tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47353053734197947222024-03-13T03:53:33.994-04:00PracticalCraftsmake - wear - cook - travel - read
...and cats. just because.RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.comBlogger510125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-71447776533181194962020-12-13T16:40:00.003-05:002020-12-13T16:42:58.557-05:00In The Year of the Plague- 2020<p> Hard to believe that I haven't posted in almost 2 years. Certainly was never my intention to be gone so long. But, life happened and things got busy. However bad I am at writing, the knitting needles don't stop moving, however. When the pandemic hit in the spring, I felt an overwhelming urge to knit blankets. Probably to build a fort in which to hide. But it seemed like a good way to whittle down some of the vast stash of scrap yarn as well. And having just finished two of them, I need to share them with the world:</p><p>The classic Mitred square, using <a href="http://wanderingcatstudio.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-name-is-valerie-and-im-addicted-to.html" target="_blank">a pattern kindly posted by Valerie from Wandering Cat Studio</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCGBJl1k9XAduKjkgNncIjzFpQ3CfbCbnQknJIDxanjoaokAbs0y9mVwRjqZu0clfJRwX3f9rL5nAGUkexXSuaM566T4TW_kJEfky8x5fOyiYbsCh4K2gNubRf-GV_RZMdMF17DRjeJbd/s960/12-2020+mitred+square.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCGBJl1k9XAduKjkgNncIjzFpQ3CfbCbnQknJIDxanjoaokAbs0y9mVwRjqZu0clfJRwX3f9rL5nAGUkexXSuaM566T4TW_kJEfky8x5fOyiYbsCh4K2gNubRf-GV_RZMdMF17DRjeJbd/w480-h640/12-2020+mitred+square.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p>And the second one is a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ten-stitch-blanket">Ten Stitch Blanket</a>, which has basically wiped out my supply of bulky weight yarn. Of course now that I've done one of these in scrap yarn, I'm starting to get the itch to see what it would look like in a variegated or gradient yarn! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3QSxe3_Xjg9CseMHL72LT9Z34o36l-Q4cu4DCF7NJxjli6MiC-_0qoA6AtOw2r3yuxL5Q8OIBEZKcJuIKdPGz83fb2hQQQDxA7xD6NYvz4iwGjKXpGNYBQGC1ubhw0xx9ojYz58dOQHu/s960/12-2020+Ten+Stitch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3QSxe3_Xjg9CseMHL72LT9Z34o36l-Q4cu4DCF7NJxjli6MiC-_0qoA6AtOw2r3yuxL5Q8OIBEZKcJuIKdPGz83fb2hQQQDxA7xD6NYvz4iwGjKXpGNYBQGC1ubhw0xx9ojYz58dOQHu/w400-h300/12-2020+Ten+Stitch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After that- no doubt because I've spent the last 8 months working on 2 projects (probably a new low for me!), I started making mittens at all possible speed. Here's the past week's output. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO_Y8Txze2eTQ-YIlN-MTtzBPk3RVTStbXaMkyzM_MYN-HBKqoxwO96mKWAxoJf73rPApZDfviWXS82VZun_VpdoZMmZSSAm8WyPy6du6m00qtLdQGNdpVPLj0wubrSmPg4-jzwxWvHZXs/s1440/12-2020+mittens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO_Y8Txze2eTQ-YIlN-MTtzBPk3RVTStbXaMkyzM_MYN-HBKqoxwO96mKWAxoJf73rPApZDfviWXS82VZun_VpdoZMmZSSAm8WyPy6du6m00qtLdQGNdpVPLj0wubrSmPg4-jzwxWvHZXs/w400-h300/12-2020+mittens.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>It's been a rough year for everyone. I hope that others have found the same solace in yarn that I have. Hopefully by this time next year, we'll all be experiencing something closer to normal. </div><div><br /><p><br /></p></div>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-79683995329408896172019-02-09T14:37:00.001-05:002019-02-09T14:37:52.396-05:00January, In a BlurSo far, the whole resolution thing isn't getting off to a good start. On the plus side, there has been knitting, and whole lot of other fun.<br />
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First the mini-mania scarf I cast on over the holidays, for social knitting. This came about because at the last charity knitting meetup in November, a young woman showed up with bags and bags and <i>more </i>bags of yarn. She explained that she had been part of a college based knitting group, and when all the out of area students headed away after graduation, they destashed and asked her to find a home for the yarn. There was a lot of it, and much was very nice. So I was able to restock my depleted worsted weight stash as well as getting a bunch of other fun yarns. Including a bag of mini-skeins. I paired them up with an odd skein of fingering weight, and started another linen stitch scarf:<br />
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I'm just past the halfway mark, and was ripe for distraction, so I started switching off with some fast motivational charity knits:<br />
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These are both the same yarn, incidentally. The second one is closer to the true color. <br />
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Then a local knitter sent out the call for preemie hats for a local NICU. These teeny little hats are like potato chips. It's impossible to stop with just one. <br />
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Yous see what I mean? Crack is less addictive. I feel sure there will be a few more of these falling off the needles before the streak burns itself out.<br />
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Just for variety, I switched back to the green worsted for another hat and mittens set. A bunch of it was triple wound and knit into a partial sweater so I rewound it back into single strands. Biscuit helped. <br />
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Of course to get this kind of knitting done, there had to be some compatible other activities- I knit at the Boston Celtic Music Festival.<br />
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I knit while playing board games. (I lost, but that wasn't the fault of the knitting. My opponents were wily. The game is Power Grid, the UK map, for the curious.)<br />
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And I knit in the car while my husband drove us back and forth to all these, plus to the annual Amherst Railway Society show. This year they had 9.3 acres of models- 400,000 square feet of floor space. It was impressive.<br />
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(Mom, look, the layout had a quilt store!) </div>
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The LEGO layout featured a Dalek, the Doctor's police box, and Batman, among many others.</div>
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So, now it's February, and we have whole new slate of diversions planned to distract us from the gray weather. I'll be back to tell you all about it someday soon. </div>
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RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-9554225155337306742019-01-07T21:29:00.001-05:002019-01-07T21:31:36.371-05:00Happy New YearOne week into the new year, and I'm doing that thing where we look back. It's been a busy year- some family things, some travel. Knitting has been on the light side-just over 30 projects. And despite the number, that's a lot less knitting than usual- mostly hats and mittens, only 2 pairs of socks. Of the things on my master project list, I didn't complete anything. <br />
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Reading on the other hand, has been more intense. I read 242 new books this year- there were some rereads as well, though I didn't count all of them. And I have finished another book every day in 2019 so far, though I can't possibly maintain that much longer! Not while working, and once I finish off the several remaining half-finished books I have in process.<br />
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One thing I have noticed, is that I've missed writing about crafts and keeping up with my online crafting friends- I want to try and do better this year. And speaking of crafting, here are the last projects for 2018. There were of course kid mittens:<br />
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I started out to make a hat with this chunky yarn, but ran out with a short cowl.<br />
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A last pair of adult mittens:<br />
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A Wurm hat- I've wanted to try this pattern for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it...then I happened to glance at it and noticed that it's written for sport weight yarn. Of which I have a great deal...I'm sensing there may be some more of these in my future.<br />
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Speaking of sport weight yarn, I made another colowork hat, again with the aim of using up sport weight yarn. The sport weight is too light for a single layer to be really warm - the Wurm pattern uses ribs to trap air for additional insulation. But there are other ways- colorwork adds an extra layer of yarn for a warmer hat. And it's higher resolution- the extra stitches required by the thinner yarn provides a suitable canvas for more intricate designs. (This one came out of my Fair Isle stitch dictionary.)</div>
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And last but not least- Christmas socks. Yet another pair of Sagittarius socks, a pattern I've knit before but always enjoy. I didn't have a chance to photograph these in natural light, but the yarn is pale green with a subtle copper sparkle. Very pretty.<br />
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Due to some last minute scheduling changes, I knit the second sock in three days flat- good thing it was a long weekend heading into the holiday!<br />
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Just before the holidays, I cast on another Mini-Mania scarf for social knitting -also to use up a bag of mini-skeins that wandered into my stash- but that's a story for another day, when I have a photo of the scarf in question to show you.RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-1935579469237287012018-10-31T21:01:00.003-04:002018-10-31T21:01:56.941-04:00Yikes, really?!Okay, the blog has been sadly neglected, and there's far too much that has happened for only one post. But let's start with the knitting. In the last knitting post you saw these socks, now long since complete:<br />
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I also did a whole bunch of adult mittens with chunky yarn that the charity knitting group gave me for that purpose.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJMvjgwxDbgCJXt0tARjAG5iBE7ywpdJ2gbRTrMP5w_cWVdwiBU03-QkfQUpiMxRz-SjnOa7rvZb1am12p2OIahItmviNidOG3RO4ME0w7WnNjtakG1Dj1oPCl8fuDUUneG2TfGGZrA6uC/s1600/DSCN2211.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJMvjgwxDbgCJXt0tARjAG5iBE7ywpdJ2gbRTrMP5w_cWVdwiBU03-QkfQUpiMxRz-SjnOa7rvZb1am12p2OIahItmviNidOG3RO4ME0w7WnNjtakG1Dj1oPCl8fuDUUneG2TfGGZrA6uC/s320/DSCN2211.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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And when I ran out of the chunky weight, I used doubled worsted. (The small pair is a set of kid's mittens to use the remaining yarn.)<br />
