February Days

This week I started making a new hooded cloak for our son. I made his first one when he was about four years old.

When he wore it outside, it dragged on the snow behind his heels. That little cloak now falls below his elbows and above his knees: time for a new one!

I've had the fabric for another for years. I used to work for an office furniture manufacturer where employees could buy upholstery and cubicle-wall fabrics for $1 a yard in the company store. 60" wool for $1 a yard!

It's done except for sewing on buttons and making a button tab to hold it shut. And it's long enough that if he outgrows this one, I can claim it for myself!

Here is another bit of excitement we've had this week. Monday I went into the living room and saw a bird in the rose tangle. At first I thought "Blue jay", but then it jumped inside the bush and I said, "You're not a blue jay - what are you?" and saw this!

I ran for my camera, and the bird flew out onto a dead sumac bush and preened itself, at first with its back to me.

Then it spotted me and turned around. After doing a couple of owl-like head dips, it went back to preening itself, while I alternated between trying to get good pictures and taking a good look at it with the binoculars.

Then I started flipping through my field guides, trying to decide whether I was seeing a Cooper's hawk, Accipiter cooperii, or a sharp-shinned hawk, Accipiter striatus.

Because of the very square tail, I'm leaning towards sharp-shinned. But even looking at Cornell's "Tricky Bird IDs: Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk" page and Accipiter Photo Gallery, I'm still not 100% sure.

Needless to say, there were no other birds on the feeder!

Yesterday's excitement was a sunny, warm (60 F/16 C) day. We spent a lot of time outside, because today's forecast is for rain and fog (which you can see we are getting), with rain, light snow, and high winds tonight.

Weather records for today from the Grand Rapids National Weather Service include a record high of 69 F (about 20 C) in 1999 and a record low of -21 F (-29 C) in 1899.

Although we still have snow, even with all the rain and above-freezing weather, check this out: the daffodils still believe in spring.

I Love Your Blog, Too

Yesterday, Bells let me know she'd given me the "I Love Your Blog" award.

Thanks, Bells! I love your blog, too.

Then although I've been distracted this week, I remembered another blogger, Sharon, gave me the "I (heart) your blog" award. Oops, over a month ago!

Usually the protocol on these awards is that you link back to the person who gave it to you, then you pass it along to other bloggers that you read. I find the linking-back part easy: it's the picking the four or seven or however-many other bloggers to pass it on to that I find so hard.

It brings back those sharp and painful memories of being the last one picked for teams in gym.

Yes, I really was last a lot of the time. I could never shoot a basket or hit the ball, or catch it with anything but my head.

I started thinking about what the blogs I read have in common. I really like bloggers who can write. I like bloggers with a sense of humor. I like pictures and conversations, like Alice in Wonderland.

I like to read about people trying stuff, even when it doesn't work. I like to read about dogs. I like bloggers who are imaginative. I like to learn about the interesting things that people do that I didn't even know existed. I like to read about places that are nowhere near me.

So here are a handful of blogs, not because I don't enjoy any of the rest of them less, just because these are a few I picked out of the overflowing double handful I read.

Raion Taiko
This is a guy from Michigan who is studying taiko drumming in Japan.

Farming in the shade
Lona lives on a small farm north of me.

Fiddle and pins
Did you know Debi Gliori has a blog? (What's a blog award without a little name-dropping?)

And how about The Tsarina Tsays?
It's not often I find a fellow knitter who has even heard of campanology, let alone one who sends me the link to a change-ringing program.

And speaking of awards, I am blogging at the end of a full day at Vineyard Raids V, where I received the Order of the Willow for weaving. I have a beautiful scroll for that, which I'll have to add a photo of when daylight comes back.

Also, it's been a long day, and I am so tired and going to bed.

Bits and Pieces Post

Yesterday was a fiber-y day. My friend, Lady Shadow, taught lucet braiding at Vineyard Raids, then I turned around and taught her and several others fingerloop braiding. Then Lady Arrienne Ashford taught needle lace, which I wanted to take, but instead had to settle down my too-excited-to-eat child.

The other thing I did for myself for my birthday was to print out two samples I downloaded from Dover and put them up by my computer.

Now I can look up above my monitor and see Japanese irises, a kingfisher, and carnations, or look to the left and see a Tiffany window.

