When Knitting Was a Manly Art

End of a long and very tiring day. Up and moving since 4am, on the train for about 12 hours, about 100 digital photos and a couple mpeg movies to go through.

No knitting done today and I’ll post something about the trip when I get a few hours of rest.

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Just about done with the front. About 8 more rows to go, which should be finished tomorrow and I can start again on the back.

Next couple of days are probably not going to be much more productive. We have a 12 hour train trip on Saturday from Banks, Oregon to Wheeler, Oregon on the coast and back. This is being sponsored by The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and will follow an old rail line that is mostly used for freight these days, but was an important passenger line at the turn of the century. We were introduced to this line by a book written by a local author. Paul Michael Clock’s ‘Punk, Rotten & Nasty’ is an interesting study of the building of a rail line in the late 1880’s. If you like trains, you’ve got to find this book.

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Seems that my alter-ego domain (oldhippy.org) is down and with it all the pictures. Actually it appears that the whole system is down, including the main server site where I would normally be able to report problems. Sigh…

Update 12:20PDT. Fire and loss of power at NAC (Network Access Corporation) in New Jersey, has taken a boatload of systems down. Hosting Matters, hosts Blogomania and many other websites, is still not back up which means lots of blogs are also offline. Things are *slowly* coming back online. Not the oldhippy, unfortunately.

Update 1700PDT. Everything seems to be working again.

On the knitting front, almost as bad as the internet. Nothing done this morning. Not feeling well and can’t focus enough to pick up the needles.

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Section E is complete and 3 rows of the last pattern for the front have been started.

And it’s long…. My row guage seems to be off. Each pattern section should be a bit over 2 3/4″ and most are hitting a bit more than 3″. Don’t know what I could have done differently, as my stitch guage is pretty much on. I could have shortened the straight stitch area, but it’s a bit too late now. Good thing Eileen likes long sweaters..

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Over the years, we’ve had a number of cats born here on the farm. First, a little black and white pinto Momcat and then her daughter, Zoom produced many litters. Zoom’s last litter was born at the end of last year and she disappeared in January after 4 years living here on the farm.

Furball and his sister Mia were the last litter and were captured at about the age of 5 or 6 weeks. Weaned and *very* feral when we caught them, they were a big handful - I had the scratches and bite marks to prove it. I jokingly called them ‘Hellfire’ and ‘Damnation’.

A lot of hard work has ended up with a couple of cats that are at least able to be petted and in the case of Furball, a real sweety.

I’ve always been intrigued by his colors and a bit of research as turned up the fact that he’s a ‘Black Smoke’. The top 1/2 of each hair is black and the bottom 1/2 is a silver gray. He almost shimmers when he walks or runs. And on top of that, he has this amazing halo/ruff of silver hair that surrounds his head. A very handsome young man.

Thumbnails linked to *large* photos.

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Ok, here’s this morning’s shot of the Gansey. Not quite as far as I thought I was, though. Still about 11 rows to complete this section. A pretty fast and easy section, I’ll probably be done with it tomorrow.

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Two years ago today I resigned my position with Intel as a Software Evaluation Engineer.

At the time it was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s led to an amazing change for me.

I’ve gone from a lifestye supported by a $60K a year job to surviving on around $12K a year from whatever I can earn. We’ve started a small nursery, I’m in the best physical shape I’ve been in 15 or 20 years, and more importantly, I’m the happiest I’ve been in years. The money was nice, but I’m more than compensated by the lack of pressure, seeing a job completed day to day and finally, being my own boss. No regrets and no changes planned.

Obligatory Knitting Content…. About 3/4 through pattern E. I’ll try to post a photo later today or tomorrow.

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Ok, the mousie is complete, including a too short i-cord tail. It was knit with handspun and as the yarn was a bit fuzzy and a bit funky, stitch and cable definition are a little poor, but it was fun.

I ended up stuffing it with raw wool, as the seed stitch fabric is a bit loose and I was afraid the the drugs^H^H^H^H^Hcatnip we have in the house would end up leaking out everywhere. I finished it and put it on the floor and got no reaction. Finally Eileen pick it up and said ‘If you guys don’t want it, I do’ and it now resides on her computer desk. So no cute kitty and mouse pictures from here. At least someone appreciates my hard work…

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WooHoo… Mousie is done.. Well, almost…

I’ve still got to stuff it and sew up the cast on seam, but I’ve already got a cat eyeing it. Made from handspun, it still carries a bit of smell of the sheep and the yarn is a bit coarse, but it was instant gratification and lot’s of fun. Working on a i-cord tail to add a bit of panache….

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Pattern D is completed. Only two more pattern sections to go and front is complete. It feels long to me, but I seem to be well within pattern measurements.

I’m also joining in on Wendy’s catnip mouse knit-along. I’ll post a picture of it when completed. Spent about 1/2 hour on it before I went out to feed and have got about 10 rows done.

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