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Then another pair of socks.<br />
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More adult mittens:<br />
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And a hat- it was intended to be a kind of low key hat, the kind that a guy who didn't want flashy would go for. But the yarn was incredibly soft and comfy.<br />
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A colorwork hat... not entirely successful as to what I was trying to do, but still fun. <br />
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Then there were yarn ends for kid mittens. </div>
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And yet another hat because colorwork is addictive.<br />
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Really, it's a bit pathetic for 6 months worth of knitting, but it's been pretty busy. RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-91504660834104532132018-04-01T21:19:00.001-04:002018-04-01T21:21:34.714-04:00Belated London Part the FourthAs I was recently reminded, the blog has been sadly neglected of late. So, let us return to last year and the last set of photos from our English travels.<br />
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Having seen the Cutty Sark in our previous ramblings to Greenwich, we decided to go back and actually see the boat, something we hadn't previously managed despite several previous trips to Greenwich.<br />
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Our visit coincided with that of a group of school children, and while they all rambled about, there was one who seemed to have enough energy for several children. Approximately every 30 seconds, we'd hear an exasperated teacher saying, "Amelia! Get down off that." Or "Amelia, stop climbing over the rail". My suspicion is that young Amelia would, given ten seconds out of adult scrutiny, would have been halfway up the rigging.<br />
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It's a beautiful boat, and makes it easy to see the romance of the tea clippers.<br />
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Afterward, we headed over to East India Wharf to Kerb, the food truck market (very popular). This is another instance of the food truck gathering that's up near King's Cross station.<br />
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And we took a leisurely walk back along the river, taking in the various wharves and river views.<br />
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I found this rather jarring composition of the two modern buildings known as the 'Walkie-Talkie' and 'the Gherkin' behind the Tower of London amusing. I expect the past Kings and Queens would have been nonplussed.<br />
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Later, we ventured upriver to the Imperial Wharf, which gave us striking views of the new construction on the opposite bank.<br />
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The next day found us on a train to Stratford-on-Avon, where we strolled around and skipped most of the various tours of places Shakespeare allegedly frequented.<br />
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Instead we got tickets to see Julius Caesar, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was fabulous. It was stunningly well acted- there was never any point where the antique language had the audience groping for the meaning- it was extremely clear from the expressions, gestures and movement on the stage what was going on. As JT commented, "It's a political thriller." (I will note that the Royal Shakespeare performances are filmed and shown in various theatres in the US, so it's not actually mandatory to go to Stratford to see them.)<br />
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We took a walk before the play started along the somewhat redundant River Avon (Avon is the Celtic word for river, and there are a bunch of Rivers Avon in England).<br />
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We stopped by the Holy Trinity Church, where the Bard is buried.<br />
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And we grabbed a quick dinner before heading back to the train station. This structure turns out to be a monument, and not as we first thought, the steeple of a church that had sunk into the ground.<br />
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Our last couple of days in London turned out to be over Cavalry Day- we heard some terrific military bands playing in the park.<br />
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There were our traditional visits to bookstores, some further strolling about as we said goodbye to the city.<br />
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And then we headed back to the airport, homeward bound after another lovely trip to England.<br />
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<a href="http://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/slideshow/England2017/Part4?sort=2">Click here for the complete photo-view of our trip. </a>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-60374155946072499482018-01-01T16:32:00.002-05:002018-01-01T16:37:43.448-05:00Knitting Round-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So. 2018 already. It's been a busy fall season for me, and that has affected knitting as well as blogging. But I did manage to take a few photos of what I've been up to lately (in addition to the obligatory cat photos!). So: When I last posted about general knitting stuff in July(!), I was working on a suitably patriotic pair of socks that were gifted at Christmas:<br />
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And the last pair before the holidays was another pair gifted for Christmas:<br />
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Aren't those cheery? The yarn was a skein of hand dyed yarn from a local dyer (<a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/FishBellyFiberWorks">Fish Belly Fiber Works</a>), in the colorway is Malificent. The pattern is a changeup (to make it toe-up) on <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/undine-2">Undine</a>, from <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/wandering-cat-studio/patterns">Wandering Cat Studio</a>.<br />
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I knit two pair of socks from navy yarn before these- here's the FO shot of the second pair:<br />
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- and a third one with navy accents (which constituted more than enough navy for a while). But it was handy because it let me use up a couple of partial skeins my mom gave me that didn't have quite enough yarn for a pair of sock in the usual sizes I knit.<br />
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It's always so satisfying when you can use *all* the yarn! Speaking of which, there was the usual flock of mittens:<br />
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Not quite as many as usual, but with the adult size pairs I donated earlier in the year, a fair number. It also ran me quite nearly out of worsted weight yarn- the last red-and-white pair are sport weight paired with a fingering weight yarn to get it to a heavier thickness. This year coming year I have some projects in mind to help reduce the sport weight stash! (Also, if I finish a couple of sweaters there will be more worsted weight to replenish the worsted stock!).<br />
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Speaking of using up sport weight, I have been working on my crochet skills, and (after only 20 or so false starts) turned out a fairly credible version of the <a href="https://gingerknots.com/2017/09/08/the-madeline-triangle-scarf/">Madeline Triangle Scarf</a>.<br />
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The last project of the year that I finished was a slightly overdue Christmas cowl for my mom. Note to self- beaded projects should not be attempted on tight deadlines. Also seed beads are ^&%%#%^ing slippery!<br />
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The pattern for this is the <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sojourn-falls-scarf">Sojourn Falls Scarf</a>, and the super-alert will notice that this is not a pattern for a cowl. I adapted it by starting with a provisional cast-on, skipping the border rows, and then at the end, grafting the ends together. In pattern. With beads in the row. Yes, I did question my sanity there for a bit. But it all worked out in the end. (There may have been some vigorous language used during the grafting phase...)<br />
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Some of the knitting (not the vigorous language part) was enlivened by company. Here are Kali and Karen from the local knitting group. They are a constant inspiration.<br />
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It must be said that they are also a great deal more helpful than my other knitting companions:<br />
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And so we have a boxed set:<br />
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And now the WIPs- in other news, I'm still working on the fall lace shawl, which got sidelined for Christmas deadline projects:<br />
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I pretty much knew when I started it, that it was not going to be finished for the KAL deadline, but it was an excuse to start something new, in a yarn I've had around for a while.<br />
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I liked the stitch used in the Madeline scarf so much that I started a new project using it in a square- a baby blanket. This will give me a start on using some of the large bag of baby yarn I was gifted in December, as well as restocking the gift bin, which is currently completely empty of baby items.<br />
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Last but not least, the current sock. Because there is always a sock! This one is the Corded Rib sock from Sensational knitted socks in the Sonder Yarns Fingering in the colorway Comfy Jeans.<br />
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Wishing everyone a crafty and fun 2018! Anyone got any good resolutions suggestions?<br />
