Rotation

Yesterday Skip and I went to visit his nephew and family who are vacationing in Clearwater Beach about 75km down the coast. We spent the afternoon at the beach
and had a nice dinner with them at the hotel patio restaurant.

Before we drove down there I was in a panic about what knitting project I would take for the drive and for the beach. I decided to start a pair of garter rib socks using some beautiful Punta Yarns Merisock yarn. I got this much done on the way there and while we were visiting on the beach.
I'm also needing to get a couple more pairs of socks done for the Kniterary 'Pull Up Your Socks' KAL this year. We are aiming to knit one sock per month. I have socks completed to the end of March and I want to stay ahead of the game.

The colours are darker than this but I'm having trouble getting the light right down here. This photo was taken in the shade on the hood of Skip's car.

Basically, I cast on 72 sts, knit 20 rounds of k3, p1 ribbing then *a round of knit followed by a round of k3, p1. Then I just repeated those two rounds (from *). Having alternate rounds of straight knitting really makes this project move along quickly. It was perfect for its intended milieu.

I'm also working on a Rose Trellis stole with the Zephyr merino/silk yarn I bought at Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor last week. It's in the 'charcoal' colourway but looks more like a gunmetal blue to me. I'm hoping to finish it in time for my upcoming Panama Canal cruise. You can see the lifeline I inserted after the first section.
There's quite a bit of stocking stitch in the middle section (which is the longest section) so it is now going quite quickly as well. But it definitely was not a project for either the car or the beach.

I have abandoned the other Rose Trellis stole using the Noro King yarn.
I think this yarn would make a nice scarf that has less lace to it. I'm still searching for the 'perfect' project for this. Any suggestions? It would make a nice Dianna shawl but I've already knit 3 of them so I don't really want to do another.

On that subject, I am teaching 2 classes on the Dianna shawl on April 9 and 16 from 1pm to 3pm at Myrtle Station Wool & Ferguson's Knitting in Brooklin. There might still be room in the class so give the shop a call during business hours if you're interested in signing up. There is 'homework', particularly if you've not knit entrelac before so don't wait 'til the last moment to sign up.

I also started the blue Dogwood Blossoms Fair-Isle sweater. I was going to jump right in with the body of the sweater but decided, instead of casting on 375 sts, I'd start with a sleeve and just verify my gauge. It is fingering weight yarn so will take a LONG time to complete the knitting. There will also be a LOT of ends to knit or weave in. The colour change every row or two. But I'm pleased with the resulting fabric.
I will continue the rotation and eventually most of these projects will get done.

Spring Training

On Friday, Skip and I went to a Yankees Spring Training game at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
They played the Atlanta Braves.
The ball park is a replica of Yankee Stadium and is festooned with the 27 flags representing each of their World Series wins over the years. The most recent one is flown beside the state flag of Florida and the Stars and Stripes.
The field is adjacent to Raymond James Stadium where the Tampa Bay Bucanneers play near the campus of Hillsborough College just east of the Tampa International Airport.
It was a beautiful, sunny day without a cloud in the sky. However, the temperature was quite chilly so we were well bundled up - for a while, at least.
We sat about 16 rows up from 3rd base and got a good look at Derek Jeter
and Alex Rodriguez who frequent that area of the field. Neither Fred nor I saw Cameron Diaz anywhere. She was either out making popcorn or must have had to work.
Atlanta was winning when we left after the 7th inning to head south to Sarasota for the weekend. Us and the rest of the denizens of Tampa, it seemed.

to be continued....
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Have you ever wondered how to pronounce double letters in Italian? The consonant is pronounced the same way, just twice. The result sounds like you are holding that consonant a bit longer.

tasso (cup), piccolo (small), pizza, etc.

Hydrangea

I've been working on Anne Hanson's "Hydrangea" neck warmer from the "Brave New Knits" book.
There are a couple of tricks to the pattern, such as when one is required to slip the first stitch at the beginning of a couple of rows, but it's not hard to keep things straight because the lace pattern is very easy to read.
All I have left to do is finish the rest of the leaf edging.
It's the first time I've added an edging in this way and am amazed at how easy it is to knit perpendicularly to the 'tube' and just knit the last stitch of the edge together with a stitch at the edge of the tube.

