Latitude 61...Land of the Midnight Sun

Not Lost

For those of you who have noticed and commented that I have been "missing" from the knitting world, I'm not lost.  I have been knitting, although a lot less than usual, I just haven't been blogging or spending much time on Ravelry, either looking or commenting.

Exercise has been my main pursuit lately, specifically, biking.  This is because we, DH and myself, have 2 longer planned and scheduled rides coming up, and I want to be prepared so they don't "hurt" too much.

The first ride isn't until July, The Fireweed 400.  This organized ride gives riders a choice of riding 400, 300, 200, 100, or 50 miles.  (Big surprise... count me in for the 50 miler!)  Even 50 miles is still a stretch for me since our usual work-out times are around 1-1.5 hours and this ride takes at least 3 hours. With our short biking season, that means I have really been spending extra time on the bike trying to get used to riding more than an hour at a time.  When we rode this last year, I realized that I was vastly "under-trained", so this year I would like to have a little more enjoyable experience.

Our second ride, or group of rides is in September, so there is still plenty of time to train.  We are doing a 2 week tour of Vermont, riding about 20-40 miles a day, which is up to us.  This tour has a sag wagon so it's not quite so critical to be in great shape. (Although I would rather be riding my bike over riding in a van.

So far, it's been a little hard to train because we are having an unseasonably cold Spring. Here is a photo from 2 weeks ago, and yes, there is still snow!

Now on to knitting...

I am still... and will be for a long time... working on Fulmar.  I finally completed the front and now have around 7 inches of the back finished.  Luckily, our weather has been so unseasonably cool, it's not too hot to work on this sweater... although it does make all my bike rides especially cold!  Only one new photo to post, but the back looks identical to the front anyway... at least until I knit up to the top.

Then to return to Mother's Day, I wanted to post my Mother's Day present because it's so exciting that my family finally "gets it"!  They got me something I love... something to knit!  Rona from Virtual Yarns...  I can't wait to knit it!

All Thumbs! (and fingers too...)

Just a follow up to my last blog.  Judging by appearances I haven't knit a thing.

I'm still working on Fulmar... sweater for life; I'm beginning to think!  I completely finished the front but I didn't take a photo since it looks almost just like the last photo I posted at the end of March. 

I've also been working, just a little at a time on another plain pair of socks. The color is called Earth and the yarn is made by Cherry Tree Hill.  Earth is such an understatement!  Although the yarn is dark, in the sunlight it gleams with hidden color... purple, moss green, light grey, dark grey, and brown.  I don't know if all of that shows in this photo, but I tried. 

I have been working on a pair of mittens off and on too.  They have been discouraging because after I completed the first one, I discovered that the instructions from Dale of Norway really didn't work for their Tiur yarn.

The mittens are designed to "split" open and reveal a pair of fingerless gloves inside.

The instructions for the mittens are VERY brief and expect the knitter to "just know" what to do.  After I completed the fingerless glove in one of the mittens, I discovered that it was twice as big in circumference as the mitten and would only fit inside with great difficulty!  Well, that's what I get for casting on the glove part while I watched an interesting movie without thinking much about what I was doing.  Of course it was too big... although the instructions said to use the same size needle, stranded knitting is always tighter than stockinette, so of course the glove was too big!!!  So dumb!

After spending the better part of a week knitting the inner glove, and then ripping it all out and figuring which needle size I needed to make it snug enough, but not too tight in the fingers... I have this to show for it!

  I'm finally on "final approach" of finishing!  It's hard to believe that I've lost the better part of two weeks messing around with my recalcitrant mittens and  the NO KNITTING ALLOWED ZONE of jury duty this week.

I still can't believe that I had to spend 2 full days in the court room listening to endless questioning as juror after juror was questioned and dismissed.  I don't know how they expected me to concentrate on all those repetitive conversations without my knitting!!!!  And what do they think anyway.... that violently tending knitters might stab the accused in a fit of pettiness.  I actually felt more like stabbing someone after being deprived of my knitting for 16+ hours.  At the end of that whole process, given about 100 potential jurors, there were 3 of us left unselected, so we were finally all dismissed.  Thank goodness.

Lots of Knitting... Not Much Visible Progress...

