Mishmash: Garlic and Pepper Flakes; Oregon and more

I used to love cats. When the children were young we had the usual parade of pets. But after 4 children and an endless parade of litter boxes and accidents, and tom cat spray on my deck furniture, and dug up flowers in carefully neglected flower beds, the bloom is off the rose, so to speak. Now, we have an undeterminable number of cats around the farm, most of whom are wild, and who do a great job of rodent control. We have a mutual distant respect for one another.In the winter we feed them.

Since cat food is expensive, and we do not want to feed magpies, we feed the cats in the greenhouse. Normally, the cats vacate the premises in early spring. Not this year. There is still so much snow and it has been so cold,they do not want to venture out. Near as I can count, there are about 15 or so (they scatter as soon as we come in--7 don't scatter, they hang around). That's a higher population density than the local human population. We have a litter box for them but you know how that is with that many cats.

I just planted a large number of pots of grasses, at almost $4.00 per tiny plant, and all you cat lovers know what comes next: THEY ARE EATING THE GRASSES.

The first night I covered the pots with webbed trays--they ate the grass throught the webs. The next night I covered the plants with boxes, which worked, except DH forgot to uncover them. So that brings us to the Garlic and Pepper Flakes. I took a whole bunch of garlic and about 1/4 cup of red pepper flakes and blended it up well. Then, with gloves on, I dipped some 5" plastic marker labels in the solution and stuck one near each plant. Hope that works. (I thought about painting the pot rims, but I didn't want to repel the customers).

Several weeks ago, the night after I had planted the strawberry roots, they had a ball digging up the strawberries. I think they played badminton with them. That has stopped now.

I suggested to DH to stop feeding them all together (the tame cats get fed at the house anyways, since the wild ones don't let them eat in the greenhouse), but then I had the thought that they might start eating more plants. We're going to have to start spraying them frequently with cold water.

MY STASH: I don't have a huge stash of quality yarns--YET. I'll let you know when I post these on Ravelry. My huge stash consists mostly of Sayelle. You youngsters might not even recognize that name. Sayelle was a synthetic worsted weight yarn that came in a huge range of colors. It was attractive when knit, and indestructible--machine wash, in the dryer with other clothes--the perfect yarn for everyday and for kids. Eaton's and The Bay had the best quality, and they used to have it on sale for $0.79 or $0.99 per 50 g ball. I used to make and sell cute kids sweaters at craft shows, so when they came on sale I stocked up. (See grandkids' sweaters in my title picture). And then I stopped selling kids sweaters, and my children grew up. And the Grandchildren grew up. I won't be posting that stash on Ravelry, because today it doesn't seem cool to own polyester stash. Whenever I feel the need to excuse these purchases, I point out that household money was never used to pay for my hobbies--I always earned enough to cover my costs. (true) And Dear Heart, Dear Husband (DHDH) has such a cavalier attitude--he says it's good insulation and cuts down on the heating bills.

More about the stash and the organizational strategy (BR--Before Ravelry) on later posts, when I have a dearth of ideas to write about.

This is my fall Oregon sweater. I have a Jamieson and Smith shade card, and held it up to the Virtual Yarns on-line shade cards, largest views, and did my best to match the shades. Compared to the cost of J&S yarns in the LYS it was cost-effective to directly order even with exchange and exhorbitant postage.

I used the wrong shades in the first stripe after the ribbing, but the public won't notice.

AND MORE: I think I need a laptop. My computer is downstairs in the cutest, teal green- with- ivory trim (including wide crown moulding which I installed myself, and of which I am so proud) office, but which is so untidy (excuse: income tax time and sorting out my mother's papers since she has moved to a Nursing Home, and the bin on my cross-cut shredder exploded when I tried to empty it ), I can't show you a picture just now.

