Knitting

Stitches out of order

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A recent review of my Ravelry project page confirms what I already knew – – I like cables.  River Cowl was finished just today and features a subtle cable pattern that draws the eye from top to bottom.

River Cowl

While 1/1 cables usually are not my favorite construction element (I prefer a more robust design), I was intrigued by the subtle shifting of just one stitch either to the front or the back used to create the River Cowl.  I discovered pattern designer, Tamara Moot, and I share a love of Dr. Who and River Song (the inspiration of this design) is a favorite character for both of us.  Moot shares:

These elegant yet simple cables evoke River Song with the added bonus that the stitch pattern closely resembles the symbol for water or river found in the Southwest desert petroglyphs.

Cables are created by knitting groups of stitches out of order.  Stitches held in the back result in a right leaning twisted column and, if held to the front, the twist will lean to the left.  The larger the number of stitches shifted, the larger the fold in the resulting fabric.

Each of my three Building Block Shawls (2013-2014) had at least two squares or panels with cables.  Churchmouse’s Following Seas Cabled Scarf and Reversible Cable Scarf have been go-to patterns for me. Between these two, I have gifted a combo of seven scarves.  All the while knitting a creative collection of cabled cowls, hats, fingerless mitts, two sweaters and even a pair of mystery knit-a-long socks.

My project queue holds an intricate Celtic Cable scarf and a shawl that incorporates a beautiful Irish Saxon Braid border.  So many patterns, much yarn, so little time…

  • Reversible Cable Scarf – 2017
  • Garden Cable Cowl – 2019
  • Ruisseau Socks – 2020
Baking · Gardening

Blueberries – first to last

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When we started harvesting blueberries last month, we doubted we would meet the bountiful 24 cups we picked last summer.  But the wonders of the Great Mother never cease to amaze and we have enjoyed 25 cups from our four small bushes.  So delicious have been the muffins, ice cream glazes, and pies (two lemon sour cream and one traditional) with plenty simply nibbled that none were frozen.  While we may regret our greediness in the depth of winter blues, the fresh berries were just too tempting.  Since today’s last picking only yielded enough (0.5 cup) for tomorrow’s Honey Nut Cheerios breakfast, I am repurposing the photo from our first picking. 

Knitting

Amsterdam

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Vintage travel posters inspire a new exclusive fiber series from frabjous fibers & Wonderland Yarns. Amsterdam was the June limited edition colorway and, while this vibrant multi-colored skein was definitely outside my normal color spectrum, Richard and I so loved our time in Amsterdam and the colors are so reminiscent of the city-scape that it became a must have. The Windmill Shawl features a simple lace design reminiscent of the country’s many windmills to which I added a picot edging.

My Egypt travel kit is already on order from Northfield Yarn. I have wonderful memories from my trip to exotic Cairo with time in Giza and a picnic along the Suez Canal. Although the lush green tones of that skein are not the colors of my memories, then again, I did visit in June.

PS – And just because I’ve always wondered (and you might too), here is the etymology of frabjous: An adjective coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass meaning splendid or magnificent.

Knitting

Soundtrack Complete

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Who knew it could be done, a sweater knit in 4-days?  Well, Marie Greene for one.  While I did not make an actually four-day finish line, I did complete my version of Soundtrack in less time than allowed for the 2020 knit-along (KAL), July 1-31.  The pattern officially dropped on July 1 for the thousands participating in this KAL but as a Knit Camp camper I had 24-hour advance availability.  With yarn purchased from my local yarn store (LYS) Northfield Yarn and my swatch meeting gauge in hand, I cast-on on June 30 and completed my second sleeve on July 21.  My final progress report with ends woven in and sweater off the blocking squares was posted on July 28.  Soundtrack is a top-down sweater with rows of colorwork representing LP record grooves, hence the name.  My progress reports incorporated some of my favorite albums in keeping with the KAL theme.

A selection of progress reports, left to right: At the sleeve divide with colorwork complete; First sleeve nearly complete; Off the needles and ready for soaking and blocking
Reading · Travel

The Directors

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We had planned a July trip to the popular destination of Nissawa. Yes, I know this Minnesota town may not be on your travel go-to list, but we enjoyed time together in August 2018 that included good conversation, shopping and attending Wine & Words. It was while we were at that first author brunch that we named ourselves, The Directors. Plus, a walk in the Grand View gardens is always a beauthiful setting. But Covid-19 foiled our 2020 plans. Initially, we simply thought to forego the large dinner/brunch gatherings but then the event planners managed a major shift from on-site to virtual and so, today, we connected online to hear the six 2020 Wine & Words authors. This year the brunch social hour had the authors video chatting from their kitchens and, appropriately, sharing drink, food, and summer canning recipes.

Other items of interest · Writing

Migrating

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I have resurrected my long dormant WordPress skills to recreate this new personal website. While I have never been a real writer (unlike someone such as Elizabeth Klein who said that for her “writing is like breathing”), I tend to periodically dabble. In the immediate pre- and post- retirement days, I wrote to capture the swing of emotions as I left my professional days behind. And, since I preceeded a good friend into this next chapter of our working lives by six months, she had requested I share any insights. She claimed my musing were useful although I am still skeptical.

At the onset of our Covid-19 confinement as days merged totally undistinguishable into one another and spurred on by The Isolation Journals, I thought to capture some of the emotions of these unprecedented times. And it worked – sort of. But, never having taken a creative writing class, the daily exercises felt artificial. So another nonstarter.

But nagging at the back of my brain was the fact that my Raverly profile included a link to my long-abandoned Tumblr account, The Bead Working Librarian. This site was initially created in December 2013 as Thing 1 at the launch of 23 Mobile Things (the mobile edition of 23 Things on a Stick). As the title suggests, my artistic focus at the time was still on beads but the individual posts reflect my switch to fiber. My first thought was to simply migrate all the content to its own page within this new site so as to not loose the thread of my early knitting experiences. But, having gone through the painstaking work of migrating content several times for the SELCO website, my earlier writing simply did not merit that amount of time and work. Hence the content will stay at The Bead Working Librarian until Tumbr or this link disappears into cyberspace. What I will migrate from Tumblr is the crisp formatting that fits my writing style – – lots of pictures with short descriptive phrases to describe the current events in my life.