Monday, May 30, 2016
Thanking Those That Came Before Me
Took the time to stop by and visit my Great Grandparents this weekend. I never met either of them, but in 1911 they gave me a better life. Tired of living on an estate ran by an overlord who treated them like animals they risked everything to come to a new country. It wasn't easy to travel with 3 small children, the youngest learned to walk on a ship. They didn't speak the language and had to find work as soon as they arrived. Their life was hard, but they gave their children and all the generation after them the gift of opportunity. On this Memorial Day weekend I thank them.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Wildflowers
Last year I threw a bunch of wildflower seeds in a planter at the new house. I was disappointed because the hoped for wildflowers did not appear. I thought I would try again this year, but before I could even start again (well I did throw in a pack or 3 of nasturtiums) I started getting lots of green poking up out of the ground in the planter. Talk about mysteries, I keep getting flowers that I have no idea what they are. I have friends helping me out identifying the flowers. So far I have violas (Johnny jump ups), dianthus, wall flowers, bachelor buttons, coreopsis, and delphiniums. Feeling very successful at flower gardening right now.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Sad
Why does it hurt so much to love someone & not be able to help them? You can only watch as they throw away the things that matter. So sad today.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Big Green Poncho Done!
Remember when I said I wanted to knit a big green poncho for myself this year? ( http://tempestinapot.blogspot.com/2016/01/well-hello-2016.html ) Well, call that goal done! After many hours of knitting and fussing over the pattern I am calling this a done deal. Thanks to my friend Amy I can prove how done I am, with afabulous photo and all.
Now that I have bragged about my poncho, I am going to bitch about it too. I am a person who wants to believe that the people who write patterns know more than I do about knitting. I trusted the pattern writers to guide me correctly through this project. Meanwhile, my instincts kept telling me the designers were hiding that stockinette stitch always curls. It can't help that it curls, it is just what all those knit stitches do when they are together. I know that all the blocking in the world is not going to make it lie flat. In the end I went with my instincts knit a seed stitch edge on the bottom, good call.
However when it came to adding a cowl to the poncho, I blithely knit on as instructed. Half way through my brain started to know this was not going to end well. In fact I started to think maybe I was going to hate the cowl on my beautiful poncho. As a last ditch effort I did an I cord bind off, but the cowl rolled down and all you could see was the purl side. It made me cross at my knitting and the pattern. To salvage the poncho I folded the cowl over and sewed it down. It does looks better, but I am still not sold on the cowl. Since this will probably be the only time I wear the poncho before fall, I decided to let it sit for the summer. Once we get back to milder weather I will wear it for awhile and see what I think. If that cowl gets on my nerves too much, I am just going to have to remove it. Fortunately, the cowl knit from picked upped stitches, with a little effort it can in fact become mitts. We shall see.
Now that I have bragged about my poncho, I am going to bitch about it too. I am a person who wants to believe that the people who write patterns know more than I do about knitting. I trusted the pattern writers to guide me correctly through this project. Meanwhile, my instincts kept telling me the designers were hiding that stockinette stitch always curls. It can't help that it curls, it is just what all those knit stitches do when they are together. I know that all the blocking in the world is not going to make it lie flat. In the end I went with my instincts knit a seed stitch edge on the bottom, good call.
However when it came to adding a cowl to the poncho, I blithely knit on as instructed. Half way through my brain started to know this was not going to end well. In fact I started to think maybe I was going to hate the cowl on my beautiful poncho. As a last ditch effort I did an I cord bind off, but the cowl rolled down and all you could see was the purl side. It made me cross at my knitting and the pattern. To salvage the poncho I folded the cowl over and sewed it down. It does looks better, but I am still not sold on the cowl. Since this will probably be the only time I wear the poncho before fall, I decided to let it sit for the summer. Once we get back to milder weather I will wear it for awhile and see what I think. If that cowl gets on my nerves too much, I am just going to have to remove it. Fortunately, the cowl knit from picked upped stitches, with a little effort it can in fact become mitts. We shall see.
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| Poncho with Cowl |
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| Poncho with no Cowl |
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Natalie's Hitchhiker
I loved the Hitchhiker pattern so much I made Natalie knit one too. Don't judge me too harshly, it was for a good cause. One of Natalie's co-workers is moving to Minneapolis and I thought with the colder Minnesota weather she would need a nice scarfy thing. I also happen to know her co-worker, like me, loves the color green. I knew I had a "vintage" Dyeabolical Yarn skein of Derby Girl, which just so happens to be a green and black colorway. It was one of the first balls of Dyeabolical Yarn I bought. That said I had yet to knit something fabulous with it. I knew it would make a stunning Hitchhiker, I also knew I was not going to have the time to knit it. When I came to Natalie with the yarn and the pattern she saw the wisdom of my suggestion. I was so right that colorway made a stunning Hitchhiker. Natalie has not taken it to work yet for her co-worker, trying hard not to steal the finished project for myself.
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