Oogyknitter

I don't want to get too far ahead of things here, but it is going to be fun to see what kinds of things grow around here.  We first saw this house in October, and moved in December - so we have no idea what things look like in the spring/summer! We do know there will be a lot of work - there is a lot of stuff to keep tidy!  But things are starting to emerge here and there: I have no idea what these are - daffodils, perhaps?  They're in 2-3 smaller cultivated areas across the property.  Whatever they are - hopefully they're deer-proof. We spied this clump from the window by our dining room table.  It's in a wooded area just to the south.  Again, no idea what it is. We're not clearing any of last year's debris just yet - the forecast is calling for wet snow this weekend, so these little sproutlings will need all the cover they can get! Things here are also very wet.  With the dry weather we had this week, a lot of stuff...

Since I have so many knitting projects currently underway, and none of them are crazy or at a crazy point in their pattern, rather than start a new knitting project I thought I'd try something completely different and see if my motor cortex was up to the challenge. As you can tell from this blog, I don't do a whole lot of spinning.  It's not that I don't really enjoy it - I actually find it to be very relaxing - but it's just a different mindset (and probably one I need to spend more time in!).  Today I sat down to attempt the following: 1) dust the wheel and oil its metal parts; 2) find my notebook to remember which direction I spin (versus plying - I've gotten this messed up in the past and got some unintended crazy kinky yarn); and 3) see if I could remember how to spin! The wheel is a tough cookie.  It was given to me about 15-20 years ago, and it was used then (but very well cared for).  In our former house it moved back and forth between our bedroom...

I did some research yesterday on heel options for toe-up socks.  A lot of them look wonky to me - either because I've tried them before and failed miserably, or they just sort of stick out.  Things like the afterthought heel sound like a good idea, but I'm not so sure I like the way they end up.  Also, given the concerns I expressed yesterday regarding sock heel frailty, I wanted to find something a little more durable than just short-rowing and knitting on. Right now I'm planning on using the foot approach detailed here .  It includes an Eye of Partridge stitch on the heel flap, and walks you through the rest of the construction as well.  I'm definitely making only one sock at a time, though, so my execution will be slightly different than what is described there. I wanted to mention again how helpful it was to have some muscle memory regarding how to execute magic loop knitting.  Neuro and I had a great time in 2012 learning/trying a bunch of new...

In studying the instructions for Frozen Margarita socks - 18 pages worth! - I saw that I needed to make some decisions (in addition to the usual needle size, how long the foot and leg will be, etc.); specifically: - Where to place the additional "lime slice" motifs - Whether or not to add the "mezcal worm" motif just above the ankle - How to construct the "saguaro cactus" motifs After much contemplation, I've decided the following: - No additional lime slice motifs on the sock foot.  Some people don't like lumpy socks, especially when worn with shoes.  Since these will be a gift, I don't want to assume. - A couple of lime slices on the sock leg; right now I'm thinking two in front, offset from each other, and possibly one centered on the back as well. - No mezcal worm.  Its location at the back of the heel is one of the first places my own socks start to show wear - I didn't want to tempt that weak spot any further.  Besides...

I had a couple of thoughts related to knitting and neuroscience that I wanted to share.  In summary: Some types of knitting can be clinically helpful for managing minor mood disorders, whereas other types of knitting are merely soothing.   I've concluded that not only is this an important distinction, but what is helpful knitting and what is soothing knitting is also different for each person and is directly related to their skill level and experience. I'm a huge Daniel Kahneman fan.  He received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in the field of decision theory (unfortunately, his collaborator, Amos Tversky, has passed away prior to this award).  Kahneman wrote this book in 2011 to explain all of it more completely to the rest of us: Among other things - Kahneman and Tversky devised a mental model that they described as having two components:  System 1 and System 2.  System 1 is basically the fast path to our emotions and react...

... Some kind of gull!  Well, gull s - there were three of them.  White birds, black wing tips, soaring flight.  I can't tell if they're of the ring-tipped variety, they were too far away to get a good look at their beaks! Neuro is right - I'm seeing a different kind of bird nearly every day lately!  Of course many of them are migrating back/through this time of year as well, but it also helps if I look out the window and up into the sky on occasion... Speaking of which - yesterday afternoon, after I'd posted, I spied TWO hawks circling above the forest.  They must have been looking for a quick snack before yet another winter cyclone brought cold and wind to our area.  I'm hoping that as the winds subside and the temps are on the increase, there will be more bird, and possibly mammal, sightings to report! In the meantime, I can report some half-assed progress.  Slippers for my mom, chugging along: March Hat, which still needs blocking and t...

