07.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 10:06 am by Administrator
One experience I had during our visit to the Isle of Man was only made possible because of my very good friends there. Maybe I should go back a tad further and say that my Aussie friend, Helen, started it a couple years ago by rekindling my knitting and yarn addiction. 
Well, since my friends at the IoM knew of this interest, and that I was interested in sheep and curious to know if they had any sheep shearing exhibitions there, they arranged a very nice surprise for us–a “private” viewing of sheep shearing where we got not only front row viewing, but hands on experience. This was totally unexpected, but very much enjoyed and appreciated by me. Brian and I would have not had this opportunity had it not been for them, not only in contacting these shearers, but also in finding that place which, honestly, I would never have found by the descriptions such as, “oh, over there where these such and such trees grow,” ha! Sadly, I’m very nature and wildlife challenged having grown up in a concrete city and all that foliage looked similar to me. Well, I do exaggerate, but not by much! Brian knew how much this meant to me, so he made sure to take quite a few pics. The first step taken for the shearing process was to corral the sheep. Next the shearer prepared his tools and then picked out one of the sheep to shear. Here he is positioning the sheep for shearing. Notice how nice and fluffy it is as this is a “before” picture.
Once he had the sheep in position, he started to clip away at the upper fleece around the neck with hand shears. After he got to a certain point, he continued to shear with the electric shearers. Apparently, it depends upon how long or thick the fleece is as to whether they are ready to be sheared or not. They told us that when the fleece is not ready to come off yet, it’s too thick and dense to even get the blades in. At that point hand shearing works better, but even so, it’s more difficult. So they prefer to wait until the fleece is longer and practically ready to fall off. As a matter of fact, the sheep in the pic on the right has a patch where it looks like some fleece already came off on its own. The next pic shows that he’s transferred from manual clippers to the electric shears.
Here is the fleece that was shorn.
And here is the sheep “after” the hair cut. . .
Ah, I hope she felt much fresher after that.
As with so many other issues in our world, one complaint has been of cruelty to animals. I know there are a group of knitters out there who refuse to use animal fibers because of animal cruelty issues. Well, I’m sure there is some or even a lot out there, but just the mere shearing of sheep is not a cruel act, as far as I see. And now that I’ve seen shearing first hand, I know that it doesn’t have to be a cruel and terrible process for the animals. The sheep at this shearing didn’t appear distressed and one even fell asleep while it was being shorn. Here’s a pic of it sleeping during it’s haircut.
Now these shearers are very friendly people. We were cautious to stay out of their way and not cause any trouble. I was thrilled just to be able to see the process firsthand, but then I was told that it was okay for me to touch the sheep, too, if I liked! Granted most of the sheep don’t let you just go up and touch them, but there was one little baby sheep that was okay with it because at birth his momma abandoned him and so he was bottle fed since birth. That regular bottle feeding made him used to people touching and picking him up. I got to carry that little cutie.
And so did Brian. Didn’t I say that he had touch any animals he could? Tee hee. I could see the little kid in him come out when around animals.
But that wasn’t the end of it. These fine people were so hospitable. I really must learn to be so hospitable. I was offered to try my hand at shearing. Here I am trying to get the sheep in position.
And another shot with me actually getting a chance at doing some of the ‘ole snip, snip.
This was my very first experience to see sheep shearing “live,” and not only was I able to carry a baby one, I was able to experience a little of how to shear one. And not just any sheep, either, but a Manx Loaghtan sheep, a breed we don’t have available here. Now how many city girls get to experience that? Ha! I really love the Isle of Man and it’s people. I’m so glad that there are still people there who value working with the land and their traditions.
Marlakins
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07.28.08
Posted in Book Reviews, Uncategorized at 9:14 am by Administrator
A couple weeks ago, my youngest son finished reading one of my old time favorite books called The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I was about his same age (14) when I first read it and was just fascinated with the story and with Buck’s skill in writing and storytelling. After reading that book, I also read a few of Buck’s other books such as Peony, Imperial Woman, and The Three Daughters of Madame Liang. I enjoyed every one of them.
