Clearly not switched at birth

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When Emma was visiting a few months ago, we went to the Unravel Festival of Yarn and  purchased the yarn for her to knit the Field Shawl, by Maxim Cyr. Here is a photo of her wearing the sample at the festival:

A few days ago, I get a call from Emma.  She has started the shawl and she is upset.  “Mom, there is a little bump of colour showing up where it shouldn’t be. I can’t figure out why it’s there. I have already ripped the whole thing out and re-knitted multiple times. It is still there. It is annoying me. Here, I will send a photo.”

She sends us the above photo and Doug and I look at it.  “I am not seeing anything, Emma. What do you mean?”

Emma says: “Enlarge the photo, Mom. See? It’s like a pixel.”  Aha. Here is what Emma is referring to:

We talk about the nature of knitting, that a knit stitch on the one side causes a bump on the reverse side.  Emma is not having it; this pixel doesn’t correspond to a grey knit stitch on the other side. I spend some time trying to convince Emma that this is nothing, that she shouldn’t worry about it.  Her knitting is so beautiful and neat. The shawl will be gorgeous, etc. 

Emma says: “Mom, I have been looking at all of the photos of finished projects on Ravelry and none of them show these pixels.  I must be doing something wrong.  Why is this happening? I want to understand the process.”

We hang up. I immediately start systematically checking Ravelry project photos and find one that also has identical pixels, clear as day (but only if you are squinting and searching for them). I send her the photo. Hahaha!

The next day, Emma calls. She is annoyed with her increases.  They don’t look neat.  She has already ripped out and re-knitted the beginning of the shawl multiple times, but she wants it to be perfect. I said “Have you tried kfb?” Emma decides to rip it out (again!) and try kfb.  I counsel her not to rip, but to start a new piece using kfb, and then compare.

Last night, Emma calls up and she has now knitted a new beginning of the shawl, like a swatch, in which she has tried multiple increase options for each section – kfb, m1l, m1r, place the increase 1 stitch in from the i-cord, etc.  You can see the photos of both pieces, front and back, below. 

We then spent an hour debating each section.  Which has the neatest looking increase?  Which is easier to do?  Which produces a better i-cord?  What increase produces the most pleasing shaping? And yes, are there any pixels popping up?

I tell Emma that she doesn’t need to be worried at this level about her work, because all of the options are good. (Also, she has figured out how to run the mohair thread up the side through the i-cord, so no threads to end off. Big win!)  Doug then helpfully points out that I have spent the evening systematically tinking back my current knitting project (360 stitches to the row) because I had made a completely unnoticeable mistake some rows back.

Emma says “See, Mom, this is evidence that I was clearly not switched at birth by the hospital.”  As if we needed evidence, when she is a living, breathing  “Doug mini me”. (Seriously, though, isn’t her knitting lovely?)

Tomorrow I’m heading to Edinburgh to attend the Wooly Good Gathering. Maybe I will see some of you there?

Published!

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I interrupt our expected knitting content to announce the publication of my book! I am beyond thrilled to be a published author!

The book was co-written with my fabulous colleague, Tatiana S. Rowson, and published by DeGruyter. It is available in paperback or ebook. You can find it on Amazon, or ask for it from your local library or bookstore! ISBN: 9783111314440.

The book is grounded in the demographic reality that populations are ageing, and that we are not only living longer, but often healthier lives. As a result, our attitudes towards work and retirement are changing. We believe that we can all prepare ourselves for this new reality by making smart personal leadership decisions. We can develop the mindset, self-awareness, and adaptability to navigate change with resilience and confidence. The book is intended to be personable, informative, and also actionable, giving you the tools to have agency over your own story.

To write this book we drew on academic research as well as on our combined decades of experience in teaching personal leadership development to executive MBA students around the globe, and in coaching and facilitating workshops. Both Tatiana and myself have lived and worked in multiple countries, in different language and cultural contexts, and we have each undergone non-standard career paths; this has also contributed to our interest in this topic.

To quote the praise on the back of the book from executive coach and writer, Jonathan Passmore: “Sometimes you come across a book that speaks directly to you, and to the age. This is such a book. With an ageing global population and an ageing workforce, individuals and organisations need to press the reset button on what life and work look like past 65. Rowson and Sloan have produced a superb contribution to the field, which asks the right questions and offers answers: Important, intelligent and insightful, an essential read.”

