Spring Ahead!

Spring has sprung upon us, with sunny skies and warm sunshine. Bulbs are springing up all over my yard. Time to get the deer fence up again, and break out the spring sweaters. I knit and designed this sweater which I called Column of Leaves Cardigan in 2007, and have enjoyed wearing it . Folks have been asking for the pattern, but it always seemed way beyond my skills to write up.Funny how things can be easier to do than to describe, but the problem is sizing it for other people! Because of the nature of the construction I used ( seamless yoke) and the lace pattern, it is almost a different sweater and has to be figured out anew for each size. But I loved how the back came together:

So I've been crunching out the numbers, making charts, swatching and making little paper models to figure out the sizing and I think I've almost nailed it! Then it is off to my test knitters, and hopefully I can publish it soon....

In other news, my son returned from college with is stuff which is now in boxes all over the living room. What does he have? Here is one box of treasures:

He can actually solve all of those! Amazing!

Stormageddon

It was a dark and stormy night, and I woke up to this trampoline in my back yard on Sunday, the 14th.

Our whole neighborhood lost power on Saturday,and all the roads in and out were blocked , and I had a cold, so it was really crazy. Trees down all over the place,

but luckily my house was fine ( remember that big tree we cut down last November???Thank goodness...)My neighbor's trampoline flew like the house in the Wizard of Oz and landed in the spot where that tree used to be! We finally got power back last night. It was really cold in the house, down to 45 degrees and I  had to wear gloves and my UGGs in the house so my fingers and toes wouldn't freeze. And all the frozen food got warm and melted. A good time to clean out the fridge by candle light.And it was almost  too cold to knit! And too dark to cook on the gas stove. About 7 years ago, during a bad power outage,we got a generator, but hadn't used it since. It came in handy this time, but was very expensive and noisy to run on propane..

so we couldn't use the generator for long ( one tank is about 4 hours and
cost $18...).Yesterday and today it was like camping. Nice warm shower, but
freezing cold bathroom!
We were, on the whole, lucky in my neighborhood. Our neighbor's beautiful pine tree fell down right beside the house:

And luckily missed it entirely. But we lost power because of a fallen oak up the street. Con Ed did a great job getting 2 new poles installed and things hooked up last night, 3 days after we lost power, so that is a huge relief. Things could have been much worse.I'm really greatful for power! It is nice to read my email ,blog, sew, run the dishwasher, shower in the light and even watch some TV! So much of current life depends on electricity.  Knitting was possible, but difficult by candlelight, and with gloves on!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Math is Everywhere

Lately I've been thinking a lot about math. The amazing spiral produced by my pineapple plant ( with purple flowers!) follows the Fibonacci number sequence ( http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17.htm ) and is just lovely. I finished the top of the Tessellation Sampler, which is a quilting exploration of semi-regular tessellations for the next mathematics and needlework book from the group that brought us "Mathematics in Needlework". See my post from 2008 for details about that wonderful book ( http://jeririggs.blogspot.com/2008/01/making-mathematics-with-needlework.html ).

And of course, there is knitting! I finished my second Ingrid Cardigan, this time in blue : yarn:Trendsetter Merino VIII, needle size 8. A very wearable and lovely sweater in my favorite shade of blue!

Pattern available in my Ravelry Store ( http://www.ravelry.com/ , Jeri Rigged Designs).