Why do I need a laptop? I design a sweaters for a friend who raises alpacas, has his fleece spun, knows nothing about knitting, and looks to me to create sweaters for him to sell. I am creating a lovely, large, large size man's cardigan with baby cables for ribbing and cables along the raglan shaping. The main body is a basketweave stitch. I've drawn myself templates for shapes and sizes, and have been happily knitting along. I keep calculations and notes on loose looseleafs all over the sofa. I don't have the sense to number the various drafts. So, to make a long story longer, everything went well with the back. The right front required only one frogging, because I just divided the back stitches in half, forgetting to allow for the button/buttonhole band which consists of 2 cables cast on with the ribbing. No big deal--I love knitting cables just as much as Fair Isle. Forgot to change the numbers on the first draft of the instructions. Made the second front, and when I got to the neck shaping and ran out of stitches many rows too soon, I realized what happened. But I really don't mind ripping. But ... if I had a laptop (I don't like running downstairs all the time), I could correct drafts immediately, there would only be one copy and I could find my sofa. (But then I'd have to vacuum it , I suppose). I plan multi-sizing the pattern when I have finished all the pieces to this sweater.

Even with the cold and the snow, I feel blessed to live here in Alberta--no volcanoes, only the odd tornado, no hurricanes. Today I heard the first geese, and I heard of an unconfirmed Robin sighting 2 hours south-east of here, in Wainwright.

Till next time: I don't go along with all this talk of a generation gap. We're all contemporaries. There is only a difference in memories, that's all. (WH Auden)

( I think that's particularly true for knitters. :)

Dates on Posts

My new post for today was started on Tuesday. Today I finished it and published it--but it kept Tuesday's date ( I assumed it would date it on publishing day). Please scroll down to find the latest "Furry Sweater for my Sister and the elusive Roscalie"

My Love Affair With Fair Isle Knitting

Some years ago, I came across the Philosopher's Wool Book: "Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified" and fell in love with the idea of stranded knitting. Didn't know about "Fair Isle" vs. "Stranded Knitting", but I'm sure that, had the book been titled "Stranded Knitting Simplified", it might not have caught my eye. I loved the colorways. So I ordered yarn from Briggs and Little, in New Brunswick, made my first stranded sweater, and cut steeks for the first time. Authentic Fair Isle or not, it has earned me many a compliment. It was also my first wool sweater in years. I was sure I was allergic to wool since every sweater I had ever had in wool was scratchy. But I tried the B&L yarn(and that's another love affair--so soft, and not itchy). Then 2 friends commissioned similar

sweaters in a brown/green colorway 1 cardigan and one pullover. And I ordered yarn for 3 more sweaters in other colors. (at this point I have not knit fine socks and am oblivious to authentic Fair Isle Knitting).

Knitting geek I may be, but techno-geek? Those genes bypassed me and all went to my son. Adding images is difficult for me (I'll blame it on slow dial-up), so I managed to sit here posting while my image was uploading, and I managed to get the same image twice. Could someone please tell me how to remove an image?

A (see below)

Back to the saga. At this time, I had not heard of Lorraine or Anne (http://shadesofshetland.blogspot.com/). When Alice Starmore's Oregon sweater appeared in the Vogue Knitting magazine, I was hooked. In trying to find the yarn for the Jamieson's book, I had googled, and found Jamieson and Smith, thinking this was the right company, so I ordered for 3 sweaters. My apologies Anne, I'd love to order a shade card from you and some yarn, but I have to de-stash some first. But I've been tempted by the cute little Roslin Fair Isle hoodie on the Rainey Sisters http://theraineysisters.com/ site. That one calls for Jamieson yarns in 2 weights. I will resist the temptation till my Roscalie and Oregon are finished. Then I'll reward myself.

With all the image stuff, I managed to move the following paragraph to the bottom of the page and started typing again ahead of it. Insert the following paragraph at A above to keep the saga in order. It's not letting me cut&paste.

