Apple of My Eye (Candy Friday)

Photo taken last Saturday.  After an intervening week of gloom and rain and snow,  it looks like this again today, with a sunny October-blue sky.

Mmmm, fresh crisp apples!  One of the best things about autumn here.

Weekend Update with hints o’ Sun(flower)

Unfortunately without shawl progress photos: I haven’t gotten the Girasole all spread out to take an up-to-date photo.  But I am knitting on the edging as of late last week!  That’s the good news.

The bad news: 640 stitches per row; each stitch to bind off equals TWO  rows of the lace edging, though short rows and pretty simple garter lace.  Still.  I was thinking 640 rows, and when I realized it was 1280 rows, it made sense why progress was so slow.  (Each lace pattern repeat is less than 0.5% of the total circumference of the shawl.  Gah.  Maybe I had better stop calculating right now.)

When I have more bound off, I should be able to photograph it (right now it’s all bunched up on the needles) and of course soon there should be a blocking shot of the Golden Girasole!  In the meantime, there was a bit of sunshine to knit by this past weekend, just as I wished for last week.

Saturday’s Sky, a neighbor’s sugar maple tree:

and again:

I admit, I didn’t specify anything as far as wishes for temperature.  With the result being temperatures 20 degrees below normal.  Oh, well, at least we didn’t get more than a trace of snow before the clear-and-cold….

(No, the snow waited for TODAY.)

Despite the cold, I had visitors from the Twin Cities yesterday, just coming to see the area, tour around, hang out for a bit!  We went to Salem Stitchery & Knittery (formerly Country Woolgatherer) where Tammy was having a fall Open House and sale; and then had a nice drive around the orchards and Grandad’s Bluff.

Nicole, Jonelle and Becca.  Above, outside Salem Stitchery; below, Nicole perusing lovely yarn inside.

Oohing and Aahing about the Mississippi River Valley from the Minnesota side. 

Though we had to watch out for the herds of lawn deer roaming La Crescent.

We even saw an eagle on top of Grandad’s Bluff!

Look!!

Fourth of July Saturday Sky

As of an hour ago.  A perfect night for fireworks over the Mississippi River.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

We’re in the big leagues now

Thanks for all the Gothlet birthday wishes!  I’ll make sure she sees them.  Madrona post(s) coming very soon, when the work backlog lets me get my head above water, but I had to share this in the meantime.

From a Charter Communications story about the recent semi-conversion to digital TV (on the Gothlet birthday, as a matter of fact):

“The most populous places where many or all major-network stations are cutting analog this week include San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.; La Crosse and Madison, Wis.; Rockford and Peoria, Ill.; Sioux City, Iowa; Waco, Texas; Macon, Ga.; Scranton, Pa.; Rhode Island and Vermont.”

Glad to know we’re up there with San Diego… Waco… Peoria… and the state of Vermont!  What an interestingly varied list that is, to be a part of.

Yes, we are all digital here in this populous place.  Explains why my father had his upper body wedged in the kitchen cupboard corner, installing a converter box for their little kitchen radio/TV, when I went over to their house to dry an emergency load of Gothlet jeans Tuesday night. 

(A propos of which:  my husband finally arranged repair services, who came and fixed the oven yesterday, assisted by the Beya-kitten (fortunately, the repairman was a cat guy).  The dryer?  Worked when they tried it, dang it.  Supposedly repair guy and husband tested all sorts of things while they were about it.  What about no heat, no tumbling and weird burning smell for me?  Makes me nervous.  Because,  since nothing was fixed,  it WILL happen again.  At the worst possible time.)

Ain’t technology grand?

Decorah Blue Saturday Sky

Yesterday, on a gorgeous day (above freezing!  sun shining!), at my friend Lee’s suggestion, she and I took an afternoon trip down to Decorah, Iowa, with yarn on our minds.

Now, Decorah is the home of Lee’s alma mater, Luther College; plus she has family ties there.  But when she’s there, she doesn’t generally have the freedom to go off and wander around yarn stores.  For me, though it’s well under two hours’ drive away, I haven’t been there for over 25 years, when I visited my high school friend who was then attending Luther.

We had hoped a couple other knitting friends could come too, but sadly not.  Lee kindly drove (well, on the way there, that was in the interest of self-preservation: I have no innate sense of direction, and no knowledge of NE Iowa).  That meant I could knit away on my Shetland Seas Shawl while we talked away.  (Here it is, though it’s a little farther now than when this picture even was taken.   The advantage of a color-changing yarn is that there IS visible progress!)

