When Knitting Was a Manly Art

8:00am - Overcast - Current temp. 41.5F(5.3C)

Max 49.1F(9.5C) - Min 36.1F(2.3C) — 0.04″/1mm precipitation

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8:30pm - Current temp. 47.5F(8.6C)
A strange day. Warm and dry, but mostly cloudy all day. Managed a bit over 56F with very little sun. I guess I shouldn’t complain…

Popularity: 6% [?]

Back online with a new monitor. While I’d love to have a new LCD flat display, I decided the cheaper CRT monitor was going to have to do. Managed to pick up a nice 17″ that’s probably the best I’ve had since the orignal display that came with this computer. Able to crank it up to 1280×1024 and still be readable. The poor laptop is just outclassed with only 64Meg of memory and a slow Celeron.

PNW Shawl is back in the works. I’m going to try to get a picture of progress, though as a garter stitch shawl it’s not going to show well until it’s fully blocked.

And I’ve increased the toe of the second toe up sock out to 76 stitches. I’ll knit a few rounds to check for a fit before I decide about ripping out the first. But I suspect that this one will fit better. Gauge appears to be holding the same (9 stitches/inch and 13 rounds/inch). I’m managing a couple rounds on the shawl and 4-6 rounds on the sock each morning.

Popularity: 7% [?]

7:00am - Light clouds - Current temp. 36.1F(2.3C)

Max 51.3F(10.7C) - Min 36.1F(2.3C) — 0.35″/9mm

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8:30pm - Current temp. 42.1F(5.6C)
Dry for a change. Little rain, but also little sun.

Popularity: 7% [?]

My monitor died this afternoon, leaving me with a running system and no way to easily shut it down. After a bit of blind typing I managed to get both the desktop and firewall systems shut down. A very quiet room right now.

Currently working on a very old (at least 5 years old) and very underpowered laptop running Win98SE. Luckily I had installed ZoneAlarm firewall and it’s safe for now. I’ve changed all my email lists to digest mode and I finally got Thunderbird installed on this so my email will still come down. Hopefully tomorrow I and my credit card will be able to find a replacement and I’ll be back on a more up to date and speedy machine.

I’ve stopped knitting the first toe up sock and cast on the second. 80 stitches is really too big and it looks like I’m not going to have enough yarn to finish it at the length I prefer. So… I’m working the second one to 76 stitches and if it looks like it’s going to work out better, I’ll rip out the first and redo it. It’s going to be a side project also, as I’ve started up again on the Pacific Northwest Shawl

Popularity: 7% [?]

7:15am - Rain - Current temp. 38.8F(3.8C)

Max 46.9F(8.3C) - Min 38.3F(3.5C) — 1.22″/31mm precipitation

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7:45pm - Current temp. 39.4F(4.1C)
Another wet day, but a bit of sun also and finally into the low 50’s today.

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8:00am - Light clouds - Current temp. 41.5F(5.3C)

Max 48.6F(9.2C) - Min 38.8F(3.8C) — 0.67″/17mm precipitation

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9:00pm - Current temp. 41.0F(5.0C)
Another wet and cool day. Around 0.6″ so far and rain continues.

Popularity: 6% [?]

We lost our little ewe this afternoon.

She’s been on a downward slide since Wednesday, but was still up and mobile yesterday evening when I fed. This morning she was down again and I just couldn’t face putting her down. She finally died late this afternoon. At an elderly 11 years of age, her time had finally come. One of the inevitable results of raising animals. Sometimes they die.

Knitting continued this morning and I was able to turn the heel and finish decreasing off the gusset stitches and finishing the heel. All the fun stuff is done, so I’ll now start spending time with the PNW Shawl again.

Weather.. The past 48 hours of rainfall was a record since I started recording temperatures and rainfall here on the ridge top. Nearly 5 inches. Basement is starting to flood, pastures are turning into mud pits and the outdoor cats are complaining loudly. The worst seems to be over, but rain is predicted on and off the rest of the week.

Popularity: 8% [?]

7:15am - Rain - Current temp. 47.5F(8.8C)

Max 48.6F(9.2C) - Min 43.2F(6.2C) — 3.7″/94mm precipitation (and it’s still coming down hard)

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9:15pm - Current temp. 40.5F(4.7C)
Another wet day, though not as bad as yesterday. A bit over .6″ at 6pm with a total over the past 48 hours of nearly 5″.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Spent time in Salem helping my brothers clean out my folks house. Kind of sad to see the place so empty. Nothing much left but what will be sold at a garage sale.

Spent a couple of hours with my folks at their new place. Nice two bedroom apartment and for the most part they seem to be happy with the arrangement. A bit sad about losing the house and all the memories, but this is much easier, much safer and just plain better.

Rain. It’s been raining hard since sometime last night. Over 1/2 inch overnight and more than 1.5 inches since early this morning and it still comes down. Here’s a recent Doppler radar picture. We’re a *bit* SW of the black dot at center (location of the radar) and the yellow marks the heaviest rain. I’m betting on 2 inches by morning.

Popularity: 7% [?]

7:30am - Rain - Current temp. 43.2F(6.2C)

Max 48.6F(9.2C) - Min 39.4F(4.1C) — 0.55″/14mm precipitation

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9:00pm - Current temp. 48.6F(9.2C)
Rain - Rain - Did I mention Rain. More than 1.5 inches since 7:30 this morning and it’s still coming down hard. I expect we’ll top 2 inches by morning. Mother Nature making up for a dry winter.

Popularity: 7% [?]