Identification Parade December 22, 2009

  My stash – December 22 2009

It’s time to pack my stash – so I’m going to identify the various yarns before I forget.  I have been using these yarns to knit the panels/blankets.  Once I’ve taken the label off the yarn I tend to promptly forget the manufacturer, despite always saving the labels.  So this is an aide memoir.

Rows 1 and 2 – The 4 skeins of brown alpaca in the front of the picture is from an alpaca farm, Alpacas of Ireland,  in County Kildare.  The yarn was generously given to me by a friend in our Irish Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers.  This yarn is the base yarn for my current project, i.e. I will use one strand of brown alpaca throughout and the 2nd strand will be something else.       

Row 3 – The blue and green yarn on the left in Row 2 is 100g of Mirage, 50% wool, 50% premium acrylic, approx. 343 yards, 312 metres, King Cole Ltd.,purchased in The Wool Shop, Bangor Northern Ireland

The 2 balls of green yarn are Lodband Einband, Made in Iceland, Icelandic Textiles Ltd., 50 g, 225 m, pure new wool, purchased from The Yarn Room, Dun Laoghaire People’s Market and Ashford County Wicklow

  The Yarn Room in Ashford

The 3rd ball of green yarn is Lang Yarns, Jawoll, Superwash, 75% new wool, 18% nylon, 7% acrylic, 50 g, 210 m, Lang & Co., Switzerland, purchased from The Yarn Room

The ball of white yarn is Lodband Einband, the remainder of a 50 g ball, purchased from the Yarn Room

The 2 balls of purple yarn – I’m not sure how long I’ve had these or where they came from, they are wool.  I used to have a lot of this yarn but have gradually used it in projects, these 2 balls are all that remain.  I used some of the yarn in this blanket.      

Row 4  – The blue yarn is Einband.

The dark red yarn is all that remains of a skein used in my last project     

The light green yarn is Lang Yarns, Lawoll

Moving to the right, there are 2 balls of white Nature Spun yarn and 1 ball of Einband.

Finally, a ball of bright purple, Nature Spun

Row 5 –The blue yarn is Nature Spun Fingering Weight, 100% wool, 50 g, 310 yards, 283 m, gauge 7 sts. per inch, needle size 3, Brown Sheep Company, made in U.S.A., Mitchell, Nebraska, purchased from This is Knit, Powerscourt Town House, Dublin.  There is quite a bit of this blue in my first blanket.     

2 balls of bright red Nature Spun

1 red and grey ball of Admiral R Druck, Schoppel Wolle, Made in Germany, 75% Schurwolle, 25% Polyamid, 100 g , 420 m

1 ball of red and blue and green Superba Inca, 4 fadig, 785% superwash new wool, 25% polyamid, Rico Design

1 ball of red and blue and white yarn

1 ball of brown Lodband Einband

Row 6 – 1 ball of bright blue Nature Spun

2 balls of Admiral R Druck Schoppel Wolle, irregular stripes, green and brown and lt. bluebeing used in my current blanket        

1 ball of Admiral R Druck Schoppel Wolle, irregular stripes, white and brown and blue

2 balls of brown and white Opal, Made in Germany, Tutto Wolfgang Zwerger

1 ball of brown Lodband Einband

  More stash, being used in current project -1 ball of  Admiral R Druck and 2 balls of Lang Yarns

Curious minds December 21, 2009

Container Ship on the Panama Canal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQNB6XxsxU   This YouTube video shows a ship passing through the Panama Canal.  I’m wondering if our container on the Rotterdam Express is looking like this right now.  Just think of all those cardboard boxes filled with family memorabilia and the spinning wheel and the rug wool, etc. etc. etc.

Knitting for a change December 20, 2009

Knitting for a  change – rather a play on words.  I haven’t blogged about my knitting recently, hence the title, but read on and you’ll read about other changes.  My knitting of late has been baby blankets or panels or whatever else you want to call them – I’ve been using 2 strands of sock yarn – one strand of multicolour self-patterning and one strand of solid colour.  I have been choosing yarns from my stash.  The strand of multicolour has remained constant but I have the fun of changing the strand of the solid colour every few rows.  Here are some of the results.                  I am partial to the purple based one on the left.    But the green based one on the right is quite nice also.      These panels are on the same idea as the grandaughters skirts featured in an earlier blog. 

