tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65141956285297066922024-03-13T22:15:07.167-07:00Through My KaleidoscopeJuliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.comBlogger242125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-31251941705796976972020-11-02T11:55:00.000-08:002020-11-02T11:55:03.782-08:00Signs and Messages<p>It has been just over seven months since I last posted, and it's been a very difficult seven months for most of us. The coronavirus pandemic rages on, with more than 200,000 Americans dead, protests for racial justice filled the summer, and a divisive presidential campaign has dragged on for far too long. Life has become so unsettled and disheartening that I seriously considered never posting to my blog ever again.</p><p>But strangely enough, there have been signs of hope popping up around me as I do my daily walks in the neighborhood. I want to share some of them with you, in case you need a little dose of hope, too.</p><p>At first, there was encouragement without words:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49747731312_c93124a78f_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49747731312_c93124a78f_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Then the words popped up in expected and unexpected places:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49851065718_2dbcc5a1de_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49851065718_2dbcc5a1de_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50261098027_9b865baa15_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50261098027_9b865baa15_z.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49736411192_651b2faa07_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49736411192_651b2faa07_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50473454633_c9be28fa87_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50473454633_c9be28fa87_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49953617317_b3fa87d035_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49953617317_b3fa87d035_z.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Neighbors posted signs that gave me serious things to think about; out of those thoughts hope and change can emerge.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50024360656_33878ff134_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50024360656_33878ff134_z.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310047252_c37ab639e0_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50310047252_c37ab639e0_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>And now we are at the very end of a long, long election season. Many of the signs in my neighborhood have become political, and because I'm in very blue Seattle, you can probably guess which party's signs show up most often. This one was the tiniest and most unusual:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50387318376_9c2115c725_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50387318376_9c2115c725_z.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>And this final sign is my message to you: no matter what your politics are, if you are in the U.S., the most important thing you can do is VOTE! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50419816723_26c588f938_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50419816723_26c588f938_z.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Be safe and well; until next time.</p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-35784336554588939592020-03-30T12:10:00.001-07:002020-03-30T12:10:52.239-07:00Life on LockdownA lot has happened in the month since I last posted. Significanly, Leap Day was the day that life here in the Pacific Northwest started to change, and not for the better. It was the day that the first death due to Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, was reported. It occurred just a few miles from me, in a city on the other side of Lake Washington.<br />
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Once that happened, other changes began occurring quickly. On March 5, the postponement of Vogue Knitting Live, scheduled for the following week in Bellevue. On March 11, the cancellation of the Pacific Northwest Ballet's upcoming <i>One Thousand Pieces</i> repertory. Shortly thereafter, all meetings and events with more than 250 people were cancelled. On March 17, restaurants, barber shops, beauty salons and other businesses were ordered to close, then last week, all but essential businesses were closed and people were ordered to "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" and to practice social distancing (staying at least six feet apart) in public spaces. The lockdown had truly begun.<br />
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Signs of the developing pandemic were everywhere.<br />
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March 6: A Deserted Grocery Store</div>
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On March 8</div>
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March 13: Stocking Up on the Day the Library Closed</div>
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March 14: It's Official</div>
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March 21: New Addition at the Park</div>
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March 27: No Playing Today (or tomorrow, or the next day...)</div>
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There have been some vestiges of normality in my life, especially on my daily neighborhood walks, where I manage to spot some signs of hope and cheer.</div>
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And of course, no matter how bad the news, there is always knitting.</div>
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Elizabeth Zimmermann must have been preparing us for this unsettled time when she wrote, "Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises." I am trying to do this, and I hope that you are, too. Stay safe and healthy, and remember to wash your hands!</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-50415784628384450222020-02-29T14:11:00.000-08:002020-02-29T14:11:16.690-08:00Happy Leap Day!I know, I know, I was planning on posting on the winter solstice. Then I thought New Year's, Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day... None of those days resulted in a blog post, but I have finally surfaced.<br />
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I'm going to give you a short review of the year to-date, and I'll attempt to return sometime in March with a more lengthy post.<br />
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So, what's been happening? January saw our only snowfall of the year—thank goodness we didn't get a repeat of <a href="https://throughmykaleidoscope-julie.blogspot.com/2019/03/and-it-snowed-and-it-snowed-and-it.html">last February</a>! Mr. D and I took a walk up to the park and enjoyed the snowy beauty, and we also spotted an unusual sight: palm trees in the snow!<br />
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After two days, the snow was gone.<br />
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Later in January, we celebrated Chinese New Year at a party at my friend Sylvia's. She and her husband lived in Singapore for a couple years about 15 years ago, and her husband learned to cook all sorts of New Year delicacies. Welcome to the Year of the Rat!<br />
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Probably the biggest event of the year so far happened on February 7. Mr. D and I went up to Everett and attended a Fed Cup qualifier. Fed Cup is a women's tennis team competition. The U.S. team played Latvia in Everett, and we saw the first two matches: Sofia Kenin (who was fresh from winning the Australian Open) versus Anastasija Sevastova. It was a very exciting two-set match, which Kenin won. The highlight of the evening was the second match: Serena Williams versus Jelena Ostapenko. So exciting!!! Serena won in two straight tie-break sets. This was the first live tennis match that I have ever seen and I got to see a legend!</div>