It has been many years since I indulged in reading fiction literature. Somehow I had been drawn to more historical books and health books and other “how to” books and had forgotten about fiction. Now that my son completed reading The Good Earth, our discussions of the book reminded me of how much I was captivated by that book and how I could scarcely put it down until I came to the end. So I thought he might like to read another Pearl S. Buck book. I don’t know how or why I missed it or didn’t know it, but I found that The Good Earth is the first part of a triology. The second part is Sons, and the third A House Divided. Why had I not known this? Ha!
Now, 30 years later I have a renewed interest in Buck’s story of the family of Wang Lung. When I returned Rumer Godden’s In This House of Brede last week, I checked out Buck’s Sons. I’ll try to recheck Godden’s book again later to finish that story. One of the gals in my knit group claimed that Godden was her all time favorite author when she was younger, but she was not familiar with In This House of Brede. I gather that Godden has quite a few other books, but had changed her style (or subject matter) a bit later on. I’m gathering that it’s not the story of cloistered nuns that gained her followers. I had merely opened Sons to read the very first line, and I was hooked again! Again, I hated to put the book down to do my chores and errands, and as soon as I had a moment, my face was back in that book until this morning, I finished it. And oh my! I am still impressed with Buck’s writing and her skill with weaving her stories. It’s as if once I started to read her words and descriptions I was sucked into another life and I’m there watching this movie. Her descriptions of China and the people are so colorful and lively that it’s interesting to follow. Her insight into human nature and tendencies is also notable. I remember years ago reading the end of The Good Earth and thinking, “Oh, no!” And now many years later I find there is a sequel, and again, when I come to the end, my thinking is, “Oh, no!” Ha ha! Now I know I must check out A House Divided. But first I’ll try to finish up the Speedwell. I don’t know why I struggle to read it. I’ve already had this book for several weeks, but have only managed to read up to page 60. I’m puzzled at why it’s such a struggle. Some parts are interesting enough for me such as what privateering was like and some of the descriptions of early maritime, but still it’s slow reading for me. When I read The Bounty, the True Story of The Mutiny on the Bounty, it was over 400 pages, and I whizzed through it with gusto, so I know it’s not the nautical language that’s slowing me down. At first I thought perhaps I’m just not in the mood for reading, but then I picked up Sons, and again whizzed through the book in a few days with it’s 313 pages, it made me wonder why. I think that part of the reason some books like Buck’s captivates me is character development. Buck’s characters are well-developed, and now that I think of it the main characters in The Bounty are also very interesting characters. The characters draw me into the story to want to know more.
Okay, so my bottom line is that if you enjoyed reading The Good Earth, then I think you’ll enjoy reading Sons. I know I’m not saying much about the story line because I don’t want to spoil it if anyone still hasn’t read it. I will say that Sons is a continuation of the lives of Wang Lung’s three sons and their children, particularly their sons since as the story goes, girls are just girls and of not much consequence, ha! Although we still see how women, as insignificant as the men make them out to be, still greatly influenced the men. And now that I finally finished it, I can welcome my chores again without trying to hurry so that I can get back into reading the story.
So must dash for now.