The past couple of weeks I have been taking a blue and yellow panel to my weekly Kilternan Market but I haven’t featured it for sale among my hats and scarves and socks.   The hats and scarves and socks have been selling well.  One particularly discerning customer spotted the blue and yellow panel which I had casually displayed  behind the table.  She asked to see it and asked how much I was charging for it.  I kind of fumbled around and decided on a price – she decided it would be perfect as a lap rug for her elderly dad.

                      Blue and yellow panel (lap rug), sold at Kilternan Market.  I am nearing the completion of another panel and had decided to knit something else, for a change.  Well, this sale boosted my spirits, as happens when one makes a sale, and now I think I will knit yet another panel.           I’ll choose the yarns from my ever shrinking stash.  I think the next panel will be “brown based”.  Watch this space. 

One of the rugs in the house we are renting is a rug I wove quite a few years ago and was selected by my friend to put in her cottage down in the West.  The rug has somehow migrated back to Dublin and is now in the hallway of this house.   

                One of my woven rugs – a striking resemblance to my current knitting!

The Winter Solstice Is Approaching

The Winter Solstice is drawing near.

  photo from this source.

This year, according to my source, the winter will officially occur in Dublin at 15:47 , 5:47 p.m., tomorrow December 21.  Correspondingly, it will be 9:47 a.m. on the west coast of America, 8 hours behind us here in Dublin.  There is a really interesting website showing photos and explaining the winter solstice at Newgrange, a world famous prehistoric site in Ireland.  Around the time of the winter solstice the rising sun shines into the inner chamber for 5 or 6 mornings.  Some of the photos shown of the 2005 solstice were taken by Anne-Marie Moroney, a weaving friend of mine.

Anne-Marie is also a photographer and author interested in archaeological and mystic phenomena.  Anne-Marie and a poet  friend, Susan Connelly, produced a book about some of the holy wells in Ireland.  She used not only her own photographs but also some of her textiles as illustrations.  I would like to tell you more, but that will have to wait for another day.  My copy of the book is currently in a container on the SS Rotterdam Express, approaching the Panama Canal, en route to Seattle.

I have a diary called Murakami Diary 2009.  Haruki Murakami is Japanese by birth and his books have been translated into many languages.  According to the Diary, the Winter Solstice in Japan is called Toji.  And looking up Toji I found the following:

Japan:  Tou Ji or To Ji (literally means winter solstice)

A few weeks (about 15 days) starting around 22nd of December is called Toji [or Tou Ji : Winter Solstice].

When solar celestial longitude gets 270 degrees, the most south, the solar height becomes lowest in the year in Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, the daytime is shortest in the year and cold increase severity. In Japanese custom, we eat “Japanese Pumpkin” and Konnyaku (devil’s tongue) to pray for luck of money. Also, we take Yuzuburo (citron bath) to pray for health and fortune. From ancient times, there are many festivals held in all around the world to celebrate Toji (Winter Solstice), when sun approaches most in Northern Hemisphere. The festival of Christmas, which is originated in Europe is related to Toji this strongly.

Source:  http://www.b-zenjapan.com/nihon/12shiwasu.phtml

Winter solstice in Latin     sol=sun in      stice=stand still

Anyone for Cooking? December 17, 2009

  Julie & Julia

I have just finished reading this book.  Lots of interesting recipes and amusing descriptions of Julie’s experiences in trying to achieve her goal of trying to cook all 524 of them within 365 days, one year.  The recipes are contained in Julia Child’s classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  There are also interesting snippets about Julia Child herself. 

Although I’m not really interested in cooking – I’d rather be weaving or knitting! – I did enjoy the book, despite the author’s penchant for using certain words which people of my generation find offensive.  And while Julia was a most forthright person, I doubt that she used such language either, a generation earlier.  I note in looking up Julia’s biography that she was born in 1912, the same year as my mother.  My mother passed away almost 10 years ago, Julia herself died in 2004.  That generation is slowly passing but I still have an aunt and several dear friends of that vintage.   I treasure them.  

I have yet to see the film of the book nor have I ever watched any of Julia’s TV programmes or delved into her books.  Maybe I’ll have a look. 

One of the other interesting things about Julie Powell’s book Julie & Julia is that it was originally a blog – as she conducted her experiment or project in trying to cook all those recipes she wrote a blog about it.  And look where that took her.  I somehow doubt that my blog could similarly reach such dizzying heights about knitting.

