Qiviut on the Hoof

The Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks studies musk ox and caribou to protect the animals and their Arctic environment. This bull is one of the "greeters" at the station. The little guy is one of this year's babies.

The facility also sells qiviut, made from the undercoats of the station's musk ox population. Yummy stuff, qiviut.

Oomingmak

No trip to Anchorage is complete without a visit to the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-Operative. Beautiful work made with the incredible qiviut yarn. I haven't made any qiviut purchases — yet.

Yarn Shopping in Anchorage

It took less than a day to find and visit a yarn store in Anchorage: Far North Yarn Company. Great shop, great people. This beautiful yarn is from Rabbit Ridge Designs in Anchorage. The color is Rainforest, with rainforest colors representing the water, trees, lichen, moss and forest floor (at least that's my idea of a rainforest).

Traveling

First trip to Alaska! Follow our adventures — knitting and otherwise — here.

Hummers

This is the kind of hummer I like to see. Rufous hummingbird, maybe. Whatever kind it is, it puts on a spectacular, noisy aerial display, checks out the feeder and occasionally hovers to check out the people who are checking it out. Did I say noisy? We usually hear this one before we see it.

Arum Flowers

Arum flower doily from "Magic Knitting," published by Mon Tricot, 1984. It's possible that this is a design by Herbert Niebling, but it is unattributed in the magazine. It is charted, without line-by-line directions.

Specifics: Knit with Cébélia DMC, size 30, natural color, made in France, 2.25mm (US1) needles. Approximately 22 inches in diameter.

This pattern drove me crazy. Of the 96 rounds, 7 or 8 of them have errors. I don't know if the errors were in the original or occurred in copying from an original to the magazine. At the same time, parts of the chart that initially didn't seem correct were absolutely correct.

I learned two things from this doily: Trust the chart. Don't trust the chart.

Going, Going, Gone

If this is not one of the ugliest Douglas fir trees you've ever seen, I don't know what is. Last winter's wind storm really took its toll. So, it's good-bye fir tree.

Watching professional tree trimmers who know what they are doing makes you realize that there is no good reason why amateurs should ever attempt this. First, Mike limbed the tree from the bottom up while Sam the Boss and Frank put the limbs in the back of a truck to be hauled away.



Working around the power line required tree-trimmer ballet.

The top came down:

The debris piled up in the truck:

And this is what is left:

The whole process took only two hours. It appears that the plants underneath (rhododendron, barberry, juniper, fatsia) will survive.

Retirement: Day 1

Retirement is great so far. At work, the traditional retirement send-off is a coffee-and-cake reception. Then I celebrated with work and non-work friends at a local pub. One of the great things about my job is that many of my colleagues are also friends. I thoroughly enjoyed my career. I'm optimistic that retirement will be equally enjoyable.

Retirement!

Today is my last day of work, after 30 years with the same organization. Whew! It's been fun and rewarding. But it's time for something else, whatever that is. Knitting, of course. More time in the garden and at the library. Travel in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Who knows what else is in store?

And what better way to start my retirement than with beautiful handmade gifts! My friend Debbie made this gorgeous quilt hanging. Yes, the flower is 3-D.

She also gave me this intricate and lovely pine-needle basket made by an Oregon artist. It's about 7 inches long and very tightly woven.

The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring, Tra-la

The flowers that bloom in the spring in the Northwest are fabulous. Early bloomers include daffodils, tulips, lilacs, camellias and rhododendrons, plus the flowering fruit trees. The color riot in our garden begins in earnest in May and June.

Columbines and pansies. The pansies survived our cold winter and the columbines take care of re-seeding themselves every year.

Pink jasmine. You really need to smell this one for its full effect. This is a new addition to the garden this spring, replacing a clematis that succumbed to winter.

Roses. This one is Double Delight. If you want a beautiful, fragrant rose for cutting, this should be at the top of your list.

And, surprisingly, a Christmas cactus. I have no idea what I did to prompt a May bloom, but there it is.

Score!

I love thrift stores and used books stores. Not every visit results in a big score, but one did — two 1985 "Knitters" magazines. I especially enjoy reading the articles by or about some knitting legends: Barbara Walker, Lizbeth Upitis, Mary Walker Phillips and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, for example. The articles are still relevant and most of the patterns are as wearable today as they were 22 years ago.

I wonder whether knitters in 2029 will say the same about today's knitting magazines?

A New Visitor

This guy showed up at the bird feeder today. Black-headed grosbeak, maybe? Haven't seen one like this before at the feeder.

