of yarns and needles as well as different styles of socks from basic single coloured socks to stripes, and cabled and lace socks.  This small book is also full of tricks about how to get great results. As I flew I read the book and started a sock, by the time I arrived at the farm I had all the ribbing done.  The yarn I am using is a merino wool named Ambiente by Schoppel Wolle from Germany.  Each ball was 50 grams or 155 meters.  This was going to be barely enough for each sock so there was not much room for fiddling with the y

Christmas this year is different, a more quiet and solemn affair.  Yet we are having moments of pleasure.  Yesterday Mom sat at the piano and played Christmas hymns for about 30 minutes.  Dad always enjoyed listening to her play.  I remember about a year ago she was playing and we were together in the kitchen.  Dad closed his eyes to ensure he could hear the music better and it made him very happy.  I suspect he was happy yesterday as well. Today we will visit one of my brother's home where the house will be alive with the Christmas joy of young children.  And much of the family will be there.  I know there will be the sensation of being covered with a warm blanket of support.  That is the legacy Mom and Dad started. Knitting, well not much has been done.  It will be shared later.  Perhaps I should announce, with probably a dozen skeins of sock yarn in my stash already, I have decided 2016 will be the year of the sock. But for today I will share two yarn and knitting related

The holiday spirit was welling up in me so much last week that I felt brimmed full.  There was a trip to Portland and time with family there that I was truly looking forward to.  And then I got the call. My Dad, at 87 years of age, had been slowly failing for some time.  His witty conversation had turned to listening and his movement around my parent's modest home was an effort.  In mid-November he was diagnosed with inoperable and untreatable lung cancer and given 3 months to a year to live.  My kids as well as all his other grandchildren had made special effort to see him.  My youngest son had planned for about a month to come to the farm and spend several days in the house with him from December 19-24. Despite having left the house on Dember 17 to see a Xmas light show, on December 18 Dad could no longer support his own weight, was taken to the local hospital by ambulance, checked out thoroughly and then returned home.  Dad had been getting hospice care for a few weeks,

The scarf I am knitting for myself is call the Therapeutic Scarf by brigitte17 from Ravelry.  It seems to be named after the yarn from SWTC called Therapi.  The design is meant to look like lace, but has a simple four row repeat meaning it is very quick to work up.  I started it on Monday evening and have not been knitting much this week and should be able to finish knitting it tonight. The yarn was one of the very few skeins purchased during my yarn diet this summer.  I spent a fair amount of time in StevenB´s (in Minneapolis) discount floor this summer and found what I thought was the perfect colour combinations to match my winter weight rain coat for Vancouver.  And this single skein was deeply discounted from $15.50 to about $4.  Here is my coat and the mostly completed scarf together.  You can decide how well I did matching the two. The look is even better than I expected it to be. The yarn is a worsted weight, hand painted, merino wool from Punta Yarns out of Uruguay.  

The self-imposed restriction has worked.  Both pairs of the boot cuffs and the fingerless mittens are done.  I packaged the cuffs up so quickly I forgot to photograph them, but here is an outside picture of the mittens.  I like them a lot and they are just the perfect weight for our weather.  (The pattern is by Stephanie Sun and called Commuter Fingerless Mittens on Ravelry.  And the yarn is Remixed by Berroco.) The interesting side with the cable and button, all decked out on a Xmas placemate And the other side, BTW this was a sunny part of the day! Someone asked about the button.  They were taken off of something I must have owned years ago.  (A habit I developed when clothing was going to someone who made rag rugs from my discards.)  I love the way the gold of the button picks up the gold tones in the yarn (even if my photo doesn´t) and the X on the button seemed appropriate for these hand made mittens. It has been rainy here in the Pacific Northwest, but the rain has