<br />RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-38114574211416186302017-12-10T20:13:00.001-05:002017-12-10T20:13:46.600-05:00Brighton<i>"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So as we took the curve of the road the little village vanished, and there in the dip of the Downs, past the spires of Patcham and of Preston, lay the broad blue sea and the grey houses of Brighton, with the strange Eastern domes and minarets of the Prince's Pavilion shooting out from the centre of it." - Arthur Conan Doyle</span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Brighton has been one of those places I've read about in fiction for years, so it's a bit odd that it took us so long to visit. But we went down for the day to take in the sights. The beach, of course. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">It was a bit early in the season for there to be many tourists about- which didn't bother us, since we're more about the walking around without people to obstruct the view. We strolled out onto the pier, which was also mostly deserted. They had a truly astonishing variety of sugary and fried snacks on offer, had they been open, so perhaps it's just as well for us that they weren't. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Then, naturally we struck inland to find the Royal Pavilion. It was a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, who later became George IV of England. He built it in stages, at fabulous expense and to the considerable consternation of Parliament, who got stuck paying the bills when he repeatedly ran out of money. As a feat of architecture, it is astonishing. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">It's an English fantasy of a far eastern palace, and the inside is as fantastic as the outside. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Photography wasn't permitted in the interior, unfortunately, but there are images of the interior available online. See some of them <a href="https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1536&bih=759&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=BNctWuStJpCzjwTx8pjACA&btnG=Search&q=royal+pavilion+brighton+interior">here</a>. There was a lavish use of silver gilt on the interior, which is unfortunately subject to tarnishing, and almost impossible to clean. One of the guides told me that some of the restoration is being done with platinum, because as expensive as it is, the maintenance cost if they restored it with silver would be prohibitive. (I did see an older series of posts on the Royal Pavilion, with a lot of detailed interior photography- so possibly the ban on photography is recent. If you'd like to see more of the Pavilion, I quite recommend these. <a href="http://thebrimstonebutterfly.blogspot.com/2011/05/royal-pavilion-brighton-part-one.html">Part One</a>, <a href="http://thebrimstonebutterfly.blogspot.com/2011/05/royal-pavilion-brighton-part-two.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://thebrimstonebutterfly.blogspot.com/2011/05/royal-pavilion-brighton-part-three.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://thebrimstonebutterfly.blogspot.com/2011/06/royal-pavilion-brighton-part-four.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://thebrimstonebutterfly.blogspot.com/2011/06/royal-pavilion-brighton-part-five.html">Part 5</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Still shaking our heads in stunned awe and disbelief at the Pavilion, we took a turn around the town in the sun. We saw something fishy:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">And the rows of Necco-wafer-pastel houses that seem to be obligatory in British seaside resorts. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">And then we took the train back to London and did some more strolling in Kensington Park before heading off to dinner. If you missed it in the first post - may is a lovely time to visit. Spring flowers were everywhere. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "garamond" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">And <a href="http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj42/rfholly/England2017/Part3/DSCN1835.jpg">here's a slideshow, with additional photos</a>. </span></span>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-14557141419897918212017-12-10T16:45:00.000-05:002017-12-10T16:52:33.959-05:00Out and About: London to Kent<span id="goog_894848438"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_894848439"></span><i>Continuing the belated saga of our vacation in May:</i><br />
Over the next couple of days, we continued to ramble about the city of London. We walked, enjoying the scenery. If you're looking, there are sights of interest everywhere- details of buildings, pocket parks tucked into squares and spaces, and churches large and small. Here's St. Mary Abbot's.<br />
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We walked to the Design Musuem, which had a<a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Imagine_Moscow_exhibition"> fascinating exhibit of futuristic architectural drawings from the Soviet Union</a>. They combined modernist design with the ideals of socialism- a fascinating insight into what the Soviet system aspired to be, rather than the way it turned out. The design muscum itself was an interesting building. While I'm not particularly a fan of modernist design, the extensive use of warm wood made this building much more appealing.<br />
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Our next museum stop was at the London Science Museum- a perennial favorite- this time we went to see their <a href="https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/what-was-on/robots">exhibition on the history of robots</a>, in particular why the robots were built as they were and what the builders' aims were. (The linked page includes a short video about the exhibition with some of the robots shown.) The exhibit started with various kinds of automatons, and progressed up to more modern robots. The one pictured below was one of my favorites. It was a mechanical figure of a student, designed to write out a series of literary passages, but its origin was something of a mystery. But when the mechanism was cleaned and repaired for the exhibition, they set it to writing out it's 'lesson' - and at the end it included a note of the workshop where it had been built. In a sense, the creation signed the creator's name to his work.<br />
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We also went up to see the Winton Gallery, which was new since our last visit. It has <a href="https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/mathematics-winton-gallery">a selection of objects</a> designed to show the important role that mathematics has had in our history and society. (The linked page has a short video from the gallery.) The sculpture behind the plane is a representation of the airflows that surround the plane in flight.<br />
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We had also planned several day trips outside the city. One morning, we boarded a train for Bearsted station and caught the shuttle to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Castle">Leeds Castle</a>. They give you a fairly lengthy walk through their pleasant grounds to build up suspense. Not that we had any complaints- it was lovely.<br />
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There were many local residents about.<br />
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The current incarnation of the castle is more of a manor than a serious military fortification, but it was suitably impressive. There had been a castle on the site since the 1100s, but it was heavily remodeled in 1823, which accounts for the present appearance.<br />
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We walked around the outside, taking it in. </div>
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We toured the inside.<br />
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The last owner of the castle was the daughter of an American heiress who bought the castle in 1926, and redecorated much of the interior.<br />
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We quite liked the library, in particular.<br />
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After seeing the castle, we explored the gardens:<br />
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We saw fascinating falconry demo, which included a hawk who prefers to chase its prey on the ground, and a magnificent owl.<br />
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We found our way to the center of the maze (of course there was a maze!). And we exited through the grotto, which was designed to produce a pleasurable shiver in the under-three-foot set.<br />
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We saw more gardens.<br />
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And took a circuitous route back to the shuttle stop...except there was a little too much admiring of scenery (can you blame us?) and so we missed the last shuttle and got a bonus hike back to the train station for the trip back to London.<br />
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<a href="http://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/slideshow/England2017/Part2?sort=2">Click this link to see the slideshow</a>.RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-14287795484135173322017-09-30T21:28:00.003-04:002017-09-30T21:38:06.140-04:00London in MayIt's odd. The temperature drops, and suddenly I want yarn in my hands and I'm all about blogging. I guess the summer must be over! So I'm going to start by taking us back to when I fell off the radar in May, and talk about London. <br />
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As you may have guessed by now, my husband and I really enjoy London- it's a wonderful city to walk around in, full of museums and restaurants. We've rather embraced the Samuel Johnston quote, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." Seeing as this was a busy travel year, we decided that rather than rushing hither and yon, trying to cover new ground, that we would rather just stay in London, with perhaps occasional day trips. <br />
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Our first destination was the Borough Market, filled with good things to eat. We weren't the only ones headed that way. <br />
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He appeared to be looking for friends, so we continued on to the market. Our biggest problem there is there are so many choices! I eventually settled on a roasted pork sandwich, and a bowl of fresh local fruit- it was strawberry season.<br />
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We did a lot of walking. London in May is a <i>fabulous</i> time to see the gardens. Here's St. James Park.<br />
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We were amused to see homesteaders setting up camp on the lake.<br />
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We hung out for a bit outside the Kensington Tube station (near our hotel) to hear some <a href="http://www.nathanieljpwills.com/">excellent Spanish guitar</a>.<br />
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We took a train one day up to Peterborough for a day to visit with friends. Their cats made us feel like quite one of the family. <br />