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I could go on and on, but I'll just end by sharing some photos from the event:</div>
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I have been doing more then walking in the snow, celebrating Chinese New Year and watching live tennis, but I'll save that for my next post. There will be knitting, I promise!</div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-88558948683340233902019-11-25T13:48:00.001-08:002019-11-25T13:49:11.657-08:00Autumn in the Garden (with Birds)This has been a particularly colorful autumn in the Northwest this year, due in part to a slightly cooler and wetter summer than we normally have. As a result, the Japanese maples in my garden—both tree and shrub—exploded with color:<br />
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Here is a closeup of the tree's foliage, just as it was beginning to turn:<br />
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The Japanese maples weren't the only colorful trees. I love how the Oxydendrum arboreum (Sourwood tree) displays yellow, green and even a bit of red foliage, while also hanging on to its summer flowers, even in November.<br />
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The cotoneaster that is right outside the dining room window also turned a bright and cheerful red, especially the berries, which made a robin very happy.<br />
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I love watching the robins, but my favorite garden visitor, by far, was this little female Anna's hummingbird, that perched for several minutes on a bare branch of the Japanese maple on a cold, wet day last week.</div>
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Now the leaves are mostly gone, and the weather is getting colder. I'm turning more to inside pursuits, like knitting, and gearing up for the holiday season. I'll share some of those activities in my next post, which you can look for around the winter solstice.</div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-61266833717557397682019-08-30T12:14:00.001-07:002019-08-30T12:14:45.728-07:00To Post or Not to Post (And Books)<span style="font-family: inherit;">So it's been almost five months since I've posted here on the blog. I started writing a post about colorwork toward the end of May, but only wrote one sentence because I just wasn't feeling it. Since then, I've been pondering if I want to continue writing the blog. I finally decided that, at least for now, I do. With that decision made, I plan to write shorter posts highlighting my recent knitting, activities, events and travel, and to not try too hard to stick to a schedule.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So for today, I'm highlighting some of the books I've read this summer. Here goes!</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Best Nonfiction Book</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wow, absolutely riveting! Carreyrou follows the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos, that promised a scientific/health advance that it couldn't deliver. It is the perfect companion piece to the podcast, <i>The Dropout</i>, and the HBO documentary, <i>The Inventor</i>. I recommend all three.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most Fun Book</span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A month-by-month illustrated journal of a year the author spent in a small Connecticut village on the Long Island Sound. Her musings are focused on life, nature, clothing, village events, weather, and a variety of other topics. The illustrations and Swift's writing are delightful! Recommended!</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Best Fiction Book</span></b><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-family: inherit;">What a fantastic, fantastic book! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="freeTextreview2889185613" style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;"><br />Marlantes tells the interweaving stories of Finnish immigrants in southwest Washington state from the early years of the Twentieth Century to the 1930s. His characters are loosely based on the beings in ancient Finnish myths that were collected into The Kalevala in the 1830s. This may sound a little Lord of the Rings-ish, but the plot plays out in logging camps, farms, canneries and fishing boats, as well as during the labor struggles and strikes of the period.<br /><br />If you love a good story, filled with passionate, flawed, and engaging characters, get yourself to your local indie bookstore or library and get this book. You won't be sorry.<br /><br />I am fortunate to live just five minutes away from Third Place Books, where I attended Karl Marlantes' kick-off to his book tour on July 9, 2019. He is as fascinating in person as his characters are on the page.</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;"> </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Best Audiobook</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine a mixture of a sex, drugs and rock and roll memoir and the musical Jersey Boys, minus the music, and you have this novel. I loved it, and I can't imagine reading it in any other way than as an audiobook. The entire cast was fantastic, and Julia Whelan, one of my favorite narrators, tied it all together. Highly recommended!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, what have you been reading? Let me know in the comments.</span><br />
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<br />Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-60696840724725359742019-04-02T13:49:00.001-07:002019-10-06T14:50:09.164-07:00From Snow Knitting to Spring KnittingIn my last post (almost a month ago!) I promised to share some of the projects that I was working on during the February Snowpocalypse. Now that we are almost two months removed from all that snow, I have a few other projects to show you, too.<br />
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First, the snow knitting:<br />
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This is the <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/1afm9">Rowhouse Hat</a> that I showed you in progress in the last post. I loved knitting the pattern, but I made the mistake of choosing the wrong size. It is pretty snug on me, so I will save it to give to someone with a smaller head than mine. Next time (and there will be a next time), I'll knit the medium.</div>
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I also did a bit of charity knitting during the Snowpocalyse.</div>
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Can you guess what I was knitting?</div>
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Here is the finished project: <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/ggl96">Mother Bear #15</a>. I gave her to the <a href="http://motherbearproject.org/">Mother Bear Project</a> at Stitches West in late February.</div>
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Another snow knitting project were these <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/nosol">Woodacres Mittens</a>. They were put to good use almost immediately, because even though the snow stopped falling, it stayed cold for several weeks.</div>
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The cold made for good knitting weather, so I cast on a shawl, some socks and a cowl.</div>
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My <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/qb8yt">Aloft Shawlette</a> has not made much progress beyond what you see here, but I anticipate that I will be picking it up again soon.</div>