Marlakins
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07.25.08
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Uncategorized, cooking at 5:41 pm by Administrator
Last week I spent some time at the hospital with my mom. Since I’m pretty picky with my foods, I decided I was going to pack all my own food. But what’s the easiest thing to pack? I figured I’d take some sandwich ingredients and make my own organic sandwiches. I tried to select everything carefully and decided I was going to treat myself a bit and buy some organic mustard. I don’t have the bottle anymore, so can’t quote the exact ingredients, but suffice it to say that all the ingredients looked natural with normal food ingredients labeled as “organic,” except there was “one” ingredient that stopped me for a second. . . “organic spices.” Hmm. I knew that “spices” is one of the ingredients which is known to be a “possible” red flag to MSG. So whenever I see spices as an ingredient, I just don’t buy it. But gee, since it was “organic” spice, I thought maybe it’s okay. I don’t buy many pre-parepared, so I don’t think I recalled ever seeing organic spices before as an ingredient. So I bought it, and boy was it tasty! When I got home, and after three days of eating the organic mustard with it’s “organic spice,” Brian tells me, “I don’t think you should be eating that stuff. Don’t you know that spice can still have MSG even if it’s organic?” Ack! I suppose it makes sense, but I tell you, reading labels gets me wacky, and that’s why I generally don’t buy many pre-prepared foods. Even when you read the fine print, they still sneak in those unwanted ingredients. So I tossed the rest of the mustard out, but now I was spoiled. It just tasted so good. But, a quick internet search revealed that making your own mustard is rather easy! So today I tried it, and it was tasty, too!
Apparently, there are a lot of ways to make homemade mustard, but I picked the easiest one I could find for starters. I can get fancier later, if I decide to. The ingredients I used is organic powdered mustard, organic apple cider vinegar, and maple syrup. All you do is take some powdered mustard (you can use seeds and grind them yourself, if you like) and add a bit of apple cider vinegar and mix until you get a consistency of ketchup. Then add whatever spices you like and a bit of something sweet like maple syrup or honey or sugar. Mix, mix and let sit for a while (I did for about an hour, but it can be shorter or longer), and viola! Mustard spread! Minus the MSG or other hidden ingredients.
Okay, so another revelation I had today was that “citric acid,” which is so common in so many pre-prepared products is also a source of MSG. Oye! I have been trying to stay away from citric acid “additives” anyway because of my skin issues, but I have not been avoiding it with the foods for the rest of my family. And now today I saw this article “The Difficulty of Keeping MSG free” by Jack Samuels. Here’s a little excerpt from the article.
“The food ingredient “citric acid” provides us with a good example of why MSG-sensitive people with little tolerance are having difficulty staying well. Many people believe that “citric acid” comes from citrus fruits, and since most people can tolerate citrus fruits, “citric acid” should not be a problem. However, most of the “citric acid” used today is made from corn rather than from citrus fruits. The Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a major producer of “citric acid.”
“Citric acid” is produced by fermentation of crude sugars. When “citric acid” is produced from corn, manufacturers do not take the time or undertake the expense to remove all corn protein. During processing, the remaining protein is hydrolyzed, resulting in some processed free glutamic acid (MSG). “Citric acid” may also interacts with any protein in the food to which it is added, freeing up more glutamic acid.”
The thing which bothers me even more is that some of the supplements I have taken on occasion in the past for both my family and myself have been citric acid chelated. We tended to avoid the amino acid chelates because of another article Brian and I read on amino acid chelates that appeared to damage the livers of some cows. We figured if it was damaging cow livers, then it may also damage human livers, so we opted to avoid supplements chelated with amino acids for the citric acid chelates. Now, after reading Jack Samuels’ article, it may very well be that we’ve been taking in MSG all this time with our supplements, oye! This is very frustrating, and very annoying, and just another reason why I really try to avoid bottled supplements. I hope I don’t start finding problems with herbal supplements, too. But for cost effectiveness and my own quality control, I’ve been buying my herbs in bulk anyway and preparing most of them at home. But still, the tinctures are convenient to buy ready-made.
Okay, so now that I got that off my chest, better get back to working on dinner.