Every week Dover sends out a sampler email, with downloadable images from their books. I click through them and save the ones that appeal to me . . . mostly a lot of Chinese and Japanese prints and Art Nouveau images.

Other places I see pretty things are on a lot of the blogs I read. Tatt3r just finished a beautiful tatted handkerchief. She also has a beautiful Airedale puppy who has just had a birthday.

Olivia, who knits and felts bowls, just posted some Merino her grandmother spun for her. Look at the colors! I love the ones with two colors plied together.

CoffeeLady has been felting, too, cute little baby shoes. My "baby" is 8, or I'd be seriously tempted.

How about Isela's cute candy-corn bag? I don't like candy corn at all (I'm getting sugary heartburn just typing about it), but the bag is darling for Halloween.

A good place to finish up, Samurai Knitter's Koningsborg sweater. I don't care if it has been hanging unfinished and albatross-like around her neck, that sweater is a thing of beauty.

And I confess, I do have a weaving project on my loom that has been sitting there since -- 2003. We could have a challenge: I'll excavate the strata off the loom bench and finish off that warp, and Julie finishes the sweater.

Upcoming 500th Post

When I logged into Blogger this morning, I noticed that I am nearing my 500th post. Since I haven't had a drawing on the blog so far, I just now decided that when I make that 500th post, I'll set something up and do a drawing. Maybe for something tatted, maybe something netted, I don't know yet. Anyway, watch this space.

Q & A

Beth asked, "Did you know your mom is taking a spinning wheel with her this weekend?" (My parents are going up to walk the Mackinac Bridge over Labor Day and doing some of that primitive camping I mentioned.)

Yes, I knew that: maybe she'll spin some more Shetland fleece for me! My mom often brings a spinning wheel when they go camping, and gets a lot of spinning done. The phone doesn't ring, there's no TV, household tasks are minimal. Without all the distractions of home, it's easier to get a lot done, especially if you only take one or two projects.

And "Why did you feel you needed to filter and boil the rain water for washing hair?"

We were catching it as it ran off the roof. We live in the middle of farm country, where they are always plowing or cultivating (=airborne topsoil) or spraying pesticides, and we usually have the wind off Lake Michigan blowing those contaminants around. I am always cleaning gritty dust off the windowsills inside the house, so I can't imagine that my roof is cleaner than my windowsill.

But the filter was mainly to get out visible floating stuff. And I boiled it so I would have hot water -- our water heater is electric. I washed my hair with freezing cold water once, and it was a lot like getting an ice-cream headache from the scalp instead of the roof of my mouth. Ow.

Amy asked, "These are such pretty patterns. Do you have plans for them, or are you knitting samplers for the enjoyment of them all on their own?"

I knit them out because I just can't visualize them from the written directions. Another thing I learned from the Sampler M is that I am much more likely to use a pattern if I have my own knitted sample that I can see, touch, stretch and look at the front and back of. A physical sample is more inspiring to me than the text directions. Plus it's a thrill to follow 167-year-old knitting directions!

MadMad wondered, "Do you suppose your flowers are on Pacific Time?"

As a horticulture major (Michigan State University, 1987) and a scanner (that's Barbara Sher's shorthand word for people who have intense serial interests) who once spent a couple of years being absorbed by designing sundials, none of which I ever made, I can't resist answering this one.

First, we're on Eastern Daylight time ("spring forward" by one hour) right now. Second, although we are on Eastern time, we are really close to the Central time/Eastern time border -- the sun "souths" here about 45 minutes after the clock says noon. If you undo both of those changes ("fall back" from 6pm to 5pm, and subtract the 45-minute difference between the Standard zone time and sun time), they end up opening at 4:15 pm, almost exactly on time.

Julie commented on the Secret Magic Words, generally spelled "@#$%&*%$!"

[dryly] I learned them from my dad. Seriously. My husband doesn't know how to use these words, and (coincidentally?) hardly ever fixes anything. But if you over-use them, I feel it drains their power. I use them only as the inanimate object is totally frustrating me, thus blasting it with the Words' full power.

And although I have no idea how active any of these groups are, Julie is in the SCA Kingdom of Atlantia. Atlantia has a webpage that lets you search for a local group by zipcode, a map showing how Atlantia was divided up into local groups back in 1999, and a list showing groups by state and county.