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The socks are the <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/nwyoe">Shell Cottage Socks</a>, the first pattern in Helen Stewart's second year of the Handmade Sock Society. I knit four of the six patterns from the first year, and they are among my favorite socks ever; so pretty and they fit so well! I photographed the socks a few days ago with the project bag that Mr. D gave me for my birthday. It depicts the bridges and skyline along the Mississippi River in my hometown of Minneapolis. </div>
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Finally, the cowl. I knit the <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/zrssl">Bluet Cowl</a> for the second time (the first one was a gift), in a gorgeous purple yarn that I got in Colorado almost four years ago. High time that I knit with it, don't you think? </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK7HUEgOhmmsOA9RSZZxi8R0gg4fhwS1gl_C34qbRs1ZTNGZtbvJrq_vgVJ2yAjj6l7-_CjTPeU15ykAgqazySQ7SqhLeLB6vCnTj_bHEOW8KVl884HGoNdbHMrELYd3WTXUeqj4PLJ54/s1600/fullsizeoutput_266e.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK7HUEgOhmmsOA9RSZZxi8R0gg4fhwS1gl_C34qbRs1ZTNGZtbvJrq_vgVJ2yAjj6l7-_CjTPeU15ykAgqazySQ7SqhLeLB6vCnTj_bHEOW8KVl884HGoNdbHMrELYd3WTXUeqj4PLJ54/s400/fullsizeoutput_266e.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
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I have other projects still on the needles, but with a road trip and the NoCKRs retreat coming up, I expect that some of those projects will be finished shortly.</div>
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I'll leave you with a little hint of one of those projects, but the reveal will have to wait...</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-38305242964033845262019-03-07T12:13:00.000-08:002019-03-07T15:23:10.636-08:00And it Snowed, and it Snowed and it Snowed...My last post was of the "isn't the snow pretty" variety, but that got old pretty quickly. Between February 3rd (the snowstorm shown in the last post) and February 12th we had four, count 'em, FOUR snowstorms roll through the Puget Sound region.<br />
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At first it was fun. Mr. D and I went snowshoeing:<br />
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We went for walks to the post office with a side trip to a cafe, wearing our Yaktrax on our feet.<br />
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As the temperature dropped, we observed ice in its various forms and locations:</div>
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But mostly, we just watched as the snow just kept coming down, and then cleaned up when it was all over.</div>
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There was one benefit from being snowed in for more than a week: lots of knitting time. Here's a sneak peek at one of the projects I worked on, and I'll be back with some of my snow knitting projects (and others) very soon.</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-64510947237913655112019-02-04T15:19:00.000-08:002019-03-07T12:14:03.977-08:00Snow in SeattleIt started yesterday afternoon...<br />
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The temperature had dropped from about 41 degrees at noon to 32 degrees less than two hours later, and around that time the snow began.<br />
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Then it snowed, and snowed and snowed, and this morning that same little Japanese Maple looked like this:<br />
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Mr. D and I went for a walk this morning and enjoyed the silence and quiet beauty of a snowy morning.<br />
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Happy Winter!Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-6882106520335480162019-01-29T14:03:00.000-08:002019-03-07T12:17:04.434-08:00Seeking Scandinavia: Knitting and YarnI'm sure that you won't be surprised to learn that I was looking forward to exploring the knitting and yarn-y culture of Scandinavia on our trip last June. All three of the countries we visited have strong knitting traditions, and I saw evidence of those traditions in all three countries. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos with knitting/knitwear themes from Sweden, but I did visit a yarn store in Stockholm, which felt a lot like some of the yarn stores I've been to in the United States: many wonderful yarns, beautiful samples and a welcoming atmosphere.<br />
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I while I didn't get any knitwear photos in Sweden, I did get this photograph:<br />
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This is a Gute ram that I spotted at <a href="http://www.skansen.se/en/">Skansen</a>, a wonderful folk museum in Stockholm.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gute_sheep"> Gute sheep</a> are an early Swedish breed, native to the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.<br />
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After Stockholm, we took a train to Copenhagen, and I made up for my lack of photos in Sweden in a big way by visiting Woolstock, a knitting and embroidery cafe.<br />
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A bit of backstory here: a few months before our trip I came across a post about Woolstock on Ravelry that included a link to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/woolstock.dk/">the cafe's Instagram feed</a>. At that time (around the end of February/early March), the owner, Louise, had completed a successful Kickstarter campaign and had just located a space to rent. I started following her progress on Instagram, and it turned out that Woolstock opened the weekend before we arrived in Copenhagen. Of course, I had to go visit, so on a Sunday afternoon, after spending the morning in the Danish National Design Museum, Mr. D and I found our way there for lunch. What a special experience! Louise was so warm and welcoming, our lunch was delicious, and the cafe was delightful. Here's a little photo tour:<br />
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Danish yarn was purchased, of course, and here it is, along with my official Woolstock bag, which I'm also holding in the photo with Louise, above.<br />
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If you would like to get a bit more of the flavor of Woolstock, Kristy Glass visited Woolstock about two months after I did and she did a video of the cafe for her YouTube channel. You can view the video <a href="https://youtu.be/j5lek6e77sE">here</a>. (By the way, this is probably the only time that I will ever experience something in the knitting world before Kristy Glass does!)<br />
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Woolstock was definitely the yarn-y highlight of the whole trip, but I did find a bit more knitting and yarn when we moved on to Norway. First, in Oslo, at the <a href="https://norskfolkemuseum.no/en">Norsk Folkemuseum</a>, I saw some beautiful knitwear—traditional Norwegian sweaters, like this one:<br />
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In Bergen, I went to a yarn store, Norwegian Spirit, that was conveniently located in the train station. I didn't take any photos there, but I did buy some yarn.</div>
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The two yarns on the left are from the Norwegian indie dyer, <a href="https://www.garnsurr.no/english/">Garnsurr</a>. The owner trains refugees to dye her yarn, and in the process, teaches them to speak Norwegian. This was a wonderful cause to support, and the yarn is gorgeous! Tweedy Todd is also a Norwegian indie dyer, and this colorway really spoke to me—definitely my color!</div>
