Flagel Knitting Files

While I take a break from small-needle knitting I decided to try another lace adventure by taking on Anisette by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (the pattern found here ).  I am using Lang Yarns Merino 400 in colour 796.0010  (Perhaps I am not the only one lacking in colour-naming skills.). The colour BTW is a greyish navy blue. The stole/wrap is knit using #8 US or 5mm which compared to the 2 or 2.75mm I had been using seems huge.  The lace weight yarn on these big needles creates an airy open fabric that is very satisfying. Here is how the finished project should look. Knit and photographed by Dejavu from Ravelry And this is what I have successfully completed so far. It is a start but there is a long way to go yet. One photo shows you the number of things I have had to do to give myself a hope to knit the pattern accurately.  This is the second time I have gotten to this point only to frog the whole work and start over.  It seems I forgot to ...

Upon arriving in town in April my youngest son, the teacher and prepared principal, handed me a children's book, Julia, Child .  Written by Kyo Maclear it outlines a fictitious childhood of the chef, Julia Child with her friend Simca Beck cooking up friendship and adventure using butter.  It really is a cute tale and I can see why Miss M enjoys it.  In the book a French meal is prepared including the following dishes:  sole ala dieppoise (fish in a mushroom and shrimp sauce), cheese souffle and petite gateau (small chocolate filled cupcakes). We set aside an entire afternoon to shop for and prepare these three dishes.  The fish stock making up the bulk of the ingredients in the sauce for the fish had to be made.  Three types of cheeses for the souffle had to be graded.  It was a major cooking event, but by 6 pm that evening we had the meal ready.  Miss M loved the cheese souffle (but then she really likes most anything containing cheese, a girl ...

Perhaps it is our age, but when my knit buddies and I have tried to knit and drink in the past the knitting suffers a lot.  That's not to say we don't occasionally down a glass of wine and attempt to knit anyway, but it is fair to say Knit Nite for us is a mostly dry affair. Two younger knitters from Edmonton have attempted to put knitting and beer drinking together as a business with an emphasis on "locally sourced" for both the beverage and the yarn.  Read the whole story here  written by the CBC. Photo from yarnovermatter.com I wish the two entrepreneurs all the best.  Creating a combination yarn shop and bar would certainly change the general image of granny sitting at home knitting with the television on watching ME TV.  What is more gratifying is someone from CBC Edmonton found this story meeting the threshold for being newsworthy.  Perhaps this is another sign knitting is in vogue.  OK perhaps not, but I do like that so much page sp...

There is a knitting reference here; however, it will be a short journey before we get to it.  Pittsville, Wisconsin for those who are relatively well versed in who's who in knitting is a legendary place.  It is located in the middle of farm country in the middle of Wisconsin and boasts a population of 869 people in 2013.   The closest major city to Pittsville is Minneapolis, Minnesota and it is a nearly congestion-free four hour drive to get there. Pittsville is the black circle south of 29, east of 94 and west of 39. Two knitting legends are from this rather nondescript place, Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen.  Both have headed up Schoolhouse Press and created a knitting dynasty in this remote part of a rural state. I wrote about Elizabeth Zimmerman (EZ)  here  nearly three years ago.  Her contributions to knitting were numerous, including the reintroduction of continental knitting to the U.S., using patterns that are knit in a tube, then ...

My Ph.D educated scientific son and I have for years worked hard to find things we can do together that are of equal interest to both of us.  We golfed when he was younger, but my golfing skills generally threw him off his game.  While in California we would hike together, another occasion where I slowed him down.  The most enduring activity we have found is cooking together; in fact, this is something I am happily able to do with both sons. The scientist has often brought chemical reactions (for lack of a better term) to my attention.  For a long time he had an active starter for sourdough bread that he shared.  I used it to the point I could eat no more sourdough and the starter died.  He has made homemade naan that is some of the best I have ever eaten.  And this last trip he introduced me to cheese making an activity I had up to that point never considered.  If you know of my origins you might find this hard to believe since cheese is one of...

I am having a bout of startitis lately.  There are several somethings already on needles, but I have an overwhelming compulsion to start something new.  It is a part of my personality I have decided to accept and work out the consequences later.  Here are a couple of those lonely pairs I created while away. Meet the single BonBons fingerless mitten  by Susanna IC knit with a wonderful hand spun yarn from Roubaix Wool of Winterwind Farm in Battle Lake, Minnesota.  The hank was 140 yards of CVM wool ("CVM stands for California Varigated Mutant [a rather unfortunate name, which may account for the rarity of this sheep].  Their wool is oh so soft.”) and kid mohair.  The creator said she had a good deal of trouble selling the dyed roving because it didn't have an appealing  colour so she spun it.  It is a lovely drizzle of bright olive green, maroon, golden rod and violet.  When I got the yarn home it simply demanded to be worked with ...

How about the socks made in the last couple of months?  I am sure it is a question you have been wanting a couple of months to be answered. The pair of Carnival socks are complete.  You first saw them in late March and they were finished in April.  The yarn is a superwash, Nova Plus Sock in colour 529 -- Carnival.  Prepare your eyes, that swirl of colours can almost make you dizzy. I know, what a crazy shot.  I was going for something different; perhaps I won on that count but failed in creating a decent picture. Another pair was manufactured, if you will, in May.  This superwash German yarn is made by Lana Grossa and the colourway is simply #1610 but is called meilenweit, which translates to "for miles".  And if you compare the number of colour changes above in Carnival to #1610 below you will see the colours in the variegation do go on for miles.  (Or maybe they just mean the socks hold up for miles.)  Despite the long lengths of ...

Let's start all this updating with a couple of newsworthy items, which you will note do not include any knitting. First after only four days in Minneapolis I purchased a car.  Truth be known my eldest purchased, licensed and insured it because in Minnesota one has to relinquish their old driver's license and secure a Minnesota driver's license to purchase a car.  It is not time to give up my BC license and one can hold only one driver's license in North America so these arrangements were made.  His car happens to reside in my garage and I happen to use it a great deal. I had been looking for months before the purchase was made.  In fact my poor son had taken several test drives for me and frankly didn't seem very keen about the condition of any of the cars we found from private parties.  Eventually my car was purchased from a very small dealership which seemed to have mostly luxury cars for sale.  My car is anything but a luxury car. I purchased a Chr...

Today, the official second day of summer, I am ending the hiatus of not writing on this blog.  Today I will offer a wee bit of an explanation.  Tomorrow the writing will be back into the old mode, unfortunately for you dear readers.  It will contain photos and explanations about my knitting in the past couple of months and other bits and pieces of my life. There was a post written in early April that was eaten by the cyber gods.  Since it was completely edited with appropriate photos attached, the loss made me unhappy.  I see I wrote a replacement post a week or so later but never shared it.  Why?? Here's a list of what I think happened.  But first let me say this, each year since this blog was started there has been a break.  Sometimes I don't write for a couple of weeks, other times a couple of months and at one point there was a lapse of four months.  So the idea that I stay away is not new.  Now for what happened to cause this hi...