Sunday Wonders - Y and Z

It seems fitting that the last letters of the alphabet should come on the last Sunday of this year.  So Y is for Years. 
I began this alphabet series in March of 2009 just as a little challenge for myself.  I have tried to post every Sunday and I think that I have only missed a couple.  There have been six rounds of the entire alphabet in that time.  I also participated in to A-Z Challenges.  That's a lot of alphabets.

And Z is for Zoom.  Those years and letters have gone by so fast that most of the photos are a blur.

This is the one that I think of whenever I think of the photos I've used for the letters.  In fact, it's the only one that I can be specific about.  I don't know why, really.  It is not the most scenic photo nor the most interesting.  It was Q on the first round and we were in Dublin.  The streets were so rarely at rest that I celebrated this early morning quiet. 

So, this is the way the challenge ends: with peace in the city. 

Saturday Stash

Last week I set myself the goal of completing all my UFO's before the year's end.  It would be good to start the new year off with nothing lurking in the basket.  My friend Rudee suggested that frogging might be the only realistic way to accomplish this.  At the time, I thought that that might be cheating.  However, on sober second thought and in the cold light of day without my rose-colored glasses perched on my nose, I think she's got it absolutely right.

This scarf has been sitting around since last spring.   I like the pattern but I'm not inspired by it.  And I think that's why I stopped.  I obviously didn't miss the project enough to complete it.  And it wasn't actually buried in the basket.  I know that's death to a project.  No, it was sitting right where I could see it.  It begged and pleaded but no use.  Into the frog pond it will go.  I'm sure there will be another use for this yarn.

I thought this was another scarf but it turns out to be the beginning of a shawl.  Or shawlette.  It's one of those very adaptable patterns to the amount of yarn you have.  Or  to when you get sick of knitting the increasing number of stitches.  Sorry, little shawl, but you are also going to the frog pond.  I can't remember what I saw in you.  Adios!  Now I just have to finish my Twinset & Pearls cardi before midnight on Monday.  That I can do.  The Purple Rain socks are finished.

Knitters who lunch are very different.  Yesterday, my friend Helen and I met for lunch with a bit of an agenda.  We chose a nice comfy location - an upscale pub with lots of light and good chairs - where the food was good.  She had brought me a challenge.  A thrift store sweater with an intriguing rib design.  I'd tried to get it from a photo (above) but had no success.  Eventually, she will frog it and repurpose the lovely green yarn. 

I think it was kind of wading around in my brain because it came very easily once I had the sweater in my hands.  It's a kind of travelling rib which is obviously cabled somehow.   But the back always looks like a plain 2x2 rib.  That's the part I couldn't quite make happen. 

This is the  wrong side of the ribbing which is done in the round.  It could be done flat as I was trying to do at first but it means cabling on the reverse which is not as easy.  This morning I sat down and worked it on a circular so I could write it up.  It fairly flew through my fingers.  The cable is a simple two-stitch twist which is easily accomplished without a cable needle.  As I knit, I kept visioning a ribby toque in bulky yarn made just a little fancier.  It could even be reversible! That's for the new year, though.

The pattern is quite simple  and easily memorized.  Once you see how the stitches and cables relate to each other:  in each K2 pair the first leg remains straight while the second moves to the left across the P2.   Here's the pattern if anyone wants to try it out:

C1L =  slip next K stitch onto cable needle and bring forward; purl next stitch, K held stitch

Cast on a multiple of 4 stitches .

Rounds 1 and 2:     K2, P2  around.
Round 3:  ( K1, C1L, P1)  Repeat around
Round 4: (K1, P1, C1L)  Repeat around
Round 5: K1, (P2, K2) to last stitch, K1
Round 6: (C1L, K1, P1) to end
Round 7: (P1, C1L, K1) to end
Round 8: P2, K2 to last stitch before marker
Round 9: Slip stitch before marker to right needle, remover marker; return stitch to left needle and C1L with next two stitches, replacing marker between cabled stitches. (P1, K1, C1L) to end
Round 10:  same as Round 6
Round 11: P1, (K2, P2) to last stitch, P1

Continue ribbing in this way until desired length is achieved.  

Let me know if you see any errors.  I've only worked through it twice. 


 

Fifty Fridays #21

Since this is a time of looking back, I thought I'd go into the way-back and bring out an older photo.

This is my mother's mother and her mother.  So, my gran and my great-gran.  My mother looked very much like hers, don't you agree?  I really don't know who the child in the middle is.  My grandmother had a lot of siblings so there were always lots of cousins.  But having the child in such a formal portrait makes me wonder who she really was.  Maybe a cousin who was a permanent addition to the family?  These things did happen quite often then.

I see that I have given Mr Blair some publicity.  I have no doubt the photographer was a man.  I think the photo looks better for having the cardboard holder. 

Bird food

In the winter, we leave food out for the birds.  nature does a pretty good job, too. 

This is one of the finches who came to our neighbor's rose bushes this afternoon.  A little soft-focus but this was with my zoom and through a window so I didn't frighten them away.  Finches are very nervous feeders.  The slightest movement can  send them flying off. I love how his beak is full of rose hip pulp.  And he seems to be looking at me. Maybe.

There are a couple of bird feeders and there is a full suet basket hung up after the bears go to to their dens.  The bush tits always have big family dinners here. 

I had a surprise today, though.  The suet basket has been ripped down from the eaves.  It isn't on the ground so I figure the critter took it somewhere to figure out how to get the tasty cake out of the basket.  It could be a raccoon.  It could also be a bear.  They should all be sleeping now but apparently they aren't.  Big headline today in our local newspaper said that since they still find food easily - especially on garbage day - a few have remained to share our Christmas feasts.