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I haven't knit with any of these yarns yet, but when I do, I'll share my projects with you here on the blog, and on Ravelry, too. Stay tuned!</div>
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<br />Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-2684229150958978932019-01-02T13:38:00.001-08:002019-03-07T15:23:52.597-08:00Where Have You Been?You may—or may not—have noticed that posts from me have been missing for several months, and you may have been wondering where I was. I'm still here, knitting, taking photographs and living my normal life, but I had to take a break to deal with a somewhat serious health issue. Happily, that issue is mostly resolved, I'm feeling great, and the new year seemed like a good time to pick up the blog again.<br />
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In previous years, I've come up with a number of goals for the year, but this year, there is only one: write regular posts on my blog. I'm not sure what "regular" means, but for now I'm going to say at least once a month.<br />
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I have definitely been knitting over the past four months, so I'll show you a couple recent finished projects.<br />
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This is my <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/24bap">Poncho Adventures in Laceland</a> (link is to my Ravelry project page). The pattern is the <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/silk-road-wrap">Silk Road Wrap</a>, designed by my friend, Kate. I cast this on over two years ago. I would work on it a bit and then put it in time out for longer than a bit. A few weeks ago, I got serious about working on it and I realized I was more than half finished, so I got busy and FINALLY finished it on New Year's Eve. It's already among my favorite projects ever, so it was definitely worth the 26-month wait.<br />
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Below is my <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/ii6qt">In Memory of Dolphins</a>, the <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dancing-dolphins-hat">Dancing Dolphins Hat</a>, by Sonja Launspac Kunstwerk Designs. This project did not hang around for two years. It did hang around for a couple months, but the colorwork was completed in less than three weeks. It was a Christmas gift for my cousin, who has a special connection to dolphins.<br />
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I'm especially pleased with how even my floats are!</div>
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That's it from me for today, but I will be back soon. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-63603367511450221622018-08-20T12:24:00.001-07:002018-08-20T12:24:56.442-07:00Seeking Scandinavia: StockholmWow, have I been missing from the blog! No excuses, but first it was three weeks of travel, and then it was just the stuff of life happening.<br />
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But I mentioned travel, didn't I? In June, Mr. D and I celebrated our 15th anniversary with a trip to Scandinavia. Our first stop (and the last stop, too) was Stockholm, a beautiful city, built on islands and surrounded by water.<br />
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Stockholm is a very old city, and we explored a neighborhood that existed long before America was even settled.<br />
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Let's start with some really old buildings:<br />
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These two buildings are located in Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town. The building on the left, Ribbinska Huset, was built to commemorate the Swedish citizens, priests and noblemen who were massacred by the king of Denmark in 1520. Each of the white squares in the façade of the building represents one of the people who were killed. A pretty building with a pretty grisly story...<br />
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In the city center of Stockholm is a pretty little park, Kunsträdgården (King's Garden), where the statue of King Karl XII (1682-1718) looks over all. He is a favorite of the birds, as you can see.<br />
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We were lucky enough to have our time in Stockholm coincide with our friends' visit with their daughter, who lives there and is getting her Master's Degree at the University of Stockholm. We spent an enjoyable morning with the three of them exploring the Sodermalm neighborhood. Sodermalm was once a working class neighborhood, and has been popularized by Stieg Larsson's <i>Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i>. It is a mixture old buildings and new growth, as you can see in this photo:<br />
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We also discovered that there is still plenty of Old Stockholm in this picturesque neighborhood:<br />
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Every visitor to Stockholm has to get out on the water at least once. We did this by taking an afternoon cruise through the Stockholm Archipelago, passing by hundreds, if not thousands, of islands in just three hours. The sights included an amusement park, sailboats, and a typical weekend cabin, painted "Swedish Red".<br />
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All of our exploring meant that we got hungry, a little foot-sore and we needed a break occasionally. When this happened, we indulged in a wonderful Swedish custom, "fika", which means stopping for a snack and a beverage (usually coffee). We loved making time for fika, and on the day we explored Gamla Stan we "fika-ed" in a 14th century cellar. You can see our cups of tea, my cinnamon roll and Mr. D's peanut butter brownie. A delightful way to end an afternoon of exploration in Stockholm!<br />
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<br />Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-88990846975018695862018-06-08T16:11:00.001-07:002018-06-08T16:12:05.576-07:00The Clouds of SpringMay and June are months where we see a lot of clouds. Sometimes, it's just the unending "May Gray," or "June Gloom." More often, we have cloudy mornings with "sun breaks" in the afternoon. When there are sun breaks, there are often fluffy/puffy cloudscapes, illuminated by the sun. Here is a sampling:<br />
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Spring clouds can also be dramatic, especially at sunset.</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-33128753876765996652018-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:002018-06-05T11:21:27.217-07:00Done, and on to Adventure #3!So this got finished last week:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_cKFzPDeoklTsz5VSVnykhk901idEAXKLEkOyE9bgP2OVX0pDV7T_E4h1M_F5NwWzNOjT-Nkx97ZtWN9AKdaXGThcTUq9pI_vtJ-iCBhKDuAobJR7FKS3dmCHhqptkOmo3tCC5jAu24/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1c69.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_cKFzPDeoklTsz5VSVnykhk901idEAXKLEkOyE9bgP2OVX0pDV7T_E4h1M_F5NwWzNOjT-Nkx97ZtWN9AKdaXGThcTUq9pI_vtJ-iCBhKDuAobJR7FKS3dmCHhqptkOmo3tCC5jAu24/s400/fullsizeoutput_1c69.jpeg" width="266" /></a></div>
