Major Knitter

Who's Got a Knitting Problem?

MissE sent me the sweetest handmade thank you note this week.  She had this cartoon in her stash and I feel honored that she thought to send it to me.

Yes.  I know you could all see me knitting spaghetti into something at a restaurant.  Don't say you haven't thought about it, too.

Perhaps I could even make some pompom meatballs.

Thanks MissE.  You made my day.

All Set for Season Five

I've got my Downton Abbey Bate's Brambleberry Tea and the show is about to begin.

No knitting will happen during the season kick-off.

Joy to the World!

I love Christmas Carols.  But I am so over listening to them on the radio.  They only play holiday tunes on the radio - and no Christmas Carols.  Heaven forbid they play any religious music.  So I go onto Pandora and listen to a radio station I have created based on "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" and get all the Christmas Carols I like.  

 

Here's a new one I just discovered.  A four-part harmony of Joy to the World has always been a favorite of mine.  My father was a baritone and my mother was an alto.  This was one of her best songs.  

Feel free to sing along with these four very talented musicians.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders and wonders of His love

 

You've Been Pronouncing "Intarsia" Incorrectly

Since I've been knitting my Rent Collecting Shawl over and over, I've been looking at different videos and trying to figure out the best way to teach people how to knit garter stitch intarsia correctly.

Here's the video I watched that first piqued my curiosity.

 

What?  Why is she saying in-tar-ze-uh?  (Which by the way, is close, but slightly incorrect).

 

I have always pronounced it this way - similar to Eunny Jang.  After all, she's Eunny Jang.  She knows everything about knitting.

 

That may be true... except apparently Eunny doesn't know how to pronounce intarsia properly.

She pronounces it in-tar-zhuh.  

*BUZZER SOUND*  (Wrong answer - sorry Eunny!)

I never, ever imagined that the biggest lesson of all would be learning how to pronounce the word intarsia.

Intarsia does not rhyme with anything.

It does not rhyme with Marsha.

The closest thing it rhymes with is dyslexia.

-----------------

So I looked it up from several references.  It turns out I have never, ever heard anyone pronounce intarsia correctly.  Have you?

------------------

Merriam Webster Dictionary tells us that it's pronounced

in-ˈtär-sē-ə

You can click on that little speaker and listen over and over again until you've got it, too.

Let's get everyone to pronounce this knitting term correctly.  Spread the word.  The word is intarsia.

 

 

 

 

Prayer Works!

Last night the Big Sioux River crested at 1 a.m. - earlier than expected and did NOT hit the levels that were forecasted.  The crews are already working on reopening the interstate.  My sister did not have to relive the actual flood nightmare of 2011.

Thank you all so much.

 

Please Pray

It seems like just yesterday that my sister Ellen had the Missouri River in her basement all summer.  It was three years ago.  They're really just finally getting their house back to normal - refinishing things little by little.  

And if you've been paying attention to all the news in the Midwest, you probably know where I'm headed with this.  

Somewhere between the heavy snow, big thaw, thunderstorms, tornadoes, broken levee upstream and just pure bad luck, a huge part of the interestate near my sister's home is being turned into a levee and they're waiting to see if they're going to be flooded once again... this time by the Big Sioux River.

The water is expected to peak Friday at 6 p.m.

Please keep everyone in the South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska flood zones in your thoughts and prayers.  But especially pray for my sister, if you don't mind.

 

 

Bleeding Hearts

For Throw Back Thursday, I thought I'd share a picture of the bleeding hearts in my yard.  I have white bleeding hearts that decorate the front of my house.  

Bleeding hearts always remind me of my childhood, especially the very early 1970s.  One of my neighbors had pink bleeding hearts in the back yard and I remember how mesmerized I was with their beauty when I first discovered them as a child.  Each spring I would enjoy seeing them and watching them grow - in awe of nature's ability to create a flower in the shape of a heart.

Do you have a TBT memory?

Sure Sign of Spring

I love it when April rolls around.  The snow finally melts.  The yards get cleaned up.  OK - I could do without the return of leaf blowers!  And the early flowers start to bloom.  I have a bunch of daffodils that come up the very first of April before anyone else's daffodils are blooming.  I think it's because they get the protection of the stone wall.  

These have been in bloom all week, and I just got around to snapping this picture.  Happy Spring everyone.

Ten Years of Blogging Broken Down Into Bits

A lot has happened in the last ten years.

• 3,648 days
• 87,552 hours
• 5,253,120 minutes
• 10,944 hours of knitting (estimating ONLY 3 hours per day)
• 200 massage therapy appointments to counteract the 10,944 hours or knitting
• 11 aborted attempts at yoga for same reason
• 8 years as Scoutmaster
• 96 months of camping trips
• 288+ nights of sleeping in a tent
• 427 recorded projects on Ravelry
• 3,103 posts
• 1,855,734 page views
• 10,648 comments
• 103 handknit chicken egg cozies
• 17 Wonderful Wallabies
• 100 pairs of socks
• 60 recorded recipes
• 72 original patterns
• 586 weekly knitting bees:  (SNL, Wednesday Knitting, Craft Clutch, Church Prayer Shawl Ministry)
• countless mini socks
• many friends - both virtual and physical

It's been a very good decade.

Ragtime Remix

I'm not a night owl.  I never have been.  But nowadays, I sort of wish I were.  I seem to like so much of Jimmy Fallon that I wish I were able to stay up late and watch his show.

 

I really enjoyed this one.  I'm not sure what the parody refers to  - but any group of men who can pull off a barber shop quartet are pretty cool in my book.