Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Back to Work

Furry Bear

By A. A. Milne
If I were a bear,
   And a big bear too,
I shouldn’t much care
   If it froze or snew;
I shouldn’t much mind
   If it snowed or friz—
I’d be all fur-lined
   With a coat like his!
 
For I’d have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,
And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.
I’d have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws,
And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.
With a big brown furry-down up to my head,
I’d sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.

I was wishing for a bear's warmth when I went out to my car this morning. Brrrrr. The first real cold we've had. My car thermometer registered 14 degrees on the way to work.

Noro Sock #1 - Complete!
Noro Sock #2 - barely begun
Norwegian Longwool - Bobbin #1 complete and resting

Norwegian Longwool - Bobbin #2 barely begun
Sock Quest 2012: Noro Sock #1 is done and blocking. Sock #2 was cast on last night and I've begun the 3x1 leg. A bit of concern about the amount of yarn that's left...
Handspinning: I spun up the rest of the 2 ounces of Norwegian Longwool and am pretty pleased with the results. 
After an hour of annoying wheel noise and movement, I realized that an Allen wrench would eliminate most of the problems. Who knew? Now my wheel is almost silent, but for the knocking of the two conrods - I still can't figure out how to tighten them.
Exercise: 30 minutes on the stationary bike.
Food/Water: Tea and soup and carrots and hummus and quite a lot of water and a delicious pasta/spinach/tomato/ricotta dish that Zig discovered in his "Staying Thin" French cookbook. The latter has not yet been prepared - alas, I cannot cook it until he (Zig) gets home, as it's written in French and I might mess up. If I acted like a grown-up, I'd use my rudimentary French to figure it out, but it only takes 30 minutes to prepare and cook, so I'll just wait.  

 

Monday, January 2, 2012

A Poem For You

Sock Quest 2012: Noro Sock #1 is about 85% complete!

Spinning Status: 1 oz of Norwegian Longwool spun - fairly finely
The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

So much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.





It's pretty easy to blog daily when work has not yet resumed. Making hay while the sun shines - here are my updates on a variety of fronts.

Sock Quest 2012: About 85% of the first sock is complete. I hope to finish it today, and cast on the second sock. I have so much sock yarn in my stash...I could easily knit nothing but socks for all of 2012 and still have more. MUCH more. Just ordered Clara Parkes' new book The Knitter's Book of Socks because all my favorite knitting podcasters say that I can't live without it. With that, and Cookie A. and Cat Bordhi, I should be all set for ideas.

Ounce #2 of Norwegian Longwool waits patiently
Handspinning: About 1 ounce (of 4 ounces) of Norwegian Longwool is spun. This is the May 2011 fiber shipment from Spunky Eclectic in Lisbon Maine. The wheel is an Ashford Traveller. I am ignorant as to ratios - just trying to spin this as finely as I can for a (hopefully) fingering weight 2-ply. We'll see. I am (obviously) playing catch-up with Spunky's monthly shipments. This particular fiber's colorway is "Angkor Wat". Very easy and pleasant to spin.

Other Knitting: I splurged (that's putting it mildly) at Stitches East 2011 in Hartford this past October - bought the kit from Ruhama's for Christel Seyfarth's Malthese Flowers Shawl. The first bit was tricky because I was working back and forth in fair isle, which meant purling on the wrong side, but once I had enough stitches on the needle I was able to make a steek and continue knitting in the round. I think this will be lovely when cut, finished, washed, and blocked. Right now it looks pretty lumpy.

Malthese Flowers (yes, the spelling is weird) Shawl
Shetland wool for Malthese Flowers Shawl
Exercise: Today was a weight lifting day, which means approximately 30 minutes of free weights (5 and 10 pound) for biceps curls, military presses, wrist flexion and extension, and "rowing" with an exercise band. This is followed by 20 minutes on the stationary bike (5 minute warmup, 10 minutes fairly fast, 5 minute cool down). Add to that the 2.2 mile brisk walk to Riverton and back (with Zig), and you get a fairly active day!

Food/Water: Healthy breakfast of steel cut oats, walnuts, banana. Lunch of chicken barley soup. Supper of homemade squash soup. Water and tea and vitamins - check.


Reading: Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James. Not one of my favorites, but pretty good. It's on my iPad.