Writing a book was a crazy adventure. Who knew that after writing and submitting the manuscript, it takes another 10 months to see it in print? Who could have guessed that my first published book would only mention the word ‘knitting’ once?

Stay tuned for my next post, when we shall return to our regularly scheduled knitting content.

Unravelling

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To a knitter the term ‘unravelling’ usually means the act of ripping out your knitting. However, if you are lucky enough to be in the London vicinity in February, it can have an alternate definition: the act of attending the Unravel Festival of Yarn at Farnham Maltings. This year, Unravel was especially nice because I went with Emma.

We took the train there which turned out to be easy peasy, much better than trying to park the car once you are there. We went on the opening day, in the morning, so although it was fairly crowded, it was still perfectly manageable to see everything and move around without being crushed.

We had a lot of fun exploring, squishing lots of yarn, having fun conversations with like-minded people, and admiring all of the beautiful hand-knitted garments being worn. We came home with some very nice treats:

If you remember from my last post, I have joined a KAL to knit one of Erika Knight’s Signature Collection garments produced with Walcot Yarns. I chose to knit the shawl called A Walk in the Park, and ordered the yarn in the original colours. I did want to see the shawl in person, and so our first stop at Unravel was to head to Walcot Yarns, where Carmen had brought along samples of all the pieces. Here is Emma wearing the shawl:

I like this shawl, but I was having two niggles about it. The first is that I just don’t like the triangle shape for shawls, particularly for worsted weight shawls. I have a secret plan, however, to change the shape. (You will need to watch this space to see how that transpires.) My second niggle was with the set of colours. I like the dark brown and white, and I love the greens. But, once I had the yarns in my hands, I really wasn’t crazy about the pink. Emma and I spent some time trying out different options and decided to keep the original sets minus the pink, and to replace it with – a stronger pink! Here you can see the originals (on top) and my new set (with the lilac-y pink Fireweed replaced with the fuschia-pink Petunia).

I really think this one change is amazing; it makes the whole thing pop for me. The KAL starts soon, and I am now all prepared to cast-on.

I purchased a skein of very fluffy boucle yarn from Kettle Yarn Co along with a skein of grey Northiam DK in order to make the Beanie Number 6 pattern by My Favorite Things:

© My Favourite Things

Emma tried on a very fluffy, cosy scarf designed by Maxim Cyr called Field:

She then proceeded to get advice from many, many assorted people on which shades of yarn to buy so that she could knit one. The two yarns on the top of our goodie photo are for this shawl, which will combine a silvery grey Fluff yarn with a beautiful DK from Les Garcons in a deep green blue (although it looks mostly blue in the photo). Max kindly posed for a photo with Emma:

We also bought a bunch of odds and ends and haberdashery, including some new Chia Goo Forte circular needle tips, a bottle of Soak, and two little tartan notions pouches.

It was altogether a fun expedition, and to make it more fun, we had a nice lunch afterwards. It was Valentine’s Day and we were surrounded by couples having romantic lunches.

We spent some time winding all of that yarn into cakes:

I especially like the below photo of the two yarns for the hat pattern, perched on top of each other as in the hat:

Isn’t it cute?

I was going to bore you with more photos of the event, but I am worn out, so you will have to imagine it for yourself. Now, despite all of this yarny fun, I have yet to knit a stitch in days, so I am off to remedy that.

Like ships that pass in the night

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I’ve just returned from a business trip to Johannesburg. I was away for 10 days, which felt like a long time. Interestingly, on the very day I left for Johannesburg, Emma arrived home for a visit. Yes, bad planning indeed! She landed at Heathrow only hours before my departure, and by the time she and Doug made it to the house, Emma and I had less then an hour of overlap. Alas, we were like two ships that pass in the night. The good news is that I am home now, and she is still here, so once I recover from the long flight and busy week, I can spend some time enjoying her presence.