(I'll do my schtick some other time about how you get everything in the SCA from people who just like to dress up in shiny mylar fabric and nylon tulle to totally anal history buffs who know in exactly what year cotton first shows up on wardrobe records.)

Amy said, "Sorry about the springy thing. I suppose it's actually a necessary part? Or maybe it's like the human appendix, just an extra bit that causes trouble sometimes and the washer can live without it."

It's one of those necessary regulatory bits, more like the pancreas or the pituitary gland. I can see what it's meant to do, but so far I haven't figured out how to fit it back in so it does it. [repeats Secret Magic Words under breath]

Wendy asked, "Did you get to see any of the equestrian activities at Havoc?"

I did, although I did my usual "bring the camera and forget to use it" thing. I didn't get a chance to sit down and just watch, as my husband was doing a hands-on mead class and I ended up walking back and forth to the van to get stuff and drop off stuff.

I did witness a fall from a horse -- I was on one of those "back to the van" trips when I noticed a gray horse just running with its neck stretched out, had a split second to wonder where the rider was, and then saw him fall. That spooked another horse, and I thought I saw another rider fall.

That was pretty scary, but from what I heard later (from one of the chirurgeons who is a paramedic IRL), no life-threatening injuries.

Jostling for the Computer

Now that it's summer, my son has rediscovered the joy of computer games. On my computer. He has his own computer (I know, I know), but it's a hand-me-down put together from parts of my husband's and my old computers, including the CPU that was struck by lightning.

(We jokingly call it the Franken-Computer and say it should have two bolts sticking out of the sides of the case. Along with the burn-mark where the lightning arced between the CPU case and the metal desk-side.)

Anyway, the Franken-Computer doesn't have the speed or memory to handle his most favorite-est games. Also, since being zapped, every so randomly it Just. Shuts. Off. Inevitably in the middle of a game. So my computer, faster and sleeker and less twitchy, is the preferred computer. I'm finding it really hard to put a blog post together while being asked, "Is it five minutes yet?" every thirty seconds.

So, let's see.

I was asked, "Are you going to Pennsic?" (Pennsic War is one of the major SCA events in the yearly calendar.)

Nope, not this year and probably never. I love to camp, and I love many aspects of the SCA, but to me camping means nature, quiet, and privacy, not the presence of thousands of other people in period garb.

I do love other people's Pennsic stories and photos. I'm just too much of an introvert to want to spend two weeks camping in marginal conditions in what feels to me like a crowd.

Garden News

I finally replanted the four-o'clock roots yesterday. It was around 90 degrees most of last week, so I just couldn't raise any enthusiasm for gardening. I hope to finally plant my tomato seedlings today!

Knitting News

Not much knitting going on in the summer heat, either. We had a dog-saster Monday evening when we went out to buy strawberries to can -- Ajax the neurotic "You're leaving me forever, so I better feed myself" dog took the plastic bag containing the dragon skin bag off the table and chewed the plastic bag open!

He's alive.

The knitted bag itself had one tooth hole and broken thread. It is sitting, stabilized with knitting needles through the stitches above and below it, while I recover my temper enough to repair it.



When I think about how that soup can looked, I guess one little broken strand of size 30 crochet thread is not so bad. But until I pin it out and make the repair, I can't make any progress knitting on it!

Scribes Rock!

People who work as scribes (calligraphers and illuminators) in the Society for Creative Anachronism rock!

(I took this picture from one side and rotated it -- that's why the miniatures look crooked at the bottom. In real life they are straight.)

News

I'm still a little dehydrated and tired out, but exhilarated -- yesterday we went to Border War, one of the bigger local SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) events, and I was completely gobsmacked at court in the evening when I finally received an AoA!

Yes, yes, I know, an Award of Arms is usually given when you've been in the SCA for a couple of years, and not "years and years" like I have. But for my first years, I participated in starting up a canton at a distance of about 100 miles. (Literally 100 miles.) That, among other things, made it hard to volunteer for the things I'm good at and participate at the level that gets noticed.

Plus I'm an introvert, and perfectly happy to sit in court and watch other people get awards.

Now I'm participating in starting up a second canton at a much shorter distance, and in the last couple of years I've brought my floor loom to an event and taught two classes in netmaking at large events and one in fingerloop braiding at a smaller one.