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We went to the Museum of Londons Docklands, to see an excellent exhibit on the archeological finds made during the construction of the <a href="http://www.crossrail.co.uk/construction/#">new Crossrail Tube line</a>. As a feat of civil engineering alone it was amazing- 26 miles of new tunnel under London- construction started in 2009, and it will finish next year- on time and on budget. But they not only built it- they had archeologists working with them at every step to preserve as much as possible of the artifacts they dug up in the process. The deepest tunnels went well past any human habitation, but brought up 55 million year old fossilized amber and bones. Every layer of the region's history was intersected by the excavations- from prehistoric, to Bronze age to Victorian and modern. <br />
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We also took a walking tour of the Canary Wharf area. After fits and starts over the last 30 years, it's become very trendy and upscale. I especially liked the new Crossrail station, which has an indoor garden featuring many of the plants brought from across the British Empire. <br />
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From there we walked down the Thames Path. Most of the week was nice, but this was a particularly lovely day.<br />
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We happened on the site of the launching of the Great Eastern, which was the ship that laid the first Atlantic telegraph cable. I'd read about it <i>The Great Iron Ship</i> by James Dugan many years ago. (My dad is an amateur historian with a special interest in the Atlantic Cable.) I hadn't realized the site still existed though, until we found it.<br />
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From there, we took the pedestrian tunnel to Greenwich, and had dinner, wandered about town and then headed back to the city center. And here I'll break- this covers the first few days of the trip. I've broken this into sections rather than trying to give a day by day, meal by meal account!<br />
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The slideshow: <br />
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RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-15851027235595598412017-09-19T23:05:00.001-04:002017-09-19T23:08:46.340-04:00Fall KAL EntrySo, it's nearly a month after I've returned from my travels, and I'm still playing catch up. However, I am not so behindmost that I could pass up <a href="http://pointylittlesticks.blogspot.com/p/i-fall-kal.html">a fall-themed KAL</a>. Whether I'm going to finish while it's still fall remains to be seen. However I figured I could a least put up a pic of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lighter-than-perfume">my entry</a>. <br />
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Uncharacteristically for me, it's a shawl. I don't actually know what the yarn is- it's laceweight, I have a lot of it, and I plan to use it all (unless it turns out that it makes a shawl eighteen feet long in which case I will cast off at 60 inches or so). And I think it's autumny- a lovely reddish brown, like oak leaves. <br />
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I'm thinking it will be just the thing to keep me from shivering like a leaf in the ice cold conference room at work. (Unless it's a day when the ice cold conference room is overheated and my coworkers and I swelter in it instead. It likes to keep us off balance. Kind of like fall.)<br />
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<br />RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-67641554813919103532017-07-09T13:00:00.001-04:002017-07-11T09:54:28.198-04:00This Always Happens to MeAlong about the beginning of summer, I add pool and yard and entertaining and visiting relatives to my agenda, and the blog kind of falls off the map. And then I get the email from my mom, asking if I'm still alive, and if so, have I given up on the blog? And well, no. Because I need to babble about crafts somewhere, so my husband and non-knitting friends don't start giving me The Look. (You know what I mean, right?)<br />
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Anyway- while blogging may have fallen off the map for a while, crafting has only slowed down slightly, on account of it being able to travel. Yesterday I was at the New Bedford Folk Music Festival, and between that and my husband generously doing all the driving, I got some things finished. The navy socks:<br />
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Yes, they still don't photograph as dark as they are. <br />
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Naturally, I had to start a new pair of socks, in the Cascade Heritage Paint I picked up at Webs a few weeks ago. Very patriotic, I thought.<br />
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I finally wove in all the (zillions of interminable) ends on the green and white baby blanket.<br />
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It was so intimidating, I couldn't even think about how many there were. I just assumed I'd be doing it forever, worked through a bunch, went back to the sock for while, did a bunch more ends. And eventually I didn't see any more! <br />
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Since I brought most of my WIPs with me, I didn't actually get to work on everything, but<br />
I did cast on another mitten, the second one of the pair.<br />
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Those will go to join the mittens I made last month, which have already been donated. <br />
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There was also a random cotton baby blanket that happened and has already been given away. It's more of the coned yarn I was given a few years ago, and there's approximately enough of it to knit a cozy for the state of Rhode Island, so you'll be seeing more of it in the future.<br />
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As for the rest of the household, they've also been busy. Here's Cookie, when he was impatiently waiting for guests to arrive for our three-day Fourth of July BBQ. (Cookie loves company.)<br />
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Biscuit has been supervising the construction of a new control panel for my husband's train layout.<br />
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And Jake has been busy dodging photographers and stalking my dinner plate. (He has an inexplicable passion for tomato sauce. I keep telling him that he's a carnivore, but it never discourages him.)<br />
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Anyway, I haven't forgotten the England photos, but I'm still working on the captioning, so those will be up in a future post. Hope you're having a wonderfully crafty summer- and a good time, whatever you're up to. RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-43672137782887475852017-05-23T22:42:00.002-04:002017-05-23T22:42:40.743-04:00So ThereThe wireless router on my home network has now been replaced. So I can go from trying to resurrect the dead router to my regularly scheduled coughing, cursing this dang cold, knitting and (I hope) finishing editing the latest batch of England vacation photos to show you. A teaser:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cavalry Day festivities in London</td></tr>
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RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-86194015733788341842017-05-02T21:46:00.001-04:002017-05-02T21:46:24.622-04:00Big Needles, Thick Yarn.....makes for a zippity project. <br />
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Knit, ends woven in, gifted in three days. And now I'm on to the next!RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-16045259499409722017-04-30T12:13:00.000-04:002017-04-30T12:15:58.341-04:00The Year of the Round TuitSo, I tend more toward goalsetting than resolutions for the new year, which may be why it took so long to realize what this year is. Yes. I have a round tuit.<br />
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And apparently this is the year I am finally putting it to use. Witness-<br />
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<ul>
<li>I have been meaning to get to <a href="http://practicalcrafts.blogspot.com/2017/03/western-tour-part-first.html">western national parks</a> for around 20 years. Check.</li>
<li>Have been meaning to do more weekend trips. So far this year, I have been to <a href="http://practicalcrafts.blogspot.com/2017/02/weekend-getaway.html">NYC</a> and Toronto. Check. </li>
<li>I have been meaning to get to FilkOntario (a music event) for about 20 years. Check- that was this past weekend. </li>
<li>I have been meaning to make socks with that navy yarn. Check.</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is closer to the true color of the yarn, but it's still darker than it seems in photos. </td></tr>
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<li>A second pair is on the needles as a traveling project. </li>
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<ul>
<li>I've been meaning to turn those four inherited strips into an afghan. I knit five more and used up another random ball of yarn for the border. Check. (Still need to weave ends in, but it's almost there.)</li>
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I will note here that I wound up grafting the strips. I tried a three needle bind off first.<br />
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But it just didn't look right. See the seam abover the two rows of garter?<br />
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Grafting gave it a much smoother finish. Plus? After all that grafting, I've gotten faster. </div>
<ul>
<li>I wanted to use up random odds and ends of yarn. Now one of the problems with this, is that one small ball of novelty yarn can be hard to find a use for. But my mom gave me several more skeins a couple of weeks ago. And with that, we have a project. In this case, a cowl. </li>
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<ul>
<li>I have cast on a....well, I'm not sure. Could be a baby blanket, could be a bathmat. But it's using some of a vast cone of cotton I've had lying around. </li>
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<ul>
<li>A few weeks ago, I darned an entire basket of socks that had been awaiting attention. And as if that wasn't enough, I had a pair of cotton socks that I had made short, thinking they would be summer socks. But the yarn was too heavy for summer wear and yet the socks were not tall enough to keep my ankles warm in cooler weather. But I had yarn left, so I unpicked the bind-off and lengthened them, rendering them wearable. </li>
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<ul>
<li>I have been meaning to finish ironing and sorting my quilting stash. Almost complete- the last of it has been ironed and is waiting to be sorted. After which, I am going to start laying out a new quilt- the first one in approximately forever. (Actually, I finished the last quilt for a charity auction in 2006, but have done <i>nothing </i>since.)</li>
