Long Lake Yarns

My brother Norb is an avid fisherman and a wonderful woodworker. A few weeks ago I received a surprise package from him: this set of hand-painted fishing lures. He salvages hooks and parts from old lures and carves and paints new bodies. Of course, they are way too cool to load up with nightcrawlers and dangle on the end of a fishing line. We have them displayed at the lake house.

It’s been a warm winter so far. Not much snow. The ice is thick enough to walk on. But we are still not feeling comfortable hauling out the ice shanty. That hasn’t stopped a few of the foolhardies from racing around in their snowmobiles, though. So far, fortunately none have fallen through the ice. Falling through the ice on a snowmobile–I don’t think there’s much chance of a happy ending to that one.  Take time to watch this video, featuring a top Canadian thermal physiologist (Gordon Giesbrecht), to learn how to possibly survive a fall through the ice, as well as the proper way to perform an ice rescue.

To end this on a more peaceful note.  Here’s our frozen lake.  Long Lake, Hillman Michigan.

Steve’s hoodie is really Bruce Weinstein‘s “Hooded Sweatshirt” from his book Knits Men Want: The 10 Rules Every Woman Should Know Before Knitting for a Man. For me, Weinstein’s 10 Rules manage to be insulting to both men and to women. Stereotypes don’t move “the conversation” much forward. But his patterns, including this one, are quite nice.

I was anxious to post, so this is the unsteamed/unblocked version. And I am going to be re-knitting the hood.  It suffers from a few flaws I don’t want Steve to have to deal with. The pattern calls for a very simple hood. In this size, knit 14 inches, divide the stitches, and do a three-needle bind off.  That would create a hood that’s fit for a gnome. Way too cute for a grown man. Speaking about avoiding stereotypes. I’ll try that again, way too cute for Steve’s taste (or mine).

So, I started decreasing stitches on either side of the center two stitches a bit beyond half way up the hood. That helped a lot with the pointiness, though it’s still got a point (just way smaller). But the hood is also very wide at the neck. Lots of room for the chill winds that blow. I don’t know how to fix that, but I believe it would be helped by making a tighter fit. We all have big heads in this household, but 14 inches just seems way too loose. Maybe a tighter fit would tug the hood a bit at the neck so there wouldn’t be a fold of extra fabric that makes it look so monk-like. I’ll likely reknit the top half of the hood.

But first I have to lick my wounds for a bit. I know that, in knitting, not everything turns out as planned.

I’m also smarting from the fact that the sleeves are too long. I suppose it’s too much to wonder if maybe Steve will grow into them. I measured sleeve length from a sweatshirt with a fit Steve likes and added a half inch to the length the pattern called for. The only thing I can figure is that the armpits are lower in this pattern than in the sweatshirt I measured.

All that whining aside, it came out not half bad. Steve looks good in it (as long as he doesn’t try to wear the hood). And in cold weather even an ill-fitting hood is still better than going without.

This fun, quick knit  was donated to a charity auction at work. It was a shop pattern.

It’s definitely one of those knits where the yarn is the star: Noro’s Daria Multi, a DK weight, in 55% cotton, 45% rayon. Three small 54-yard skeins equals one small purse. The yarn is, well, cord. Really nice cord. You know it’s not yarn, even though it bears the Noro name. Looking at it makes you want to try it anyway. Unfortunately, trying it made me not much interested in knitting with it again. Others must have had the same reaction because it’s been discontinued.

Still, it knitted up to a cute little purse. Fairly sturdy–enough so that it didn’t seem to need a lining. But a better seamstress than I am would have sewn one up.

I thought my button choice, for once, was inspired. I prowled through Gram’s button tin and there it was. A button in the exact shade of green that Daria dabbed into her Multi.

This is a Head Hugger knitted from Nancy Lindberg‘s pamphlet NL-12, shown here in a Wool-Ease gray heather. I knitted it many years ago and it’s held up well. There’s some pilling, a common problem with this 80% acrylic, 20% wool worsted weight yarn. But it’s stood the test of many winters and still keeps my head, neck and shoulders quite cozy.

My son dubbed it a knitted babushka, which it sort of is. But I go for warmth rather than style. If you’re looking for the pamphlet, google “Nancy Lindberg Head Hugger” and you will find that many shops still carry this pattern, including WEBS.

Last weekend’s M.U.S.H. (Mid-Union Sled Haulers) dog sled race at Clear Lake State Park, near Atlanta (Michigan), caught me unawares in the adventurous hat department. This musher wore a knitted hat with dog fur spun into the yarn. Siberian Huskie, I believe.  It works for the athletes doing all the pulling, so why not also for the musher?

These Samoyeds donated their hair to be spun and knitted into another warm hat:

Samoyeds go through a massive twice-yearly shed (they “blow hair”) and also basically keep up a steady supply of tufts that a dedicated dog hair spinner put to good use in this hat. Its owner told me that there’s nothing warmer. This hat looks like it’s felted and molded itself to its owner’s head. The Samoyed has longer guard hairs but it’s the shorter, softer undercoat that sheds seasonally.

This musher looked so perky in what might have been a synthetic fur, I thought I’d show off her hat for its inspirational value. It takes a confident woman to pull off this look. (And she does!)

Finally, there’s this gentleman. Yes, for me, at first there’s a strong gross-out factor. But that wears off. Mushers have very strong bonds to their dogs. Since this was an event celebrating dogs, I assumed this was one (and not a coyote, for example). And I’m imagining that this was likely a very special dog. Maybe a team leader. Maybe he had heroic moments somehow. Maybe he spent tons of hours by his master’s campfire. Or I suppose maybe his master just decided he’d make a nice hat. Waste not, want not. Anyway, here they are:

I thought the races would be interesting and they were (see my previous post). But I was surprised that the day also provided some knitting inspiration.