Between that and showing up at meetings, now you can all call me "Lady" Alwen. :)

A Couple of Updates

The canton (local group of the Society for Creative Anachronism) meeting Friday went pretty well. We put both tables in our front room for food, and all the chairs in the geodesic dome for the potluck and the meeting. It was a bit crowded, but unlike the last meeting at our house, everyone did not bring pie!

(Not that there's anything wrong with a dessert potluck -- it was just unplanned. And in the past, we have had a lot of meetings where everyone brought almost all the same thing: all chips and various dips, all chicken dishes, etc. It's actually kind of funny, when it's not weird, how on-the-same-wavelength we are.)

Saturday, as I've already gloated mentioned, we went to that estate sale. I also got outside with my hand shears and worked a little on trimming the grass close around some of my lilies and other plants. I mow most of the grass with the push mower, then I snip right up to the stems of my perennials by hand.

When my hand got too sore to keep snipping, I came in and finished knitting the edge of the Pi bag. The two-foot long piece of green yarn by the ruler is all that is left of the wool thrums after casting off.

That is to say, the latest Pi bag is done!

I can't show it to you right now, because it's in the washing machine, undergoing its first session of thermal shock, agitation, and alkalinity. Since I've been told more than once that "You can't felt in a front-loading washing machine," I'll point out again that I have a front-loader. (And anyway, how would the knitting know? It can't tell what kind of washing machine it's in.)

The keys to shrinking and felting are thermal shock (meaning sharp change from hot to cold and back again), change in pH (from alkaline, say baking soda, to acid, but only as acid as vinegar, not battery acid), and agitation. Oh, and moisture!

The big difference about felting in a front-loader is that it's harder to stop the machine and check the progress of what you're felting. (Mine unlocks, when I stop the cycle, after two minutes of impatient waiting. It's amazing how LONG two minutes are.)

Sunday (Mother's Day in the US) I was woken up at 6:11 am by our son making me toast in the kitchen, and laying a trail of presents for me to follow from the bedroom to the kitchen. I love being a mom!

This morning, on the other hand, I was woken up at 5:11 am by my husband, who said, "The power went off and on in the night, and we have no water pressure."

sleepy groan from me

This meant getting up, putting on jeans, glasses, a coat, and my boots, taking a nail file, a flashlight and my husband (for upper-body strength), walking down the driveway in the dark to the well pit, lifting the very heavy well pit cover, unplugging the pump, and cleaning out this year's first well-pit beetle out of the pump controller contact.

The dead, flat beetle was in the same contact as every single dead, flat, well-pit beetle before! Once it was cleaned out, like magic, the pump started right up. Hooray, water pressure, coffee, and flushing toilets.

And I went back to bed until time to get our son up for school.

Scrap Pi Bag

I am running low on wool thrums, so I started knitting a border and eyelets in this scrap Pi bag.

The eyelets are two double decreases on either side of four yarnovers (SSK, return to left needle, pass the next stitch over, return to right needle, YO 4 times, slip 1 as if to knit, K2tog, psso), because I learned in the first Pi bag that the eyelets get pretty small as the bag shrinks and felts.


This camera has the ability to take eye-watering close-ups: you can see the double yarn on the needle where I overlapped two thrums as one ran out, the sticky-out-y end of the mustard-colored yarn, and the detail of every stitch. Whew.

I'm sure I'll get over being boggled by the Fuji pretty soon. Before I had a digital camera, I had (still have) a fairly good Canon SLR, with a set of close-up lenses. Then I had a good Nikon digital camera from a company I did some assignments for, followed by Mr. Snapshot.

Going from a decent SLR camera to a decent digital wasn't hard, but going from a decent digital to a *****y one was.

Next on my list, learn how to do zoom shots, so I can try for decent bird pictures.

In Other News

I finally mowed the grass yesterday, both the yard, the sides of the driveway, and our walking path. My palms are sore!

I have no idea exactly how much grass that is, and I don't even want to think about how much CO2 the mower spewed into the air. The walking path goes from the house to the drainage ditch at the south line of our property and back to the house again in a big meandering loop.

Our twelve acre lot is a quarter-mile deep: that is, if you walked from the road back to the south lot line, that's a quarter-mile. And I mowed that path twice around. With a push mower. I must be nuts.