This morning as Oogyhubby was leaving for work and I was watching out the window as he drove down the driveway (hopefully not looking like a sad golden retriever!), I saw a large bird gliding overhead.  At first I thought it might be our hawk, but it looked like it had long legs and a long neck, and the wing feathers were all wrong.  It was definitely not a goose - it was alone and not honking. Then I remembered - we live like a mile from this: Yup.

We used to have a little weekend place up on the big lake where, for several years, we'd go to "get away" for weekends and some vacations.  We had some great times there with amazing friends, but it was also a lot of work and sometimes fraught with peril (I'm not sure which was crazier - the weather or the neighbors!).  We sold it just before record lake levels and a stormy spring brought havoc to the south shore.  It was an emotional and a financial relief - but I still miss watching the water and the clouds. Then I discovered LakeGuy14 .  I have no idea who he is, but he has a webcam on the shoreline just a few miles down the way from our old place.  (The service is hosted on Wunderground; at one point they announced that they would be taking all the webcams down, and there was such a revolt that they immediately reversed the decision and I think they just upgraded a bunch of stuff as well!)  I like to visit the site throughout the day to see what the ...

And so has the casting on!  March Hat: Slippers for my mom: Those weird effects you see with the lighting in these pics - that would be sunlight shining through the trees! I need to cast on some baby mitts as well - although after working with doubled yarn and size 13 needles all week, fingering weight and size 0s seems like knitting with toothpicks and dental floss. I thought that today's sunny and warm weather would bring a plethora of wildlife sightings, but evidently they know something I don't - which is, there is some cold rain/snow on the way later this week.  Nothing awful, hopefully, but probably just enough for a buzz kill. This is probably a good opportunity to tell you about one of our squirrels.  To me, squirrels are pretty much rats with fluffy tails and good PR, so I don't tend to get very excited about them.  But there is this one squirrel who spends a lot of time in the woods just outside my window, and every time I see h...

And so is the snow!  Just when I thought we'd seen the last of it, more appears.  ||: Then melts.  Then more appears :||  Such is life in the Northeast near a large body of water. Another sign of the progressing times - March Hat was released this morning!  And I've got a lovely skein of Northampton in navy blue that is very eager to join in all the fun: I eased up on the knitting for a couple of days and stuck to some needlework and slipper sewing.  Likely too much enthusiastic slipper knitting, followed by a couple of hours of golf-watching on Sunday along with the Hoover Blanket.  (A few years ago I found that watching the PGA on Sunday afternoons was the perfect exit from winter - they typically play in much warmer climes, allowing me glimpses of green grass, colorful flowers, and the occasional alligator!  I'm not a golfer, but I do appreciate the skills and imagination needed to navigate some of these tricky courses.  It's just...

Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés. (Louis Pasteur) Although it is usually translated as something like "chance favors the prepared mind", I like to incorporate the use of the word "serendipity" into this quote.  It sounds way more whimsical, like it should be.  Discovery should be something more than a coincidence - it should incorporate an element of wonder as well.   (Another one of my favorite quotes: The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..".   (Isaac Asimov)) During my early morning internet wanderings, from everything to email to job postings to current events, I happened upon the latest season of patterns posted on knitty.com .  Knitty was an early leader in providing on-line, free, and frankly artistic knitting patterns, and I was a really big fan.  Who among us hasn't made a Clapotis...

I'm not a big goose fan - they're usually mean and they tend to shit all over the place - but they follow the seasons, leaving when the cold weather begins to settle in, and returning in the spring.  I've been hearing them all day and just now, after it's been good and dark for a while and the moon is small and faint, two large Vs just flew overhead, honking all the while.  Forget the groundhog - here come the geese, spring is near!

I often admire, yet have never made, Camille Descoteaux's  Alaska pattern, and our sunrise this morning certainly reminded me of it once again: I finished the knitting on my first slipper; it still requires assembly/sewing/felting, but I wanted to show just how ridiculously large it is before all the felting happens: Those socks look like baby socks in comparison, but they are legitimately a women's medium (complete with the dropped stitch all fixed and secured!).  The Karbonz needles are currently in search of their next opportunity! Wildlife updates - much less bird activity than I would have thought thus far, although a couple of noisy crows have been making themselves known in and around the field.  Nearly the entire herd of deer wandered by in the woods yesterday afternoon - there's about 10-12 of them altogether, I think.  The neighbor goaties are all in their pasture today, looking - well, pastoral!