I know what a silly title for a post, sure I have been knitting, I am always knit.  But now with much of the Xmas knitting pressure off I am working on some fun stuff.  (There is still a second ¨O¨ scarf to complete before the end of the year.  I´m pretty sure I can get it done [she says with her fingers crossed]). While at the farm a few weeks ago one of my sister-in-laws and her daughter, my niece, visited a local craft fair where the wife of one of my nephews was showing her handiwork.  She makes wall hanging from pallets and other scrap wood.  Here´s a part of her display. While at that craft fair my niece spied a pair of boot cuffs she liked and was considering purchasing them.  However, I stepped in and stopped her by saying I could knit her a pair if she could wait until January to get them.  First we had to agree on a pattern.   Julie Tarsha´s Thermal Boot Cuffs from Ravelry hit the mark.  These cuffs are worn near the knee and the waffle stitch makes them thick and war

A lot has been going on here lately.  I finished my spinning class in the Lower Mainland yesterday and had to return the Ashford Joy spinning wheel I was using.  I knew this was coming so to avoid being without a wheel I spent most of the weekend looking for a Lendrum wheel as had been decided with the instructor in Minneapolis.  Need details?  Click here . On Monday I started calling the local dealers and found one who was selling a Lendrum complete (that means there is a jumbo bobbin and flyer and a fast flyer for lace all for the same price as if I purchased the regular).  I knew this was a good price on a brand new wheel so I hopped on it.  By Monday evening I had the wheel, named it Gord, after the craftsman who designed it, and set it up.   (Since this is a Canadian made wheel, Gord is totally the right name for him.)   Gord and I went together to the last class where there were uhs and ahs about him and plenty of questions about where I got him and how much he cost.  Others in

There was a certain amount of saying goodbye and saying hello in the past few of days.  I am safely back in Greater Vancouver after setting myself up for one very l-o-n-g day of travel. First, the saying goodbyes.  There was one last dinner together with my sons, their spouses and my grand daughter.  It was a simple affair with plenty of time to spend quality time together.  Miss M and I played with magnetic fishing rods and fish and a mechanical tractor with a farmer, pig and sheep taking turns driving the vehicle.   There was also a fashion show with Miss M in her monkey Halloween costume and her mom and dad wearing their costumes as well; a bumble bee and banana respectively. The costumed family Then it was time for goodbyes.  We told Miss M that I was flying back to Canada and wouldn´t be back for a while.  She gave me a kiss and a hug and went off to bed.   When her mom put her down, Miss M made a dramatic (perhaps theatrical) scene about Grandma Jan going back to Canada

I must live under some lucky, fortuitous, charmed star.  Things just seem to fall into my lap, and by things I mean good or meaningful stuff.  It happened again yesterday. As I mentioned last week there was a class being offered by the local weaver's guild to help individuals decide on what spinning wheel to purchase.  I was truly so excited to sign up and take it. The class was slated for three hours last night at the local textile center.  It would give me lots of information about what to look for, name some of the best brands of wheels out there and what to keep my eyes open for if I were to purchase a used wheel.  It was going to be a truly winner of a class. Then last week Tuesday I received the following: Unfortunately, we've had to cancel the Spinning Wheels: Choosing the Right Wheel for You class due to low enrollment. We will, of course, refund your tuition in full.   Thank you for your understanding, and we hope to see you in class again soon! To say I was

It is that time of year, and it always happens this time of year, when there are real knitting deadlines.  Xmas comes on an exact date allowing for no fudging around a day or two or week or two on either side; Xmas is set.  And the thing is, that date does not change like many other major holidays; December 25 is unflappable.  Yet it seems every year I plan a bit more than I can actually deliver.  My internal mood is not as much stress as it is disappointment with my poor planning ability.  Yet I have this Peter Pan idea that everything will get done, even though inside it seems too wishful and not as rooted in reality as I'd like.  The world of possibilities is the world I most enjoy occupying apparently. I thought I would check through the blog since it has been around now for many Xmas's and see what I said about this time of year in the past.  Sure enough there was a post in 2011 ,  2012 ,  2013 ,  2014 and now this one.  There seems to be a pattern, one unchanged in fiv