The yarn is yummy KnitPicks Andean Treasure - 100% baby alpaca sport weight.
I only have about an hour more of knitting on it and I'll be done. It was a really fast project!

While at the public library today, I was able to get the Rose Trellis stole chart printed. I'd been knitting it from the computer screen and was having a heck of a time keeping track of my place in the row, particularly after deciding to modify the pattern. Now with a printed copy, I'll be able to use 'sticky notes' to keep track of where I am. I'm also considering abandoning project using the Noro King yarn and finding some nice laceweight yarn for the project.

Skip and I will be doing some sight-seeing tomorrow in the Palm Harbor area so I hope to drop into Uncommon Threads at some point. Maybe they'll have some laceweight yarn for me?

On Sunday, our friends David and Susan Underwood came for a visit on their way to Sarasota. We had a delicious dinner at our favourite Italian restaurant in the area, Argento's, and as usual had leftovers which we enjoyed the next day. It was nice to have a good visit and compare notes on our drives to Florida.

On Friday, Skip and I are going to see the Yankees play Atlanta at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Evidently, the stadium is a smaller version of the old Yankee Stadium. After the game, we're going to continue southward and visit David and Susan for a couple of nights and the intervening day in palatial splendour at the home of Susan's sister. Wheeee! I hope to hit a couple of yarn shops whilst in the area. I'm hoping David and Skip will get out for a round of golf.

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Another Italian pronunciation bugaboo of mine are the 'gl' and 'gn' sounds. The blend of 'gl' is like the double 'l' sound in million. The 'g' is not pronounced. Meglio (may-leo phonetically) means better. Tagliatelle (noodles) is pronounced ta-lia-tel-le.

The `g`in lasagna is not pronounced. I think of the `gn`sound like the `ni`sound in `onion`. Bologna is pronunced Bo-lo-nia. It is equivalent to the 'ñ' sound in Spanish as in mañana (tomorrow).

Opa!

Today Skip and I attended a Greek Festival at St. George's, the local Greek Orthodox church. We love ethnic festivals, especially the FOOD!

The parking was free and the admission was only $1. It was definitely set up for families with children and the entertainment was about a dozen Greek dancing troupes from several Greek churches within 100km.
The church hall was huge and there were various food stations there as well as outside under an enormous tent. We arrived shortly after the festival opened today so got first dibs on the food.

Skip had pork souvlaki on a pita, dolmades and rather large spanakopita (pictured below).
I had two chicken souvlaki sticks and dolmades.

The most impressive station was the dessert station.
They even offered a sampler box with one of each kind.
We managed to exercise self-restraint and shared a baklava and a galaktoboureko.

I'm continuing with the Rose Trellis stole with the multicoloured lace yarn. I'm still not sold on it 100% but I will soldier on. Probably once it's blocked, it'll look wonderful. I plan to wear it with the new LBD (little black dress) I purchased for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise. I may make another stole in a solid color as well. That way, I can wear the same dress and switch out the stoles/shawls.

Rose Trellis Stole and More About 'c' and 'g'

I have started a lace stole using the Noro King yarn I purchased a couple of weeks ago. It is multicoloured so not, perhaps, the best choice for this type of lace stole but I think it will look OK. So far, so good. It is Jenn's Rose Trellis stole by Tina Kroshl which was inspired by one of Barbara Walker's basic stitch patterns from 'A Treasury of Knitting Patterns'. I made it 1/3 narrower by eliminating a repeat on each side and it seems to be working out.
One of our favourite places for a lunch al fresco with cheap lunch specials and $2 beers and margaritas is Hurricane Hank's Bar and Grill. It's address is 14333 Crabtrap Court (I kid you not) and although not in view of the Gulf, it is located adjacent to the Hudson Marina.

While there yesterday I cast on the Rose Trellis shawl whilst awaiting the arrival of my shrimp in a basket.
Skip thinks Hurricane Hanks has the best $2 beer he's ever had.
Everything just tastes better when one is dining outside.

After yesterday's post, Julia succinctly noted that in Italian it is the letter after the 'c' or 'g' that determines its pronunciation. If followed by the vowel 'a', 'o' or 'u', the hard sound is used as in cara, cubo, coda, Gabriella, gol, guardare. If the 'c' or 'g' is followed by an 'e' or 'i' it is the soft sound as in cello, cinque, gelato and Gina.

