Cruel Summer

I don't know where you are in the world but I think a lot of us are experiencing uncomfortable temperatures and/or conditions this year. The town I live in, on the island of rain drizzle and fog (aka RDF) has had to implement some low grade water retention measures. Never thought that would happen here.

Those measures might be lifted soon. Or not. We had rain yesterday and this morning; unfortunately both times it turned into sauna conditions very soon afterwards. To quote Jakey, or rather quote what I interpret Jakey's grumpy face to be him saying, "I no like, Auntie!"

Speaking of the fluffy furry nephew, he's been miserable from the heat and humidity, and really letting me know about it. Between him passing along his discomfort all night, my getting a bright idea at 3am, and the continuing indoor/outdoor sauna conditions, I'm functioning on caffeine, and ice water today.

Oh, and a spritz bottle of water! Roomie picked up each of us one at the local dollar store a few weeks ago, and between those and the giant 2.3L/78ounce water jugs with handles she got on the same trip, we're trying to keep cool and hydrated.

Needless to say, I haven't been knitting a whole lot this past bit. Thanks to last night's bright idea, I've got another new design in the "once I have the right yarn I can cast-on a sample" stage though! I have to confess I'm on quite a shawl kick this last while.

Speaking of my shawl designs, a new one will be going on my needles this fall. When I was in Town last month, I got to pop into The Artisan's Loft downtown on Water Street, and I met Pam from Windswept Fibers & Designs🔗 (link to the WSFD website). She dyes some of the loveliest colorways, and she just happened to have several hanks of the one I've been eyeing online, and on her Best Kind Sock base (75% superwash Bluefaced Leicester / 25% nylon; 100g / 3.88 oz = 388m / 425yds). I don't think I need to ask if you want to see it:

Isn't it gorgeous?! This is the Sea Glass colorway, and I'll be using it to bring my shawl design, The Butterfly, to life. I'm really looking forward to casting this one on!!

That's all for today, fiber friends. My photo tutorial for double-knitting should be up soon. I need to finish up the photos; kind of important in a photo tutorial ;) Expect that to be live here fairly soon.

Yours in yarn, and humidity,

Síle

Hello, June!

Little did I know when I wrote my last post that I had over 3 weeks more to my frozen-up arm. As you can imagine, that's put me waaay more behind on my various projects. Slowly I'm getting caught up while also working with a new strategy of breaks while working to keep my arm from going out again. 

What's going on here at KDRD? I'm currently editing my final tutorial for the Hornpipe Bag and, weather cooperating, photos should be done later in the week. I'm thinking the tutorial should be up on the weekend, with the pattern release next week. We'll see if it gets there!

The Four Hand Reel will be in test/beta knitting around July 5th. This is my log cabin square totebag. I'll be lining my proto soon; I had mislaid the fabric for a bit. The test/beta knit will be run on Yarnpond, which I found excellent to use when I tested the Hornpipe Bag last year. I'm thinking 10 weeks for the test period based on the yardage (5 colors/shades; about 200 yards each of 4 of them and 65-70 yds of the 5th one)

I'm continuing to play with my knotwork motif idea for the Countess Cathleen cloak. And I have a couple double-knitting ideas that I'm playing with too. And at least one other cable rich design. It's been very cold and blah here so I've been bringing more color into my work.

In my personal crafting, I'm well into the first sleeve of my Twist Again sweater. Finally I have the rhythm of the pattern down and the knitting is easy again. (Twist Again by Robynn Weldon on Payhip)

Does that happen to you? Find a pattern a bit of a struggle until you find the proper rhythm and then it just glides along. 

I've decided to change tracks on my bright colors sweater. Instead of crocheting a number of blocks (that truth be told were not lining up right), I've decided to make another Harvest cardigan using the 9 colors (8 bright ones with black) and knitting in alternating bands of the Fibonacci sequence, using ridges instead of rows. If you're not familiar with the Harvest cardigan, the front and neck edgings are knit at the same time as the rest of the top-down sweater, and the edgings are done in garter stitch. Hence using ridges. My plan is to knit 1 ridge in black, 1 ridge in Color 1, 2 ridges of black, 3 ridges of Color 2, 5 ridges of black, 8 ridges of Color 3, etc, keeping the colors in order and cycling through them as needed. That's the plan currently anyway. It could change again! lol (Harvest cardigan by Tin Can Knits on TinCanKnits.com)

 

I'm planning to get a new proto of my Single Jig Mitties on the needles soon. This is both a KDRD project (I want to update the photos when I get the pdf updated) and a personal project (I need something on my poor frozen hands. While the rest of North America is sweltering, we're experiencing Juneuary here on the island. It's 8°C and raining currently (46.4°F). We're living up to our Iceberg Alley nickname this year). I like when things work out that way. Single Jig Mitties on this site

And that's all I have that's fit to print this gloomy Monday! I look forward to getting the final Hornpipe Bag tutorial up this week.

