Archive | February 2004

The Hot Chocolate River

flood1a (30k image)
Only it isn’t very hot! lol But a nice, rich chocolately brown. there’s some logs and root wads coming down. Mostly stuff left from previous high waters, it looks like. I’ve seen nothing green yet. Coffee Creek is up but not as much as the river. Randy says Swift Creek is really roaring, tho. The rain let up just before dark and is only sprinkling now. The gullies are still roaring, maybe they’ll get a chane to drain a bit beore the next one. Spring is in the air! πŸ˜‰
By the way, I met several neighbors on the bridge when I went to take this pic. Everybody wanted to see what was happening.

High water

flood4a (45k image)
This picture is of Treasure Creek, just before the culvert under the driveway. Don’t know what C.C. looks like this morning but according to USFS and BLM reports both it and the River are pretty high and the lake is filling rapidly! Hope you are all still on an island! It is still coming down hard here. The Temp this morning is 44 degrees. This is one of those they call a Pineapple Express. ‘Sposed to get a break this evening. But more on the way. Looks like the drought here is done. Rosy seems to think they need more rain up there. I’d be willing to share! πŸ˜€ We got wind, too. Power was out yesterday for short times, (hour or so the longest) and I’m almost willing to bet we’re gonna lose it again today. We haven’t had a Spring Run-off in awhile and that term is usually reserved for hot spring day when the sun is doing the snow melting. Rain melts have a tendency to cause floods. This looks like the first chance the Corps Of Engineers has gotten to test the dike work they did the last time Coffee Creek decided to move out of it’s bed. Got within about 15’ of the house then. :O

Has it been fourty days and fourty nights yet?

flood042a (33k image)
This mirky picture is of Treasure Creek, just before the culvert under the driveway. Looks like it may go over the driveway by afternoon. I took the pic out the bathroom window, the only one with no screen to shoot though. I didn’t want to go out there to get a close up! πŸ˜₯ Don’t know what C.C. looks like this morning but according to USFS and BLM reports both it and the River are pretty high and the lake is filling rapidly! Hope you are all still on an island! It is still coming down hard here. The Temp this morning is 44 degrees. This is one of those they call a Pineapple Express. ‘Sposed to get a break this evening. But more on the way. Looks like the drought here is done. Rosy seems to think they need more rain up there. I’d be willing to share! πŸ˜€ We got wind, too. Power was out yesterday for short times, (hour or so the longest) and I’m almost willing to bet we’re gonna lose it again today. We haven’t had a Spring Run-off in awhile and that term is usually reserved for hot spring day when the sun is doing the snow melting. Rain melts have a tendency to cause floods. This looks like the first chance the Corps Of Engineers has gotten to test the dike work they did the last time Coffee Creek decided to move out of it’s bed. Got within about 15’ of the house then. :O
Randy’s gone off to see about cutting down Treasure Creek a bit. You guys all stay warm, and dry if you can. We may get our toes wet but we’ll be fine and I’ll report if we have power. :confused:
Hazel

The new sock knitting loom

Kroy_sock2 (34k image)
I used some Patons Kroy sock yarn that I had in stash from http://www.tornadowood.com/ called “Stained Glass”. It is a tiny bit heavier than the German self patterning yarn “Opal”, but not significantly.
This sock was never finished. I got nearly to the heel and took it off the loom. I cannot add to it now because I dropped it in the parking lot of the dentist office with my little knitting bag and someone took it home with them :(, instead of turning it in to the dentist’s receptionist, as you all would have done. πŸ™‚
But I think there is enough here to show you what the loom can do. It does not come with a sock pattern. Sorry… you’ll have to do that yourself. 😎 I’m sure you’ll be better at it than I am!
I do want to repeat… This is not a loom for those who need instant gratification! This :O is for serious knitters. :satisfied: The pins are set at 1/8th inch so it makes a tight, though light weight fabric with these fine sock or baby yarns.

Toe of the sock

Kroy_sock5 (27k image)
Here comes the toe of the sock out of the loom. I cast-on using the flat method and laid the pull down string across it. The second row started the e-wrap for the round knitting. I used 10 stitches for the toe, but would increase that to about 16 or 18 the next time, I think. It looked a bit pointed. Then increased one stich each end, both sides until it was the width of the loom… 60 stitches around.

Closing short rows.

Kroy_sock3 (11k image)
This should be about “life-sized”. The toe of the sock needed short rows which left a row of holes. This is how I closed them. I used a Size F crochet hook, I think.

Chaining up the increases.

Kroy_sock4 (45k image)
Here’s a close-up of how I chained the spaces left by the increases. It seemed like the easiest method of dealing with them. Short-rowing leaves gaps and the stick-knitting method seemed an awkward (to say the least!) method of dealing with them on the knitting frame.

Facts & Confusion about the new wood

Ida_wood (11k image)
Randy called his supplier and discovered that the name is not Ida, it’s Ipe. The atrocious handwriting on our invoice was where this mistake came from! I found the information below on the internet. It is a lovely wood. Randy says he has both flat-sawn and quarter sawn. I think the picture I have is the flat sawn. It’s heavy and feels very smooth. All our wood comes from plantation grown trees.
Sorry about the confusion.
The Tree: Ipe is a large canopy tree, growing to a height of 120 feet in the natural rainforest, with trunk diameter up to 3 feet and a clear bole of 60 feet. Some specimens grow to 150 feet with a 6 foot diameter trunk.
The Wood: Ipe heartwood is light to dark olive brown, often with attractive lighter or darker striping and striking contrasts with the lighter color sapwood. It has a fine texture, medium luster, and a somewhat oily appearance. Ipe is very hard (two to three times as hard as oak), very strong and very heavy. It weighs approximately 70 pounds per cubic foot and sinks in water. Ipe is rated as extremely durable.
Uses: Ipe is prized for quality furniture and decorative veneers, and because of its strength and durability, is used in turnery, industrial flooring, and textile mill items.

My carder waste yarn.

!fine_waste_yarn (74k image)
I want to make a vest, if I have enough. I have some wool/Samoyed blend that I think i’ll spin up to match. This is a three ply, by the way. The colors in this don’t show up much, I guess I blended too well. πŸ˜› So I’m thinking about dying the white Kool-aide orange. I thought I’d try weaving it on the 12″ or 14″ looms. Maybe combined with some knitting.

Grandmother’s new Vest

!Gramma_in_her_vest_a (21k image)
My sister Rosy spun some Cormo wool and her own angora and dyed it springtime colors to make a vest for Grandmother. I knitted it on the ISM (but the button bands are hand knit!) and added buttons that were given me by a elderly neighbor more than 30 years ago. They aren’t as old as my Grandmother-in-law, who will be 100 next August, but I thought them fitting!
She likes the vest and is tickled pink that Rosy thought to make this yarn for her. So am I.