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And then in the FO department, there have been a few random things I've done. A couple of pairs of adult mittens.<br />
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And another pair of kid mittens. Which has reduced the brown skein down to less than one mitten's worth of yarn. <br />
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I'm feeling pretty good about the year so far. I've made an actual dent in the deep stash, and progress is continuing. We have two more trips planned for this year- one of which will be another 'we've been meaning to do this forever' trip. And I've got ambitions. This might well be the year we finally get out to Tanglewood, for example. I'll keep you posted!<br />
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<br />RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-67523925448420175802017-04-20T20:25:00.002-04:002017-04-20T20:25:21.771-04:00Part the Last: CanyonlandsWhile Arches is about natural stone formations, some quite large, they are on a scale that humans can at least relate to. Canyonlands is about landscape on the macro scale. The canyons of the name were carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers, and they rival the Grand Canyon for sheer multi-level vastness. <br />
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We only visited one section of the enormous park, and were conscious of giving it short shrift. It was the tradeoff for having taken scenic route 12 instead of a faster route, and spending a day and a half in Arches. The above photo was taken from the Grand View lookout on the Islands in the Sky mesa. There were three other major sections of the park we didn't see at all.<br />
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We took a short hike out to see Upheaval Dome. It's a crater-like feature whose origin has been hotly debated by geologists- the two leading theories are an uplifted salt dome, or an impact crater from a meteorite strike. The meteorite theory is currently ascendant.<br />
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The day was beautiful and we cruised around the park with the top down on the convertible as we drove from point to point. We hiked out to Murphy Point. The trail led through grassland, quite unlike anything else we'd seen in the area. And thin and tough as it was, you could see why cattle were grazed there (and still are- we passed a number of them, and had to let them cross the road ahead of us at one point).<br />
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As we approached the rim, the grassland suddenly stopped and the land turned into desert again.<br />
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The views were staggering.<br />
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Here's the Green River canyon seen from Murphy's Point.<br />
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In the far distance we could see the La Sal mountains (the name dates back to the Spanish and means 'salt'). We sadly left the park as the sun was going down.<br />
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And that was the trip- we drove back through the Rocky Mountains to Denver, with a stop in Vail for lunch (it was very posh, and I had to take a photo of the ski slope for a ski-obsessed coworker). We walked around and had dinner in Denver and then flew home the next morning. Which was blessedly on time and uneventful. There was a blizzard predicted in Boston for the next day so I wound up stopping by my office for my work computer so I wouldn't have to go in the next day. And then the day after *that* my office didn't have power (kind of a pity we hadn't just stayed and seen more West for a couple of days). But it all worked out. <br />
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And- since I know you're wondering- I took a pair of socks with me on the trip, and they still aren't done! (It has been a busy few weeks, and crafting time has been at a premium.) But I'll show you various things-in-progress Real Soon Now.<br />
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And- the last slideshow:<br />
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RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-43348398270071708442017-04-19T20:32:00.002-04:002017-04-19T20:32:24.381-04:00Part the Sixth: ArchesWe arrived in Moab in time for lunch, and unlike Panguitch, found it lively and filled with restaurants, art galleries and a charming bookstore. We got a quick lunch and headed back to the park, where we saw the visitors center and set out to begin exploring the park.<br />
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Arches has the highest concentration of natural rock arches anywhere in the world- over 2000 of them. The area was a sea 300 million years ago, and successive cycles of drying and inundation deposited a layer of salt that is thousands of feet thick in places. Sediment deposited on top of it was compressed and and became layers of sandstone. The weight of the rock forced the salt to flow, and raise up layers of rocks in salt domes. The layers cracked and subsided, leaving long fins of rock. After years of erosion, the fins became separated and softer layers collapsed underneath leaving freestanding arches of harder material above. It's a process that is ongoing, as new arches grow and the oldest ones collapse. <br />
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In between the arches and rock formations, the desert stretched out, stark and beautiful.<br />
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It was important to stay on the trails, because the life in the desert may withstand heat, cold and lack of water, but not people trampling it. Particularly vulnerable is the 'biological soil crust'- a collection of algae, moss, bacteria, lichen and fungi that collect on the surface, trapping moisture and making soil that other plants can then use for nutrients. <br />
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As in other parks, the colors were fabulous.<br />
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We were very struck by slabs of an odd greenish rock we couldn't identify. A ranger told us later that the rock was chert and the green color was unreduced iron. (Oxidized iron is what gives us red rock- I hadn't realized that that unoxidized iron would color rock green.)<br />
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Everwhere we looked, we saw fantastically shaped rock.<br />
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Or fantastically shaped wood.<br />
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We saw all the 'major' sites- such as Balanced Rock:<br />
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But even the smallest details were eyecatching. The trail called Park Avenue is a dry riverbed, and the water has cut and swirled the rock, exposing striking strata.<br />
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We spent all afternoon, had dinner in Moab, and returned the next day for more. In the morning my camera batteries died, so I took photos with my phone until lunch when we went back to town and I could get more batteries. </div>
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Despite the difficult conditions, plants managed to survive. This little clump of flowers was growing in the middle of the trail. </div>
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Of all the parks we visited, Arches was my favorite, but not because of the arches- it was just something about the vistas, the openness, the colors and the shape of the scenery. </div>
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We returned to town reluctantly and sought out dinner. The next day would be our last day in Utah. </div>
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The Arches slideshow:</div>
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<iframe height="360" src="https://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/embed/slideshow/NationalParks2017/6_Arches" width="480"></iframe>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-54244882529208540632017-04-10T20:29:00.004-04:002017-04-10T20:29:54.425-04:00Part the Fifth: Scenic Rte 12After watching the sun rise over Bryce Canyon, we set off for Moab. We'd gone back and forth about taking the scenic route vs. the interstate, but the presence of a small museum in Boulder, Utah tipped the balance. We quickly found out how it earned the tag 'scenic'. <br />
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The road crosses parts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, through some of the wildest and most desolate terrain to be found in the southwest. Informative placques (have I mentioned lately how much we adore informative placques?) told us that this was the last part of the continental US to be completely surveyed and mapped. <br />
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The road was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1935 and 1940, and it took not just 5 years but tons of dynamite to blast a road through the rocky landscape.<br />
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The town of Boulder was the last place in the US to get mail by mule train, and it wasn't until 1947 when the CCC finished their road that they got electricity. We stopped there to see the Anasazi State Park Museum. The museum was interesting, but the real attraction is the ruins of an Anasazi village, that was occupied by about 250 people between 1160 to 1235 AD. The rooms with firepits in the center were living spaces, and the ones without were used for storage.<br />
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Grinding stones would have been used to grind corn.<br />
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And pit dwellings provided relief from both the coldest and the hottest temperatures. <br />
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The logs would have been covered with branches and clay. The ladder giving access through the roof is believed to reference a creation myth wherein humans emerged from the ground.<br />
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From the museum, the road continues up over the shoulder of Boulder Mountain, into aspen and pine forest with amazing views out over the Escalante river valley.<br />
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And all this was just the morning- we arrived in Moab in time for lunch. But that's another post.<br />
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RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-63442566116031498902017-04-07T22:46:00.002-04:002017-04-07T22:46:04.186-04:00Part the Fourth: Bryce Canyon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The day of our arrival, we took the auto road around the canyon and took in the view from all the scenic overlooks. The rock formations (hoodoos) are spectacular, and full of color. <br />
