Flagel Knitting Files

You may have thought I really had given up writing the blog or that I fell off the planet.  Neither has happened.  There has been a ton of stuff going on in the past two weeks, none of it having anything to do with knitting, all of it about family.  It was so much fun I didn't even bother to take time to write a post.  What I will do now, however, is give you a brief overview, just so you can rest assured I haven't been slouching around.  Let's do this reporting in reverse order because the most recent is oh so much clearer in my mind than two weeks ago: June 30 - I spent 2.5 glorious hours alone with Miss M, my grand daughter.  We were into walking, swinging, blowing bubbles, sweeping, shoveling, dancing, sidewalk chalk art, and just playing around.  I had my 10,000 steps in before noon.  She is such a honey, so direct and clear minded, a girl after my own heart.  Loved every second being with her. That girl who captured my heart ...

This is my personal public announcement that Saturday, June 13, 2015, is World Wide Knit in Public Day.  Yes, this decade long event encourages knitters to leave the privacy of their homes and enter into the world carrying their knitting to join other knitters doing the same thing.  Knitters from Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the U.S. plus other countries will be participating.  I know where I will be for a few hours tomorrow.  Should you need more info about the event check out this website .  And if you need to see if there is an event happening in your area, the same site can help answer your questions as well. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ My table is now free for dining.  The Eastlake Dummy Clap shawl/scarf is dry and ready for its own photo shot.  Since today is gorgeous I tried for a few different outside and inside shots.  As you might have imagined I am trying to up my game wit...

It is a rainy day here in Minneapolis.  The last few days have been warm, up to 90 F, approximately 30 C on Tuesday.  Plus the humidity has been relatively low with a nice breeze.  Last night as I enjoyed a concert across the street the breeze was delightfully cooling. Knowing it would be an inside-day today, I purposefully worked to finish the Dummy Clap shawl last night.  And contrary to my custom of missing self-imposed knitting deadlines, this one was hit.  I even had time to tuck in all the tails.  It was so satisfying, but the most satisfying was dropping all those stitches.  There are 12 columns on my Dummy Clap each with approximately 3,425 stitches.  That means I got to drop over 41,000 stitches on purpose.  If you knit, you can imagine how much fun that is.  The first couple of columns were dropped individually, then I decided to do two at a time and finally three.  It seems as if my middle finger could do the most dama...

Tena's Clapotis scarf inspired me.  It is so light and lovely I thought if I could find just the right yarn I might be able to make one for myself.  I took time to study the pattern  and felt fairly confident I could do it. A completed Clapotis that is NOT Tena's Additionally I have a stash and located this cone of Eastlake yarn from  Yarnia .  There are 437 yards/400 meters of a combination of cotton-rayon, bamboo and acrylic threads.  This combination makes it relatively light weight for a DK yarn, plus it is soft and drapes beautifully.  As with all Yarnia yarns, the threads are not twisted together meaning this yarn uses four strands that have to be carefully knit so no one strand is missed.   But it is the colours of lime and sage greens, bright blue and a variegated brown from light tan to dark brown that seemed to be calling me to make something with it.  It was of course these colours that caused me to purchase it. Meet Eas...

I want to cover the act of creativity as I experience it.  As has been documented several times in this blog, I spend a certain amount of time searching the World Wide Web for ideas for knitting and other creative ventures as well.  Then sometimes someone points me in a direction that captures my imagination. After I find the spark of an idea I seem to mull it around for a while.  Sometimes this takes weeks, other just a few moments, in both cases this degree of thoughtfulness requires quiet time to live inside my head.  At times I invite others to comment on what I am thinking about and in many cases the idea or how to execute it is improved.  Generally however I keep this seedling of the idea to myself.  It seems so vulnerable at this point, any whiff of discouragement could stifle it. Then comes the actualizing where materials need to be gathered, imaginations of how it should come together are tested and rethought and the materials and testing conti...

No knitting discussion today.  It is more of the same with Viaduct and the UND scarf.  Today I want to talk about a phenomenon that happens in nature once in 100,000 times.  Let's start by filling in a few blanks first. I have been walking regularly in Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis.  In Minnesota terms it is a relatively small park wedged between a major highway exit and the Walker Art Museum and housing on the other sides. I find it is a lovely place to start the day.  There are sculptures to walk among in the Walker's grounds, tennis and basketball courts and a small slough where both geese and mallard ducks thrive in Loring Park.  There were fuzzy goslings and ducklings when I arrived a month ago.  Both have lost their fuzz and the ducklings are now so big they no longer appear to be walking on water as they swim fast to keep up with mom.  And of course there are grey squirrels scampering around in the early morning getting their breakf...

I had to leave the kitchen because if I stayed there was a possibility I would eat an entire strawberry rhubarb custard pie.  It smells so good, but I digress.  It is a good time to finish the post about what knitting has been occupying me lately. To offset the more challenging lace of Viaduct, I  am also working on a Xmas scarf for the son who got his undergraduate degree from the University of North Dakota.  This institution has had for years the unfortunate moniker of The Fighting Sioux, a name they had been locked into using due a generous gift from a donor who required the name not change, probably about 20 years ago.  In 2012, however, the school was mandated by the NCAA to drop the name and as it did it decided to take three years to "cool off" before identifying a new name.  A  college hockey juggernaut (a lot of Canadians play for the team which is located less than two hours south of Winnipeg), UND has been to the Frozen Four several ti...