Marlakins
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07.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 11:26 am by Administrator
One of the first things on my mind as I awoke this morning was to remember to take a picture of my very first whole fleece acquisition from my trip to the IoM. So before I forgot “again,” I ran out to the backyard and snapped a quick pic. Ah, isn’t she a beauty? LOL I know, I’m so overly sentimental, but there are just so many things in life I want to remember, heheh. Anyway, these fleece (I was able to acquire two whole fleeces) have been sitting in a tightly sealed plastic bag since the end of May for several reasons. One reason was that I wanted to make sure that any bugs like ticks, if any, died before exposing the fleece. I’m an amateur at this, but my reasoning was that ticks need a warm body with lots of blood to live off of, and without it, they would die. I figured a couple weeks in the hold would be good. Another reason I’ve held off is that I didn’t want to wash the fleece in my bathtub or sink or washer because I was concerned that I might clog up my drains. And yet another reason is that life has been distracting me so much so that I’ve had to put off playing with this fleece until now. So my first move has been to purchase a washing basin from the hardware store. I figured I could wash it in the backyard like a dog. The second move was to remove the outer plastic since I figured I should let it breath a bit. It was originally sealed very tightly in another plastic bag with mailing tape. I didn’t realize how secure it was sealed until the other day when I decided to let the fleece breathe. The first thing I got as I punctured the bag was a big whiff of the Isle of Man as the fragrance plumed out. Well, okay, it was likely really a big whiff of the sheep, but I liked to think I took a little IoM scent back, heheheh.
Last Monday, I started to see a window of time that looked like it would be good to start working on my fleece. Brian and I were gonna head out to Stick and Stone Fiber to check out their spinning wheels. I figured I wanted a real spinning wheel for these fleece rather than just my little hand spindle. What we found was that Stick and Stone Fiber is no longer in business, ack! And unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any other local stores that sell spinning wheels. Gee, what else can’t I find here in huge Los Angeles? No traditionally smoked kippers, and now no spinning wheels. . . Grrrr. And I always thought we could find anything here in this big ‘ole city. I suppose I might be able to find a used wheel somewhere here, but I don’t think I’d want used kippers, ha ha ha! Anyway,. . . I found a place in Redondo Beach where the woman works out of her home, but when I called, she wasn’t in. I left my number and was told she would call me the next day (that was Monday), but alas today, Thursday, I still haven’t heard from her. . . Hmmm. Makes me not feel too confident about doing business with her. Okay, but no matter, my next step is to find some carders. I was told that I should expect to pay about $50 to $100 for a pair of carders. But honestly, when I look at those carders, they look like dog brushes to me. So I checked online regarding those brushes and found that some people do used dog brushes for carding wool, oye! So today, I think I’m gonna head down to the pet store and check out the types of dog brushes they have and their prices. I’m hoping I won’t have to spend more than $50 of a pair of dog brushes. Now wouldn’t that be nice. . .
Okay, so enough of my fleece talk. I’m still working on more knitting and am learning how to adjust my patterns a bit. I may post on that another time. I’ve also been reading a book called, In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden as well as trying to go through a book called the Speedwell by Kenneth Poolman. While I am interested in both books and want to know how they both end, I have to admit that they are slow reading for me. And this morning after checking my library status, I find that In This House of Brede is due today and can not be renewed because there is a title hold pending. So I may just return it today and try to recheck it out again next time. So far I’ve only gotten to page 92 out of 376 pages. I’m at the point where Dame Catherine was elected the new Abess. Now the Speedwell has a bunch of interesting tidbits for me, but again this book is moving slowly, too. I’m not so sure why, but I only seem to manage a few pages at a time when life duties take my attention away, and I “forget” for a time to come back to the book, sigh. But I do find that history helps to understand why things are the way they are today. It helps me to understand human nature and to see what Solomon once wrote that, “There is nothing new under the sun.” It is true that things have changed, especially languages and customs, but for the most part, human nature has remained the same. The old “the more things change, the more things stay the same’ axiom.