I've been hearing a wood thrush singing, and a cardinal has built her nest in the yew bush by the house. The brown thrashers are not nesting in the rose bush this year. What with our goofy warm-and-freezing weather this spring, the bush leafed out later, so it wouldn't have been very good nest cover.

I haven't seen one yet, but I hear the orioles singing in the tree tops. It always surprises me that a bright orange and black bird can stay so hidden. The wood thrush generally sings from cover, but it's a camouflage bird anyway. But the oriole's orange is the bright light orange in a packet of Astrobright paper -- how do they stay so invisible?

Tonight our local SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) has its monthly meeting at our house. So it's off to clear table tops for the potluck.

I'll also take the new Fuji out for a walk.

(My strategy for learning to use a new camera: take it out, try to get it to do stuff, push all the wrong buttons, swear, return to the house, * RT*M until I figure it out. Repeat as necessary. After I've tried every possible wrong way, eventually the right way wears into my brain.)

* RT*M: Read The *ing Manual

I Had A Lovely Friday the Thirteenth

We had sunshine, and I caught up to the fourth pattern in the new round of Sampler M patterns, the "Sampler CM" ones. There is a link to this Dutch and English group in the sidebar.

That second pattern from the bottom is very interesting. The ribs are pronounced because all the knit stitches on the right side are twisted stitches. Twisting them makes them stand right out.

I love knitting this sampler because I keep getting exposed to fairly simple things that have dramatic effects. I knew about ribbing, and I knew about twisted stitches, and I could have figured out how to make the ribs slant with increases and decreases. But on my own, would I have thought about doing all three at once? Probably not, and how delightful!

Sunshine. We had sunshine all day, although the temperature stayed below 45 degrees F. It didn't matter, because the sunshine made it feel so much more like spring than Wednesday's heavy snow.

One of my brothers visited to test-fire a gun he bought. Truffles didn't much like that! But we live out in a rural area, with no close neighbors other than fields, and my brother lives in the city. He fires at a target with our hill as a backstop.

Afterwards he came in and we talked and caught up for a while before he headed home.

And last night was my local canton meeting, the canton being a division of the Society for Creative Anachronism. We started out with a potluck, and for once we didn't have groupthink on what to eat! (More than once we have all brought the same thing, so we have had dessert meetings, chips-and-various-dips meetings, and the infamous "chicken meeting.")

We talked about demos that are planned for this summer and other upcoming events. Afterwards I managed to find our way home in the dark, even if it was Friday the Thirteenth.

So all in all, an excellent day!

Pi, Dry

Although I have a nice, fairly new dryer, I don't use it much. In the summer, I prefer to line-dry clothes (I love that sunny smell!) and in the winter, I have a nice folding drying rack that I put up in front of the soapstone stove. Given the low humidity in the winter, plus the radiant heat from the stove, everything on the rack dries very fast and adds a little moisture back to the air.

For scale, the rack is 36 inches wide.

And here is my husband acting as my mannequin. I think I said I wasn't sure at first if I liked the moss stitch border, but it did grow on me. I think the horizontal line across the bottom gives it a nice finished look, and some contrast to the textured fish-scale points of the lace.

In this shawl, the lace is more of a texture than a pattern (if that makes any sense). I think it makes the shawl warmer. I'm wearing it right now, with a shawl pin at the neck. It turned out just the right length, so I'm not sitting on it in the back and yanking my throat. In the front it drapes over my forearms and ends nicely at the bend of my wrist.

I am 5/6ths done knitting the very last pattern, pattern 28, of Sampler M!

Carla has given us the option of continuing the sampler with other patterns, but I included the edge of my ball of crochet cotton in this photo so you can see why I will be casting off after one more repeat of pattern 28.

Once again I have struck cardboard, and so I'll be finishing the sampler, and finishing another ball of crochet cotton from my stash at the same time. I will probably knit up the new patterns using yet another ball from my stash.

Pattern 28 used crossed stitches, or small cables, with one stitch passed behind three stitches. I also tried it with two stitches passed behind two. I've never done any cable knitting before, so it was a challenge. Since I didn't have a cable needle, I hung the waiting stitches on a crochet hook behind the work, and that worked fine.

My netmaking class went well. I am always so nervous before a class, it's a wonder I ever teach anything. But my students picked it up enthusiastically.

