Wolf's Lair Houndstooth Vest

the houndstooth... a pattern from 1800s Scotland, land o' my paternal ancestors... worn in woven wool by shepherds

gazing at a winter day in north central British Columbia so far away... our dis (re) location.

How many people have lost connection with the lands of their ancestors?  The stories and music of their ancestors?  The traditions?  But somehow part of us always knows who we are.

People complain of the lack of light at this time of year over here.  SAD.  Knit.  If you don't know what else to do, just pull up your chair, preferably a rocking chair, and KNIT.   And, pause to look at snow.  Even now I have noticed, the snowflakes are all different.  Am thinking about Emoto and his studies, of snow...

Helps to have a ravine on the other side of the fence.  No birds will be lost.  The trees were already cut several years ago.  Dead pines.  We came home one day and they were all gone.  Made way for the berries though.  Saskatoons in the summer, July or August depending on how the weather is.  And medicines.  Getting to know this new land.  It became our home.  We love it but hate what's happening here.

They say it is the hinterland.  They study some of us.

It was mapped out as a place for extraction.  By others.

Cubicle people, distances away

How would it be if you could not make a decision until you'd walked that exact piece of land, breathed it in, paddled that water?

It isn't.

We remain, quiet people.

 

Wolf's Lair Houndstooth Vest

Start knitting a sizeable rectangle.  Start with several rows of ribbing (k2, p2), could be contrast (darker colour) then get into the stocking stitch.  (k one row, p the next etc)

For this vest I used a ball of local sheep wool (purchased at craft fair) and 1 1/2 balls of Nova Value Collection pure 100 per cent wool heather (100 g/ 115 m).

Knit the rectangle as the back of this garment, for the front you will divide the rectangle in 1/2 into 2 slimmer rectangles.  Carry on until length equals back.  You can incorporate in a cuff down the front (i used solid darker colour for this).  When done cast off, sew down the sides leaving space at top for the 2 armholes.  Voila, a vest.

f-bomb dropped note cozy cowl

sometimes knitting is like trying to learn the guitar or another musical instrument....

or like anything else one starts out trying to do for that matter...

dropped stitches, dropped notes, dropped goals....

this one was supposed to be a kind of fancy shawl with a neck BUT note to self: tricky to undo any kind of twisted cable and get all the stitches back on the needles neatly. 

Hours went by... midnight struck... still messed up.  Each row unravelled just a bit worse.  Sometimes the universe is trying to tell us something.  Sometimes it is not entirely clear to us... confusing instead.

Why do these things happen? 
Why does it seem jerks run the world?
Why do disasters happen?
Why do innocent people suffer?

f-bomb etc etc....

Grappling with these questions and many more like them is a big part of the reason I took to knitting...
and then all the dropped stitches like notes falling away into a black hole...

grey scarf.  Grey cowl.  Yeah, that's it, a cozy warm cowl.  I mean after all, who can have too many cowls?

Grey cowl:  closet staple for the north.  Matches the road grime covering the ice.

It is sunny today and warm.  I am wearing the cowl.

And for now, that is pretty much all I can explain except of course the basic knitting pattern...

F-Bomb Dropped Note Cozy Cowl

Cascade 100 per cent Peruvian highland wool 250 g/ 437 m.
(this is quite a bulky wool)

8 mm - 9 mm needles (or bigger if wanted)

Cast on enough stitches for a thick scarf (around 50)....

i did ribbing (2 knit x2 purl) with twisted cable (TC)

TC:  for each 2 knit stitches of the ribbing design, use a cable needle each 4th row, put the 2 stitches to knit onto it, twist infront of the work, then knit off the cable needle.

note:  because you are knitting back and forth each 2nd row knit will of course be purl as you will be working the back of the design each 2nd row....)

When long enough (maybe around 40 inches give or take....) cast off.

dead pine firewood infinity scarf

electricity from burning coal... climate change we don't need to do anything about that cuz there has always been climate change, mass extinction of species...
natural gas... fracking... good for the economy... get as much out of the ground to export
globalized market... economic growth

here we are surrounded by dead pine forests.  Pine beetle infestation, from climate change they say.  Local wood, local choppers.  Particulate.  Gotta stay warm around here though, still gets down to minus 20 degrees celsius at times

Burn baby burn.  Tunes on the guitar by the flames.  In the duplexes they are watching the flame channel on Shaw.  Heated through.  We can pretend we are hiding out in a cabin in the woods in here...

and knitting...

what is cozier than knitting by the fire?

Dead Pine Firewood Infinity Scarf

Manos Artesanas, Portofino 100 % wool (handmade in Argentina)  (1 ball)
6.5 mm needles

Cast on approx 50 stitches
knit one, purl one, next row the opposite.  This kinda seed stitch stops it from curling
in on the ends...  keep knitting until the end of the ball.  Sew the ends together, wind around your neck once or twice to block out the mid and mad-winter chill....

knits for the apo-calypse

a whole lotta shit going down...
society unravelling...
dudes with their 60 foot screen tvs in their man caves hiding out...

let's knit something back together...