Aside from that, I’ve also been checking out the news from time to time. Today I read that the minimum wage has gone up to $6.55 an hour. While I can see that might help some employees, I don’t think that it is really keeping up with inflation and sadly the raise is expected to translate into higher prices at the till, anyway. Round and round it goes, where we get off, nobody knows. . . Yesterday I read that the first invitro-fertilized baby will soon turn 30 years old this year. I recall reading how her inception was very controversial at the time. One medical ethics book I read discussed her inception as one of the many medical ethics cases for medical advancements. Do I agree with IVF? Well, I am happy that many couples are able to have children of their own. However, I am disturbed with the fact that the IVF process results in so many unwanted embryos which are often destroyed, or targeted for experimentation, and many still being held in stasis for who knows how long and for what? Sci-fi horror? Sounds like it to me. Well, I could go on with a lot of the news today. After all there’s just so much of it! We are inundated with information today. Sometimes so much so that we are almost paralyzed from making a move and thus rendering us apathetic to so many causes. I’ve been thinking a lot lately while knitting. I think that’s partly why I enjoy it so much. But at the same time, right now I feel like I’m on info overload. Almost frozen with what I want to do next. I don’t want to be apathetic to do good things, to help out people. So I will have to snap out of it soon. Not that I help lots of people! Ha! But every little bit counts. And I want it to count. 
Well, I’m off for lunch, and to find a couple of doggie brushes. . . Hopefully tomorrow I can hit Stitching is an Art. I heard through the grapevine that they’re having a great sale this weekend starting tomorrow at 10AM. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I’m so there! But the sad thing is that Stitches of the Heart closed their store and that’s why the big sale, wah. I hope to find the scoop tomorrow, tho.
Marlakins 
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07.23.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:48 pm by Administrator
Just around the corner from The House of Manannan is Moore’s Kipper House and Devereau and Son. Both places specialize in kippers, smoked herring. Here’s where the Filipino in me comes out. I love kippers. Maybe it’s because Filipinos also like smoked and dried fish, which is a traditional breakfast fare. So while at the Isle of Man, I had kippers almost every day for breakfast along with some homemade bread and a nice hot cup of tea. I miss that because I haven’t been able to locate a place that sells nice kippers locally, and ever since the 9/11 Twin Tower incident, Moore’s and Devereau are not able to ship to the U.S. Grrrrr. I’ll have to find a way to get my fix, but in the meantime, here’s a few pics from the free tour that was offered at Moore’s Kipper House.
I don’t know why I didn’t think to take a pic of the outside of Moore’s, but I was able to pick up a shot from their website of the outside. It’s a tiny shot, but that’s basically what it looks like in person. They offered one tour at 3PM every day.
The building is two stories. The tour starts on the bottom floor where the herring are first brought in and filleted. The herrings are passed into the room through those windows behind the machines.
Those two machines are used to fillet the herring. If my memory serves me correctly, the steel table on the right side of the pic is used to salt the herring once they’ve been filleted and cleaned. Below is a pic of the other side of the filleting machine.
Off to the right of these machines is the bottom portion of the smoking house. There were several red doors lined up next to each other, which opened to the bottom of the smoke stacks and where the fire was kept burning while smoking.
There was one that was in the process of smoking salmon, so our guide opened the door for us to see what it looked like inside.
Naturally since that one was very hot, we couldn’t go inside to look up at the fish being smoked. So we were shown the inside of one of the smokers that wasn’t currently in use. This shot is looking up at the planks that would carry the fish during smoking.
Those planks above are accessed from the second floor. A man loads up the planks with herring as he balances on another plank. So care is needed that he doesn’t fall below as he works. Once these smokers are loaded and in operation, it gets pretty smoky inside, so the guys checking in on the fish need to know what they’re doing as they go in and check up on the fish. Don’t want them mis-stepping and falling down a level and ending up in the smoking fire below. The doors on the upper level look just like the red doors on the bottom level except when these doors are opened, this is where the fish are hanging. The cart rack off to the left is where the kippers are placed after they are smoked and left to cool a bit before packing.
In case it’s hard to imagine how the fish are hanged during smoking, I lifted off another small pic from Moore’s Kippers website at what they look like.