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If you could look over the near scenery, the Henry mountains in the distance were handsome as well.<br />
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Aside from driving over the Continental Divide later in the trip, Bryce was the highest point where we spent any time. There was still a lot of snow, and I could feel the altitude, especially the first day. We pulled out a snack at one of the lookouts and were the immediate subject of considerable interest.<br />
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The signs were quite clear that feeding the wildlife was verboten, but the wildlife did its best to convince us that this was more of a mild suggestion than an actual rule. (We didn't buy it.) This raven followed us around until the food was gone, gliding ahead of us, stopping, watching us expectantly as we walked toward him--and then passed him without sharing. Then repeating as if surely it was some kind of mistake that we hadn't succumbed. However we have been mooched from by real pros (yes, Jake, it's almost bedtime snacktime) so we stayed strong.<br />
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It was quite early in the season for Bryce- some trails were closed, and we were somewhat disappointed to find that the prairie dog viewing area was still under a foot or more of snow. Fortunately we found that there was a family of prairie dogs living in front of our motel, so we got to see some scampering and playing anyway.<br />
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That night we went into the nearby town of Panguitch (which means "Big Fish") to get dinner and found that although the number of (mostly closed) motels showed that tourism was what keeps the place afloat, there wasn't a particularly concerted effort to exploit the vast number of visitors to Bryce. Most of the town was closed for the season and it appeared to be a pretty sleepy place even when it was open.<br />
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The next day we went hiking down into the canyon. The signs had all advised wearing hiking boots, which we had unfortunately not brought (on account of weight). The trails were variously muddy and icy, and we were quite sorry we did not have boots, but we managed, though we were rather covered in Bryce Canyon mud by the end of the trek. The scenery was absolutely worth it however. Every time we moved a few feet along the trail, the angle of view would change. I remarked that it was hypnotic in the same way that watching ocean waves is- you can stand there picking shapes out of the scenery and keep finding new details to admire.<br />
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Like Zion, the fantastic shapes of dead wood caught the eye.<br />
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The trails wind around the rock formations, through pine groves and back up the canyon walls.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The skinny ledge crossing the slope on the right is the trail.</td></tr>
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At the end of the day, we stayed to watch the sun set from Sunset Point.<br />
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We left after the sun went down, and went to dinner, then came back to see the stars come out. There were some high hazy clouds, so the seeing wasn't as good as we hoped, but my husband (who's first degree was in astronomy) was able to pick out Venus, several constellations and the Pleiades.<br />
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We went back to the hotel for the night, and got up very early the next morning to see sunrise at Sunrise Point.<br />
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It was breathtaking. As the sun crept across the hoodoos, we set off for the next leg of the journey- scenic byway route 12, headed east to Moab. <br />
<iframe height="360" src="https://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/embed/slideshow/NationalParks2017/4_BryceCanyon" width="480"></iframe>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-37897033633276990882017-04-01T12:35:00.003-04:002017-04-01T12:43:51.543-04:00Part the Third: ZionDarkness had fallen while we were driving to our hotel in Springdale, Utah the night before, so we had no preconceptions when departed for the park in the morning. Sure we saw mountains around Springdale, but it wasn't the same as what greeted us along the Virgin River valley.<br />
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It was quite a cold morning, there was ice on the trail and I was wearing all the layers I'd brought, and feeling grateful that I'd included mittens and a knitted headband to supplement the hood on my jacket. It was early enough that the bottom of the canyon was in shadow, but as we walked along the riverside trail, the sun rose and illuminated the rocks and water. The colors changed and became more vivid as the landscape brightened around us. <br />
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The riverside trail ends at the Narrows, where in order to continue hiking you need specialized gear- waterproof hiking boots and dry suits to let you hike up the riverbed. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Narrows</td></tr>
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We'd decided that it was too chilly to make that attractive, and turned back to explore other parts of the valley. We set out to hike up to the Emerald Pools- by this time the sun was warming the valley substantially.<br />
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The trail took us a gentle rise up the side of the canyon, giving us new views of the river and valley.<br />
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We attained the Upper Emerald Pool while it was still in deep shadow. The trickle of water that filled it landed on a bank of ice. As the sun crept across the pool, and lit the cliffs above, the water volume increased from a trickle to a steady stream.<br />
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The water was utterly clear, and without touching, you couldn't tell whether ripples in the bottom were modern sand or ancient seabed. In fact they were both.<br />
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At this point we had hiked much of the moderate trails, so we took a stab at the West Rim Trail, which ends at Angels Landing- a very steep cliff. Even from the lower part of the trail, the views were fabulous.<br />
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In places the contrast between the strata of the cliffs and the marks of the water that carved the canyon were striking.<br />
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After a rather steep and open stretch- where I kept to the inner cliff wall because the ankle high curb on the outside of the trail did not give me an immense sense of security!<br />
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--the trail turned back out into a high canyon, and then led up a series of short steep switchbacks known as "Walter's Wiggles". They take their name from Walter Ruesch, the park's first superintendent, who had the trail to Angel's Landing constructed in 1926. Here we are looking down on them. Yes, that's another hiker starting up them on the first switchback.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking down on Walter's Wiggles</td></tr>
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I made it up as far as Scout Lookout, which was a saddle before the final ascent to Angel's Landing and gave fantastic views on both sides of the ridge.<br />
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The final ascent was more or less straight up, with chains embedded in the rock so you could pull yourself up. Being late in the afternoon, there were a lot of people coming down, and no place to stand to let them pass. I opted not to attempt it. <br />
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I spotted a number of mule deer on the way down. They were pretty blase about the hikers.<br />
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At the bottom, I took even more photos of the river, but the colors were so amazing and gorgeous, I never got tired of looking at it.<br />
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And while the sweeping views were entrancing, the nearer landscape was also interesting. The vegetation is very different from what I see in the east, naturally, so I was always looking at the pinion pines, the sagebrush and cottonwoods, the occasional cactus and agave, and even the dead wood along the trail- twisted into fantastic shapes by the environment and then left exposed.<br />
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We were loathe to leave the park while there was still daylight, so we took another short hike up to a feature called Weeping Rock. What happens is that rain and snow fall on the tops of the canyon and the water sinks down through the porous upper layers until it hits a denser layer, and then it runs on top of that layer until it reaches the canyon wall and runs out. The water supports a variety of vegetation. The trail runs up to the base of the rock wall and then into an undercut so you actually stand behind the falling water and look out at the valley.<br />
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At this point we were starting to think about dinner so we reluctantly left the park. The next morning we cut through the park and stopped to take the short hike to the Canyon overlook. It was warmer and brighter than the day before and the overlook trail caught the morning sun.<br />
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The view from the overlook was spectacular. Here we're looking down the valley from near the east entrance.<br />
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We continued on our journey with sun and sky and the colorful rocks still dazzling our vision. Zion is aptly named, I think, <i>"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth".</i><br />
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And if you haven't had enough, here's the whole slideshow:<br />
<iframe height="360" src="https://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/embed/slideshow/NationalParks2017/3_Zion" width="480"></iframe>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-85491302074421435362017-03-26T23:46:00.004-04:002017-03-26T23:50:52.403-04:00Part the Second: Hoover DamWe landed in Las Vegas in brilliant sunshine, and set out for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam">Hoover Dam</a> in our rented convertible. Ordinarily we rent compacts, but in Las Vegas, it turns out that the cheapest car to rent is an SUV - which we dislike, and the next cheapest was the convertible. The economy car was more expensive. So what could we do?<br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1168119816"></span><span id="goog_1168119817"></span>Clearly, travelling in style is the answer. <br />
