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Bernat "Forever Fleece" in "Croton Green" and Big Twist POSH in "Blue Raspberry". |
29 September 2025
It was redone.
28 September 2025
Ten Questions
There is a website that sends out a link to a question each day (except I don't get them - not even in my junk/SPAM folder, so have to remember to look) during the High Holy Days. Ten questions, for you to think about how the past year affected you, and what is to come next year. Reflections.
If you want to try it: https://www.doyou10q.com/question/2025/1
You can opt to share your answers or keep them private.
I had a busy week and next one will be also. The first three days I am in a CISSP exam writing workshop for ISC2, and then it is Yom Kippur. Luckily my junior attorney returns on Monday and hopefully it will not take her too long to catch up so I can start giving projects to her. At some point, my mother and I are going to the early voting; my father votes absentee and we'll deliver his ballot.
I'm back to making hats for the various collections:
It looks like I will get a fourth, if small (child, not teen/adult, sized), hat out of the ball of Bernat Forever Fleece. Each one is a different pattern, including the Flight Formation Beanie that still has sticks in the top. The ones unfinished will be worked on during tonight's fiber group meeting. Four of these were knitted in the last week, the three with sticks in the top (and there is probably enough of the pink/grey boucle for another hat) and the striped one at the bottom.I want to make other things, especially from yarn I purchased last weekend, but I am dutifully working on hats.
22 September 2025
Welcoming 5786
Double conferences last week, a fun one long-planned and a professional one quickly added when they needed somebody on a panel, Los Angeles first and DFW next and I got home in time for the start of Rosh Hashonnah.
May everybody be written for a sweet year, with enough food and shelter and good health.
14 September 2025
They disappeared.
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Wound balls underneath the same put-ups. Notice how much larger the hanked yarn ball is - I had to finish it by hand. |
In each of the above, the hank is on the left and the knitted blank is on the right. You can also see the effect of the yarn being knitted and wound, or in the hank and wound.
11 September 2025
Twenty-Four Years Later
People are saying "we should be the people we were on 9/12". It's only been 24 years, but it seems that despite all the memorials and discussion, people have forgotten.
At least they are not (yet?) claiming it's all a hoax, as too many do with the Shoah.
07 September 2025
Grandparents Day
The Sunday after Labour Day (in the USA, so the first or second Sunday of September) is Grandparents Day. The only one I've posted about at any length is my maternal grandmother, who is the only one alive as I've written this blog. My paternal grandparents disappeared when bio-dad left the family, and my step-paternal grandparents died decades before I met my stepfather (who most of the world knows as my father, he's been a part of my life for so many decades), and I also had a step-maternal grandfather. But photos of these aren't on my digital media, and so harder to add to the blog.
I do have a photo of my maternal grandfather, although he died decades ago also, and I forget why I captured it electronically.
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Arnold "Zep" Zimmerman |
I've probably be thinking about him because football season just started, and it's still baseball season, and he was deeply devoted to both sports. He played in college, but never professionally, instead building a truck parts and automotive business with his father and brothers. We all learned the games at his knee, and I remember attending them with him, or watching many on television.
Every Sunday for decades he hosted a family breakfast at a local restaurant. I remember sitting at the far end of the table, because I was one of the youngest. You could hear my grandfather everywhere as he told stories and laughed.
I remember the bowls of sultanas and pecans set around their house for snacking. All of the family gatherings he presided over (his parents having died long before I was born) with dozens of the very extended family, and friends, crowding tables or scattering through whichever home hosted that event. The tradition of him singing "Down By The Old Mill Stream" with his brothers - cheerfully in four different keys, and with silly gestures that had us all laughing. Some of his jokes, at least one of which wouldn't be considered politically correct, but it makes me laugh to remember.
There were not-so-good times too, as there always are with families, but I am glad to have so much happiness to remember.
31 August 2025
Two and Two.
I finished the garter stitch scarf that I showed last week, and made another scarf plus two hats:
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Hats are leftover bits of yarn. Garter stitch scarf is Caron Chunky Cakes, discontinued colour "Trifle". C2C scarf is Caron Cakes "Lovely Layers" in "Sugared Cherry", also discontinued. |
I'm making progress on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club assignment for this month (when I picked up the copy I'd ordered at the bookshop, the clerk was very enthusiastic about it), and should be done in time for Wednesday's meeting. That will make my 21st book for the year, not counting the one I re-read on New Year's Day.
The library is starting another walking/exercise challenge, which of course I plan to enter. Why not get double use out of my daily (except for Saturdays, when I do an early yoga class) walks?
Otherwise, it was a fairly standard week. I should work on the last few items for my DFW Fiber Fest class and start gathering the items needed for the classes I am taking. Now that I am presenting at a conference during the first part of that week, I have to be organized a little earlier than otherwise.