A friend at school had a kit for Alice Starmore's Roscalie Cardigan, in the original Scottish Campion colors, and she asked me for help--I couldn't believe how thin the yarn was, but am always up for a challenge. In exchange for the help, she shared the pattern with me. So I checked the gauge, with B&L one ply, adjusted the pattern repeats, and that will be my Roscalie Cardigan. At this point, I was curious about who Alice Starmore might be, so I googled, and opened a new world of knitting. Alas and alack!! Most of the books that I would die to own (but not spend

hundreds of $$$ for) are out of print. But prayers answered; Jamieson's have some lovely Fair Isles in their books and Lorraine has a tempting one. (Shh...I'm trying to upload the picture of my Roscalie sweater. Maybe the image gremlins won't know if we're quiet about it)
I guess I wasn't quiet enough, because they heard me, and I lost the link, and my picture should have been almost finished... This time I'm going to time the upload.

OK What's up? After 14 minutes the blessed thing tells me my upload is done, click DONE and it will be on the post. So where is it? I'll add it next time.

I think I'm pushing my luck for one evening. On a final note: At the left are my Galaxy socks--A Regia yarn sent to me by a cousin in Germany along with other colors for 4 more pairs but sadly, no more Galaxy ones.

(I had uploaded this image onto a blank post for future use, so it worked fine)

GOOD NIGHT! I'm going for a cup of tea!!

Till next time: You can get a lot of extra mileage out of a grandmother if you let her have a cup of tea. (Charlotte Gray)

Furry Sweater for My Sister and the Elusive Roscalie Picture

My sister asked me to knit her a sweater. The design was from an older knitting book--it has a monochromatic diagonal stripe pattern of a textured and a plain yarn on one sleeve and the upper diagonal half of the body. The other sleeve and the lower diagonal half of the body are plain. The yarns have long been discontinued. She prefers garments that do not need special fussy care. So I went to WalMart and found some Red Heart eyelash yarn (Foxy)on sale--in white, with a mind that I had something in my stash to go with it.

I found some white Bernat Catalina yarn (that may give you a clue how old my stash is, and a hint about how old I might be) , and proceeded to knit. Had I followed the pattern, the eyelash yarn would have been too furry, so I knit more plain rows in between, and it worked out very nicely. Sleeve finished, I started the body.

We attended a our new grand-nephew's baptism a few weeks ago, and she happened to mention that she never wears white because it makes her complexion look sick. So, I went home, went to my stash, and be darned if I didn't have the same yarn in a lovely peach shade. I did not rip it out. Just started from scratch. The white eyelash with the peach is OK.

I've been re-reading my earlier posts , and in my début post it sounds like I had some nasty friends who poked fun at me because I was poor--not so, what I meant to say was that they poked fun at me for spending class time copying the stitches on their sweaters.

Don't you get annoyed when you find knots in yarn? Particularly in pricey sock yarn with a large pattern repeat, and they don't tie the new end on keeping the pattern's continuity. I'm kind of fussy about matching my self-patterned socks. That takes us to the Mary Maxim bamboo sock yarn--it comes in lovely colors, it's a gem to work with (splits a bit, but manageable), the socks feel sinfully smooth and cool, it's not too bad a price ($9.99 per 100 g), but it has a large pattern repeat and both colors that I used so far had a knot. The ball band says "Machine Washable--look on reverse side for complete washing instructions", except there aren't any instructions there.

My first hand-knit socks (I think I own about 20 pairs) that are now 7 years old --and I wear them constantly from fall to spring, are showing signs of wear. I had saved all the little scraps from all the socks, thinking to knit a patchwork of some kind to use them up. But I never did. Now I'm glad, because I intend to knit in new soles--at least the heel and front part. That's something my grandma taught me--and I'm glad she did. If anyone inquires, I will try to show in a future post how that is done.

Sorry about the small red font in last blog. On Blogger can we underline or strikethrough? I can't find a font menu or a keyboard shortcut that lets me do that. And I'm curious why my profile picture took just seconds to upload, while the post images take so long. After this post is finished I want to go and send some pictures to my Ravelry site. I'm curious how that will go.

Roscalie is here. It took 16 minutes on the 4th try. The first 3 times,I lost the connection to Blogger. Funny, because my profile picture uploaded in no time, the fuzzy sweater picture uploaded just fine, but this one didn't. So I went and saved a new copy of the picture, and there were no problems. Perhaps there was a problem with the picture. This is just to show you the colors I chose. Will post a picture of the whole thing when it's finished.