I always take a knitting project with me when I travel. (As we knitters know, it takes much longer to pack one’s knitting than to pack everything else.) I took a very lightweight, mohair shawl, the Osaka Scarf, which I had originally cast on in July to take with me to Arizona. It seems to have become my travel project, mostly because it weighs next to nothing, is just miles of stockinette with nothing tricky going on, and fits into a tiny project bag. The shawl is knitted in blocks of colour, with five different shades of Ito Sensai silk mohair yarn.

I didn’t get to knit too much while I was there; a heavy teaching schedule and being super tired aren’t really conducive to knitting. However, I did manage to get in a few hours while sitting in the warm 30 degree sunshine out by the pool:

I am hankering for something a bit more meaty to knit now, something to keep my brain engaged and hopefully block out some of the horrible news of the world. (I am not going to discuss the horrible news here, which just keeps getting worse every day, because knitting is my safe space, so I am endeavouring to keep this a safe space too.) To that end, I have just signed up for a KAL (a knit-along) with Carmen Schmidt of A Yarn Story. The KAL is for any one of the 5 projects designed by Erika Knight for the Signature Collection using A Yarn Story’s yarn, Walcot Opus.

I have to admit that I am unsure about the project I chose from this collection. It is a shawl called A Walk in the Park:

© Erika Knight

This is not my usual type of shawl. For one thing, it is triangular-shaped, and I much prefer rectangular shawls. It is also outside of my usual colour choices. I ordered the yarn in the same colours as the pattern photo and was surprised when it arrived to discover that the colour I thought was black is actually a deep brown. Emma says she likes it much better with the brown, and that it gives it a beautiful depth. It still feels slightly out of my comfort zone.

Both Emma and Doug were surprised that I didn’t pick one of the pullover patterns from the collection, and maybe I should have. On the other hand, the whole family has been confiscating my hand-knitted shawls lately, and I am in danger of running out of shawls! I do have my mind on some glorious pullover patterns, however, which may very well make it to my needles. The top two contenders at the moment are The Checkerplate sweater by Lily Kate (for me):

© Lily Kate France

and the Liv Sweater by Moreka Knit (for Emma):

© Moreca knit

Emma and I are planning to attend the Unravel Yarn Festival at Farnham next week, and I expect that some yarn will find its way home with us! So keep an eye on this space for some new projects in the weeks to come!

I’ll end with a photo of a visitor to our garden today:

Perhaps he is interested in my next project too?

Time goes on

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Happy New Year, everyone! I had a vivid flashback on New Year’s Eve to 25 years before, Doug and I walking through Potsdam with two young children, watching the crazy excess of fireworks that the occasion provoked, surrounded by speculation of whether Y2K might crash the computer networks, and thinking how utterly weird it was to have a year that didn’t begin with ’19’. And now, here it is, 2025, the children are grown, I can barely stay awake to welcome in the new year, and I fear that my weird-o-meter has been blown to smithereens. Things change so quickly, and yet, here we are.

I missed most of the end of the year stuff that I usually post here, like my annual mitten post and the round-up of knitting projects. The last year ended on a sad note for us. My step-father, Stuart, died on the 24th of December, 2 days before his 91st birthday. Stuart was a lovely man, a hugely supporting presence in my life, and a great grandfather. We will miss him.

In the interest of completeness, and because they are terribly cute, I do want to show you my final finished project of 2024, a pair of mittens for Leah.

These are the Robinia Mittens by Anne Ventzel. She published the pattern just as I was finishing up my Anne Ventzel knit-a-long project, showcased in my last post. I liked the pattern instantly, and this was confirmed on my trip to Aarhus in mid-December when I was able to try on a sample pair at the yarn shop, Yarnfreak.

I purchased the yarn, Filcolana Peruvian, a worsted-weight wool, in a lovely blue and yellow combo, and cast on as soon as I returned. They are not only super cute, but they are fun and very easy to knit.

I realised after I took these photos that Leah is posed in a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” tryptich. And have you noticed how well they match her coat?

