Fantastic !

My Sirkka scarves came this week. I'm in heaven ! Fantastic colors that practically leap out of the pictures !

Spring has Sprung

Was so surprised to wake up yesterday morning and see an inch of snow covering the yard. I think it's the first time I've seen snow in April in my lifetime here. Yes, I'm a rare native Washingtonian ! Hail, Emmet Watson ! Sunday I spent some time taking pictures in the yard appreciating the beauty of the day.

























This is the cupboard again painted by my mother years ago. I now use it for my yarn stash. The decorative sunflower like design is quite cheery.

"The better part of happiness is to wish to be what you are."
Desiderius Erasmus

Mitered Shawl and reminiscing.........

Making slow progress on my CPY Mitered Shawl pattern.
It's pretty relaxing and about as much as I can handle
with my brain being fried !







This is my late father Cecil V. Lowe. What a character. This will become knitting related later in the story ! He was waiting for the bus one day and a Mercer Island Reporter photographer stopped to take his picture as he thought he had quite the unique face. He wanted to be Scottish in the worst way though I have yet to prove it thru my genealogy research but that didn't stop him.
The surname Lowe is associated with the clan MacLaren so he had kilts made in that tartan and learned to play the bagpipes. He loved music and also played the violin, mandolin, dulcimer, and accordion. He took all five of us kids to our music lessons and stayed at every one of them so he could listen and learn. He also loved his hobbies of wood carving, blacksmithing, clay sculpture, and stained glass. He was quick with a story, quote, quip, joke, you name it. He loved to wear his tam, bad polyester suits, and Swedish clogs-a unique look !

Years ago I tried spinning some yarn on my great grandmother's flax wheel and knit him a tam. Well, not knowing anything about spinning, the yarn was so tightly wound I broke a needle. That turned into a pillow ! I knit him a pair of socks with the Swedish word for father " Far " into the heel. He quipped " Does that mean you think your father is a heel ? " He wore that pair out. He died too young in 1984 and we still miss him terribly.

He was the Special Education Director for Bellevue Public Schools. He helped Governor Dan Evans with the Equal Education For All bill in the 70's I believe..
Around 1988 a woman named Chris Heaton wanted to build a playground/park especially for handicapped children. When she proposed this to the school district people kept telling her it would be a great memorial for my father and told many "Cec stories". She said he sounded like a gruff bear of a man with a marshmallow heart. She envisioned a statue of him as a bear playing the bagpipes, wearing a tam with glasses. It was made by Washington State Artist Richard Beyer who is locally famous at least, for the statues " Waiting for the Interurban" in Fremont. He did a wonderful job depicting our father. The little bear cubs represent the kids who were in the program and had passed. The one cub is holding it's paw in a typical Down's Syndrome way. The park is located in front of Sherwood Forest Elementary School on the Eastside. It's called the Cecil V. Lowe Memorial Park -For Cec and his kids.
I really liked Mr. Beyer's work before so it was wonderful to have him create this. There is a book about him called " The Art People Love - Stories of Richard S. Beyer's Life and his Sculpture". One of these days I'm going to go try and find most of the ones in the book and see them for myself.

My Dad had a sign outside his office that said " If I had to live my life over again I wouldn't have the strength ". Some days I feel that way, but other days it seems like a rather amusing anecdote. He had his faults to be sure as we all do, but I'm thankful for the unique and interesting upbringing this provided me.



On the Scottish theme this picture came from the Knitting Zone e-newletter. It is very lovely and if I didn't have so many projects already it would be fun to try.

Not much new

Ryan painted this female mallard from a picture he took in Sweden at
Växbo Kvarn, the linen museum near Järvsö. He just mailed it off for a state contest. Here he is with his instructor Carol Noble at the classroom in the Arts of Snohomish gallery. She's been a tremendous teacher and a very caring person. He's now working on a painting from a picture he took of Kronobergs Castle ruin outside of Växjö. I can't wait until it's finished. He is a sweet and funny guy.