And here’s what the kippers look like when they’re cooked and ready to eat!
Now I know I’ve been going on about kippers, but Moores and Devereau also carry other seafoods such as crab meats, other fishes, and queenies. I honestly wasn’t familiar with what queenies were, but I found that they are scallops. During our visit, Brian and I also picked up some of their smoked bacon. Oh la la! That was good, too!
Okay, better dash for now.
Marlakins
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07.19.08
Posted in Uncategorized, felt projects, knitting and crocheting at 5:33 pm by Administrator
The more socks I make, the more left over yarns start piling up. I have been saving them thinking that I’ll use of the scrap pieces for squares for blankets and stuffed animals, etc. I even made fingerless gloves with some left over sock yarns, but really, how many fingerless gloves does one need? Two weeks ago, I found another use for my left over sock yarns. Baby socks! I have been wanting to learn how to make baby socks, so a couple weeks ago I did a net search for a pattern that I liked and took the plunge. I am very happy with the results, however, I am a bit disappointed that I can’t seem to locate the blog which gave the instructions! Yikes! I would like to give credit where credit is due, but alas, I can’t find her blog again. . . I liked her pattern because it started from the toe up and used a short row heel. The pattern is extremely simple, and I liked the look of them. All I need now is a baby to test them out on. Here’s a pic of some of the socks I make once I learned how. The tiny light green ones were my first effort, and they look like newborn size. They’re right next to a big pair of socks I was working on for Brian, who liked the look of the little baby ones in grey with the pink and orange vertical stripes on the bottom of the socks. So I told him I’d make him one for his size.
Now there should be a total of “6″ socks in the picture above, but the baby pair on the far right will get cut off underneath the listing. Also, I noticed last week that AOL browsers cut off part of the right sides of my pictures, grrrr. I never liked AOL before in the first place, and now I find another quirky thing about them, ugh. Anyway, now that I got that out of my system, here’s another couple pairs I made on Thursday and Friday while at the hospital with my mom. She was discharged today, so I was able to stay home and blog, heheh, instead of heading back out to the hospital.
Below is of Brian modeling his first pair of handmade intarsia socks. I can’t say I enjoy working intarsia much, at least not on socks because they have some quirky things about them like having to be very careful with the tension, and it’s not as stretchy as ribbed socks or other stitches. So aside from the fact that working intarsia makes the sock thicker, it also makes it less stretchy, so I decided to stop short and make them ankle socks. I also think it’s a bit harder to make a good fitting intarsia sock, so being this is my first attempt, I suppose it’s not too a bad fit. Brian is always so encouraging so he says they fit great, but I think they look a tad big. . . or maybe it’s just a bit twisted on his toe?
By the way, even though the pattern is just something I made up myself, the design was inspired by some designs I saw in a book called More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.
And while I was at my parents’ place, I realized I never took a picture of the brown and beige felt purse I made for my mom last year. She brought it out asking me to make her another one, but this time with green and white. So that might be showing up on my blog at another time if I can finish it. It should be similar to this one per her request.
I honestly don’t remember the exact pattern for the above purse because I was eyeballing it as I knit along watching something my sister insisted I should watch called “Endless Love,” a Korean TV series that was dubbed in Tagalog. Wow, I didn’t know Koreans were as sappy as Filipinos! But yeah I was hooked, so it must have been the Filipino in me that glued me to my chair, sobbing and knitting. I was probably using size 10 circular needles, two strands at a time of Cascade 220. As far as the instructions for the baby socks above, they are started from the toe up beginning with a cast on of 8 stitches, then working around to 16 stitches. I have to admit I did it a bit different from the original instructions because the gal cast on 16 stitches using the wrap method for starting the toes. I don’t particularly like that method, so I did my own that I liked from Janet Rehfeldt’s book Toe~Up Techniques. Rehfeldt does teach a wrap cast on method, too, but the closed toe method is easier for me. Anyway, basically, the total cast on stitches is 16, then increase on either side once every other row until there are 36 stitches total. I use two circulars, but three double points would work fine, too, or the magic loop method which the gal used, but I don’t like that as much likely because I’m not used to it, ha! Once there are 36 stitches on, work straight knits 15 rows, then start short row heel. When 5 stitches are wrapped on either side, then start to pick up the wrapped stitches again until you’re back working with all 36 stitches. Make 3 rounds, then start on 1×1 ribbing for 16 rows. Bind off. I like to use the invisible bind off at that point. Gee, I wish I had that gal’s blog page to link to since her instructions were much more detailed, but I do think anyone who knows how to make basic socks from the toe up should understand the instructions I outlined above.