With my DH and I being sick with bronchitis for two weeks and trips out of the house reduced to a minimum, I have been getting LOTS of knitting accomplished.  Instead of working on one item all the time though, I have been working on a lot of items.  The good thing about that, is that I don't get bored or exasperated with anything.  The bad thing about that is there is almost no visible progress to photograph.

The mittens I photographed in my last post are at about the same size... but now that it is finally Spring here... who can think about mittens?

I have finally dragged my Alice Starmore Fulmar out of hibernation and have begun knitting on it again.

  I've decided to do at LEAST 1 row a night, and because I don't really like the process of knitting this project, feel that it is the only way I will ever finish it.  I'm just not that fond of knitting cabled projects and the yarn is really harsh on my hands.  It will be SO worth having it to wear though!  All my friends who began this project when I did, have already completed it, making me feel even more guilty about my laziness. 

No progress on Fulmar will even show on a photo, since it takes 2-3 rows to equal just 1 cm. so this is going to be one very long project.  Here is the photo from 2007... I have knit 4 more cm... laughable!

To offset my lack of visible progress on the We Are a Nation mittens, and Fulmar, I did knit a pair of socks from a new, to me at least, pattern.  I have been wanting to make the Cookie A Monkey sock pattern for quite a while, but most of my sock yarn is too variegated, or busy looking.  Recently though, I bought some Wollmeise sock yarn in Kuerbis, which seemed like it would be perfect for Monkey socks.

So... here is the one project I have knit and actually completed this month!

My new lacy socks... (I am actually pleased to see that the snow in that photo is looking "old" and littered with spruce needles... proof that it's finally melting!

Spring has officially arrived... It's the Equinox

Before I get lots of comments telling me that the Equinox is March 20... silly!  Let me qualify my title by the explanation that because of our latitude... the physics of which I don't understand, we "achieve" 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night on March 17, so it's officially spring!

YAY!!! Not that I can tell that by looking outside.  Yes, we are having much more daylight these days, but there is still plenty of snow, as shown in my photo, and no... it doesn't appear to be melting much.

Here is the evidence of melting... that uneven "pitting" you can see on the surface.

Well... that's it for my "weather of the month" lesson.  Probably because I grew up where I wasn't living very far north and there was never any snow, I find all Alaskan weather conditions fascinating.

Not too much knitting news.  That snowflake tunic was such a major project that I felt a little burned out working on sweaters so cast-on for socks and mittens.

Here are the plain finished socks knit from Cherry Tree Hill merino in Champlain Sunset.  Subconsciously, I picked almost the same color as my last pair of socks so I must have been in some kind of "think pink" phase.

They are not nearly this red in "real life" but I've noticed that any red tends to "take over" in photos of reddish items.  These are really much more red/orange/blue/ and purple... just like a sunset. 

I'm also working on my first pair of Monkey socks by Cookie A using my first skein of Wollmeise in Kuerbis.  These socks are orangey rust in "real life" but like the other socks... just look neon red.

That photo is out of date since I just finished one sock.

Last but not least... I'm knitting the mittens to match my Dale of Norway sweater, We Are A Nation.

Those are progressing slowly because I've been having more fun knitting that new... to me; sock pattern.

So hope all of you have a great first day of Spring... in a few days!

Knitting Olympics!

I was hoping to finish my Dale of Norway tunic that I've been working on since January 1 during the Olympics... that marathon meld of great knitting and TV watching, but it didn't happen.  I didn't miss by much though.  I actually finished the body of the sweater during the Olympics, but didn't get the collar knit on and hemmed until March 1. 
Oh well... I love, love, it!  The colors seem so convey the idea of snow and iciness to me... still perfect for this time of year. So here is a photo of the finished body of the sweater.

We get much of our snowfall in February and March because that's when it finally "warms up" enough to snow!  (Until I lived in Alaska, I didn't realize that it could be too COLD to get snow!)  It's been snowing off and on now for two weeks and yesterday we had a blizzard! 
Unusual... usually our snow falls without any accompanying wind. Here is my truck... I will have to get busy clearing it off since it was 16 degrees today... too cold for it to just melt off; I wish.

Here is the photo of the completed tunic and it fits perfectly.  Waiting for a sunny day to get someone to take the photo of me wearing it. It was a gorgeous sunny day today too, but DH has a nasty cold and I didn't want him standing around outside in the cold and snow while I modeled my new sweater.

Since that is all finished, I started a Dale of Norway bunny hat to match this sweater for my grand daughter... photos of the hat to follow.