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As you may remember from <a href="http://throughmykaleidoscope-julie.blogspot.com/2018/04/adventure-2-inside-first-brown-bag.html">this post</a>, the yarn and pattern for this shawl (Martina Behm's Lintilla, knit in Wollmeise) were pulled randomly from this bag:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCqsn4Tssn-eij77zVHCDsXgS7oYjyK_aOcc81yzqoJljUEbbIjDpdvu2Y0SH0DenG7OagpWikH6WR2VzXcR47aoYVaO_VZXu57Bmz-25YswrdbOFsAMOatrnkg3SNsZUdorlKpBYQ4g/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1b60.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCqsn4Tssn-eij77zVHCDsXgS7oYjyK_aOcc81yzqoJljUEbbIjDpdvu2Y0SH0DenG7OagpWikH6WR2VzXcR47aoYVaO_VZXu57Bmz-25YswrdbOFsAMOatrnkg3SNsZUdorlKpBYQ4g/s400/fullsizeoutput_1b60.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Today I pulled the canvas bag out again.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30V4bBZWjzDmRFXmP43hBY0aXJh9aCkQdonrB6EtLt_JMKUCs89h-u32O8FvcEA0zEzQnTjlTm_n_KFipUYbfDO8dMNkHMylQCLOp_rrCG-jT3L4XMX_0wL3WkCUm5WYzctNk1vi5U0E/s1600/IMG_7433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30V4bBZWjzDmRFXmP43hBY0aXJh9aCkQdonrB6EtLt_JMKUCs89h-u32O8FvcEA0zEzQnTjlTm_n_KFipUYbfDO8dMNkHMylQCLOp_rrCG-jT3L4XMX_0wL3WkCUm5WYzctNk1vi5U0E/s400/IMG_7433.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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I picked this brown bag:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhyphenhyphenteukwmT5aR7UiK85Tq9aAwGJwKgdTc5cJCQRbxy1N5rFelacn1idqmC65qCzvpZ10KLQEMq20CvY6dnwFpS-KO6UcK85fyiiZ5jjv8eWBVqKGzEnN_bNs44yTlBVTaUH86kWN5jGk/s1600/IMG_7434.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhyphenhyphenteukwmT5aR7UiK85Tq9aAwGJwKgdTc5cJCQRbxy1N5rFelacn1idqmC65qCzvpZ10KLQEMq20CvY6dnwFpS-KO6UcK85fyiiZ5jjv8eWBVqKGzEnN_bNs44yTlBVTaUH86kWN5jGk/s320/IMG_7434.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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This is what I found inside:</div>
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I have a number of other projects going on, as well as a big non-knitting adventure coming up, so I'm giving myself most of the summer to finish this shawl. Watch this space in August for more on this particular adventure.</div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-32731177421191958282018-05-21T16:59:00.001-07:002018-05-21T16:59:30.285-07:00Better Late than NeverJust a quick post to show off my latest finished garment, the <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shoreline-vest">Shoreline Vest</a>.<br />
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I really fell for this pattern when it was published in late 2015 in Carrie Bostick Hoge's <i>Swoon Maine</i>. I bought the book at Stitches West in February 2016, and within a week purchased the yarn used in the pattern, Peace Fleece DK/sport, and cast on. I worked on the vest pretty steadily for a couple months, and then intermittently for several months after that. Then shortly before Christmas 2016, I put the project bag in the back of the closet and promised myself I would pull it out after the holidays. Surprise, surprise that didn't happen. I would think about it every now and then, but some other project always seemed more urgent.<br />
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Fast forward to late March of this year. I was looking at the "Friend Activity" tab in Ravelry and noticed that one of my retreat friends, Dagmar, had finished the same pattern in a very similar color yarn to mine. It looked so nice on her that it got me thinking about that vest hiding in the back of my closet. I pulled it out, and within about ten days, and with probably no more than eight hours of knitting, the vest was finished! I really love it, and wore it several times before the weather got too warm for wool vests. I know it will get a lot of wear next fall and winter.<br />
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The lesson in all this is that I should just power through my project when I hit the doldrums, because inevitably I'll love the finished object when I'm done. You will discover soon that I haven't learned this lesson completely as yet. There will be more to come on this topic in the coming months, I promise.Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-89307697179534026192018-04-30T12:00:00.000-07:002018-04-30T12:00:54.183-07:00Snow in SpringIt seems like much of the Midwest and East Coast has suffered through a lot of snow since the calendar turned over to spring. Here in Seattle, that has not been the case. With the exception of three warm and sunny days last week, it's been rain, rain, rain for almost the whole past month.<br />
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Despite the fact that rain is the most common form of springtime precipitation here, spring snow has been known to occur.<br />
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The most recent instance was this year, on March 23rd. The morning started out very cold, the sky was heavy with gray clouds, and for a couple of hours this happened:<br />
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In 2013, a snow squall blew through on March 22nd, two days after the spring equinox.</div>
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Those poor daffodils!</div>
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But the latest spring snow, by far, was in 2008, on April 18th:</div>
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The storm struck at dusk, and the rhododendron outside my front door—and the street beyond—was covered in that cold, white stuff.</div>
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Fortunately, there are less than 24 hours left in the month of April, so I think we are safe from any more spring snow this year. At least, I hope so...</div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-59107543225130327982018-04-26T12:47:00.000-07:002018-04-26T12:47:40.494-07:00Adventure #2: Inside the First Brown BagRemember these?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujlFj4iTaFUyBjvMFne6jYNHGq8Rz0hyphenhyphenBZvhkkt_ZyfSnMI4ksOhzIBFJuWVJZk0Th5oIozPoXN8J35Fl5ar9rjIT5ytv25Vf0OnUXTMmdOd55CKkBRE0SCHGrAJX8aaV-1mlHKDAIPM/s1600/IMG_7003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujlFj4iTaFUyBjvMFne6jYNHGq8Rz0hyphenhyphenBZvhkkt_ZyfSnMI4ksOhzIBFJuWVJZk0Th5oIozPoXN8J35Fl5ar9rjIT5ytv25Vf0OnUXTMmdOd55CKkBRE0SCHGrAJX8aaV-1mlHKDAIPM/s400/IMG_7003.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
On April 4th, I reached in and chose a bag.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMrfIk1V-vE1l3gN9OH3M7Rgup3kNtOiMi4pj3McnArM74pJSL-3VLMkYtNDoSB_y-aYE8PnSvpnetmjzKU40v2SOlccolqIYk_QQUV8gc8CDhPXj25U_tpzYzIukttbdHagvTZgRsAMg/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1b60.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMrfIk1V-vE1l3gN9OH3M7Rgup3kNtOiMi4pj3McnArM74pJSL-3VLMkYtNDoSB_y-aYE8PnSvpnetmjzKU40v2SOlccolqIYk_QQUV8gc8CDhPXj25U_tpzYzIukttbdHagvTZgRsAMg/s400/fullsizeoutput_1b60.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Inside the bag I found this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UPA2nY7EWu1V1QMxC65-ld7NxiFnehS6Qbh_HoFYfZsflRP11xAlL1ZAZ0hofRfHcCC6ofp9W4njCunQkJkKUKp7M_QqwpVqksILFwFR0IcYKk1ZYZb1S3FCwCy3oKgR6ueQLQKe6kc/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1b5f.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UPA2nY7EWu1V1QMxC65-ld7NxiFnehS6Qbh_HoFYfZsflRP11xAlL1ZAZ0hofRfHcCC6ofp9W4njCunQkJkKUKp7M_QqwpVqksILFwFR0IcYKk1ZYZb1S3FCwCy3oKgR6ueQLQKe6kc/s400/fullsizeoutput_1b5f.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Two weeks later, while on vacation in California, I cast on. Here is my progress to date:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBH2xrzHzWWadoRTMnif4U47_Mwi7fpnGtnK2e2T5rhESC_TL8DYV1CmhgCBod9x2B6I_CZ0m6MdrKJtG77z79BkrnfSKYPSdXbBT_n8-C7DhShs9O9fxUowBu4AMePeNnt_xL7Tej8A/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1bdc.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBH2xrzHzWWadoRTMnif4U47_Mwi7fpnGtnK2e2T5rhESC_TL8DYV1CmhgCBod9x2B6I_CZ0m6MdrKJtG77z79BkrnfSKYPSdXbBT_n8-C7DhShs9O9fxUowBu4AMePeNnt_xL7Tej8A/s400/fullsizeoutput_1bdc.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
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The yarn is Wollmeise Pure, and the pattern is Lintilla, designed by Martina Behm. I am hoping to work on this a bit each day, and I'm targeting finishing around June 1st. </div>