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The dam is a monumental piece of civil engineering. It was planned because the periodic floods of the Colorado river wreaked havoc on the countryside downstream, and because the water that was wasted during floods was desperately needed for irrigation in the dry seasons. It was constructed in the middle of the Great Depression and built in only 5 years. Thousands of the unemployeed flocked to take jobs created by the dam. <br />
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The first thing they had to do, was divert the river- which they did by drilling long tunnels through the rock canyon walls. They the built cofferdams around the section of the canyon where the dam was to be built, and pumped all the water out. Then they had to excavate all the sand and silt from the river bottom until they hit bedrock. The canyon walls had to bear the force of the water pressing against the dam, so they had to remove all the weathered rock on the surface until they reached denser unweathered rock behind it.<br />
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It was poured in sections- each one had pipes embedded to cool the concrete. Had they done it in a single pour they estimated it would have taken the concrete 125 years to cool, and internal stresses would have caused it to crumble in the process. You can see the marks of the sections on the surface of the dam today.<br />
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It took longer to fill the lake behind the dam than it did to build. It was too big a project for any single company- a consortia of six companies was formed to bid on the job. They built a town, Boulder City, to house the workers for the job. It took enough concrete to pave a sidewalk on the equator around the entire world- or pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York.<br />
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Ironically, though the primary reason for building the dam was water management- what pays for all the upkeep of the dam isn't the water, but rather the electricity that the water generates on its way through the dam. We took the powerplant tour of course. Here are the pipes (penstocks) that carry the water to the turbines.<br />
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And here are the turbines themselves. The entire flow of the Colorado river passes through the turbines. The dam supplies electricity to Nevada, Arizona and parts of California.<br />
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Here are the intake towers. </div>
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We thought the little hatlike protrusions on the tops of the towers looked like grumpy little faces. </div>
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What we could see of the lake from the top of the dam was spectacular. </div>
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One of the charming parts of the project is that it was built at a time when grand projects were supposed to look grand instead of solely functional. So there are marvelous little art deco flourishes all through the area. These winged figures sit on a plaza inlaid with astronomical charts intended to convey the date of construction to future archeologists. </div>
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And this is one of a series of bronze reliefs, representing the various groups who benefitted from the construction- in this case the cities downstream.</div>
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After seeing the dam, we climbed up to the old rail line (now a rail trail) and saw the power station, feeding the power from the dam to the grid- </div>
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-and took a last look at the Colorado downstream- a river tamed and harnessed by the will of man. </div>
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And then it was off to Utah, and a long drive through the mountains as the sun set, on our way to Zion. </div>
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The slideshow:</div>
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<iframe height="360" src="https://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/embed/slideshow/NationalParks2017/2_HooverDamTravel" width="480"></iframe>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-34398549347533023222017-03-19T23:18:00.001-04:002017-03-19T23:23:49.356-04:00Western Tour: Part the FirstSo, as we are sometimes wont to do this time of year, my husband and I took off to visit spring in the southwest. This year, we decided to take some extra time and see some of the western national parks, something we've been wanting to do for a while, and just hadn't gotten a round tuit. <br />
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But as we so often do, we started in Dallas, at the <a href="http://ntif.org/">North Texas Irish Festival</a>. I can't recommend this festival highly enough- flights to Dallas are inexpensive, the hotel rates are reasonable, and the festival tickets are a bargain- for the price of a single concert you get an entire weekend of music on multiple stages. For example:<br />
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While this piece isn't especially Irish, this is an example of the caliber of musician we saw- we've seen this couple a number of times over the years, and they are never less than brilliant. They play in both the Celtic and swing styles- this is an original piece Chris composed in swing style.<br />
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(Okay, if you're thinking this looks hard? You're wrong. <i>Professional musicians </i>think this is really really hard. For the rest of us it's inhumanly insanely impossible.)<br />
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Aside from that, we strolled around Fort Worth, ate Mexican food, caught up with musical friends we only see at the festival and generally had a great time. Fort Worth was sunny and warm, and we took in the water park there:<br />
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As well as strolling along the river. We also discovered this:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, it's the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center</td></tr>
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According to the internet it was named after a longtime district attorney, and not the actor.<br />
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The Monday after the festival, we embarked for Las Vegas, eager to see its greatest attractions! Remembering that we're geeks, can you guess? If you thought Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, you'd be absolutely correct!</div>
RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-42599198095918575852017-03-01T21:25:00.002-05:002017-03-01T21:25:49.454-05:00Not Much and Altogether RandomThoughts for the day:<br />
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<li>I have to wonder about Jake. He licked my bowl completely clean after dinner. He's the only cat I know who loves spaghetti sauce.</li>
<li>I just finished "Night Drive" by folksinger <a href="http://garnetrogers.com/site/">Garnet Rogers</a>, reminiscences about touring with his brother Stan in the 70s. I enjoyed it a lot- it's well written, and parts were funny, and sad and nostalgic. Also there is more alcohol consumed in this book than in the entire city of Las Vegas in year. It's amazing they didn't kill themselves.</li>
<li>My husband is currently attempting to conquer the galaxy*. This happens a lot around here. </li>
<li>I have discovered why the person knitting the baby afghan gave it away. After the first couple of strips, the charm starts to wear off. But I am determined to finish. </li>
<li>This may be why I volunteered to knit some adult mittens in bulky yarn. I'm really feeling the yearning for FOs right now. </li>
<li>I've hardly touched the sweater lately, despite wanting to finish it and wear it. I may have to take drastic action**. </li>
<li>About the only thing that did get completed this week is taxes. It helps to hire someone else to do them.</li>
<li>Obligatory cat pictures. Because this post needs something to redeem it.</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cookie and Jake snuggling.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Biscuit is helping organize the tax paperwork.</td></tr>
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* Playing Eclipse online. </div>
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**Project monogamy. Though I'm not certain I'm able....</div>
RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-81757191722936867652017-02-14T23:15:00.004-05:002017-02-14T23:17:57.850-05:00Weekend GetawayThis past weekend we took the train down to New York City, for no special reason, except that there are a lot of things we enjoy about visiting the city. There's the walking around and checking out the scenery, such as City Hall Park.<br />
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There's the food. Traditional NYC deli food at the <a href="http://www.themeatballshop.com/">Second St. Deli</a>. <br />
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There's <a href="http://www.strandbooks.com/">the bookstore</a> (best slogan seen there; "Make America Read Again!"), and the more food. In this case, <a href="http://www.themeatballshop.com/">really excellent meatballs</a>.<br />
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There are the really gorgeous buildings. </div>
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And, of course, museums. Saturday was pretty nice for February- dry and about 45°F (7.2°C for my Canadian friends). But there was still a lot of slush on the streets, and we had planned for more indoor pastimes than outdoor. We went to see an exhibit on the <a href="http://www.mcny.org/exhibition/mastering-metropolis">history of zoning</a> in the city at the Museum of the City of New York. Much of it was a lesson in unintended consequences and misplaced incentives. Such as efforts to get builders to include public space in their planning which resulted in dozens of giant towers sitting in the middle of ugly bare plazas. </div>
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We went to see the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/cuba">Cuba exhibition</a> at the Museum of Natural History, and while we were there also took in the disturbing but inspiring exhibit <a href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/countdown-to-zero">Countdown to Zero</a>, talking about the efforts to eradicate various diseases. The Cuba exhibition was split between a rather superficial look at the people and history- the oppressive nature of the government there was soft-pedaled considerably- and a rather more interesting look at the native flora and fauna, including many species that are found only on Cuba. I highly recommend it. </div>