I hope your crafting is going well. What are your plans for summer knitting? A light top perhaps? Or a lacy shawl? Maybe you prefer smaller things like mittens and hats so you're ready when the weather turns back to the cooler side of things. I'd love to hear about your plans :)

Your in yarn and wet weather,

Síle

A Knitter (and Auntie of Felines) Goes Through a Hurricane

Sept. 10, 2021 - 12:43pm NDT (Newfoundland Daylight Time)

This post is going to be a bit different. You can guess from my title, t's not overly knitting or dance related but it is me related so here goes:

Will be knitting to calm my nerves tonight; I'm within the Tropical Storm Warning area for Hurricane Larry, which is set to hit the island of Newfoundland roughly 9pm tonight. Could have winds up to 115km/h here! And we're not in the actual Hurricane Warning area!! Town and pretty well the entire Avalon Peninsula can expect up to 130km/h gusts. I think it's gusts. I hope it's gusts. If that's sustained winds the island's going to become unmoored!

I plan to update this post as things happen. So I'll be time-stamping each bit.

So right now it's partly cloudy and a bit breezy. Pretty normal September day really. You'd never know anything were brewing for later on! According to the Weather Network app on my phone, it's currently 21°C, feeling like 23. Humidity is at 63%, with winds from the south at 25km/h, gusting to 38km/h. This is a very standard day here.

My roommate has gone out of town for the weekend; these plans were made long before Larry was a thought. That leaves me here by myself with the three cats. Jakey, who you know so well, is absolutely terrified of high winds. Luckily Silver is very calm. I don't know if Jade will panic or not; she's quite high-strung. 

Ok, I'll check in with you all later on :)

4:55pm NDT:

Sky is very cloudy but still bright. Looks like a normal "about to rain" moment. Current conditions: 22°C, feeling like 26. Humidity is at 77%, with winds from the south at 20km/h, gusting to 30km/h. 

I'm about to start the gauge piece for this lovely crocheted blanket a dear friend sent me as a surprise. Here's the yarn photos:

The kit is for the Aria Blanket by Lucy of Attic24. It's such a glorious riot of color!!! It's a join as you go, granny style afghan which I just love. The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK, 322yds/295m = 100g

I have extra water bottled and put in the fridge, plus in the tub for flushing the toilet if needs be. I have food that doesn't require stove or microwave in case of power outage. The feline family are well stocked on food, and the above mentioned water in the fridge. 

So that's it for this update! Talk to you in a bit :)

7:58pm NDT:

The latest from our NTV weatherman, Eddie Scheerr, is that we have a bit yet before things start. Due to time, it's already black outside but I took this picture from my living room window about 7:40pm; the window faces fairly much due south:

That might be the only photo I get tonight.

I can say the feline members of the household are all calm. No signs of weather wackiness. The winds are also not bad so that's probably why. Until later! 

11:58pm NDT:

The rain has started, but it's very calm. Current conditions: 19°C, feeling like 21°C. Wind is E 12km/h, gusting to 17km/h. 

Sept. 11, 2021 - 4:06am NDT:

Been a very quiet night here. Not so other places on the island, especially the Avalon Peninsula. K has reported that our friends' fence is partially gone along with the door to their greenhouse; this is where she's spending her time in Town. Wind is picking up now. Current conditions: 19℃ feeling like 20℃, with the humidity at 89%. Wind is from the south-west at 36km/h, gusting to 54km/h. This is the highest the wind's been here all night.

I've managed to swatch for the blanket (took 3 tries!), and have crocheted the first two squares :) It's a small start but a start nonetheless. Here's how it looks:

5:38am NDT: It seems like the wind has increased but according to the Weather Network app on my phone the gusts have actually gone down by a km/h since I last checked it. All of my temps and wind speeds have been with this app. Jakey and Silver are a bit jittery now that we have noticeable wind. We still have power so I'm watching Bones reruns and crocheting. There honestly can't be a much more me thing to do during a storm :D 

6:34am NDT: Judging by being able to see the sun coming up, I think it's safe to say Larry has left this part of Newfoundland. I took this panoramic photo of my street from my living room window:

The current conditions here are: 19°C feeling like 20°C, with winds from the south-west of 31km/h and gusts up to 47km/h. The humidity is at 88%.

I think this is my last update post. C'ville appears to be in one piece, my furry nephew and nieces are calm and happy (they also just got some Temptations treats, so that's where the happy is coming from :D ), and I've got nearly 4 squares done on my blanket. For the record the blanket consists of 144 squares plus a border.

Time for a nap!

Thanks for following along :) 

Yours in yarn and calmer weather,

Síle