The Burning Question
The burning question when we decided to buy the mini Franklin rather than the cottage stove, was "Will it be big enough?"
This morning I can say the answer is yes!
Last night the overnight low was 44 F. (7 C), so we let the stove burn all night long. When we turned out the lights, we discovered that you can't see the glass at all in the dark. It looks like a little open fireplace in midair.
The open living room/dining room area and the kitchen were all pleasantly warm this morning. There is nothing quite so nice as radiant heat. It's like the sun on your face.
It looks like tonight will be another mini-stove night, with lows in the 30's F and the first frost of the season predicted.
This little mess was my first attempt at knitting "Lilac Time" from a center start. I messed up where the start of the round should be, so the center diamonds didn't line up and got turned into zigzags.
If you view this picture at full size, you might also be able to see that I twisted all my center knit stitches the same direction. Instead of a line of sideways Vs, that made a line of left-leaning slashes down the middle.
In contrast, here is my second attempt, with left twists down one long side and right twists down the other. And I eventually figured out where to start so that the centers lined up.
I pinned out the end of the Stargate so the pattern would show. Right now I'm knitting a stretch that's a peculiar browny-purple color.
Not my favorite part of this ball, but exactly like the color you get on a soap bubble just before it pops. And since I don't like it, motivation to knit past it to the next section I like!
When I knit with this, some of the colors remind me of the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test. I'm in shades from the second row, shading to the top row.
The little twists of thread are my pattern repeat markers, and I had to put a dime in there to show Daphne's light weight.
Yesterday I weighed the ball to see how much of this loveliness I had knit up. Out of a 50 gram ball, I had 45.1 grams left. Cool.
I've decided to wake up the blog and join Blogtoberfest with Bells and TinnieGirl this year. A post every day, for the month of October!
Can I do it? Well, I guess if I can't think of anything else, I can always keep weighing how much of this yarn I have left to knit!
Labels: fall, lace knitting, Michigan weather, soapstone stove
posted by Alwen | 7:52 AM
3 Comments:
Whee! I'll have LOTS to read in October!!
Looking forward to all your October post, you ca do it :-) Your little stove is so cute, and I am not at all surprised it stayed warm during night, this is the best warmth too. We have had frost nights for two or three nights now, and yesterday it snowed A LOT on hight 500 m over sealevel. Brrr - bet it will snow where I live before end of this month... Love the colors in your knitting, the are so me!
Of course you can do it! We have had some nights which seem to be colder than normal but when I looked up normal in our area, we're smack dab in the middle of it. I guess we've just had so many warmish falls that I've forgotten what they really feel like.
I think the soap bubble comparison is a good one. It's really pretty.
Post a Comment
<< Home