Stitches of Violet

It's obvious how this bird got its common name, Rose-breasted Grosbeak. At our house we call him Mr. Rosy.

Though they're a member of the Cardinal family, they don't winter over here in SW Michigan with their Cardinal cousins. It's always a pleasure to see them return around the first of May.

Based on the maximun number of males counted at one time, this year we have at least three Rosy couples coming to the feeder and hopefully nesting nearby.


The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are about the same size as the Cardinals - a little smaller than a Robin. They have powerful seed eating beaks and love the black oiler sunflowers seeds we serve.

Unlike the Cardinals, they are willing and able to eat from a tube feeder. But, they also enjoy feasting on the flat surfaces.


Mrs. Rosy has a totally different look, rather like a sparrow on steroids.


I caught Mrs. Rosy glaring at her mate as he gobbled up sunflower seeds.

Is she wishing he had better manners?

Give it up, dear. You can't change them.

Labels: Birds

Knit at a tight gauge with lots of stitch patterning, this little sweater for CIC was not a quick project. But it was fun.

The picture in the pattern book doesn't do it justice. It was glanced at and ignored many times though the years I've had this book.

Like most all of Kathy Zimmerman patterns, it's a work of art to my eyes and I had fun knitting it.

Click on picture to see the detail better.

Pattern: Guernsey Gals by Kathy Zimmerman in Best of Knitter's Arans and Celtics.

Knitting the smallest size, about 24 inches around. Modified pattern to knit sweater in one piece. Added underarm gussets.

Yarn: Cascade 220, 100% wool worsted weight

Color: 7808 Violet

Needles: Options #6

Not the best Oriole picture I've taken this year, but surely the funniest.

Check out the legs. He appears to be double jointed. No wonder these bird have no problem weaving a nest in the highest tree tops.

Labels: Birds, Finished Projects

Answering questions from comments and email.

Shirley asked . . .

Which variety are yours?

(Shirley is asking about the apple trees with the Morel Mushrooms growing underneath mentioned in this post.)

Think fungus. Fungus doesn't thrive in well tended apple orchards.

With the magic of photo cropping, I was able to show you a healthy branch full of blossoms. The majority of the branches are not so pretty.

The apple trees are very old, maybe from the farm that originally sat on this land. They have many dead and rotting branches and should be taken down. However they have an extended life expectancy because they're important to the Morels.

The apples are no variety a person familiar with sweet apples wants to eat. We don't spray or help them out, but the trees do produce apples. The apples fall to the ground. After the apples ferment, the deer come in the middle of the night to eat them causing the dogs to bark and the deer to get a bit tipsy.

Since no one is sure how Morels decide where to grow, any of these steps could be important to their environmental happiness. Except I doubt they require barking dogs.

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Dorothy asked . . .

What a handsome couple - are you able to get a
photo of any of their nests?

(Dorothy is asking about the Northern Oriole nests mentioned in this post.)

A difficult assignment. If I spot one I'll be sure and get the best picture possible without a helicopter.

The Orioles build their nest way way up high hidden by the foliage in the tallest oaks.

Once the oaks leaf out I occasionally see a flash of orange in the tree tops, but it's been several years since I've spotted an oriole nest.

I've read that the young walk around on the outside of the nest before they learn to fly. Wouldn't that be something to see?


Right now the Orioles are still coming around and gobbling up the oranges. I just love seeing them so close knowing it's only for a little while.

Labels: Birds, Yard and Garden

Many thanks to Jean for this well-written, easy to follow, easy to knit toddler sweater pattern.

I'm sure I'll be using it many more times.


Pattern: Waffles for Brunch designed by Jean and posted as a knit-a-long on her blog Needles, Notes, and News.

Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky

Color: Deep Red

Needles: 10.5 Addi Turbo

Gauge: 3 stitches/inch, 4 rows/inch

Labels: CIC Knitting, Finished Projects

The old apple trees in the back yard get the deepest respect. In the spring we don't clean up the leaves under them and we don't mow under them.


In return, the shade of the apple trees provides the perfect conditions for Morel Mushrooms.

I have a fantasy that someday someone will offer us more money than we ever dreamed to buy this land just for the morel patch.

We won't mention the black flies and ticks, both of which are out in full strength looking for a blood feast this spring. A minor detail. When you live in nature, you get all of nature. It's not for the faint hearted.


Still thinking I want to knit some easy care short sleeve summer sweaters, I ordered some Comfy (75% pima cotton, 25% acrylic) from Knitpicks.

This color is Lilac Mist.

Comfy had good reviews on Ravelry. They said it was light weight, smooth, and super soft, which it is.

The day after it arrived late last week, I found Sonya's post about the Comfy sweater she knit. The killer sentence: "It was pilling by noon."

Great.

I'm pretending I didn't see that post and looking forward to knitting my Comfy as soon as I get a few other little projects done. Two CIC sweaters are only missing the last half of the last sleeve. Daughter Heather's birthday socks have been packed away with only the cuff done, and the party is a week from Saturday. I hope to have all three projects completed before the weekend is over plus the blocking on the She Said sweater and some modeled pictures.

Labels: New Yarn, Yard and Garden

Many years ago in my youth these beautiful birds were known as "Baltimore Orioles". They looked so pretty in my bird book and I longed to see one in person, but it didn't happen. (Yes, I was a childhood bird nerd.)

Now I'm blessed to live in my own private bird sanctuary. Every May the Northern Orioles arrive from Central and South America to brighten up our spring and nest in the tops of our tall oak trees at the back of the property.

This (top picture) is the male, a little smaller than a robin and so brightly colored he's impossible to miss as he flies around in the still leafless oaks.


Orioles are known for their interesting nests. They weave a hanging bucket attached to a high branch that's an engineering masterpiece.