Tomorrow I go back to work after a strange and stressful Christmas break. I was very tired and feeling burned out before the break, and then we had a lot of sadness to deal with. Not surprisingly, I ended up getting sick. Doug has been suffering from knee and hip problems. Emma was not home, which was also sad. On the other hand, Leah has been home for a month which has been lovely. Here we are in Henley-on-Thames:

And here we are (with dinosuar!) in London at the Natural History Museum:

I am busy planning out my next knitting projects. I have a few things still on the needles which I hope to either finish or frog, and I intend to cast on some new things soon. Kate Davies announced a new knitting club yesterday, which I imagine will spark some ideas. I am planning another pair of mittens or two. Leah has managed to co-opt one of my shawls (see above photo), and since Doug also adopted one, and Emma managed to go home with two, I think I may need to cast on a new shawl for me. So, life goes on, with a New Year in front of us. There are certainly some weird things coming our way, and many challenges, but also there is family, and craft, and intellectual pursuits to keep our hearts and hands and heads engaged.

Mixed results

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It’s been a while since my last post, and in the meantime I started and finished a jumper:

That is pretty fast knitting, by my standards. From cast-on to cast-off was exactly six weeks. The design is Bella Blocking by Anne Ventzel. I knitted it as part of a KAL (knit-a-long) organised by Carmen Schmidt of A Yarn Story. The KAL was for any pattern by Anne Ventzel and we were a really nice bunch, about 30 knitters who met on-line once a week to knit and chat, while learning new techniques (for some of us), comparing yarns and colours, giving encouragement and advice, and just hanging out. I’ve had mixed results with KALs but this one was nice, very low-key and not too big.

Carmen had brought her Bella Blocking to the retreat, which she knitted with her own yarn, Fluff by Walcot Yarn and Les Garcons. I tried it on and was impressed with the fact that it wasn’t itchy (it isn’t mohair), and weighed next to nothing. She had brought along bags full of Fluff in every colour, so I grabbed some in Cinema and Shadow, and signed up for the KAL.

I have mixed feelings about the resulting jumper, however. There is a lot to like and also things I don’t like about it. To start with the good things, I am crazy about these two colours in combination. They are really my colours, and they look great with this pattern. The yarn doesn’t itch (I already said that, but it bears repeating). The sweater is amazingly light (it weighs 220 grams) and is also very warm. It is comfortable.

The fact remains, however, that the jumper is pretty shapeless. I am unhappy with the dropped shoulders, the extra bunching under the arms, and especially with the sleeves, which just don’t sit right. I have tried to use artfully curated photos here so that I show off its best features, but you can see what I mean with the photo below.

I actually re-knit the sleeves multiple times trying to fix them, but I never got them to a point where I really like them. I also tried very hard to knit this with the 2 skeins of each colour I had purchased, but in the end needed more of the Shadow. I could totally have made it with only four skeins if I had made it an inch shorter and made the sleeves shorter, but after trying it on and ripping, and re-knitting umpteen times, I ended up with this. I think the root of the problem is the drop shoulder. The pattern calls for significantly more ease, which would have had a much greater dropped shoulder. I didn’t want all that ease around the chest, so I knitted a size 5, which with my slightly tighter gauge, gave me about 4 inches of ease. I ended up with a shoulder that was dropped enough to look sloppy and totally un-shapely, but not enough of a dropped shoulder to look intentional.

Doug’s comment on this jumper was: “I think the fact that it’s shapeless is kind of a feature.” Hmm. Enough said.

The result is a lightweight, easy, slouchy sweater in beautiful colours that looks and wears like a sweatshirt. Not a bad choice for lounging around the house, or going for a walk in the woods. It’s not something I would wear to work, though, or when I was trying to look put-together. Cosy is not a bad thing, so I am going to enjoy slouching around in this, while trying to pick patterns which suit my shape and style better.

Go green!

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For the past 18 months or so, one shawl has been at the top of my wear pile; the one I nearly always grab to keep myself warm and colourful. This is the simple striped shawl I knitted in seven shades of Garthenor Preseli (and blogged here). When Emma came home to visit last October, she was taken with it and asked me to knit one for her, using green shades rather than the red and orange tones I had used. We ordered a bunch of greens and mixed in a grey, a cream, and a yellow, and then sent each other many, many photos with different layouts of the possible combinations. In August, I realised that with Emma due to return home for another October visit, I had just enough time to knit it and send it home with her.