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More to come...</div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-74479876491210489842018-03-30T11:18:00.001-07:002018-03-30T11:18:52.514-07:00Weather from the AirOne of the best places to observe the weather is from an airplane. Last month, I was able to photograph some spectacular land- and cityscapes from the air, on a flight from Detroit to Seattle. Two of these photos show the effects of the winter weather, as well as the geographical features of the landscape. The third photo provides a peek through the clouds at the city of Seattle below.<br />
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Blue Horizon: somewhere over eastern North Dakota</div>
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Relief Map: a river and the surrounding rough terrain, somewhere over Montana </div>
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Beneath the Clouds: Downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-11203366098406395452018-03-09T14:07:00.000-08:002018-03-09T14:07:25.459-08:00Of Stitches West Market HaulsFebruary usually means Madrona and Stitches West, but this year, Stitches was the only event of the two that I attended. I always share my Stitches purchases on the blog, so here is what I bought in the market this year (clockwise from top left in the photo below): a project bag from Front Range bags, a ball of Valley Superwash from WEBS (for Mother Bear clothing), a sock blank from Leading Men Fiber Arts, two balls of Valley Yarns Greylock (one hundred per cent cashmere fingering weight yarn), a Mother Bear ornament (unfortunately backwards in the photo so you can't see its little heart-shaped button) and the book and accompanying Ravelry download, <i>I Knit New York. </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj7zf4GQv1I5s_BqUnqWDFfB8ULaQ-XZBW7b0SXGzA-IktRkYJscKmzE2XHgZZP3AQ6NwELA1vtrOub1LKf-LmsgKVGvekAuDbyiP5yuERtfggMyD5VwfC-w_VgTXAdOze_0xAn11nQTU/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1ab2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj7zf4GQv1I5s_BqUnqWDFfB8ULaQ-XZBW7b0SXGzA-IktRkYJscKmzE2XHgZZP3AQ6NwELA1vtrOub1LKf-LmsgKVGvekAuDbyiP5yuERtfggMyD5VwfC-w_VgTXAdOze_0xAn11nQTU/s400/fullsizeoutput_1ab2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I can almost see your shocked face and hear you saying,"What? That's all?" Yes, that is really all. I guess I wasn't breathing in enough yarn fumes this year, although I've never really bought a huge amount of yarn any of the times I've gone to Stitches West. For comparison, here are some photos of purchases from previous years. This was my haul in 2017:<br />
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<a href="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3941/33214507215_e54350bfc5_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3941/33214507215_e54350bfc5_b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And here is my haul from 2015 (for some reason I don't have a photo from 2016):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZiae4h_SWMAsJPI5NQUsjJZCzVqxZiwFfBTPaDHSTc4phwQmCzlYWpxhLi89cnv9VDmBQpAzPKkei01Ddfej2B9eDlf3x9atmVkv5pqTS8h5gFnwSpvvSNkGDbc0-cMqgVAwdBwJiOss/s1600/IMG_0160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZiae4h_SWMAsJPI5NQUsjJZCzVqxZiwFfBTPaDHSTc4phwQmCzlYWpxhLi89cnv9VDmBQpAzPKkei01Ddfej2B9eDlf3x9atmVkv5pqTS8h5gFnwSpvvSNkGDbc0-cMqgVAwdBwJiOss/s400/IMG_0160.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And here's 2014:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHDmxkHLCtjWAxws2eKhL4NLlQJJLzFK1X6tObCi5Wo6AwEWz4T6u_66X6YDNfwHa71zb6pG1RT8527oImI05RSE4F69_i4ql-w4cE-FYaxRd7Tcr6gm8wuRyl84-CJV_-8owv0lvDyk/s1600/IMG_0098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1196" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHDmxkHLCtjWAxws2eKhL4NLlQJJLzFK1X6tObCi5Wo6AwEWz4T6u_66X6YDNfwHa71zb6pG1RT8527oImI05RSE4F69_i4ql-w4cE-FYaxRd7Tcr6gm8wuRyl84-CJV_-8owv0lvDyk/s400/IMG_0098.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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The embarrassing thing about all three of these photos is how few of the yarns I've actually knit. From 2014, I've knit two of the skeins shown and from 2015, I've knit one and gave one as a gift. The 2017 haul is the most embarrassing of all, because I have knit exactly <b>none</b> of those skeins. So my conclusion from this review of my purchases is that it is probably a very good thing I didn't buy much this year! I'm going to try to make a dent in these yarns over the next several months, so that maybe, just maybe, I won't have all of them hanging around in my stash when Stitches West rolls around again next year.</div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-38492514330220575792018-02-28T15:28:00.000-08:002018-02-28T15:28:06.495-08:00Adventure #1: Colorwork SocksI'm sure you have been waiting with anticipation for my first "Word of the Year" Adventure, and I am finally going to end the suspense and tell you about my first knitting adventure of 2018.<br />
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As you know, I love, love, love knitting socks. You may or may not know that I also love knitting colorwork. Surprisingly, I have never combined these two loves into a pair of colorwork socks. That changed about a month ago, when I cast on Bonnie Sennott's <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rowhouse-socks">Rowhouse Socks</a>. This fun pattern has just enough colorwork for someone who hasn't done stranded knitting on such a small circumference before, but also has a motif that is eye-catching. I knit my socks in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in main color Crescent (one of my absolute favorites Hazel Knits colorways) and contrast colors Flicker and Conch. You can view the details of my project <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/znjg3">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4743/38732831750_668e11bff1_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4743/38732831750_668e11bff1_b.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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I had so much fun knitting these socks that a future adventure may be to knit a pair of socks entirely in colorwork. I have had my eye on <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fireweeds">this pattern</a> for years, but I'm open to suggestions. Do you have a favorite colorwork pattern to recommend? If so, please share in the comments below.Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-57124345365703086592018-01-31T09:43:00.000-08:002018-01-31T09:43:24.624-08:00Weather Photography in January: Cold Seat and Golden RaysWelcome to the first of my (I hope monthly) weather photography posts for this year.<br />
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<a href="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4663/28120253899_01042deb07_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4663/28120253899_01042deb07_b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
No, this is not Seattle. I took this photo at a rest stop on the road to Duluth for the annual Knitajourney retreat. It was cold, snowing, and the roads were terrible, but we made a quick stop and I took this photo out the window. While the view was quiet and beautiful, I wouldn't want to sit on that bench!<br />
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This isn't Seattle, either. It is a lot closer to home, however. Last week, we went with friends to the Washington coast for two days at Pacific Beach. I was lucky to catch the last rays of the sun as it disappeared behind the clouds. Spectacular!Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-59126418952147384902018-01-30T14:02:00.002-08:002018-01-31T09:47:05.769-08:00A Word and WeatherJanuary is almost over, and here I am, writing my first post of the not-so-new year. No excuses; I just didn't get around to it until now.<br />