Winter Is All about Knitting New Warm and Wooly Things to Wear

Sometimes I feel like I have the attention span of a gnat! Was it only a month ago that I was so absorbed in knitting Hal, that I was feeling disgruntled about starting the new KAL, Knit a Norwegian on Ravelry?  I just couldn't imagine dragging out new wool to start a new project. 

That was then... this is now!  Hal is sitting neglected in his basket, his sunny golden looks masked by the table under which I placed him, and my knitting is now all about Nordic wear.  Life can be just so fickle...

Now, I am obsessively involved with knitting a Dale of Norway pattern, titled; "We Are A Nation", after completing the other Dale of Norway, Lappland.  "We Are A Nation" was published in 1993 when I saw it and purchased it... a ridiculous acquisition at the time as I could barely knit, and had no idea how to knit such a seemingly complicated sweater. At that point, I made it my goal in life to learn how to knit that way, enrolling in a class which was all about the methods of Nordic style knitting.  Since then, I have never looked back, much to my family's puzzlement that anyone's hobby obsession could involve writing about, talking about, dreaming about, and most of all, knitting every spare minute of every waking moment!

So, enough blathering on about my crazy obsession and onto what I am actually working on, since it's been a long time since my last post.  That is because progress has been rather slow.  After sailing though the knitting of both  at the rate of about a week each, I embarked on the task of the body. I had used the sleeves to establish my gauge, get used to the unfamiliar yarn, and learn the pattern.  Seemingly, everything was good to go.  However, I discovered three rows from the top of the most elaborate border pattern on the sweater, that the evenness of my tension was really poor, giving it, in my opinion, the look of something knit by a beginner... not really the look that I wanted to achieve. 

The yarn I am using is Dale of Norway Tiur, a blend of wool and mohair.  The mohair makes it quite soft, and pleasantly fuzzy, but also causes the fabric to be less "stable" than 100% wool.  Instead of the firm, even fabric I was hoping to create, the bottom of my sweater seemed to pull in odd directions... all puckered and heavily biased.  No good! 

I ripped it all the way down to the "top" of the red border and started the "dancing children" section again. Success... I thought!  This time, the tension was nice and even with no pulls or puckers.  That good feeling lasted until I realized that the "legs" of the dancers were not connected to their feet! MAJOR mistake again!  Hard to believe that I can't count out such a basic pattern, but true.  Ripped everything out back down tho the "top" of the red again.

Now the body is well and truly under way so I have some photos to post, making my post worth while.

I have a little more than this knit now, but the border with its dancing children seemed to be the most interesting part of this particular design anyway, and that can be clearly seen.

So Hall, I promise that I will return to you shortly. (Good thing it's not the real Henry VIII!  He would be shouting "Off with her head!")

More Dale of Norway

About the time I thought I would be madly knitting away on Henry VIII, it was time to start a new Dale of Norway project so I could participate in Ravelry's Knit a Norwegian KAL.

I have had all the yarn and the pattern stashed away for years... I can't even remember when I bought it, so I thought that now might be the right time to knit it.  We all began together December 31, at 12:00 midnight Oslo time, to pay honor to Norway, since we are knitting Norwegian items.  That translated to 2:00 PM local Alaska time and I got started. The pattern has been a really interesting one... the kind that makes you want to knit..."just one more row"... so you can see where the design is going.

I will undoubtedly have a better picture by next week at the rate I've been going, but here is the first sleeve so far.  Not very good light since it's just past the winter solstice here, but I did what I could with indoor light and the flash.  I'm knitting it from Dale of Norway's discontinued yarn, Tiur... a really nice blend of wool and mohair, so it's slightly fuzzy.  I have to pay attention to the pattern which is always switching from diagonal rectangles facing one way to interlocking rectangles facing the other way.  No mindless knitting here!

When I get bored with that, I can always get back to work on Henry or Fulmar.  I dragged the basket with Fulmar in it out of hibernation, but my new Dale of Norway sweater has been so fascinating that I haven't touched it yet.

I had better get busy, because for Christmas, I received two more Alice Starmore kits from Virtual Yarns, courtesy of my thoughtful husband.

One kit, Leo is for a Fair Isle tunic...   I included the link to the finished item so you could see what it looks like, because mine is not too promising yet!

