Janet and Susan outside NW Yarns in Bellingham Washington
Window display, NW Yarns
Colors!
Knitted 3D Piece by Textile Artist Ann Maki – on exhibit at Social Fabric, Bellingham Washington, March 2017
Ladies Who Go To Yarn Stores March 25, 2017
Ancestor Count Update March 23, 2017
My family tree keeps growing. The ancestor count now stands at 5263.
Is this person knitting her family tree? Makes me think of Madame Defarge in Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities.
I’m actually trying to identify and concentrate on those ancestors who emigrated to America. That number has increased to 333. (Even knitting those names would be a big project!)
Alternatively color bar charts come to mind with different colors representing geographic areas of origin, or destination. Height of each bar representing numbers of people. What about which generation 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th?
Stash Knitting Statistics January 2, 2010
Looking at my stash and thinking about those various wonderful colours that I’m using to make the blankets
Stash remaining
As an approximation, there are 9 balls of wool at 100 grams, and 26 balls of wool at 50 grams. The 100 gram balls are approximately 420 metres each, and the 50 gram balls are 210 metres each. This makes a total of 9240 metres. One mile = 609.34 metres. So if you stretched out the yarns in my stash they would measure approximately 13 1/3 miles. That’s a lot of knitting. Imagine stretching out the yarn to have it showing a path from my house to the centre of Dublin and back again – that would be about the distance. I would start knitting at my front door and walk along knitting, knitting, knitting until I got to Grafton Street, then I would turn around and knit my way back home.
While I’ve been knitting the blankets shown above, I read this book, The End of Sleep by Rowan Somerville. A new author for me – and a very good one. The author is Irish and the book is mostly about Arab culture and Cairo Egypt. I also enjoyed a couple of other novels about Arab culture. These books by an Egyptian author, Alaa Al Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building and Chicago, both recent best sellers.
Ducks and Piglets December 14, 2009
This morning I had an unexpected walk beside a stream. My Irish conversation group (Cupla Focla) was unable to meet because painting was being done upstairs in the library. So I ambled home instead and was very surprised to see ducks in the stream near the rear of the old shopping centre in Dundrum.
Ducks in the stream
away they swam
Then I went up to Airfield to check on the piglets. They have really grown a lot and are scurrying about in their pen. They get worn out and then they all huddle together and have a sleep.
Other photos taken at this time of year
Morning sun, 9:30 a.m. at Kilternan Market
rusty gate, abandoned, along the Upper Kilmacud Road
sky over Ashford, December afternoon
early morning from our upstairs window
Christmas trees for sale at Airfield 
a stone wall along my route, the Upper Kilmacud Road
Dundrum Main Street, late afternoon 
my knitting stash – latest photo – note the stash is getting smaller
Baby Blankets November 15, 2009
Here is the finished edition of baby blanket no. 1.
Baby Blanket no. 1 – Knit with 2 strands of sock wool – 1 strand multicoloured, 1 strand plain – size 3 100 cm circular needle but not knit in a circle. It was knit going back and forth all the time – garter stitch. It’s packed now for our move across the street – I’ll put in the measurements when we get unpacked.
Here is the remaining stash of knitting yarn – 50 balls of wool.
Remaining stash of knitting yarn – 50 balls.
How many more baby blankets will I knit? I’ve started my 2nd one so we’ll see how I get on. I have 112 stitches for the 2nd one. I am making it slightly narrower – maybe 2 inches narrower – than baby blanket no. 1.
the stash all packed and 3 different projects in the cat food boxes – all ready to be moved across the street to our temporary home
Might as well be getting some fun and some statistics out of this knitting, packing, and moving process.
Janet's thread 