Not much new here knitting wise. Sounding like a broken record it's still hard to concentrate when knitting. I'm constantly making mistakes but hopefully this too shall pass. Just a few pictures from my stash. CPY Merino Frappe' and Stripe, and Mountain Colors Twizzle "Ruby River"















Had a nice chat with Barbro this morning. Love those calling cards.
It's so amazing to be able to talk to someone clear across the world
at such reasonable prices now ! This cheered me up.

Another board meeting today so off to work on that ! Besides, Wennie the Corgi, is wanting to play "toy" ! Who could resist that little face standing up on her short little legs with her squeaky toy ! I LOVE dogs. They are always so happy.

Focus on the positive. Life is a blessing and a gift.

Queen of the Unfinished Projects

Started yet another project. I like this CPY Merino yarn so much I bought more. Sheesh, I am addicted. Anyway, I used Merino Stripe-Meadow Violet and Merino Frappe-Charcoal. I like the way this turned out and want to play with a bunch of different color combinations in the future. I'm trying to jump start myself this morning with lots of coffee in my new mug purchased at the Nordic Heritage Museum gift shop. Blue is my favorite color and it has mini Dala horses on it. What more could one ask for !

A second cousin of mine in Sweden works for a logging/paper products company in Växjö. He said he'd like some logging pictures for his office of his great uncles who migrated here and worked as loggers. I've been trying to dig thru boxes looking for some. Here is my morfar in a picture called "The Human Fly" He was a high rigger. I never met him as he died in 1943. I'm afraid of heights so I don't take after him !

He grew up in extreme poverty in Värmland. There were eight kids and the parents in a two room cabin. The second room was for storage. They had no horses and had to walk everywhere. They had oatmeal for breakfast and dinner, potatoes and dried salt herring for lunc everyday. If the cow was giving milk they had that on their porridge. He, his brothers, and father would walk to Sundsvall to work in a large sawmill for some months during the year. That is 380 miles one way ! In later years they would take the train.
Morfar came here to find a better life and he did. I have the contract from the Liner company to get him to Bellingham. It was $100 in 1910 for the ship and train trip. I found you can search on the Ellis Island website for passenger lists and pictures of the boats they came on. That was very interesting.

Winter Wonderland

Much to our surprise it started snowing last Wednesday and thru the night. When we awoke Thursday morning there was 8" of snow. Thankfully I had the day off so could enjoy the beauty of the crisp clean wonderland. Tess and Sherman, the minis, played in it on and off all day. Tess was extra cute by burying her head in as deep as she could and then flinging the snow up in the air over and over in what seemed like much joy. Wish I owned a video camera. Wennie was funny to watch with her body just above the snow and her little Corgi bunny butt dashing thru it all. Mari, our ten year old Lab/Whippet mix had mixed feelings about it all. She definitely takes after the Whippet side with her demur and ladylike demeanor. She hates water and will walk miles out of her way to avoid a mud puddle. In her eyes it is only fit for drinking !














This is my progress on the Crystal Palace Mitered Shawl.
I like the feel of the yarn.











We had another board meeting today for the Nordic Knitting Conference. I think it went very well. I appreciate everyone's hard work. Registration will probably be up by late Spring.
We also talked about having a tour of the Museum's fiber arts related artifacts and behind the scenes collection. That will be fantastic I think !

Nordic Lights Socks

http://spindlicity.com/winter2006/nordic_lights.shtml

Nothing much new here knitting wise. It is still so hard to concentrate. While it was slow at work I found this pattern on Knittingpatterncentral.com. My sister in law forwarded the link to this website. Lots of free patterns.

If my synapses ever start firing again I need to find just the right
project for this Ullcentrum yarn I bought in Sweden. I love the rings of color on the wound ball of two ply. While I used the nystepinna Barbro gave me to wind the lace weight I listened to the soothing CD "Romance of the Violin" with Joshua Bell.

Greetings !

Hello Knit Cafe' Karlstad from Seattle Nordic Knitters !!

