Various and Sundry

(Punch Brothers cover The Cars)

Hi Knitters,
Today I am sharing some various and sundry with you.

The other day on Twitter, Jared Flood or Brooklyn Tweed, shared a link to the Punch Brothers playing a cover of The Cars. How does this relate to knitting? The lead singer is wearing a Koolhaas hat designed by Jared Flood. The other thing not knitting related is that I was a giant Cars fan. I used to listen to their tapes (yes, cassette tapes) on my super cool Walkman. I brought it everywhere with me. I nearly wore The Cars greatest hits tape out. And also, yes, I know every word to the song the Punch Brothers sang, Just What I Needed. I thought you might enjoy it, too, and the hat looks great! I have that hat pattern and hope to knit it soon.

 

I have talked about my love of Alabama Chanin. This is a beautiful video and feature about Alabama Chanin that was on the Etsy blog. You will love watching this video. All of the links for Natalie Chanin and this video are found by clicking right here. It's so inspiring. 

My Effortless Cardigan, by Hannah Fettig, turned out a little too big for me (you can read all about it right here). My beautiful Peachy has taken it off my hands. She wears it to school all of the time and loves it. Isn't it cute on her? The sleeves are 3/4 length on her gorgeous long arms but it sort of looks like it was meant to be that way.

I am thrilled every time I see her running off to school in the Effortless Cardigan.

The pattern is included in Hannah's new book, published in conjunction with Quince & Co., called Knitbot Essentials. Click here to find out more about this stunning book and collection of Hannah's knit designs. I am ordering my copy later today.

Wonderword puzzles have become my new daily treat. I love these quick word find puzzles with a twist. TC and I do loads of word searches together and occasionally she helps me out with the newspaper Wonderword puzzles. I love checking the next day to see if I got the correct answer. The daily crossword puzzle is right next to Wonderword so I usually fill in quite a few of those answers, too, but I never quite finish the crossword. I always wish I could. Sometimes I finish right away, other times I leave it sitting out and find a few words when I pass by or when I am cooking dinner. It can be an all day affair.

© Strikbibliotekar 

A lovely member of my Ravelry group, Itty-Bitty Knits, shared her Curly Snake on the Itty-Bitty Toys knitalong that is currently under way (it is an open knitalong where you can join anytime). I thought her photos were so lovely that I asked if I could share with you.

Here is the link to the Ravelry project page! The knitter goes by Strikbibliotekar on Ravelry and she is from Denmark.

© Strikbibliotekar

I was particularly struck by this colorful intertwining of Curly Snakes and the fun left over sock yarns used! It's wonderful.

Next up on the Itty-Bitty Toys knitalong is the Egg to Bluebird project. Come join in! It's the perfect tiny spring project.

Now, these are some lousy photos I took with my phone. However, one thing I forgot to mention in the post about Paula Emons-Fuessle (Knitting Pipeline) is that she has wild turkeys that come in her yard and one that pecks on her windows. This was from earlier episodes so I don't know that this is still going on currently. I always listened intently when Paula discussed her wild turkey visitors because our neighborhood is overpopulated (in my opinion) with wild turkeys and I am not particularly fond of them.

When we first moved to our neighborhood there had been incidents of wild turkeys attacking kids' backpacks on their way to school. It was thought to be due to the lunches in the backpacks. There were warnings about this in newsletters from the school and what to do if you are attacked, which I can't remember what was said. More recently, mail carriers in our area were being attacked by wild turkeys, it was thought to be due to the color blue of their uniforms.

Anyway, you can see why I am leery of wild turkeys. They are everywhere around here, in yards, at the school playground, crossing streets, and in the nature conservatory that is intertwined with my neighborhood. They are always in groups of 6-12 (not sure what a group of turkeys is called) and we have seen many, many mamas with a dozen or more baby turkeys crossing roads. You can always tell when someone new is driving through our neighborhood because they will pull over when they see the turkeys to stare and point. We are so used to seeing them that we just drive on by now. TC does not enjoy the wild turkeys at all.

Anyway, I was going to post my wild turkey photos on my Paula post because now I always think of her when I see the neighborhood turkeys. I have been hiking almost daily in various local nature spots lately and I see turkeys pretty much every time. The other day I ran across six turkeys and they were huge. The two male turkeys were all puffed up with their feathers spread out and they were looking enormous. They are loud, too. They were of course right in the middle of the trail where I was walking. A jogger ran by me before I got to the turkeys and said, "You better start making a lot of noise. The turkeys are out."

I just took the photo and turned back to walk the other way. They scare me a little bit.

My various and sundry post is now coming to a close with a few more links:
Jane Richmond's reasons for knitting socks!
Kristin Nicholas' new sock yarn with Regia! I'd love to try some.
An adorable stitching project I would love to do! I love this so much, I may have to order it soon.

How's that for some good variety of topics?

Have a good day! I'll be back soon to share a super fun project I am knitting.

best, susie