When I say ‘just enough time’ I mean it, and once again, I finished it literally in the nick of time. I cast off the last stitch just before midnight on Saturday night (week before last), and stayed up late to wash and block it. On Sunday evening, just as we were losing the last of the light, and as it was starting to rain (but of course!), I unpinned it so I could take a few photos. The next morning, she was wearing it as she left to fly back to Vancouver.

The shawl is knitted sideways. I cast on 386 stitches and, knitting a 3-stitch i-cord at each end, knit 10, purl 10 across. It is very simple, intuitive, mindless knitting. I knitted the first one when I was in the throes of post-covid brain fog, and if your brain is feeling tired, this is a good project to pick up.

I am totally enamoured of the Preseli wool; it is so cushiony and soft, and I find myself always squishing the shawl when I wear it. It is comforting. (Still wooly, however; it’s not a superwash merino). I’ve been wearing the heck out of mine and it hasn’t pilled. The colour sequence used is: Holly, Wild Olive, Slate, Kettle, Gorse, Marble, and Willow.

My notes from the first one say I used a US6/4mm needle. I did exactly the same with this one: same yarn, same number of stitches, same number of rows (26) of each colour. In a completely bizarre and inexplicable fashion, the green one came out wider but they both came out to the same length. Here you can see the green one as it is blocked and pinned out on the right, with the red one next to it for a size comparison.

The finished, blocked size is 19″x76″ for the red and 23″x76″ for the green. How can they be the same length but not the same width, given each stripe is 26 rows on the same size needle? It is a mystery for the ages.

I am so happy my family tolerates my need to take knitwear photos with good grace. Even when there are suitcases to pack. And it’s raining.

Diligent readers will have noticed that this means that Emma flew home with two shawls, since she also managed to finally finagle me into giving her my Soumak shawl (see my last post). I think I will need to cast on a shawl or two this winter to replenish my stock.

If you can vote in the US elections, please do so. Vote early (like I did this week)!

Raiding the shawl chest

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I will begin by saying that the knitting retreat was truly lovely. It was a smaller group than the previous two retreats I was on, with 12 of us altogether. Melmerby Hall continues to be a beautiful spot for a retreat, and it is still true that a randomly selected group of knitters who are previously unknown to each other can manage to bond over four days of knitting and talking, eating, drinking, and laughing together.

This time I went in September expecting warmer weather, and we got that in spades. The week was super sunny and very warm. We all ended up sitting in the sunshine every afternoon, enjoying the unexpected blessing of a blast of late summer, and knitting in tee-shirts while piles of knitwear stayed firmly in our suitcases. This resort is a completely unstructured one, in which Carmen and company ply us with good breakfasts, mid-morning treats, wonderful lunches, afternoon tea, late afternoon drinks and amazing charcuterie boards, dinner around a big dining table, and then late night drinks and knitting. Are you sensing a theme? Add lots of yarn, and you have a nice thing going on.

Every morning, I took a long walk through the countryside, accompanied by dogs and knitters (a natural class, it seems). Once again, all of my photos feature walls.

I also spent some time on this bench, reading:

I took three knitting projects with me. My Pressed Flowers cardigan, which I took mostly to show off, and true to form, I showed it off and then put it back in its bag where it stayed the whole trip. I also too the Hor # 19 linen tee-shirt, and I did knit some of that. Mostly, however, I was knitting a shawl for Emma, trying hard to get it finished in time to gift it to her on her visit (spoiler alert).

I also bought yarn. I purchased four skeins of Fluff, a really great new fluffy yarn from Walcot Yarn and Les Garçons. It is not mohair, and so is incredibly soft and not itchy. These are the colours I bought:

They are destined to be a Bella Blocking. I have joined a KAL, again with Carmen at A Yarn Story, to knit this. (Alas, we have had three weekly meeting so far, and I have yet to cast on.)

© Anne Ventzel

I could rattle on and on about the retreat, but I have other things to report of a knitterly nature. When I returned home, Emma was here! She and her partner, Justin, had planned to spend a few weeks here, but they ended up coming early (and staying longer) because of a pilot’s strike at Air Canada, so they arrived while I was away. The trip was lovely but, once again, a family get-together was marred by all of us getting sick (I am getting rather cross about this unfortunate and repeating occurrence).

