Long Lake Yarns

Maybe I’m in a rut, knitting multiples of patterns. But this is such a good one. Take two colorways of Noro Silk Garden. The more different from one another the better. Cast on an odd number of stitches for the width you want, worked up in knit 1, purl 1 rib. I usually cast on 45 stitches in Silk Garden, on size 7 needles. Alternate the colorways, every two rows. That is, knit 2 rows from one skein and then knit two rows from the other.  Keep up the knit 1, purl 1 ribbing until you use up the yarn. It’s that easy.

Jared Flood has published a free pattern here, while disclaiming that he really invented it. If you’re interested in giving it a try, check his pattern for a handy tip so that the edges come out nice and neat. It works well.

We arrived at the lake Friday evening, March 2nd, just as the snow was starting to fall heavily. The trip from the Detroit area had been mostly rain. A hard rain whipped up into a frenzy by high winds. Once we got to the Rose City/Alger exit, traffic had thinned and the rain had stopped. The drive from there was uneventful, until the snow started at about Mio.

Arriving at the lake we found about 6 inches already on the ground. It had drifted considerably in places. This is the view from the inside on Saturday morning. Most of the county and apparently all of the lake lost power at about 5am Saturday morning. We were grateful that our generator kicked in, keeping our furnace, fridge, toilets and lights humming right along. The rural electrical co-op is being quoted as saying it could be a week before power is back. Their crew is already working at the airport, so hopefully it won’t be as long as they estimate.

Here are some scenes from the lake this weekend. Click on the photos for a closer look.

Any regular reader is probably getting tired of hearing how much I like Melinda VerMeer’s Bayfront Cap. But it really is a way cool pattern. I’ve modified it just to add a cuff. You cast on 168 stitches, with fingering weight yarn on about a size two circular needle, and you’re off to the races. Granted it’s a bit longer race than most hats, but it’s well worth the extra effort.

Knitted here in two drab colors to complement my son’s drably colored winter coat during a winter of drab dull weather. A perfect combination. But I’m happy to knit it. I still want to steam it some. This 10% nylon, 90% merino Aussie Oasis sock yarn is a bit uneven and steaming will improve the appearance of the hat.

VerMeer’s pattern is available as a Ravelry download. For my “investment”–the price of the pattern is now 2.99 US– this will be the 4th Bayfront I’ve gifted.

The ribbing can get a bit tedious. But the interesting crown decreases keep a knitter motivated to move forward.

Here’s a slideshow recap of my earlier Bayfronts:

Every living thing finds a way to make its house a home, but this group of hornets chose an eccentric building site. They constructed their home at the intersection of Sorenson Road and County Road 628. Literally.

I’m pretty sure this is a bald-faced hornet nest. The nest is basically paper. The queen’s daughter-workers chew wood fiber, mix it with the starch in their spit, and that’s how the nest is formed. One hornet mouthful at a time.

If you don’t mess with baldfaced hornets, they don’t mess with you. But if you do manage to disturb them, apparently there is almost no end to the number of times one of these hornets can sting you. And there can be several hundred hornets that call one nest a home.

The hornets freeze and die as cold temperatures move in. Nests are not re-used. The new queens hibernate outside the nest, waiting for the warmer weather to return. You can read more about Dolichovespula Maculata here.

If any readers are wasp/hornet knowledgeable, please let me know if you think I’ve identified this creature wrong. It is some other form of hornet?  Or maybe a paper wasp? The shape of the nest and the swirl construction made me decide otherwise.

A conservative estimate would be that I’ve knit about 10 dozen of these guys in the last 22 years. My son’s Waldorf pre-school gave out the pattern when he was 4. I knit gobs of them for a Waldorf holiday fair. Then he moved on to an elementary school that had a fall fun fair every year. More gobs. Kid birthday parties. More were knitted. I’ve gifted half a dozen at a time, in assorted colors and manes.

My Little Ponies were the rage back then. They were odd brightly colored plastic ponies with hairdos and costumes. Somehow I was convinced these were more wholesome. Possibly that’s a lot of hooey and the truth is I just like to knit these little guys.

Because of the name of this pattern, with its hand-written title, I believe that the source is likely the Acorn Hill Waldorf School in Silver Springs, Maryland. I’ve written to them and asked for permission to share the pattern. I did not receive a response so I have to take that as a “no.” But a close approximation of the pattern, with longer legs and not such a stout look, is the pony in Freya Jaffke’s Toymaking with Children. That is also a wonderful book for toymaking for children.