This is the female, more yellowish and not as bright as the male but equally attractive.

The Orioles aren't interested in bird seed. We lure them up by the house by setting out oranges. After their long migration trip, they can't resist the sweet fruit.

After about a week, they're rejuvenated and ready to put all their efforts and energies into nest building and raising a family. The oranges go untouched except to be hauled away by the chipmucks.

I've read that some people are able to keep the orioles coming to the feeder area by providing Welch's grape jelly. I've tried this in years past and attracted nothing but ants. Our area is so rich in other food the grape jam is unappreciated.


For those who love looking at Oriole pictures, the are two more "male with an orange" shots in last year's Oriole post.

Labels: Birds

Answering questions from comments and email.

Dorothy asked . . .

Wasn't there a singing group in the 60's or 70's
called the Cowslips?

Sister Carrie answered: "Cowsills. The group, of whom I was a big fan, was the Cowsills. That was their family name."

Carrie has a Master's degree in music, so she knows things like this.

Thanks Carrie. I couldn't have answered this question without your help.


After many years of taking classes Dorothy is graduating from Washington State University Summa Cum Laude (very high grade point) today, her granddaughter's third birthday.

Hope over to Missouri Star and wish her a well deserved CONGRATULATIONS!

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Kate in Massachusetts asked . . .

Sometime could you do a blog post on how you knit your sleeves from the shoulder down? How many stitches do you pick up? How do you plan the sleeve decreases? Thanks!

This has been done by Barbara G. Walker, a knitting genius, in her book Knitting From the Top, a must have technical book for every knitter.

I couldn't possibly do it as well as Barbara does it.

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Susan asked . . .

My sister has a bird nesting in a tree in her backyard and she posted about it on her blog. I'm hoping that you might help us identify it.

It's a Red-Breasted Nuthatch! They figured it out before I saw the message and went to look. I'm mentioning it here so all the bird loving readers can go check out It's Mr. Nuthatch to You and see the beautiful Nuthatch pictures.

We love to see the little Red-breasted Nuthatches. They migrate south to SW Michigan and stay for the winter. Then they fly back north in the spring to raise their families.

Darcy lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Maybe that's one of our winter visitors nesting in her tree.

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Debi asked . . .

Do squirrel daddies help out at all?

The tired squirrel mom is an American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).

According to Wikipedia she has no help from the daddy, she probably has three to six young, they are born helpless, blind, and deaf, and suckle from 8 to 10 weeks.

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Megan asked . . .

That gansey sweater for CIC is beautiful! And, it looks like a lot of fun to knit. How did you add the underarm gussets? Are you using the instructions in the Knitted Ganseys book by Beth Brown-Reinsel?

Exactly.

The Guernsey Gals pattern calls for the sweater to be knit in four pieces: front, back, and two sleeves. Then sewn together.

I'm using the stitch design from the Guernsey Gals pattern and knitting the sweater in one piece like the ganseys in Beth's book. I added a small gusset under each arm, also from Beth's book.

Pattern: Guernsey Gals by Kathy Zimmerman in Best of Knitter's Arans and Celtics.

Knitting the smallest size, about 24 inches around. Modified pattern to knit sweater in one piece. Added underarm gussets.

Yarn: Cascade 220, 100% wool worsted weight

Color: 7808 Violet

Needles: Options #6

When I subscribed to Elann Sample Skeins, one of my goals was to knit up each sample skein, including yarn I would never dream of buying. Because who knows? I might fall in love with a yarn that I otherwise never would have tried. Or, in short, I wanted to experiment a little and expand my yarn exposure.

The following are my impressions of the May sample skeins. These are NOT yarn reviews. They are my personal preferences after knitting a sample skein.

The picture was taken before the swatches were washed. I washed all four of them in the washer with agitation, and all four passed the laundry test with flying colors.

I haven't decided which I'm going to buy, if any. But none of the four are out of the running.

Elann's Luna (upper left). 55% viscose, 45% cotton. DK weight. Swatch knit on #3 needle.

This yarn is much prettier in person than in my picture or in the Elann color flyer for May. There's a matt strand and a very shiny strand twisted together. In most of the colors, the two strands are different in hue and the result is gorgeous.

The featured pattern for this yarn is a Feather and Fan Bolero and I'm a sucker for anything Feather and Fan. Where does that leave me? Trying to pick a color and asking myself if I will really wear a lacy bolero. (Bolero pattern free on the Elann website.)

Elann's Soie Lin (upper right). 70% silk, 30% linen. DK weight. Swatch knit on #3 needle.

This is the first silk yarn I've ever knit and liked the result. The silk/linen combination is perfect and Soie Lin got an A+ in washability.

Not too crazy about the colors, but I'm thinking this would make a lovely lacy top. If I buy this yarn, I'll probably just get Seed Pearl, the color of the swatch.

Queensland Maldive (lower left). 45% cotton, 45% acrylic, 10% viscose. DK weight. Swatch knit on #3 needle.

Soft and easy to knit. And there's a bright green color calling my name - unless I decide on the orange or turquoise.

My only reservation about Maldive is the little flecks of dark color. The majority are sitting on the yarn surface without being firmly attached. I can pick them off, brush them off, and some are so loose I can blow them off.

I expected them to fall off in the wash, but they didn't. Magic yarn?

Queensland Tahiti 49% cotton, 36% acrylic, 12% microfiber, 3% polyester. Aran weight. Swatch knit on #5 needle.

My swatch is the tamest of the nine offered color combos. The yarn isn't expensive and I just might knit up a short sleeve summer top for fun.

It would be like nothing I've ever knit before. Almost have to be all stockinette. Would the colors keep me happy or would I doze off in a bored, stockinette induced stupor?

Labels: Sample Skeins