I have been wanting to try lace patterns or chevron patterns for socks, but I realize that the guys in my house would prefer not to wear those styles, ha! And I’m not much of a sock wearer, but I think I might try one anyway eventually just cause I think they look so cute. In the meantime, I think I will try to brush up more on baby hats again since the little socks would go nice with a matching hat. Plus winter will be upon us again, and I understand that there are a lot of babies who live in freezing climates who could use some warm woolies.
Well, this is about a good time to call my folks and see how mom’s coming along. Toodles for now.
Marlakins
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07.15.08
Posted in Historical Trivia, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 3:25 pm by Administrator
The next museum Brian and I visited was the House of Manannan. I really enjoyed this museum. Well, honestly, I enjoyed all of them, ha! But this museum seemed pretty comprehensive as far as explaining the history of the Isle of Man. Here’s a view of the entrance of the museum.
Off to the right is a bronze sculpture of several Vikings. I wanted to get a closer look at those Vikings, so sneaked up next to one. He didn’t seem to mind. . .
The beginning of the museum starts with a video guide who greets you by saying, “I know who you are! You are travelers!. . . ” Why, how did he know? LOL Anyway, we follow him along as the exhibits meandered from the early settlers who lived in the roundhouses such as the model pictured here to when the Christians came etc.
Some of the exhibits were life-sized with wax figures dressed and poised in various activities. We were lead through these exhibits where we would be seated and a video would begin narrating the scene in which we sat. One of the first of these exhibits consisted of a life-sized scene of the inside of a roundhouse. This exhibit reminded me of Disneyland in Orange County with the old General Electric exhibit. The wax figures moved and had recordings as if they were speaking to one another. It was too dark inside the roundhouse to take any pictures, but we did get some other pictures of their scenes such as this one of a Viking ship below.
And this one exhibiting their long tradition with fishing.
The museum’s exhibits of the history of the Isle of Man is rather extensive. There was so much to read, that we even bought some books for more research later. It was at this museum that I learned of the Manx involvement with the famous Mutiny on the Bounty. Being that the tiny island of IoM is in the middle of the sea, it’s only natural that they have a lot of fishing and maritime history. After all, the settlers arrived on boats and ships. Throughout the years those ships evolved to fancier and more advanced ships. Ship building naturally became one of their specialties, and even today here in San Diego, California is the Star of India, a ship that was originally built on the IoM. It is advertised today as the world’s oldest active ship. One of the rooms on the second floor displays more modern transport ships. The drawers below the exhibits included blueprints of the ships as well as newspaper articles and other pertinent information of each particular ship such as when it sailed, who was captain, etc.
The above exhibit was on the second floor along with other points of interests of the isle such as it’s natural wildlife population (animals, not the people, heheh). The House of Manannan is located in Peel. As a matter of fact, the Peel Castle can be seen from the second floor of the museum.
Quietly sitting by the window, I saw one of the guides working with some yarn. . . oh, oh, oh! I had to go see what she was working on. . . She was very nice and allowed me to take pictures.
This woman was working on a pair of Viking gauntlets for a fellow friend in their Viking club. The type of yarn work is called “nalbinding.” I had heard of it before, and she was kind enough to show me how to make some simple stitches. Here’s another pic of the second stitch.