The first picture above was taken at Vanberia, which I keep wanting to call Yarn-beria, but sadly, this was not the case.  As you might infer from the Scandinavian flags* proudly waving in the balmy January breeze, this is a Scandinavian/Nordic import shop, and until two years ago (we found out) did carry yarn and patterns imported from Norway.  Lee bought her first Norwegian sweater pattern and yarn here, back in college.  So it was disappointing to find out that this part of their stock had been relatively recently discontinued.

*By the way, Sweden is not being boycotted on purpose, I don’t think: the second flagpole was empty, where there obviously should be a Swedish flag; they did have Swedish imports.  And there is a Danish flag not fully visible in this picture.  Do YOU know your Scandinavian flags? Can you correctly identify in order the three that are showing without looking them up?

(I will admit that I do not have a Scandihoovian drop of blood in my body; but from sheer proximity to Nordic-ness around here, I could promptly identify three out of four flags plus the missing one that should be there, and correctly guess the fourth one, though I didn’t know it at first.)

But the visit was not in vain (I can find a silver lining to spend money on in any cloud):  they still carried imported cardigan clasps, as one would use on an authentic Norwegian sweater.  (Plus, they had Dale sweaters for sale, so I could figure out how many to buy: if you’re curious, all the women’s Dale sweaters  they had, had six pairs of clasps regardless of size, so I bought seven pair in case of loss or breakage.)  I still have the plan in my head to make a steeked stranded colorwork cardigan (though obviously it didn’t happen last year; anything for me-myself-and-I most often goes to the back of the queue).  So these clasps are earmarked for that as yet un-knit, heck, un-designed sweater (but I can see it in my head!).

Please excuse the salt stain on the floor that I did not see until after the picture was taken.  I was a little distracted by a  certain black kitten.  I was just taking the first picture, after carefully arranging the clasps just so, when a black blur came whizzing through my viewfinder and hockey-sticked the top pair under the coffee table while jumping on the bottom pair.  Grrr!  I tried unsuccessfully again, and finally had to resort to trapping her under my arm like a resentful football as I took this picture.

The top pair is probably for a child’s cardigan, or perhaps for the placket of a pullover like this, but I liked it.  It would also probably be appropriate for a cardigan knit from finer yarn.  The bottom pair is likely what I’ll be using.

Besides clasps, I also found some imported treats, for daughters and others.  And someone from my old church was in that store and recognized me.  (As the ‘one with the smart daughter’ — RockStar was a very verbal and precocious toddler at the time.) Go figure.

So for yarny satisfaction, fortunately, we had first gotten our fix here:

See the blue heron in the window, complete with scarf?

(Those long necks give plenty of opportunity for scarf knitting/wearing, you know!)

The owner was leading a knitting group/class during some of the time we were there, but was very helpful.  And there were yarns there I’d never seen: some of the less often-seen lines of Marisol (free trade) and Frog Tree (also socially aware yarn).

Among other things, I bought some of this lovely Meriboo (70% merino/30% bamboo) Frog Tree, which is DK weight and which I am envisioning as a colorwork vest, somehow (are you reading this, Nora?).  (Sounds like more steeking.  Hey, actually, it could be Baby’s First Steeking!  Practice before the cardigan!)

(The football had escaped.)

Also, some Marisol Tupa silk/merino in red, some EcoWool in dark natural (considering a Hemlcok Ring like Jared’s original, which was in Ecowool), some clearance Sublime angora blend, some pencil roving, that looked like fun though it feels like cheating to spin it:

oh, yes, I had fun!  Blue Heron opened a year ago, so after Yarn, oops, Vanberia stopped carrying yarn.  Very nice shop.  Here are some interior details, it’s in an airy historic building:

I didn’t think I had any whole pictures of Lee, but there she is in the picture above, to the right of the Addi Needles.

But here are her legs, trying to make a decision about which yarns to pick for a teenage boy chullo.

(This was a selection of Marisol Sulka, 60% merino/20% alpaca/ 20% silk.)

Then, we walked to Agora Arts in the historical Hotel Winneshiek, past these guys loitering outside.

And past this Green Man on the bank building.

Sorrowfully, other obligations called, though we could definitely have spent more time.  So after a quick stop at the coffeeshop (chai and a scone for me), and a brief drive-through for me to see Luther College, we hit the road again.  I missed taking a picture of the somewhat disturbing polesitting horse and hanging cowboy en route, but next time, I promise I will.