 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Sock Quest 2012

First Pair of 2012 - begun on 1/1/12.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn
Needles: Signature 2.5mm (US 1 1/2)
Stitches: 64
Pattern: 10 rows 1x1 rib, 60 rows 3x1 rib. 32 row heel flap. 45 rows between end of gusset and beginning of toe shaping.
Hmm...this almost looks like some sort of weird cultish altar.

Cycling

Another entry on the first day of the year...just to log my exercise time. 30 minutes on a stationary bike - it's Abe's bike, mounted on an indoor trainer.

On 30 minute days, I warm up at speed 3/3 for 5 minutes, then pedal fast at speed 3/1 for 20 minutes, then cool down at speed 3/8 for 5 minutes. Listening to podcasts (today was This American Life) helps pass the time.

So, there it is!

A New Year

January 1, 2012.
Aspirations:
  • Spin more fiber
  • Knit more sock yarn into socks
  • Exercise
  • Drink more water
  • Eat healthily
  • Blog more
Zig and I are spending spring break in Paris - a celebration of 30-plus years together. I want to show off my arms as we saunter the streets of the Marais. I want to wear a lace shawl with Tour Eiffel motifs on the edges. I want to weigh less - significantly less, as I climb the steps of Montmartre.


Perhaps this blog will help keep me on track. Perhaps Abe's strength training regimen, custom designed for me, will help keep me on track. Perhaps a count down - departure date of Friday, April 13, 2012...


Monday, July 11, 2011

So much for frequent posting

Estelle Cardigan from Quince & Co.  in "Twig" Colorway

Hedera Socks (Cookie A.) from Knit. Sock. Love. Pine Star Studio yarn.

Son Stuart ready to take on Chicago with 3 Euroflax Linen string bags

Stephen West's "Daybreak" for my brother Stuart's 50th birthday

Polyphylla Cowl knit in my handspun AVFKW BFL "The Peacock's Wild Plume"

Malabrigo Silky Merino "Cloudy Sky" knit into Churchmouse Yarns English Mesh Lace Scarf (beaded)

Multnomah knit with Auracania yarn

Cookie A's BFF socks knit with Pinestar Studio Merino

Berroco "Seduce" in color 4493 (discontinue) to become Norah Gaughan's "Flow" tank
Okay, besides meeting a bunch of terrific, salt-of-the-earth knitters today, here's a bit of what I've been knitting:

Who Knew?

I just had a fantastic time at the Bristol (Maine) Area Public Library. I'm here in New Harbor for five weeks, and Zig saw in the Lincoln County Times newspaper that there are "Knitting Lessons" held every Monday afternoon from 2-4pm at the Bristol Library. So off I went, armed with my latest project, Norah Gaughan's "Flow", which I'm knitting with Berroco Seduce in a GORGEOUS discontinued colorway (4493).

But enough about the project - the cool part was the knitting group itself. Led by Judy, a former school media specialist from Hebron, CT (synchronicity, anyone?), the group meets in the children's room of the most excellent Bristol Area Library - a happening place in its own right, but that's another story. Judy greeted me warmly, and immediately introduced to Bunny (another Connectikite - from West Hartford) and Penny (!) originally from Newburyport, MA. Judy and Penny have retired and live right here in Bristol, and Bunny is retired and owns land near Pemaquid Lighthouse - she and her husband plan to build here.

In addition to being an expert knitter and former children's librarian, Judy is also an avid quilter and the mother of one of the managers at Rising Tide Food Co-op in Damariscotta. We are members there. And I quilt!

Okay, it gets better (or, more synchronized?)...another woman arrived (actually there were about 15 women there at one point - I didn't get to meet all of them), and introduced herself to me as Marlene. Turns out she's Marlene Loznicka, an artist who owns (and lives at) the Schoolhouse Gallery not 1/10 of a mile up Huddle Road from our cottage. We have always admired her paintings (sort of dark, with lovely golden light) of the Maine landscape, and have visited her gallery before.

Bunny was talking of her desire for a classic Maine cape house - Penny lives in one. Bunny is picking me up at 10:00 tomorrow morning to go visit Penny at her Cape house. !!!!!!!!!

I am most definitely going back to Bristol Area Library next Monday - maybe my mom will want to go, too!