MOCKINGBIRD NOW!!! Some time back when - when Carly and James were joyful together, when we could jam out over silly words like these, when we were all much younger than we are now.  OMG, there's Waddy, he was like everywhere in the 80s ! Also - I think I saw one here the other day (a mockingbird that is, not Waddy, LOL), perched on a tree limb and gazing out over the fields.  Brown and white, with a prominent triangular patch on its wing, long thin beak.  I'm told there will be singing in the spring, which will tell for sure.  I can't wait!!! Wind and snow today, not much more than a couple of crows wandering around.  It's supposed to get much warmer later this week, so it should get very exciting here.  There is still some knitting going on as well, so some pics to follow too!

Here we are, all sprung ahead and jet-lagged with the time change.  What a ridiculous practice. I do think my mom's slipper yarn did some time traveling, however - it arrived in the mail yesterday! I'm barely 60% through my first slipper, and now this yarn is lined up and mocking me already!  (And what's with the logos on the yarn bands?  I like the one in the middle, which I think is the "classic" version.  The other version is as disorienting and unattractive as the 2006 Kodak logo : Modern maybe - but not elegant, at least to my eye.) The deer and foxie emerged briefly at mid-day today, inbetween the bouts of rain and wind.  We're forecasted to get some warmer and calmer weather later this week, so hopefully that will bring some additional activities!

One of the great things about knitting and crocheting is that, most of the time, when you find a mistake you can make a decision about whether to go back to the point where it happened, call it a feature, or mark it for a later fix.  I've done all of these things at different times; one of the lessons I've learned is that if something is bugging me, it's worth going back and fixing it right away.  Thinking it will all work out in the end, or deciding to fix it later, rarely works out in ways that sit well with me. Yesterday afternoon I experienced a couple of different versions of this.  The first was with the first felted slipper.  Somehow my count got off one stitch, and no matter what I did I couldn't correct for it in a way that didn't look crooked.  I ended up tinking back about 5 rows, after attempting to re-knit several of them several different times.  After all of that, the counting worked out (of course - the pattern is flawless), and I managed ...

We seem to have managed to avoid Snowmageddon here so far this week, but it's still cold and - well, let's call it breezy.  The domestic and wildlife are all still laying low, but I expect that to change as we get some warmer weather here over the next couple of days. I've started the toe for the second Basic Ribbed Sock, and hope to have some pics of the finished set posted soon.  I mentioned to my mom that I needed to make myself some new slippers, and she decided that she needs a new pair as well.  The two sets of size 13 circulars that I have just for this pattern will be getting quite the workout!  I ordered some  Northampton , in merlot and charcoal - her size 8s will take 600 yards of worsted weight.  I avoided the temptation of filling my shopping cart to get the discount, and sucked up paying for shipping.  Life goes on. I'm looking forward to baking some cookies this afternoon; with 12 minutes between batches, it's the perfect opportuni...

While I hope that the title of today's post doesn't end up describing the weather we could get over the course of the next day or so - 20 years ago at this time we got 40" of snow over 2-3 days! - I did want to share an unusual (indoor) event with you. Our upstairs carpeting is mostly light-colored, and yesterday I started to notice these bits of blue all over the place: It turns out I need a new pair of slippers! Fortunately, I already have everything I need.  I may not have chosen the colors for myself, but they are not unpleasant: Pattern is Felted Clogs ; yarn is Valley Yarns Berkshire (85% wool / 15% alpaca).  I've made a gagillion pairs of these in a variety of different feltable wool combos, but only this first pair for myself in 2007 (this is the pre-felted version): These things wear like iron - they are double-stranded worsted weight, and the soles are doubled again.  This pair used to live at our cottage, where I wore them a lot in t...

Along with my earlier laments about no one mentioning Jack Frost after the December holidays, it occurred to me that the December timeframe is also thought of as Mid-Winter, and that we have all kinds of events to get ourselves through that - candles, lights, festivals, presents, etc.  What we haven't yet established is an integrated coping mechanism to get us through this long period of time between Mid-Winter and Spring, especially this year with yet another polar vortex offshoot on the verge of overtaking us for the coming days.  I think now is truly the Bleak Midwinter, when the ground has been snow-covered for so long that patches of driveway or lawn are surprising and foreign-looking; when we never forget to leave the house, even for a minute, without an outer garment and socks; and when the occasional sunshine is still stunningly bright and warm. Perhaps that's why this caught my eye on Ravelry this morning: (I'm hoping that the above link to the source Ravel...