Nordic Track

Well, it's time to get back on the Nordic Knitting track again. It's been several months since I've worked on anything Scandinavian. This is the Schoolhouse Press hat I started over a year ago which Wennie, the Corgi, chewed the needles off. She has destroyed circulars, DPN, had her own fiber festival (taken from another blog with the same problem) with roving and balls of yarn. The latest casualty is a ball of kid mohair. Some dog owners never learn !

I'm sure knitting while on a treadmill has been done before but if one
wanted to do that here are a few yarn caddies featured in the Spring 2006 Spin Off issue. This is the same issue that had the fabulous Estonian Sheep Puppets.
I think I'd fall flat on my face though if I tried !

The one above is called "Cabled Yarn Caddy" by Maureen McGinnis Patterson.
The other is " Crocheted Bag" by Meta Thompson.
She was given an old piece that had belonged to the grandmother of a second cousin on a trip to Sweden. She recreated it into this cute little bag. The way I crochet though it'd end up being big enough to carry a basketball in !

Elvis and coffee

Hey P.I.

There's a whole lotta hunka, hunka burning love here in Seattle when you come visit your family ! The offer is still open. We'll go to the all you can eat fried peanut butter and banana sandwich buffet first thing !

Do you know how hard it was to get three very silly kids to hold still
during this picture ? This is a good as it gets. I kept expecting
Graham Chapman to burst in!

How appropriate is this for the PNW Nordic Knitter ?
(and no we don't drink colored water in Seattle as is rumored, I drink
mine with blue milk !)














From Knit Picks

New Designs from Sirkka Könönen !

A letter came in the mail today from Sirkka Könönen with
two of her new brochures with new designs plus a few familiar
favorites. I LOVE the colorwork ! Included is some metalwork also but
that is for another entry !







My absolute personal favorite !


We are trying to work out the high finances for purchasing two of her
fabulous scarves. I can't wait until they finally come to my doorstep.

I am midway down the first sleeve of my Lumpy Bumpy Sweater.
Anna has decided perhaps it is not quite her style so I will be awash
in a sea of purple ! I guess I WILL be one of those old ladies
who wear that color !

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built."

Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day and 'This Is My Story,' 1937

Needles of Fire

I check Barbros blog every few days or so and find
something new ! Her needles are on fire !I learned
about Clapotis from her. The top two are Koigu,
the other is Claudias Hand Painted Cherry Chocolate.
Beautiful !

Swedish inspired tattoo !

I was pretty amazed that my 20 year old daughter Anna decided to get a tattoo. Even more surprising was that she had her brother design it as a treble clef with the Swedish flag in it !





It is so great as a rank amatuer to be learning about all the great fibers out there. Read on a Yahoo list about Evelyn C. winning the Buffalo Gold contest with her "Heartland Shawl" I asked her to bring it to the Nordic Conference meeting today. It is so beautiful and wonderfully soft.



More information on Buffalo yarn on
http://buffalogold.net

The meetings for the Conference have gone well. Everyone has been working hard.It will be so exciting. Disappointed Sirkka Könönen won't be there but very happy it's happening at all !

"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours."

Swedish Proverb

Piecework magazine

If you have the chance, buy the latest issue of Piecework magazine.
It features the history and techniques of Märta Stina,
a Swedish peasant woman who lived around the time of the latter 1800's.
New patterns are included inspired by her designs.
Also included is an article about two-end knitting.




It was so wonderful for me to get to see some of her coverlets in person at the Museum in Härnösand. Thanks again Carol for suggesting that.
Thank you again Cousin Per Ingemar for setting this up, being so patient with my requests, and thanks to Bengt and Ulrika for making it all possible !!

The need for simplicity

It's been so hard to concentrate. I've just been doing totally mindless knitting. The diagonal scarf is with Crystal Palace Merino Stripe "Meadow Violets"








The pattern from Fiber Trends I want to do in the
custom spun and dyed yarn from Kristin.








Look at the wonderful socks Barbro knit. The yarn seems to shimmer. It's Nature's Palette and the pattern is from Knitty.com