I have a short space this afternoon without children.   (Then I must do penance for that by taking a certain RockStar to the vicinity of the mall: she is going on a church retreat next weekend, and needs a one-piece swimsuit, which she apparently does  not have (although I had encouraged the purchase of same last summer, as I recall.)

So I am off to knit like the wind over the Shetland Islands on my Shetland Seas shawl while I have some peace and quiet.  I want to see BLUE!

Saturday Sky through Stained Glass (and mysteries solved)

Astrid asked about the stained glass window reflected in the TV in a recent post.  Here it is, up close and personal with yesterday’s Saturday Sky dimly seen through it, and yes, it’s original to our 1891 Victorian money sinkhole house (still under reconstruction).

This is south-facing in our living room, and casts a lovely warm light in the winter, as you might imagine. (In the summer, the trees are leafed out and the sun is higher and doesn’t shine in directly quite as much.) It’s one of three stained glass windows that remain in our house.  Our most beautiful one, I’ve shown you before, quite some time ago, on a cloudy winter day when the Saturday Sky was not so inspiring and was definitely prettier seen through the window:

The third stained glass window is at the landing of our front staircase (there used to be two stairways, which was a little silly for a house which is really fairly small, so in the dual interests of preventing our toddler daughters from tumbling down the narrow back stair and of enlarging the tiny second floor bathroom, we closed off the back stairs a decade ago).  Yesterday’s Sky again through the last window:

Someone felt it necessary to put up faux stained glass vinyl over the window below this; we’ve never gotten around to taking it off (too much else to do).

Why do I say, “three windows left”?

There used to be a nice window here.

But the man who used to own this house and rent it out to college boys (who still lives next door) had a window the same size, so took the stained glass window to put in his house.  Yes, it’s a nice window. I can see it in his house any time I walk by.  He didn’t think it was fair that this house had 4 windows and his house (not quite as old) had none. So why didn’t he live in our house?  It’s the one that needed a ton of work.  Used to be a college fraternity….

Anyway, yesterday’s Saturday Sky was worth seeing all by itself.  I went with daughter #1 to ballet class, as we did last Saturday, and both daughters’ plans for the day involved chauffeurage.  My husband was working.  I resisted spending all afternoon in the car, so negotiated one-way driving (both plans involved friends, so carpooling happened).  Here’s our landmark, Grandad’s Bluff, less than a mile from my house as I wait to turn my car towards the mall to pick up daughter #1 and her friend.

That wind almost looks southerly, but I think it was mostly west.  Not very warm, it’s been subzero F every night.

Other bluffs on the way to the mall (at least it’s a pretty drive if you ignore the highway and billboards); click to embiggen if desired.

And one more bluff on the way back, with the afternoon sun highlighting it.

(The RockStar’s friend might think I’m a bit odd for taking photos at the stop light.  Who knows?)

Lastly, a brief glimpse of Saturday Sunset fire between the houses across the street.

A lovely day.

Wish I had taken a walk; instead I drove girls here and there after dance, cleaned a bit, knit and read, and went to a work party in the evening.  I did dance, then, also!  Not ballet,  granted.

By the way--

Apropos of last weekend’s Saturday Sky with Mystery Birds post, I do believe Manise has solved the mystery.  The birds that looked like robins but couldn’t be, were:

Robins!

Robins HAVE been reported to overwinter occasionally in the north, upon further research, though I’ve never seen one before (their return to our neighborhood in April or so is one of those signs of spring, you know?).  I believe I didn’t recognize them as such, because:

1)  I’ve never really seen them from below: they’re usually hopping on the ground to find food.  Obviously not an option right now.

2)  They were in a flock, and I’ve never seen robins flock.  In the spring, I see them by ones and twos.

3)  They had their feathers all puffed against the cold, and that changed their shape (I have seen them like this once in the spring, when there was a sudden cold snap)

4)  I didn’t EXPECT to see them!  (the real kicker)

The ‘wing bar’ does seem to have been a fortuitously placed snowflake falling.

After Manise commented, I Googled using different search terms, and found a report that robins have been reported to be overwintering in unusually large numbers in SE Minnesota (right across the Mississippi from me), in places they’ve never been reported to overwinter.  (Bad winter to decide to spend up north, may I add, dear robins.)

So there’s a mystery solved, and knowledge gained!  Cool!  Thanks, Manise!

Tomorrow: actual knitting content.

Cow Candy

OK, it’s not really the usual Friday Eye Candy: but I thought I’d share with you some archetypal Wisconsin cows that were out one recent (cold) Saturday afternoon.

