Hempathy Hat

I'm going to make a few of these hats for Flopper whose Irish and thin hair is no match for the equatorial rays of Benin. You can get a hat on #4 needles from a single ball and this is one of my favourite yarns.

I really appreciate how durable it is and how it is relatively light. I think the next hat will be gold and green but my knitting card is full in MN so I'll have to send it to him in Africa.

Wandering through the Woods

Last week we went to the Lindbergh State Park with Elias. It is a small state park that cover the boyhood home of the (in)famous fellow who is remembered with fondness in his home state. It was startingly green and a nice walk aside from the ticks on poor Elias.

Elias while not a water dog stillenjoys paddling around inefficiently and really enjoys the post swim run.

Simply Shetland Shawl

This shawl took the better part of a month to complete and is made of six balls of Simply Shetland silk and wool in the blueprint color way. I've given it to Cornelia at Bella Lana and she intends to put it in the store window. It was the object of much gasping while I was there today though to be honest the patterns were fairly simple. Lace seems to impress people.

A few pictures in a plum tree. At least I think it was a plum tree. I am rather in love with the Folk Shawls book and already have the yarn for my next lace project.

To give you an idea of the color here is the shawl in full sunlight. I was just being silly when I took pictures of it in the shadows.

DC Fish Market

Hidden under an overpass along the Potomac is the DC Fish Market; a favorite of mine among the many hidden gems in the District.
There are two "blue-collar" markets in DC, this one and the Florida Avenue Market. Both of which consequently are patronized by black people and various immigrant communities. As a result the yuppies stay away and this place has not been spoiled.
Here's Niko surveying the floating bounty.
The prices here are the lowest in the city. those chunks of salmon are 8.50.
And they have tons of very fresh whole fish. I bought three pounds of rainbow trout for 11 dollars. For the bigger fish it saves some hassle just to have the helpful Somali women do the cleaning for a few dollars and if you ask nicely they'll fillet your dinner as well.

Awww

Goat

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And she likes wine

Peat got goats! Two goats in fact. Their names are Vera and Mame.

Daddy one is boring. When are you taking me?

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Cake Love

At Cake Love nothing is fat free

I Rove!

One of my favorite away messages of all time is the exclamation, "I Rove!". I've gotten to do a lot of that this week in DC wandering to all my favourite spots through the metro and on foot. Unfortunately I broke a knitting needle and will have to wander to the yarn store here (I know the horror right?) Unfortunately by my estimation DC does not in fact have a good yarn store but the I have been spoiled by Bela Lana in Minneapolis. Next week I temporarily move in with Flopper for a month though we will bothe be traveling the majority of the time and then the furball and I are coming to DC. I think Eli will like it here.

If A tree falls in Columbia Heights....

We were walkign to a friends car in DC myself at the lead when this tree branch fell on the car just as I was getting close. Strange omen? Dubious. I had six interviews on Saturday that seemed to go rather well.

Questionable pittsburgh cup station food

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It is eleven at might and I have been in this bus station in chicago since five

To The District!

At 6:30 this morning I embark on the 30 hour Greyhound (oh Greyhound) journey that will deposit me in the District of Columbia. I'm aggressively pursuing two job possibilities there and will be in town for a week. Wish me luck it would be nice to return to DC with Elias.

Shepherds Harvest Festival

Shorn sheep

Shepherds Harvest Festival

Llama !

Shepherds Harvest Festival

Shetland sheep

More Shawl fun

This is knit on 8's with Simply Shetland Cashmere and wool in the "blueprint" color way. I'm a big fan of this yarn. Really I'm a big fan of Jamieson and Simply Shetland in general. The Shawl is currently about 26 inches from top to tip and needs to to go another 10 inches to a solid three feet top to bottom and 6 feet across.

There will be three lace patterns and a border when everything is said and done all of which are coming out of the Folk Shawl book.
This one is labeled "Fir cone".
And these are simple called diamonds.
I really like this larger diamond more but it is significantly more complicated then the other two patterns and takes longer as a result. I suspect that the shawl will be done in a week.

The Horror of Downsizing

Now any of you who have met me in person know that I am rather attached to my possessions. I really love all of my things and am not looking forward to moving.

I went to Minneapolis in a cargo van from Saint Cloud that was rather full and will be moving wherever it is I'm moving in a Chevrolet Prism. With Elias in the front seat. Eli likes car rides.
Apparently I can ship file boxes of books for about 15 dollars a piece and so will not be taking any of them in my 4 cylinder Conestoga Wagon. I will also be saying goodbye to my furniture, none of which is terribly good any way.

This leaves my clothes (which I actually have fairly little of), my kitchen ( Thank God I don't have electric appliances), my computer, and my pretty things like the crystal and my djembe to be squished into the car. Oh and the dog stuff. Meaning I need to get rid of about 100 books (the thought brings tears to my eyes) and various bottles, craft supplies, and other oddments that I have acquired in the past six years. I think I may have to use yarn and clothes to pack fragile things.

It would be nice to know where I'm moving to as well. : )

Declaring you Loxford King of the May !

May Day will forever be associated in my mind with the opera "Albert Herring" by Benjamin Britten. Flopper played Mr. Gedge the vicar and wandered around singing "Virtue says Holy Writ... is virtue ...is rarer then pearls" for about two months. As a result I know this opera inside out.

The basic gist is that upon finding "the female sex stained" i.e. all the girls are lascivious as goats in May the town elders of Loxford are without a May Queen. So they find a virtuous lad by the name of Albert who is more sexually repressed then a bus load of Mormon missionaries force and him to be the "May King". He gets drunk on spiked lemonade at his coronation banquet and wanders off leaving his prim Victorian neighbors to think that he is dead. Coming on the group of mourners at the end of the third act Albert reclaims his masculinity by telling off Lady Billows and the town elders and recounting his evening of sinful repast.
Here is Albert dressed up "like a blinking swan".

The things they'll do in East Suffolk :)

It's a very fun opera.

This Godless Communism

Treasure Chest, the magazine that this comic ran in in 1961, was sent to about 300,000 Catholic School children.

I personally love fighting the communist by writing letters home to Italy " You never wrote Luigi before..." "But Papa Uncle Luigi is going to vote for the godless communists".
"St Anthony's cannot claim the credit , of course, but they helped."

I love propaganda. I'll be teaching this stuff today.