Instead of going into details of many lost days spent coughing and wheezing, I will move on to the main topic (and thus title) of this post. It turns out that when you visit your mom who is a knitter, you don’t need to bother about bringing any knitwear with you. And when a knitter gets visited by her daughter, she should be prepared for a raid on her shawl chest.

Below is Emma having a beer at the Angel Pub in Henley-on-Thames with Doug, wearing my own design, Cool Boots – Neutral shawl (blogged here).

Here she is at Kew Gardens, wearing my Highland Rogue Cowl, designed by Kate Davies (and blogged here):

Here she is in London with me, wearing my Match & Move Shawl, designed by Martina Behm (and blogged here):

Here she is on the back garden wearing my Soumak Scarf Wrap, designed by Lisa Richardson (and blogged here).

Emma has been campaigning hard for me to gift her the Soumak ever since I finished knitting it in 2015. Dear readers, she has persevered. The Soumak went home with her!

In every photo I have of Emma this trip, she is wearing a hand-knitted shawl. Here is one with Justin:

Not only did Emma manage to thoroughly raid my shawl chest during her visit, but (as foreshadowed above) I have been labouring away to finish knitting a new shawl for her in time to send it back with her. I finished it just before midnight on Saturday night, and then washed and blocked it, and miraculously it was dry and around her neck when she left on Monday morning. I will tell you all about it and show you photos in the next post.

The only thing lovelier than having a chest full of hand-knitted knitwear, is having daughters come home and raid it!

This post deserves a title, but my brain is on holiday

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When last I wrote here, Leah was visiting. She was able to stay for three weeks, and although we were all working for much of that time, we still had lots of fun. We spent a few beautiful, sunny days in London, the kind of days that remind you how great London is. (Yes, I love London in the rain, too; but there is something glorious about a sunny day there.) We saw an exhibit of German expressionists at the Tate Modern, ate at Borough Market, and walked all over the place.

Now, we are on holiday, and as with last year, we are following a Lake theme. We went first to Geneva, where we stayed with our friend, Julie, with whom we always have great conversations, good food, and fun. We spent the day of Doug’s birthday in the town of Yvoire, a small medieval village on the French shore of the Lake Geneva. It was a beautiful day, with very blue skies, and we enjoyed a lovely walk through the village and gardens, and ate fantastic fresh fish by the lake.

We then took a beautiful train ride across Switzerland to the German side of Lake Konstanz, to visit friends who live near Radolfzell. It is so green and lush here this time of year. with rolling fields and orchards bursting with fruit, and miles and miles of gorgeous lakeside walks, lovely views, charming cities, and beautiful wine.

I have spent my mornings sitting on the balcony with my knitting and a coffee, looking out over green hills.

You would think I would have lots of knitting to report on, but I seem to be in a state of knitting interruptus right now. I interrupt one project to start another, and then interrupt it in turn to start yet another. I must have 5-6 projects on the go right now, quite a lot for me. I hope to be able to finish something soon, but I am indulging my process knitting side currently, so who knows? Perhaps I will cast on even more projects. The big news on the knitting front is that I am going on another Country House Knitting retreat in mid-September. I have twice been on this retreat before and am really excited to be going again. On both previous occasions, I was there in November and it was cold and rainy out. This time, I decided to go in September with the hopes of seeing early autumn in the Lake District. (I wrote about my other two retreats here and here.)

We have spent two entire days this week lounging in a truly remarkable lakeside sauna resort, swimming in the lake, reading in the sun, and indulging in the numerous saunas, not to mention the steam room, salt bath, and hot rock pool. We had a number of different sauna rituals, including the Finnish sauna vasta, which involves being beaten with birch branches in a very hot sauna (which is much nicer than it sounds). If this paints a picture of lazy indulgence, than I have expressed it well. Today, the weather has taken a bit of a turn here on Lake Konstanz, and so I will continue the lazy theme, although I will replace the birch branches with knitting needles.

I struggled to come up with a title for this post. I blame the sauna. The runner-up was: “In which I relax by knitting and being beaten with birch branches. (Not at the same time.)”