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In previous years, I've started the year with a list of goals for the year, many of which were forgotten almost as soon as I wrote them. Last year, I said I wasn't setting goals for the year, other than to blog more than the previous year. and I did manage to follow through on that, writing 19 posts, compared to 14 in 2016.<br />
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This year, while I certainly would like to increase the number of blog posts again, I am not going to promise that it will happen. I'm also not going to come up with a list of goals, either. Instead, I have come up with a word that I want to represent my year, and that word is <i>Adventure</i>. So what do I mean when I say adventure? It is a broad enough word that it can cover a lot of different areas of my life—adventure in knitting, photography, travel, reading, hiking, and so on. I'm not sure how the word adventure will play out in my life this year, but not knowing is an adventure in itself.<br />
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There is one knitting adventure that should start happening later this winter:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujlFj4iTaFUyBjvMFne6jYNHGq8Rz0hyphenhyphenBZvhkkt_ZyfSnMI4ksOhzIBFJuWVJZk0Th5oIozPoXN8J35Fl5ar9rjIT5ytv25Vf0OnUXTMmdOd55CKkBRE0SCHGrAJX8aaV-1mlHKDAIPM/s1600/IMG_7003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujlFj4iTaFUyBjvMFne6jYNHGq8Rz0hyphenhyphenBZvhkkt_ZyfSnMI4ksOhzIBFJuWVJZk0Th5oIozPoXN8J35Fl5ar9rjIT5ytv25Vf0OnUXTMmdOd55CKkBRE0SCHGrAJX8aaV-1mlHKDAIPM/s400/IMG_7003.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
That's a canvas bag crammed full of six shawl projects, hidden in identical brown paper bags. When I finish my current shawl project—sometime in February, I hope—I'll pick one of these bags, discover which yarn and pattern are inside, and cast on immediately. I got the idea for this from the many knitters that have brown-bagged their sock projects to randomly pick throughout the year. While you probably know by now that I love knitting socks, I chose shawls because I have so many shawls that are already queued and linked to stash yarns, and I'd like to get some of them actually knitted. Stay tuned to the blog this year to watch it happen.<br />
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The other year-long project that I want to focus on relates to my photography. This past year, I blogged about a photo each month, either a favorite photo or one that represented an activity from that month that I wanted to highlight. I enjoy doing a monthly photo post, but this year, I want to focus on photographs depicting the weather. My father was a meteorologist, and he brought me up to appreciate all kinds of weather phenomena. In addition, I often use my camera to document the very changeable weather conditions that we experience here in Seattle, as well as weather events that I observe during my travels. If you are a weather geek like me, you know this will be fun!Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-10591071036653591152017-12-30T12:11:00.000-08:002017-12-31T14:31:27.587-08:002017: The Photos That Didn't Make the CutHere we are, almost at the end of 2017, and I have managed to post a Photo of the Month for every month through November. For December, I'm doing something a little different. In most months, there were several photos worthy of being featured on the blog, but they didn't quite make the cut. To finish the year, I want to give some of those photos their moment. Here they are. Enjoy!<br />
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<a href="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/745/32088765175_be1bdb1fbb_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/745/32088765175_be1bdb1fbb_b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Silhouettes at Dawn</i>: The view out my window on January 2nd.</div>
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<i>Halfway There</i>: The fun of knitting socks from a sock blank.</div>
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<i>Democracy in Action</i>: Mr. D and I attended a town meeting with our dynamic new Congresswoman, Representative Pramila Jayapal. So inspiring!</div>
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<i>Neighborhood Jogger</i>: A missing ewe on the lam(b).</div>
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<i>Marching for Science</i>: Suffragettes in vintage costumes at the Seattle March for Science.</div>
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<i>A Line in the Sky</i>: Clouds at Sunset </div>
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<i>Evidence of Rain</i>: After a very brief shower during a long, dry summer </div>
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<i>Bench at the End of the Path</i>: At the Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, Washington.</div>
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<i>Sand, Sea, Clouds, Mountains</i>: The view from the Dungeness Spit near Sequim, Washington.</div>
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<i>View to the Bridge</i>: The Golden Ears Bridge, near Vancouver, British Columbia.</div>
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<i>Boo!</i>: A scary ghost, spotted in my neighborhood.</div>
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<i>Autumn Colors with a Dusting of White</i>: The Japanese Maple in my garden during a surprise </div>
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early November snowfall.</div>
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<i>Mid-Morning Treat</i>: The treat is not only the chai, coffee and pastries, but a catch-up </div>
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chat with a friend.</div>
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Happy New Year! I'll be back in 2018 with more photos, knitting, and travel adventures. </div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-49584521380527456292017-12-23T14:17:00.000-08:002017-12-27T20:50:33.137-08:00Photos of the Month: Following a Year-Long Project I could start this post with what actually is the photo of the month, but instead, I'm going to put that photo at the end, and trace the progress of a knitting project across almost the whole of 2017.<br />
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The project started in early February with a big ol' pile of yarn. Most of the yarn was purchased with a 2016 birthday gift certificate, so thanks are due to Nancy, Jan and Pat for their generous gift.<br />
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I cast on Jared Flood's pattern, <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/grettir">Grettir</a>, on February 10th and by early March, I had the start of two sleeves:<br />
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In mid-March, the sleeves had grown some.<br />
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A week later, the sleeves were finished and I cast on the body of the sweater.<br />
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Almost two months passed, mostly filled with knitting on other projects, but in mid-May, I finally reached the colorwork.<br />
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It turns out that I like colorwork a lot more than plain stockinette, so the yoke progressed quickly from this point, despite the addition of many more stitches when I joined the sleeves to the body.<br />
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And not long after the colorwork was finished, so was the whole sweater.<br />
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Except it wasn't...<br />