My philosophy of teaching is that the best place to make mistakes is during the class, while the teacher is right there to help you. I view making mistakes as a good thing, so you can see how a successful netting knot looks, and an unsuccessful one. It's important to know what the slipped knot looks like, otherwise how would you know to avoid it?

And in the end, it's only string!

Ta Da!

It's done! My half-circle Pi shawl is finally done! I've been knitting on it since October, and it's done. Just visualize me here doing a happy Snoopy-the-dog dance!

It's in my front-loading washing machine, and I'm waiting for the buzzer to sound so I can go pull it out. I hope it comes out as nice as the swatch I washed, months ago now. Washing brought the mohair fibers out in a frosted-looking halo over the dark grape color. If the shawl comes out like that, I'll be completely happy.

And the handout for my class tomorrow is done.

I usually have a hard time getting drawings started. Then after the first drawing or two, something clicks, and I do the rest and forget what was hard.

I draw in pencil, then re-draw with black marker, erase, and scan in black and white. Then I clean up the drawings a little, resize them, and insert them in a Word document. After much arguing with Word about where the drawings will go on the page, I'm done!

Probably no blog post tomorrow, but if you're going to be at Val Day (St. Valentine's Day Massacre XXXIV in Kalamazoo, Michigan), maybe I'll see you there!

I've Got An Idea

Let's just erase Wednesday and start over.

After I published yesterday's post, I checked my email before disconnecting, and saw the following Subject line from my husband's work email address:

Hit Deer

Oof. I opened it and read

Call me.

Oof. The armory phone number was busy, so I paced up and down hitting redial until someone answered.

My husband said he was driving to work in the early-morning darkness, and he braked for the first four deer, only to hit the small straggler that came running trying to catch up.

Doesn't look like much, does it? But you can see the hood is crumpled in front and sprung by the windshield and the plastic bumper is cracked. One of the headlight mounts is cracked. Thank goodness the deer didn't hit the windshield. And for insurance. And that the deer was a small one, smaller than Ajax.

I want to talk about something else now.

What I've Been Doing (and Should Be Working On Right Now)

Drawings and text for the netmaking class I'll be teaching Saturday at the Society for Creative Anachronism's St. Valentine's Day Massacre XXXIV.

(This would be the Midrealm's St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Kalamazoo, Michigan, not to be confused with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happening Sunday in the Barony of Politarchopolis, in Canberra, Australia, or the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in April in Florida.)

I've got stage-fright butterflies already.

Sampler M, Patterns 14 and 15

Pattern 14 makes nice stockinette diamonds. Pattern 15 is just a wee fragment of a thing, three pattern rows long.

I find it very interesting to compare some of the patterns that make diamonds. 14 has the yarnover and its decrease right next to each other, like a larger version of pattern 10. Pattern 9 also made large diamonds, but there was a double decrease in the middle of each diamond, so they take more of a fish-scale shape.

Yes, I know I can read about how all these things influence each other, but they make a lot more sense to me when I do them and see them happening under my fingers. Sometimes I think my fingers are a whole lot smarter than I am!

We had our canton meeting (the local division of the Society for Creative Anachronism) last night, and a re-cap of how we did on our annual event, Vineyard Raids. We didn't lose money (which is always good), and we had about 70 paid attendees, also good. The group discussed ideas for next year's event, based on what went well (or not) this year.

That is, we discussed the event following a great potluck: roast turkey, pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, squash, casseroles, baked beans, baked apples. Gotta love a group that loves to eat.

Today the husband, son, and I are planning to go to Fennville's Goose Festival. The high temperature is forecast for the mid-40s with 1-20 mph winds! Brrrrr!

Catching Up

Saturday we went to Vineyard Raids III, and instead of netmaking, I taught basic fingerloop braiding, and did a discussion of knitting in the Society for Creative Anachronism. I am always very nervous when I volunteer to do something like this, but it went all right, and I didn't faint or anything. The apprehension before the class is worse than the class itself.

We had beautiful, cool, sunny October weather. And afterwards, I was surprised and delighted to become a member of the Order of the Salient Hart, the arts award of the barony of Andelcrag.

Sunday and Monday my son took over my computer. He and his dad both had Monday off for Columbus Day. I spent Monday quickly tatting a motif for the West Michigan Lace Group's medallion exchange, which I promptly forgot when I went out the door!

