A few small repairs

Today there is eating, knitting and wheel repairs. Our garden is producing the last autumn flush, Easter is around the corner, I've been having fun knitting sock and mitts, and my Wing wheel got a wobble so underwent a minor repair. We had another fantastic 'late summer weekend, warm, calm, and sunny', odd really cause we are southern and coastal and cool breezes are more common than any other sort, besides its Autumn not summer. The garden is looking scrappy, but there are still treasures to be had. The late summer strawberry's seem to have more flavor than the earlier fruits, I guess they grow slower and develop better. Treats like this disappear outside, never making it inside.


And the first of the Easter baking, sans crosses. Some years I make crosses, sometimes I cut them, some times I don't bother. This time no crosses, and they tasted just fine. A batch of 48 buns (from 4 cups of flour) made yesterday, today there about a dozen left. Yum, this years recipe courtesy of M ... thanks.

And yes there was knitting, this is Signe, which is growing. I'm a little bit further than this shows ... and now have put in waste yarn for the thumb gusset.

I like the gusset on this mitten, now I understand how it is knit. For some reason I had a mind-block, and was reading and interpreting the instructions totally wrong .. I could not reconcile the written instructions with the chart, after a quick email chat with the designer ... I now understand. I've marked on the chart the vertical line the gusset increases are worked on and now its all making sense.


Garnet grows as well, as it should. I admit to having knit 1.5 socks, but there is only one nearly complete sock to show for it. The heel has been completely reknit .. slimmer - and fitting my heel better.

I retained the original heel shaping, a cute little arrowhead of decreases, part of me wanted to run a line of 2 slipped stitches up the back - just to be able to make these turn into the back leg decoration .. but I restrained myself.

And wheel troubles, after spinning last Monday, Bear meet me outside, to help heft my Wing wheel inside (he is sweet like that - opens car doors as well). Well Bear noticed the back upright was wobbly, a result of being 30+ years old and the glue giving way. Given the wing is my out-and-about wheel, and needs to handle being transported to and from and in the car .. well running repairs were required. So I disassembled her ... took off all the loose bits.

Then we unscrewed the fixed bits, and knocked the wobbly bit out, Bear scrapped and cleaned and sanded, before we glued the rear upright back in place and left it overnight to set.

like so ...




And a mere 24 hours latter, or less, the Wing is back in the family room, ready to spin on. I know that inanimate objects don't feel emotion -- but do you think it was out of sorts with the new wheel arriving - ?



...and lastly, Bear is turning 5? this Wednesday ... and we gave him his birthday gift early. W knew he needed off-work time to play with it and giving it wednesay, a work day, would be mean. So what was it, a second hand OM4 camera and assorted lenses, sourced from a friend via 3 places ... we think we did well. Way back when Bear and I first meet, he lusted after one of these ... but we just couldn't afford one, now with digital ruling, and the price of film cameras rocketing downwards .. his dream can come true. Bear spend most of Saturday evening, and a lot of Sunday fondling the bits ... I guess it is his version of yarn. We think the original owner was a scientist, there are 3 macro lenses, including a 50mm macro, a bellows extension kit, a macro ring flash ... and lots more. The cubs loved looking and asking questions, Bear just loved playing.

take care
na stella