All Fired up!

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I am here to report that I am ALL FIRED UP! There are so many things to be fired up about these days, it is like a Thanksgiving feast. What has got me fired up? Let me count the ways.

American politics. I can hardly believe I have said this. Less than a month ago, I was in Tucson and found that I could barely stand to watch the news. US politics has been a dreadful pit of negativity for so long, that I was in danger of succumbing to death by doom scrolling. Now, I am filled with hope. How absolutely inspiring to see policy and joy replace posturing and hate.

Leah is here! A visit from one of the kids is always lovely. We have been quietly enjoying the last week with her, cooking, talking, reading, and lots of Olympics watching. We have also managed to have some fun. Doug and Leah took an amazing cooking class taught by Ryan and Liam of Orwells Restaurant. We completely love Orwells and always enjoy chatting with Ryan and Liam who are fun and super knowledgeable and very down to earth. Both Doug and Leah had a blast. Here is Leah filleting a turbot:

Leah and I have had some fun visiting her favorite London spots: the British Library and the British Museum. We hadn’t been to the British Library in a while, and had a grand time.

The Museum was super crowded, but we picked our rooms carefully, to avoid the crowds while still hitting Leah’s favorites, like the Assyrian exhibits. We chose a great day to be in London, and spent time just wandering around, soaking up the sun and people watching.

Leah will be here for another week and a bit, so we still have time for fun and exploration. And Emma will be coming next month! Good times!

The Olympics. Okay, I admit to being a complete sourpuss about the Olympics before it started; I was just not into it at all. In general I think the event is too big and too commercialised, and I get annoyed at all of the emphasis on medals, and stupid commentators who say things like “Oh no, so-and-so has screwed up and now has to settle for a silver medal. Fifteen years of struggle have been decimated in a moment.” I admit, however, that once it started, I have rather enjoyed watching it. In particular, I have enjoyed watching the athletes themselves cheering on their competitors, being joyful and friendly and exhibiting sportsmanship. Maybe this joy thing is contagious, no?

Actual Firing Up. Doug’s birthday is coming up, and for his gift, we bought him a Barrel Firing Workshop. Thus, while I have been metaphorically fired up, Doug has been literally firing up.

The workshop took place over two Saturdays. On the first day, they learned how to do terra sigillata, a technique for coating the greenware to prepare it for firing. Here are Doug’s pieces before firing (top shelf):

The following weekend, they wrapped the greenware in a variety of organic matter – coffee grounds, seaweed, avocado and banana peels, etc. In the barrel firing the organic matter oxidises and gives colour in unexpected ways. The piece below incorporates a scrap of knitting (something I had frogged) which he has soaked in an iron oxide solution, in addition to wool and banana peel.

They chopped a lot of wood (Doug, having actual experience chopping wood, was the primary axe wielder in this task). The prepared pots were placed in the 45 gallon barrels, surrounded by sawdust, and then covered in wood and set to blazing. The fires were carefully tended to make sure the temperature was right (about 700C).

The next morning, all was revealed. The barrels were opened, the pots were dug out of the ashes, and carefully washed. It was a great moment of discovery, because there is no way to predict how the pot will fire or how the colours will develop.

Here are Doug’s finished pots:

Cool, huh? We are firing on all cylinders here!

Knitting. I want to end by saying I am fired up about knitting. I must admit quite truthfully that this does not apply to actually doing any knitting. In fact, over the last two weeks I have negative knitting content. How can that be? I have knitted 8 rows and ripped out 12. Alas.

However, I am totally blown away this weekend by these two new knitting patterns, and that is getting me all fired up for the fall knitting season:

© Aleks Byrd
© annamarkleart

The top pattern is the Lilleke light sweater by Aleks Byrd and the bottom one is the Paulie Cardigan by Amy Christoffers. Wow! Seeing these two patterns pop up in my feed made me so happy.

Leah loves Aleks’ pattern. She is here for 10 more days. Doug’s comment this morning when I showed him the pattern was: “Can you knit that in 10 days?” Ha ha! Oh ye, unrealistic one; I laugh at your naiveté.

I am enjoying being fired up (in a good way) these days. How about you? Any patterns firing you up?