Today I started a shawl of Knitting Buddha's handspun, stashed from a prior DFW Fiber Fest:
25 August 2025
Typically American Measurement
There are jokes and memes going around about how Americans will use anything as a unit of measurement to avoid the metric system. My friend Trish and I joked about it and decided to display her Great Big Squishy Scarfie Thing against their Grand Caravan:
Current length, on Colour #21 of 25, is about 2/3 of a Grand Caravan. I've knitted on it twice (somehow, not this trip!), once when I was there for "AIDA" and once at Maryland Sheep & Wool.
I did some knitting of my own, a scarf of Bernat Blanket that I left in Dallas to donate to Warm Up, America! at DFW Fiber Fest next month, and three hats; four if you count the one I knit on a friend's machine so I could try it:
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The green one with brick stitch at top left will go to the local guild's Hundred Hats Challenge collection; the other three are destined for a different charitable project. |
This time I was there to see her son in "HAMLET", portraying several characters, primarily Rosencrantz:
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I've recommended it to people, and they report the shows are selling out before they can get tickets. Kudos to ACT! |
And then this went into a black hole, instead of getting published. I thought I'd hit the "Publish" button!
Since then, I finished another two hats for the collection, and half a scarf for WUA:
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Ooops, the top one is a repeat from the previous photo. Both hats are AlwaysBeKind yarn. Scarf is a Caron Chunky Cake. |
I've planned some projects (probably too many to get done before DFW Fiber Fest), and finished my Berie Shawl of the "Sunset Skies" yarn:
When I saw how much is left, I decided not to frog back and add another garter row in the center, and there isn't enough remaining for a border, so the shawl is as it is (and fits me well) and the last bit of yarn will go into a hat or something. Yes, I have the ends to run in, but that's just a few minutes of work. I love how it feels, very soft and cuddly.23 August 2025
Ninety and Nice!
My father's birthday is today. Originally Mom planned to have a family event and a neighborhood party, then rescheduled the neighborhood party for two weeks from now. (Next weekend is Labour Day weekend, and she figured people may have other plans.) This took pressure off the family event, and won't be as wearing on my parents.
I think Dad would rather spend the day with some music and a book, than entertaining a parade of guests.
13 August 2025
Testing the tea (dye).
06 August 2025
Back. With yarn and knitting.
Just a quick report - I did knitting, and am into the second skein, second half, of the Berie Shawl:
Not much done on the Albuquerque Shawl, but attention must be paid so it's not good for knitting while sightseeing or reading or during intermissions:
Yarn and fabrics acquired, and some fiber for a swap at the annual meeting for one of my local fiber guilds:
LOTS of photos taken, and I may get around to summarizing the trip. I had fun, not enough sitting-around time as one sometimes gets on vacations, did some hiking, saw a number of museums plus some places I wanted to see and will visit again, and ate a lot of good food.
30 July 2025
One of the boring ones.
Mostly because this is a placeholder - I am traveling, which means I cannot upload photos. My watercolour seems to have stalled the middle of last week, because I was busy and felt overwhelmed and underinspired. I do have ideas, but wasn't confident of creating them. I'll get back to it - I brought the pad and some paints on the trip, but have had zero time to focus on them.
After some travel-fu (a very early connecting flight rescheduled to a very late one due to weather and other delays, and a very kind person at the check-in counter who moved me to an earlier pair that would avoid the kerfluffle although get me to ABQ a few hours later than planned), and a visit with an elderly relative that involved some very yummy Mexican food and a bit of sightseeing, I joined the tour group I'm with for the Santa Fe opera. And some other adventures.
And a few of my own. I'll report more about all of this next week, when I can add photos (such as the one above, added after my return). I might slip one in here later, as an update; maybe the shawl I started on Saturday while waiting for the flights.
21 July 2025
A bit stalled.
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I taped a square for the library's mini art event on the paper. |
13 July 2025
It Got Long.
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One skein of Lion Brand Homespun. |
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The outer ones are monochrome; the inner use two or three colours. I tried to blend them. |
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Finished, with tape removed. The masking tape didn't come up as cleaning as I would like on the right side and damaged the pink triangle a bit. Or the paper was still damp. |
These are most of the ones for this week. Some are just techniques or exercises.
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I did a book for the day when the Prompt is "TIRED" since reading in bed is my cause! |
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The prompt for the lower picture is "turtle" and I thought of the shell pattern. They are irregular because I freehanded the outlines. |
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The trees are surprisingly good (to my eyes) other than the trunks being out of proportion. They should be quite slim. I may try doing them again. |
06 July 2025
Without prompting.
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I forgot to take a photo of the completed form before I turned it on on July 2nd, when I went to the library's science fiction book club meeting. |
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I probably could have studied and done something that resembles fireworks more accurately, but no. |
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I need to make lighter pencil outlines. And the proportions are not quite right - but it does resemble a sunhat! |