Italian Lesson

We use a lot of Italian words in English. One of my pet peeves is to hear Italian words pronounced incorrectly. Romance languages have very easy pronunciation rules which don’t have many (if any) exceptions. So why not pronounce Italian words correctly?

One of my most common pet peeves is the mispronunciation of the word ‘bruschetta’. I hear it mispronounced incorrectly very frequently and have even heard it mispronounced on TV. Here is the pronunciation rule:

‘Sch’ in Italian is pronounced like those letters in the English word, ‘school’ with a ‘k’ sound. ‘Sc’ is the ‘sh’ sound in English but when the ‘h’ is added, it makes it a hard ‘c’ sound like the ‘k’ sound in English. So the word ‘bruschetta’ is pronounced phonetically ‘bru-ske-ta’. With the ‘k’ sound.

It’s not polite to correct the mispronunciation, however if you hear the word pronounced incorrectly, just use it correctly soon after. If someone tries to correct your correct pronunciation, just explain the ‘h’ rule and maybe there will be one more person on earth who pronounces ‘bruschetta’ correctly.

Pesce (pay-shay)= fish
Pesche (pe-skay) = peaches

Got it?

I've been working on a cross-stitch project I bought last year in Harlingen, TX.
The pattern cost $1.50 but by the time I purchased the fabric and Weeks Dye Works floss colours, the project was more than 15 times that. These little projects are so fast to complete.

I'm still waiting for the nice people at KnitPicks to get back to me with a revised colour chart for the blue Dogwood Blossoms pattern I received 4 weeks ago. The printing of the pattern was too dark and it's almost impossible to distinguish between some of the colours on the chart. I did hear back from one of their customer service people that she was going to attach the .pdf of the file and a charted colour key but there was no attachment with the e-mail. I have sent them three requests (the most recent being last night) for the attachment. Normally KnitPicks' customer service is efficient and accurate. I'm still waiting...

Strawberry Festival

The Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL started today and will run 'til the 13th of March.We decided to go today, the first day and a week day, as we figured it would be really busy on the weekends. It was one of the best fairs/festivals I've ever been to.
Mary helped us find the poultry and livestock tents.
I LOVED her shirt.
One of the first things we did was have strawberry shortcake - with custard - and whipped cream (urp!). Here you can see the chocolate covered strawberries as well.
There were a lot of things we'd never seen before.

Antler crafters.
Pot Roast sundaes.
Deep-fried Mars bars, cheese and Twinkies.
Catfish and Barbeque stands.
Boiled and roasted peanuts in 20lb bags.
This booth specialized in 'Gone With the Wind' itemsand this was the Longaberger booth.


I didn't find any craft displays of knitting or quilting but I did see a booth selling quilting items and fabric.
I thought this was a great use for a vintage caboose.
Of course, there was a myriad of strawberry booths and items.

Here is a mini strawberry field with the equipment for planting and harvesting the fruit.
Here, one could buy a strawberry plant in a hanging pot that was already bearing fruit.
There were several places where one could obtain strawberry shortcake.
There were some entertainment events running throughout the day. We didn't go to the Bobby Vinton concert but we did catch part of the Pirates of the Colombian Caribbean show. Basically it was swashbucking pirates on the high wire. We were very impressed because it was quite windy today and they still managed not to get blown off their perches.
Of course, we had to go look at the poultry, rabbits, cows and pigs. I liked the colours of this rooster and think the colours would make beautiful yarn.


Skip and I posed in the Strawberry Queen's throne.
The last thing we did was attend the pig races. Basically there were 3 groups of 4 or 5 pigs that ran around the track with the goal of reaching the cream-filled cookies. If I can figure out how to upload the videos I took, I'll add them. For now, this is a view of the 'racetrack' around the 'Pig Hop' lanes.
There were lots and lots of restrooms that were clean and had attendants. The fairgrounds was kept free of debris by lots of people who kept things swept up. The weather was perfect - sunny skies and temperatures of 26C with a nice breeze. It wasn't jam-packed with people because it wasn't the weekend. Mostly there were retirees like us, including a DeNure Tour group out of Lindsay. We shared a table with a fellow from Port Perry when we had our strawberry shortbread. What were the odds....