Wildlife Report

There is ice and snow on the lake this morning — our first “real” snow of the season, and one of the eagles was out early hunting. At one point when he took off it appeared that he had something gripped in his talons. Seeing his fishing success makes me look forward to mid-winter when the lake will be solid, and the ice fisherfolk will be out drilling holes and setting up ice camps.

Of course since the deck was now covered, Bruce had to get out and shovel a path for me to feed the birds and squirrels. He also set up the shelter that they gather under when it’s snowing or raining hard. It snowed most of yesterday and is supposed to continue today and tomorrow — but mostly it’s just showers and (so far) not the 18-24″ predicted. I hadn’t gotten back inside and taken my shoes off before the blue jays had landed and started attacking the peanuts.

Meanwhile, the red sweater is done, and I’m happy with the outcome. It needs a little more blocking around the neckline and shoulders, but a shot of steam should fix that.

I’ve also been swatching more for the next sweater and am totally enjoying the feel of the Shibui Birch yarn. After blocking it is silky soft, and I think it will make a really nice longer (tunic length) cardigan. One of the stitches I’ve chosen is a diagonal that I want to travel from piece to piece. I’ll have to graph it out to make sure that it crosses the seams perfectly…I’m not thinking of this as working in the round because the design needs the structure of the side seams.

Meanwhile…..

This is a brief post, and I’ll be off-line for a time. You may remember that I had hand surgery in July to fix a trigger finger. Well, that “triggered” something called Dupuytren’s contracture — also known as Viking Hand. It is an ancient, genetic condition (and I had no idea that I had Vikings in my heritage) that shortens and thickens a cord in the palm of the hand, causing the fingers to curl and for you to lose the ability to make the fingers do your bidding. In other words, it interferes with knitting! So, I’m back to the surgeon on Wednesday with high hopes it can be fixed. Stay tuned!

4 Replies to “Wildlife Report”

  1. My father had that in both hands. I never knew about the Viking heritage connection though. When I got my DNA results back last year, it turns out that I have 17% Nordic genes so clearly Dad did too. Hope you get good news from the surgeon.
    Lovely sweater by the way. Color and style are striking.

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