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Over two months passed, with no activity on this project, but finally, on September first, this happened:</div>
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Yep, that is me, cutting a steek. But first, my dear friend, Martha, reinforced the stitches on either side of the steek on her sewing machine. She also basted the edges of the five stitches added for the steek—that's the white yarn you see in the photo.<br />
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There was still more that needed to be done to turn the sweater into a cardigan, but first, I just had to try it on.<br />
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And it fit!</div>
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Next, I followed that white yarn that Martha put in on either side of the steek stitches and picked up stitches for the button band.</div>
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After getting the button band knitted, I practiced the two-row buttonhole technique—from Anne Hanson's excellent Craftsy class, <i>Button Bands and Buttonholes</i>—on a swatch, and I even sewed buttons on that swatch. I opted for a slightly narrower button band than the one on my swatch, a great reason to swatch before knitting the real thing on your sweater. Here is a photo showing my swatch and two of my buttons. I purchased six of them three years ago at Danforth Pewter in Middlebury, Vermont. I've been waiting for just the perfect project to use them.</div>
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Finally, in November, I sewed on the last button, sewed ribbon onto the inside of the button bands to cover the steeked edges, and blocked my cardigan. I even took it with me on our annual Thanksgiving trip to the East Coast., and wore it several times, including on Thanksgiving, when Dave took this photo of me.</div>
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If you would like more details—and more photos—follow the link to my project page on Ravelry: <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/wctec">Colorwork Challenge Cardigan</a>.</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-66437931631388524882017-11-30T14:44:00.000-08:002017-11-30T14:44:10.942-08:00Yarn Dying ExperimentsI have always wanted to play with yarn dying, and in the last few months, with the help of my friends, Melissa and Kate, I've had two opportunities to do just that.<br />
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The first dye day was with Melissa in July. I brought three yarns I wanted to experiment with.<br />
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The first one was a free skein of lace weight that I got with a Knit Picks order, and it looks better in the photograph than it did in real life. The color reminded me of dirty dishwater—probably why they were giving it away for free—so any other color would be an improvement.<br />
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Here's what the yarn looked like after a dip in the dye bath. Much better, right? I call this colorway Radish.<br />
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The second yarn, a skein of Beaverslide Dry Goods 2-ply sport weight that was a KAL prize, was a much prettier shade of cream.<br />
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But I don't wear that color much, so we dyed the skein blue.<br />
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The last skein of yarn, a wool-silk blend that I got in a swap, was a nice light green.<br />
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While this colorway was certainly pretty, I wanted a deeper green. This was my first try at over-dyeing it:</div>
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It was better, but not quite what I had in mind. Melissa thought the silk content probably took the dye differently and muted the color. So we tried again a couple months later, using much more dye to make a deep green.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYHw61pjd-UQfDMxGrfv4ujDsgZsooTG4JplvKzmnaYsJlUDWt2JzcdJBO_Bp4bVxCCNsFSJJIL385H6Bu7s6bEKa_eU8NVvNfZ3LxSVu7TKfIswctLfgdSkd6BD6rlLbmcRBHzJp2VY8/s1600/IMG_6275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYHw61pjd-UQfDMxGrfv4ujDsgZsooTG4JplvKzmnaYsJlUDWt2JzcdJBO_Bp4bVxCCNsFSJJIL385H6Bu7s6bEKa_eU8NVvNfZ3LxSVu7TKfIswctLfgdSkd6BD6rlLbmcRBHzJp2VY8/s400/IMG_6275.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
As you can see, that good long soak in green dye turned out a spectacular deep green skein.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHEFUUY3mo9ImxQDg9vyxURzxL-4Y8Vitbix8VID-9Y1f5ZXkZ3a1McJKHH5fYd1cv3zYSWLMYmrH8QM3fzyc9hKT6BjXfxSlV3ve9kwR7FIFK8ATKZu1QElICBRZSMIWhyphenhyphen_kBrBKMlU/s1600/fullsizeoutput_16e0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHEFUUY3mo9ImxQDg9vyxURzxL-4Y8Vitbix8VID-9Y1f5ZXkZ3a1McJKHH5fYd1cv3zYSWLMYmrH8QM3fzyc9hKT6BjXfxSlV3ve9kwR7FIFK8ATKZu1QElICBRZSMIWhyphenhyphen_kBrBKMlU/s400/fullsizeoutput_16e0.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
Kate joined us at our second dye day in September, and the three of us each dyed a sock blank. We had such a fun time, and I love the final result!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOb090jF7PmXPD6DcCxYgwTlzxjSVhnS0YKoeVoGSA_OPuG4AOKVAgcC8qnoz9vZ_4UktH4SL25bbyZiASicSdcMpXKupcG1SOkfB0NGCcMkX2xhyphenhyphennKI5b7ANeuuJykEdugjkOd58D_4c/s1600/IMG_6279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOb090jF7PmXPD6DcCxYgwTlzxjSVhnS0YKoeVoGSA_OPuG4AOKVAgcC8qnoz9vZ_4UktH4SL25bbyZiASicSdcMpXKupcG1SOkfB0NGCcMkX2xhyphenhyphennKI5b7ANeuuJykEdugjkOd58D_4c/s400/IMG_6279.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Here is what the sock blank looks like knit up:<br />
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While two times don't make me an expert or an indie dyer, I may have to try some more yarn dying experiments sometime soon, and I'll share the results when I do.Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6514195628529706692.post-35050312608756307412017-11-05T10:32:00.000-08:002017-11-05T10:32:48.582-08:00October Photo of the Month: Doughnuts or Socks?Nope, I couldn't just pick one photo of the month for October.<br />
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The first photo of the month happened on October 1st, when I was with my friends, sisters Melissa and <a href="https://katelore.me/">Kate</a>, in the village of Deep Cove, which is near Kate's home in North Vancouver, BC. They kept talking all weekend about <a href="http://honeydoughnuts.com/about-us">Honey's</a> and their fantastic doughnuts, and on Sunday morning we braved the crowd—a line out the door—and got Honey's signature maple frosted doughnuts and coffee. YUM! Absolutely the best doughnut I have ever eaten! I managed to snap a photo with my phone before I ate every last crumb.<br />
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I took the second photo of the month at home, right after I finished knitting <a href="http://ravel.me/jchant/s9r3t">my latest pair of socks</a>. I cast on the socks back in July, when I needed a pair for car knitting and it only dawned on me in mid-October that the <a href="https://intrepidotter.com/">Intrepid Otter</a> colorway, Acid Dreams, would make great Halloween socks. Fortunately, I finished knitting them on October 28th, just in time for the pumpkin carving party that we go to every year.<br />
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There has been quite a bit of knitting and other fiber adventures happening in my life lately, and I have been remiss in not sharing them with you. But that is about to change; I promise to be back with a new post in the next few days.Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17812270916345343672noreply@blogger.com2