They were a little dubious about my motives in stopping the car and coming up to their pasture.

But look at their digs!  Not just anyone gets to stay at the Bossie Mootel, ya know.

(Soundtrack to this post if you have it or care to click to listen:

“Cows” by Sandra Boynton, as performed by the Seldom Herd, from one of my favorite CDs, “Philadelphia Chickens”.)

Moonset this Morning (Bonus Eye Candy Friday)

I wasn’t going to have an Eye Candy post today — no real time, and no new pretty pictures (see ‘no time’).  But this morning I looked out the front window to see the moon looking back at me, and had to grab my camera.  (If you click to embiggen, you can see it a little more as I saw it; the white background of the blog makes it look darker than it was.)

It’s the setting moon, tangled in my neighbor’s tree, as seen through the window, hence the refraction of the light.

(It was -2F (-19C) again, and I was not at that point dressed for such weather to be able to take the photo from outside!)

Slightly later, while running into work (a touch late from taking the time to upload these pictures), I saw the moon again just above the horizon:  all huge and pinky-peach in the pale blue sunrise sky, above the snow-covered river bluffs.  Beautiful.

No picture, though; you’ll just have to imagine!

Mid-November Eye Candy Friday

A change in the weather.

(Click to embiggen.)  County Road B, last Saturday, November 15.

A Tale of Two LYS’s

Well, one LYS and one not-quite-so-LYS.  And their surroundings.

Last Saturday, I went to a Local Yarn Store, Salem Stitchery (used to be Country Woolgatherer).  It’s just a few miles away, but out in the country.

This was during the 20 minutes of sunshine we had late Saturday afternoon.  In fact, I was walking up to the door of the store as I took this picture, then looked over my shoulder to see the impending sunset and promptly about-faced to go shoot some more pictures, including the one I showed you Saturday.  And this one.

(This LYS is in an outbuilding on the owner’s farm.) And this photo of geese flying overhead.

And this one of a bit of a rainbow that showed up just before the sun set (the geese flew by it, but I couldn’t get them to show up in the photo).

As I was paying for my purchases later, the owner asked me if everything was okay.  She was worried that I’d lost my dog or something, since she’d seen me approach the door then take off briskly!  (I think the ‘briskly’ part was because there was a nippy wind, and because it was getting late.)   I was hoping no one had noticed my aberrant behavior….

There was a Thanksgiving/Harvest open house here last weekend, and I always want to support local yarn stores.  Not that I really needed anything.  But I bought some warm, soft chunky alpaca for my father-in-law, for a scarf; he’s just moved up from Florida and his blood is thin, he needs it ASAP; I won’t wait until Christmas to give him this.  And a couple other things for swaps and presents.  This shop has abundant needlework supplies, and also some antiques.  Look at this, in the back:

“Hostess Doily Stretcher”.

If I made doilies, I’d be tempted.  I was anyway, just because it’s cool.  But I resisted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just the day before, I’d been at a very different ambience of LYS.  Not Local to me, but in Rochester, Minnesota, where I was Thursday and Friday at an educational meeting.  I took a brisk walk at a break on Friday and made it a yarn break.  (Unfortunately, I got cocky and didn’t write down the address; and naturally, there’s a difference between 6th St & 2nd Ave SW versus 6th Ave & 2nd St SW!  So it was a bit longer walk and break than I had quite intended….Fortunately, however, Rochester is laid out very logically, so once I had figured out my error, I could get to where I needed to go without further delay or angst.)

Here’s Kristen’s Knits (note: location being the second selection above; the store recently moved, and the website still has the old address as of the date of this post).

The store had a great selection of yarns, I thought.  I bought some Rowan Tapestry in soothing colors for a future mini-Lady Eleanor type scarf (knitting back backwards for the purposes of entrelac in particular is on my list of things to learn to do at some point in the future).  And a little Silk Garden for a Pioneer Braid Scarf for a present.  And the Vogue Holiday magazine, and a couple patterns (such a deal!  A free pattern or magazine if you purchased more than $50!  Which is so difficult for me to be able to do, to pick out that much yarn….)

After enjoying myself all too briefly, I had to return to my meeting.  Since I had my camera, I did snap a couple photos as I went.  There is some interesting architecture around the WFMC (World Famous Mayo Clinic).  I particularly always enjoy the details of the Plummer Building.

Detail of a carving embedded in the stonework.

Even the banisters are cool.

And you should have seen the water fountains!  Ah, well, back to the meeting.