The other kit is for a Fair Isle cardigan... Glen Albyn.  I will be a very busy knitter in the up and coming months.

Lappland for Christmas!

Disappointing... No, we didn't travel to Lapland for Christmas. That would have been fun and interesting, although the amount of hours of darkness and the weather would probably not have been a big improvement.

No, that is the name of the pullover I finished for my grandson just in time for Christmas! It was a close race... I finished at 11:00PM December 24.  It was fun though to knit something so small because it went really fast... especially compared to knitting an adult sweater for myself.

Here is the pullover before I sewed on the pewter clasp.   And.... there is the picture of it on our somewhat reluctant model, courtesy of Mom.  Thanks, Mom.  Now I can get back to knitting on Henry VIII, which can be seen in my previous post...

although, thankfully, I'm lots further along than that.

Christmas Knitting Madness

I have been knitting frantically trying to get all my knitted gifts ready in time for Christmas.  I do this to myself every year. 

First, I think that I'm not going to knit anything for anyone for Christmas.  Because of that, there is no planning ahead, because, after all, I'm not knitting anything for anyone for Christmas.  Then, just after Thanksgiving I get these absolutely creative and wonderful ideas of what I just have to knit for people for Christmas.  It's too late by then, of course, to get everything finished in any kind of sane work schedule... so... the knitting madness begins!

I had started knitting the stranded project Henry VIII November 2 so as to be part of the Ravelry KAL.  Seems like I just got a great start on that and now it's hibernating until after Christmas.

Here is a picture of it.  I actually have a lot more knit than the picture indicates, but I have been waiting for a "sunny day".  Ironically, we have had some sunny days, but the sun is so low on the southern horizon now that in my location, it doesn't "touch" the ground or the floor... only the tree tops are bathed in sunlight. Those if you that live in northern latitudes can empathize. We are reduced to sunrise at 10:04 and sunset at 3:41... a short day by anyone's definition!  The good news is we are on final countdown to winter solstice and then our days will lengthen.

I did finish the first of my Christmas gifts to be knitted.  I knit a series of hats... Ardvey, for all the women in my knitting group.

Now I am working on a sweater for my grandson... a Dale of Norway, Lappland.  My version is red and it's been a really fast knit.  I have one sleeve half done and the body is finished almost up to the shoulders although you can't tell from this photo.  Probably, I won't finish this for Christmas but luckily his birthday is in January so I have a back up plan. 

I will need to stop working on Lappland temporarily, because after I buy some red and green yarn this weekend, I need to knit my grand daughter a Christmas stocking.  That will be a bit of a rush job because obviously I can't wait until after Christmas to finish it!

A Belated Good bye to Summer

We took these pictures on our vacation which ended October 4, but it's taken me this long to get the photos posted.  The photos sure show our Alaskan bias. We felt like visitors from the moon!

We visited the Luther Burbank public gardens in Santa Rosa and spent a couple hours drooling over all the lush, fantastic plant, flowers, and unique trees.  Locals strode by without so much as a second glance but for us, where most of these plants won't grow except perhaps in a greenhouse, they were worth viewing and smelling.  Growing up in California, many of these plants were everyday sights so this was a nostalgic trip to the past for me.  I didn't realize what a bias towards roses I have until I looked at all our garden photos.

 
Flying home the following day was a sudden change of season.  California was still enjoying the end of summer, while Anchorage was enjoying the end of Autumn.  We traveled from 80 degrees to 40 degrees in one day!  All the leaves had already dropped from our trees, but I did manage to find one late fall tree still holding onto it's leaves.  Red trees always catch my attention anyway because most of the native trees; cottonwoods, birches, and aspens turn yellow or gold.  This one, a beautiful Mountain Ash, or Rowan is not native to this part of Alaska, although a shrub variety is.

Now... on to knitting.  It was gloomy, cloudy, and dark this last week so I really made progress on my knitting projects.  Last Sunday I finally finished Inishmaan. That gargantuan project that took an unbelievable four and a half months! Then I  finished my lacy wool/silk blend socks today. Between those two projects, I began Henry VIII and made it through half a pattern repeat... I just need to take a picture of it.

Here are my new lace socks.

They are "posed" on our new snowfall. 

I set Inishmaan outdoors to block to try to get better lighting after I washed it and it froze!  No harm done though... it just got a little stiff.

Ooops... somehow this picture didn't load. I probably forgot to save it or something.