I apologize for this terrible picture. This is my fifth attempt, but this camera doesn't have a close-up mode -- at least not one that works to my satisfaction.

Fortunately I had put my proof-tatting attempt at this medallion in my little tatting box, so I put that one in the exchange.

We had a great show and tell session. One member brought things that had been made by her grandmother for her (the grandmother's hope chest), lacey things, embroidered things. And I got to see Tatt3r's lace pillow in person. Her Milanese sampler is so delicate "IRL", in real life, as my webhead brother might say.

I brought the Pi shawl, which has really slowed down now that I am at the 366-stitch stage. I've finished a repeat and a half of the lace pattern, and I guess-timate that about nine repeats will probably be long enough. The cone of yarn I bought at the fiber festival back in 2005 had about 1300 yards on it, so I think (knock on wood) I'll have enough!

Havoc in Hastings

Yesterday my husband demonstrated mead-making at the Society for Creative Anachronism event "Havoc in Hastings", held at Charlton Park, 2545 S. Charlton Park Road, Hastings, Michigan.

I brought along the socks I've been knitting, but once again I forgot the camera!

And that was a pity -- there were equestrian events, which we don't have all the time, and such beautiful horses! I didn't get a chance to talk to the riders, but I think there was at least one Friesian horse there, maybe two, like the ones we saw on our trip to the Netherlands several years ago.

A lot of the settlers in west Michigan were Dutch, and their descendants tend to be very proud of and very interested in their Dutch heritage.

With a little Googling, I found not one but three Friesian horse breed clubs in the Michigan area: the Great Lakes Friesian Horse Association, Midwest Friesians, and the West Michigan Friesian Horse Club.

I sat and knitted and watched the horses, talked to a couple of people about knitting, and listened to my husband explain mead-making.

Afterwards we headed home, and stopped at a couple of yard sales on the way. The only yarn I saw was acrylic, so I wasn't tempted off my stash diet. (And I didn't find any knitting needles.)

A fun day, and I wish I had remembered the camera!

Sun and Wind on the Weekend

This weekend my husband had a National Guard drill, leaving my son and me to our own devices.

Saturday we had beautiful sunny weather, and my son and I went to the Pentamere Regional Arts and Science Fair. In the Society for Creative Anachronism, many events focus on fighting, mostly sword fighting (using rattan swords).

(Or as I have been known to describe it, "The SCA is a place where you can hit other people with sticks without being arrested for assault.")

The Arts & Science events are a chance for the non-fighters among us to shine. Mead-makers like my husband, embroiderers, cooks, armorers, and other artisans and craftspeople have the opportunity to show off their creations.

In order to compete, something called "documentation" is required. In general, documentation means "Here is my evidence that what I have made could have been made in the 600 to 1600 CE time period that the SCA covers." So it involves doing research, making your item, and writing up the research.

I love doing the research and learning about 11th century fiber arts. I enjoy making almost anything I can make using string, thread, or yarn. But I don't like writing up research at all. I keep writing and re-writing it, trying to get it perfect, until I am so tired of looking at it that it looks stupid.

So what I did Saturday was look at all the pretty things people had made, sat and knitted in the shade on a lovely sunny day, and thoroughly enjoyed listening to a performing arts entry (a capella singing). I skipped the step of trying to write up research, and had an excellent time.

Note to self: Playing with string while listening to live musicians is one of the things I love doing best in the world.

Sunday we went up to Grand Haven for the Kite Festival. The weather report said it was going to be cold (high in the 50's -- that's Fahrenheit), so I brought my son's winter coat and mittens.

It was cold.

It was also windy. Wind ought to be good for kites, but there was too much wind for many types of kites. This woman did pretty well, and some of the stunt kites were able to fly. Three kite-boarders in wetsuits were out on the lake (water temperature around 40 degrees F), and they were just flying out there. But we saw strings break and kites go tumbling across the sand, sometimes into spectators, both little plastic kites, and big soft-cell kites.

We held out for two hours, as I dearly love to watch synchronized kite flying, and the Chicago Fire Kite team was supposed to put some kites in the air. We saw a little precision flying, but at 50 degrees and with the wind gusting around 20 miles an hour, we got too cold!

We went and watched from our van for a little while until my son got tired of that, and then headed home. Afterwards his dad asked him if he had any fun while he was at home with mom: "Medium," he said.