Baktus Scarf

This Baktus scarf (free download here)

although unblocked, holds its shape amazingly well.  It is made from hand dyed sock yarn by Jelly Bean in the UK, edged with lace weight yarn in a contrasting color.

Designer Strikkelis says:

This is my version of a scarf that was all over the Norwegian blogs a couple of years ago.  The principle is to take one or a couple of skeins, and knit a triangle using your exact amount of yarn.

A good way to use up one of those single skeins of sock yarn in bright colours.To be able to know when I had used up half of my skein, I used a scale:
I weighed my yarn before casting on. Weighing the skein every now and then, I started decreasing when I had about 50% of the skein left.

This is a clever way to never run out of yarn while knitting up this scarf.

Since the yellow yarn used for the crochet edging was lace weight, I used the navajo plying technique to hold three strand together, thus making a three plied yarn with a more substantial look and feel.

Lucy Neatby gives a YouTube video on the navajo technique of creating 3 strands of yarn from 1:

Breast Cancer: One in Eight Women Diagnosed but does it have to be my friend?

Another friend has to have a lumpectomy in the next few days.  Well *&%$#@*  ...darn.

Breaking news on breast cancer can be assessed on the following sites:

Lots of facts here and televised, too  recently on Oprah
More here about less under arm lymph node removal  and also here at the ACS site (2/9/2011) and here on the UK Daily Mail (at 2/9/2011) (Yes!)
Go to Science Daily with news about breast cancer rates NOT declining in the US (at 2/28/2011)
Here is information about smoking and breast cancer (at 3/2/2011)

Enough.  Go get your mammogram, lady friends. 

Stay calm and focused, special friend, as you see your surgeon today.

The Favorite Spot

Nephew Jeremy McCarroll, avid camper, hiker, fisherman, father, worker, writer, and all around good person, has a favorite place.  That place is a good place to be and is detailed here on his blog.  If you don't go to the link and browse around, I'll make it easy on you:

The Spot and its rules:

1. The Spot is The Spot. It has always been The Spot, even before it was The Spot.

2. There is no way to The Spot. The Spot is the way.

3. You cannot find The Spot, but if you look for it in earnest, it will find you.

4. The Spot looks as good on a beautiful spring day as it does in the dead of winter. The rule is you can’t argue with that.

5. Respect The Spot and The Spot will respect you. Disrespect it and you may take the Walk of Shame.

6. Never disclose the location of The Spot to those who aren’t prepared to truly know The Spot.

7. There really aren’t any rules for The Spot.

(Jeremy and his daughter from his blog)

I love that he said of his weekend camping experience that he was not rushing to find the best camping spot with the most level tent ground and that he said in yesterday's post:

I guess what I’m getting at is I am passing on my spot, the best one, to the next person who gets there.

And so I thought about that for a bit. 

 

Here is my Spot that is:

• a place where I am alone (relatively) with thoughts
• a place where I can love and be loved
• a time apart when reflections relate to actions and consequences can be examined
• where I can be productive and where the end results might help someone else along the road

…generally, that spot is in my easy chair in my house, with knitting in my lap and large windows to look through and beyond.  But it often changes.

Where What is your Spot?

Be sure to check out Jeremy's Glossary of Camping Terms.  It is a hoot and oh, so accurate. ( I've been known to walk the Walk of Shame.)