Till next time:"Grandmas are just antique little girls" (on a wooden heart-shaped wall hanging which I bought for my mom).

1,2,3,4...35

1,2,3,4,..35. Like a rhythm in my head. That's what I did all morning, count marigold seeds into the rows--35 seeds per row, 6 (or 12) rows per color, depending on popularity. It's a busy time in the greenhouse right now--mostly seeding. I seeded a 512 hole tray of portulacas, 3 seeds per hole, tiny like the period in normal typing--by hand.

Like I said in the profile, we operate a small greenhouse (7000 sq. feet) and because of its scale, we do everything by hand--equipment too expensive.

I would like to introduce you to the lovely ladies in the picture above: three of my four granddaughters: Kayla (now 18), Christine (now 16) and Elizabeth (now 20). I can't believe it, but for the 4th one, Kelsey, I couldn't find a picture with a sweater on it!! have to do something about that.

In my début post, I mentioned my inspirational grandmother "Oma". There she is, spinning away.

And here are my sister (left) and I, wearing matching knit dresses. I still have the pattern. Notice the extra long hem on my dress--room to grow.

PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY: I belong to a little Roman Catholic church community. Our CWL (Catholic Women's League) has a membership of 9 ladies. We're small, but powerful. Almost 3 years ago we started a prayer shawl ministry. We knit or crochet shawls or lap robes, and while working on them we pray for the needs of the recipient--sometimes they are made for a certain person in mind, who is ill, or burdened by difficulties; other times we make them for when the need arises. After the garment is finished, we bring it to church, and the entire community prays over the shawl and the priest blesses it, whereafter it is presented to the recipient or a family member. Since the prayer shawls had all been given to ill people, to lighten up our mission, we decided to give a prayer baby shawl to all new babies in our community.

The prayer shawl pictured above was given to my youngest sister, who had been diagnosed with a very serious cancer. It so happened that the Sunday that she was to receive her prayer shawl, the new archbishop was visiting our church. So it was he who blessed her and the shawl. He had never heard of this ministry before, but was very impressed. My sister underwent months of gruelling treatments , both chemo and radiation, and is, at the moment, free of cancer.

I'm on dial-up internet, and am surprised that the picture took such a long time to upload, and yet the quality is not good.

Till next time: "Grandmas are always astonished to find themselves old enough to be grandmas." (Julie B. Jones)

Welcome to my new Blog

What an exciting day! Well, maybe not yet for any readers who happen upon this unfinished site. I'm kind of technologically challenged, but I learn best by doing, so I decided to dive right in. Since this blog is mostly to share my knitting interests, I should begin there.

I have been knitting since I was three years old--self taught by observing my grandmother in Austria who spun her own wool and knit everything from (scratchy) undergarments to socks, etc. I remember her amazement that I had produced a garter stitch piece (with lots of dropped stitches).

As a young child in post-war Vienna, I was amazed that my mom could magically make a magazine picture appear as a real sweater. My dad also knit on a very rudimentary knitting machine. Knitting was a source of income for them.

We immigrated to Canada, homesteading, but couldn't afford yarn for any knitting but the essentials.

My knitting re-awakening happened when I was 12, and my youngest sister was born. I secretly knit her a bonnet , booties and sweater in fingering yarn, which cost $0.25 per 1-oz ball ( I think it was Beehive Fingering).

From high school on I knit regularly--my friends affectionately poked fun at me because I couldn't afford to buy trendy clothes, so I sewed for myself, and often during classes I would read stitches and patterns off their storebought sweaters so I could knit (oh, no!!! did I just imply COPY) them for myself.

Other stories to follow. My knitting passion of the moment is traditional Fair Isle--I have ordered yarn directly from the Shetlands. And I love to knit socks--have probably knit close to 100 pairs for myself, and for gifts.

I'm on Ravelry under sproutsnknits, but that site is also not well developed.