Two New Yarn Stores

Two new yarn stores in nearby Lakewood opened in recent weeks: Yorkshire Yarns and Shibori Dragon Knits. Based on my first scouting, both shops are spacious, well-stocked with space for more and with space for knitting groups or classes. And the people at each seem interested in stocking what knitters want. Each carries basic, all-purpose yarn (Cascade 220, Encore, for example) plus some of the more luxurious yarns (Luisa Harding, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Artyarns, for example). Yorkshire Yarns has a lot — a lot — of sock yarn. Shibori Dragon carries Mountain Colors.

My only complaint is that I can't find my way around Lakewood easily.

Heartland Shawl

This is Evelyn Clark's Heartland Shawl, published in the winter 2007 issue of "Wild Fibers" magazine. It was the winner in a contest for Buffalo Gold fiber. Written instructions are in the magazine and you can e-mail Buffalo Gold for the charts.

I'm a big fan of Evelyn Clark, and I normally don't riff on her patterns. But I did on this one.

• I didn't have any Buffalo Gold but I had a pile of this unidentified wool (maybe washable wool) from a thrift store. I used US7 needles with it.

• I knit seven (maybe eight, I lost count) repeats of the Bison Tracks pattern; the original called for four. One of the beauties of recent Evelyn Clark shawls is the ability to add or reduce the number of repeats and still come out with a great shawl. The shawl is 45 inches long from the center neck to the center point.
  

• All of the double decreases specified are left-leaning, which I think detracted from the pattern. So I changed some of them to right-leaning decreases. In the River of Life border, I changed the left-leaning double decreases to centered double decreases. To accommodate all of this, I recharted the pattern.

• I made the second half a mirror image of the first half instead of a straight repeat of the first half. It made a difference in only a few places but felt more symmetrical to me.

• I added a small bead at the points of the border, borrowing the idea from other Evelyn Clark shawls. I think it helps the point stay pointed a little better. And I like beads. The bead color is black diamond luster, which I think complements the turquoise (turquoise is a hard color to match, so I went for complement instead of match).

And I think the turquoise shawl and red lace-leaf maple complement nicely.

Doily Discovery

Yesterday was a good day for treasure hunting. At a library book sale I found a 1984 issue of "Magic Knitting." It's from a French publisher, although the magazine is in English. I was pleasantly surprised to find this doily pattern, which the magazine describes as "a bouquet of arum flowers." No attribution to a designer is given — does it look familiar to anyone? It's full of twisted stitches and mesh, which could make it an interesting project. And it's charted — hooray!

It doesn't seem like the mid-1980s was a high time for doilies, which makes this an unexpected find.

At my favorite thrift store, I found a skein of tweedy Rowanspun for $4 (original price $13.50), which will make a nice hat for someone, and six skeins of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool for a grand $3.

Hi, Seema!

Our friend Seema visited yesterday, which, as usual with Seema, results in lively and interesting conversation. She needs all of that energy because she is founder and artistic director of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego. She also is an actor, singer, playwright, fundraiser, office painter, business manager, mentor, educator, public relations agent and — whew!

Mo`olelo provides some interesting theater experiences. Read all about Mo`olelo and, if you are in San Diego, give it a try.

Selbuvotter

I just bought this book because it looked very cool. I haven't knit mittens for years, but this appealed to me. I think many of the designs could be adapted for hats, Christmas stockings and other knitted items. I also like the historical information.

I wish more of the pictures were in color, but that's just a small quibble.

Selbuvotter.

A Welcome Spring Visitor

Imagine our surprise when we found these growing in the front yard — morel mushrooms! First time we've seen them. Fortunately, no one who passes by on the sidewalk noticed and picked them. My mushroom-expert friend assured me they are morels.

Bring on the butter!

Landscape that Rocks

Two of my favorites: the Fiber Trends Landscape scarf and Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight yarn. This one is the Farmhouse color, US6 needles, alternating garter and stockinette sections, with picots.

My friend Debbie "made" me buy the yarn. Thanks, Deb!

Diamond Fantasy

Long time, no post. I haven't finished anything in a while, and when I did, I had trouble taking a picture worthy of its beauty. I finished Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Shawl in some beautiful laceweight from Black Bunny Fibers, a Christmas gift from my friend Bridget, who is friends with Carol, the genius behind Black Bunny Fibers. The color is called Sue's Puppy (click on the photo to for a better look at the colors). Sue's Puppy is based on an earlier Carol color called Puppy. I'm not a dog person, but I am a Puppy person.

I wanted a big shawl. The pattern calls for 10 pattern repeats for a shawl. I did 14. I used US5 needles.

I had a difficult time photographing the gorgeousness of this yarn and pattern. The light wasn't right, I couldn't get a good background for the colors — just one thing after another. The photos still don't do justice to the final product, but there you have it.