kernology - where laurie and learning meet
 
I have been rather lax in posting pictures send by Elisa of Scotland. After a harsh winter and very wet spring, it is finally warming up it was almost 80F there yesterday but typically, today the weather has plunged back down to the mid-50's - and that's the HIGH for the day.

There is an 8 hour difference between California and Scotland so when this was taken last night it was only 2:00 PM in the afternoon here.  

Look at the picture closely. What do you see? Yes, the sun is setting now remember that this picture was taken at 10:00 PM - that's at NIGHT which illustrates how far north Elisa lives. Also take note that the summer solstice is not for another 18 days!  

For more spring pictures of Scotland follow this link.

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Gnomey Man 11/25/2010
 
It may be Thanksgiving in the USA but to the rest of the world it is just another Thursday. In the wilds of northern Scotland, Mike and Elisa awoke to 4 inches of snow on the ground. Luckily for them they had a package arrive on Tuesday, from the Kerns, which contained their new Gnomey hats.

I found the pattern for the hat over at Eskimimis Knits. I decided to make 2 in alternating color ways. One would be blue with a creamy white band and the other would be creamy white with a blue band. I had some problems understanding Eskimimis instructions so I emailed her and got a quick response with a drawing too. 

After my questions were answered, I went on the yarn hunt. The yarn requirements were such that the hats could easily be washed without dry cleaning and the itch factor was zero - I hate wool that itches; I chose blue and creamy white to match the squall coats that they had recently purchased. I ended up with washable wool/poly blend. I purchased 2 skeins of each color so I can also knit a color matching scarf.

Now that I had the yarn, I started to knit, I did a gauge swatch and adjusted the number of stitches to be cast on but I restarted the first hat twice to make sure the hats would fit both Mike and Elisa, that way they could be worn by either person.  

The other pattern change I made was to start both ear flaps and work my way up from there to the point. Eskimimis instructions have you start with the band, knit up to the point and then down from the band to make the ear flaps. 

It took 2 weeks (3 weekends) to knit the hats as I was only knitting at night when I got home from work and was watching the television, which means I was only knitting about half the time.

Two weeks ago the completed hats were mailed across the pond and of course it took a week to get up to Scotland. 

Here are the pictures of Mike being a winter Gnome. (click on a picture to see a larger image and you can scroll to the next images from the pop up viewer)
 
 
Elisa has been sending me more pictures of her jaunts out and about North-East Scotland. So head over to the pictures in Views of Scotland to see the recent batch. 
 
 
This report was filed by Mike, at our northern office....

It is snowing heavily yet again (the snow came up over the top of Elisa's wellington boots, which means that it is at least 14" deep in places on the grass) and the Met Office forecast for the next TWO WEEKS is:

"Snow showers are likely to become heavy and frequent at times giving further falls of several cm in many areas, with the potential for over 20cm locally." (5th and 6th January) and the outlook from 6th-15th January reads: "More frequent and heavier snow showers are likely in the north and east where further significant snowfall is likely. The further outlook will continue cold with further widespread frosts. However, it will probably not be as cold as the previous week, with perhaps fewer wintry showers."

Of course, the BBC weather forecasts on both Radio 4 and the News channel simply pass us by with a comment along the lines of "And there are more severe weather warnings for Scotland.  But it is forecast to be chilly overnight in south east England, with temperatures as low as -2C."  Up here the local Met Office are predicting "around -10C over the next few days - much warmer than last week".


For more pictures, you know where to look  - Views from Scotland 2010
 
NYE Musings 12/31/2009
 
It's NYE and here in So. Cal, it is 60F at our house at 11 am and it's getting warmer. In Scotland it is freezing - 32F or ZERO C, and this is warm for them.  


As I have said, Elisa lives in a bump in the road cause all that's there are a few farms, homes, a church (called a Kirk in them there parts), a small community hall and the road that goes through it all.  The snow has been so bad and the area is such a low priority; that the road has not been plowed or had grit put down in almost 2 weeks, and going on to three. 


Go over to the Views of Scotland page and you can see a few new pictures that Elisa took today. She put on a few layers, walked down the driveway and into the road, with out slipping I might add, and took four pictures so where here in the warmer climates can see what we are missing.


UPDATE: She just sent a few more!