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Sunday it was colder and we dodged ice pellets in the morning, which turned to rain and finally drizzle as the day wore on. </div>
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At the Met, we went to see the exhibit on <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/picturing-math">Picturing Math</a>, which featured a number of drawings and prints from the Met's collections. We found it a bit uneven- many of the older prints were gorgeous. Some of the modern pieces were interesting, others would not be out of place in a high-schooler's geometry homework (one who wasn't necessarily passing). One of the more intriguing was a series of equations that were done as a collection by asking scientists and mathematicians to show the artist what they thought was the most beautiful equation. That exhibit would have been better, I thought, if there had been some effort to explain the equations or represent them visually. As an engineer, I recognized many of the equations, but didn't have the gut level understanding to appreciate their artistic qualities. From the math exhibit, we just wandered- there was a spectacular photographic exhibit. We lost ourselves in French 19th century paintings for a bit while tracking down the finished version of a sketch we'd seen in drawings exhibit. </div>
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It was after that, we went to lunch, and to see the <a href="http://skyscraper.org/">Skyscraper Museum</a>, which is small but interesting to us geeky engineer types. And then we finished up with a visit to Fraunces Tavern (where George Washington and his officers drank during the American Revolution), and a short visit to the NYC branch of the Museum of the American Indian. We hadn't expecially planned that last, but it proved another interesting stop. The building alone was worth the price of admission:</div>
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It's located in the Alexander Hamilton Customs House. And we spent a pleasant hour in the Central American section before the museum closed and we headed off to our last dinner in the city. After a certain amount of dithering, we decided on more deli food, and went to Katz's, and then waddled off to Penn Station in a stuffed condition. </div>
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Somewhat to our relief, the train was on time, and we got back to Boston to find freezing rain in the city and snow-covered roads outside it. So our weekend finished up at 1:30 AM Monday morning with us shoveling out a huge snowbank in front of the driveway so we could get the car into the driveway. But it was a terrific weekend, and entirely worth it! (There was lots of train knitting, so progress was made but nothing finished.)</div>
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And, the slideshow:</div>
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<iframe height="360" src="https://s269.photobucket.com/user/rfholly/embed/slideshow/NYC2017" width="480"></iframe>RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-82124520893576112442017-02-09T21:37:00.000-05:002017-02-09T21:39:34.444-05:00The Sound of SnowplowsThere are many sensory associations I have with winter- the sound of the wind, the sharp cold scent of the air, that translucent shade of pale, pale, blue in the sky that you only seem to get on a clear winter day. But one of the most evocative sounds is the sound of snowplows, scraping and clunking away outside in the dark, while I'm cozy indoors. <br />
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I'm not sure there's anyone on the eastern seaboard who hasn't heard about the snow today in the northeast. It was only the third time in eleven years that my work has closed early due to weather. It was a slow drive home- windy and snowy with poor visibility, but not otherwise notable. It did mean that I got to work at home in the afternoon with Biscuit on my lap. At least until he got annoyed that I kept tapping on the keyboard instead of paying attention to him. Then he bit me. I yelled at him and summarily dumped him off. <br />
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He grumped away in a dudgeon, and although he did eventually come back and settle next to me on the couch, I think he's still a little miffed. <br />
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It's been a pleasant quiet evening. We had waffles for dinner, and I finally got around to blocking the hat, scarf and socks, as well as washing the blue skein of sock yarn from last week. Here's an FO shot of the scarf:<br />
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Really, rather a lot like the last picture, but longer and without the knitting needles. But the real charm of this yarn is only evident when you look more closely. The cottony poofs are super soft, and the rayon twined around them has a subtle shine.<br />
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It's still not really my thing, but it has its own charm, and hopefully will provide comfort and pleasure to whomever winds up with it. <br />
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In addition to the sock, I've started to do some work on a baby afghan. Inexplicably, I appear not to have shown it to you before. It was a WIP that arrived on my doorstep some years back, along with the blue sock-yarn sweater. And I'd always meant to do something with it. It's a series of strips, and while there's no instruction on how they're meant to be joined, I have a plan. <br />
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Or at least I did until I laid them out side by side, and remembered why I hadn't just sewn them together ages ago. The problem is, there aren't enough of them. I have five, and a fair bit of yarn. But it's going to need at least another four or perhaps six to make it a reasonable size for a blanket. It did have the pattern with it, however, handwritten in pencil. So I cast on a new strip, quickly realized that my gauge is way different, went down a needle size to get gauge, and am finding the pattern rather charming, not to mention that the narrow width gives you a nice sense of progress, as the piece lengthens very quickly. <br />
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We'll see how it goes. This is going to be a test of my finishing skills, as putting these strips together is going to need some care to do neatly. <br />
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And last but not least, a new pair of mittens. I'm eager to finish off this brown variegated yarn. Together with the scarf/hat set, finishing this yarn will use up a whole bag from the stash. A small bag, only five skeins, but certainly welcome.<br />
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And with all this snow? Someone is going to need them!RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4735305373419794722.post-86716643716233742192017-01-29T14:17:00.000-05:002017-01-29T14:17:45.721-05:00BusyLots of movement on the crafting front this week. Here's the scarf I mentioned earlier. I like it surprisingly well knit up- I'm not usually a fan of thick and thin yarns, but it does look pretty. One more skein to knit up and I'll be through with this yarn.<br />
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And here's the completed chemo cap to go with it:<br />
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On the sock front, it's out with the old- I have finished the Moorish Lattice Socks:<br />
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And here's a close-up of the pattern. Pretty, but the way it decreases stitches for a couple of rows makes the leg pull in much more than the total stitch count would lead you to believe. <br />
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And then it's in with the oldest- for the new Use-Your-Oldest-Yarn KAL, I unearthed this project.<br />
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This came to me in a big bag of yarn odds and ends from my Mom, that she had gotten from someone else. (Note that I asked her about this yesterday and she denies everything. But this is my blog, so my story.) Anyway, this was long before I started knitting socks and I said, "Really? Fingering weight yarn. And it's pretty, but even if I finished it, the sweater would be too small for me." And my mom spun me this tale out of whole cloth about how it probably belonged to some elderly knitter who couldn't finish it, and how grateful she would be to know that someone else took on the project. <br />
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Now, this was a long time ago- pre-internet, and I had not at that time encountered the knitterly habit of putting misbehaving projects in eternal time-out. So I fell for my mom's pathetic (and completely fictional) speculation, and took the project. Which has sat in my stash for roughly 20 years. In the intervening time, the pattern got lost. I tried at one point to reverse engineer it. I discovered that even if I could duplicate the pattern, the original knitter and I have vastly different gauges. <br />
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....and then, many years later I was thinking about frogging it and doing something with the yarn and looked at the label to see that it is in fact superwash wool and nylon. In fingering weight. Sock yarn, in other words. And finally I had a use for the stuff. So. Despite having A Plan, the sweater continued to hang out- the lace was pretty, I had other sock yarn, and I just never got a Round Tuit. Until the KAL. So, today I frogged it onto my yarn swift. <br />
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And skeined it up so I can give it a quick wash and try to get the 20-year-old squiggles from prior knitting to uncurl. Here's all the yarn wound up.<br />
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And I've cast on a sock, from the unknit skein. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for making the KAL deadline, as it would mean knitting 2 pairs of socks in this same yarn back-to-back, but at least it's gotten me to frog the sweater and get the yarn ready to use. Which is way more than half the battle.<br />
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The pattern is the Open Rib stitch, again from my go to sock book, Sensational Knitted Socks, and it's one I haven't tried before. So I'm looking forward to getting a few more repeats on the needle and seeing how it looks. And I'm psyched to have completed a couple of things and cast on new projects!RobinHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10325359641194305097noreply@blogger.com1