Ducks and Piglets December 14, 2009

This morning I had an unexpected walk beside a stream.  My Irish conversation group (Cupla Focla) was unable to meet because painting was being done upstairs in the library.  So I ambled home instead and was very surprised to see ducks in the stream near the rear of the old shopping centre in Dundrum.

  Ducks in the stream

  away they swam

Then I went up to Airfield to check on the piglets.  They have really grown a lot and are scurrying about in their pen.  They get worn out and then they all huddle together and have a sleep.

Other photos taken at this time of year

        Morning sun, 9:30 a.m. at Kilternan Market

  rusty gate, abandoned, along the Upper Kilmacud Road

  sky over Ashford, December afternoon

  early morning from our upstairs window

Christmas trees for sale at Airfield    

  a stone wall along my route, the Upper Kilmacud Road

Dundrum Main Street, late afternoon       

  my knitting stash – latest photo – note the stash is getting smaller

Computer problems and Cats – Unrelated

Last night I was trying to put a new item on my sidebar and in the course of doing that I not only lost my visitors to this site map and information but also my weather pixie.  And I didn’t succeed in adding the new item to the side bar – I wanted to show the phases of the moon.  I beavered away at this for a long time, gave up, and came back to it this morning.  Alas.  I’ll send an sos to wordpress and see what happens.

Meanwhile here are a few random photos for your perusal.

The first picture was taken on the 48A bus a few months ago.  It was the first time I had ever seen a cat being transported on a bus – of course I don’t ride the bus all that often – but why not transport a cat that way.  Thinking about that reminds me of the dog that regularly went with his mistress on the bus from Upper Leeson Street to Grafton Street.  One day in town he disappeared but he found his own way home – on the bus.

  note not only the cat carrier but also the jacket the person is wearing

  a handsome cat

Knots and the Celtic Tiger December 13, 2009

 

  Words, Knots and Lines, published by Púca Press in 3 languages, Irish, English and German

One of the entries in the above book is a poem titled Knots.  The author is Maria Ní Mhurchú.  The linking of the knots shown in the Book of Kells and the state of knots in which we find the state of Ireland today is very clever.  Have a read yourself.

  Knots by Maria Ní Murchú

Knots by Maria Ní Murchú

When I flick through the Book of Kells

On the internet

My heart always misses a beat

Knots!

Endless knots!

Stylized, graphic, decorative….

Delicatewly woven by dedicated monks

Prayerful, innocent, beautiful.

No sign of the demon of greed here.

It reminds me of the girl with the golden locks

Dancing a Celtic dance

Her long hair plaited intricately

By deft fingers.

Ireland is tied up in knots today.

Not of a monastic kind….

Thick ropes in a boat knotted together haphazardly

By the careless sailor.

The tug – ready to go under.

Politics, economics, spirituality

The greed of our poor oul’ Celtidc Tiger

Coming back to haunt us

To haunt us – down.

It reminds me of the grey-faced, grey-haired impatient man

Who blatantly hooted at the old lady

As she tried in vain to cross Green Street

To light a candle in the Church

Yes.  I do wonder at what the monks might say.

Dear Patrick, sever the knots that bind us today.

Spirit us… artists, poets, musicians

To the land of milk and honey

That we may come back to Hibernia

Rejuvenated

With a song in our heart!

And a feather in our hand!

 

Now a change of topic – Update on my stash

  Watercolour painting of my knitting stash – I did this from a photograph taken about a month ago.

  state of my stash, Dec. 2009 – note the knitting on the right – a panel knit from purples and greens from the stash

Words, Lines and Knots December 10, 2009

Words, Lines and Knots or Foclóirín Linte agus Snaidfimeanna or Kleines Linien und Knotenvokabular, published by Púca Press in Dingle, Kerry, Ireland

  Foclóirín Línte agus Snaidhmeanna

A new book published earlier this month.  A little Thesaurus of Lines and Knots with contributions by 19 artists.  To quote from the acknowledgements, here is something to ponder – “A line can be shaped into letters and knots, one can follow it by foot or in thought and might come back to its starting point.  And what would happen if the linear direction of time were to change its direction.”

For the first printing, 340 copies were hand produced on Letterpress.  I have copy no. 30.

Here is one of the entries – Cat & mouse on the Mobius Strip – knitters and cat lovers take note

Verfolgungsjagd auf dem Mobiusband. – Dominique Lieb

An cat agus an luch i ndiaidh a chéile ar an Bhanda Mobius

Cat & mouse on the Mobius Strip