Basically it looks like needlepoint stitching without the fabric. She was working with their loaghtan yarn, so I purchased a few balls to give it a go. Here’s my supplies and my first attempt sitting on top of the balls.
I found the concept very easy, but getting the right tension is a bit harder for me than knitting or crocheting. I tend to want to work tight, and am thinking I’m doing it too tightly. I’m not so happy with this run, so decided I’m gonna start again. The trouble I find with nalbinding is that it’s not easy to take apart if you want to reuse the yarn. 
Here’s a closer view of the piece I worked up. My camera battery ran out after this shot, so I wasn’t able to get a better picture. If I ever finish a nalbinding project, I’ll be sure to post pictures of it. I did have to take a break from it because I was a bit frustrated with how the yarn would knot up while sewing with the needle. I suppose it’s something I have to get the hang of so that I have better control of the yarn. In the meantime, I’ve decided to take a break and go back to my knitting.
Well, that’s all for now, folks. Better get back to what I should be doing now, again.
Marlakins
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07.11.08
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Uncategorized at 6:24 pm by Administrator
When we hear the words, “The Bible,” I think many preconceived ideas jump out in our minds. Oftentimes, those ideas are wrapped up in strong feelings whether it be a great love for the Bible or a disdain for it. People today, and in generations past, have risked their lives for what’s written in the Bible. Others have gone through wars and died for their beliefs documented in the Bible. And yet others have been martyred.
When I hear the words, “The Bible,” I think of a love letter. A very long and involved love letter from God to us. A love letter that He wrote to us with all the things He wanted us to know that we would not be able to know had He not revealed it to us. He shares with us our beginnings, who our forefathers were, what happened to them, much of history and how it can affect our lives today, how that history will affect our future, and even many other practical things such as how to live peaceably, what the attitudes of man are like, even a bit about what God Himself is like, and many other things. Apparently He had much to tell us as that “love letter” was not a mere few pages, but rather filled many, many pages which are known today to be a compilation of 66 books written by 40 different authors and spanning over about 6,000 years. In short that love letter is known today as The Bible.
One may wonder why I think of the Bible as a love letter? Well, it’s because of its overall message. In the Bible God tells us how it was His pleasure to create us, but we fell away from Him. But because of His love for us, He devised a way that we could be reconciled again to Him. In the meantime, He has given us directions on how to live so that things will go well with us until we are reconciled again with Him. Because He cares for us. Basically, the Bible tells us how much God loves us and how we can get back together with Him. It’s like a wonderfully detailed love letter where the ultimate goal is for reunion. There are even reference to the Bride and the Bridegroom–the church and Christ. So until we meet again, think of Him always and know that he is also thinking of us, so have heart and take care.
Being a love letter, it’s not surprising that “love” is the underlying theme in the whole Bible. In 1 John 4:19, he writes, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Can we love like God loves? Is all love the same? There are many references to love in the Bible, to which I would like to comment. Certainly I would like to also receive comments if there are any other insights regarding love in the Bible. I’m not sure where I want to begin, so will pick a spot and continue later when I have more time.
Happy Friday!
Marlakins
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07.10.08
Posted in Historical Trivia, Uncategorized at 12:33 am by Administrator
After our visit to Cregneash, Brian and I headed out to Douglas, the capital and largest town on the Isle of Man. We weren’t sure what we wanted to see there, but we figured we could at least go in to town and see what was there. It was basically just city, so I didn’t feel too compelled to take many pictures while there. Especially since I was already enamored by the countryside, I was not so impressed to find busy city again. But we did find the Manx Museum there, so we found a parking structure that was just across the street. The first thing that struck us was that there was no ticket booth or person collecting parking fees. So we weren’t sure if we could just park anywhere. We noticed that on the top level there were lots of empty slots, but all of them were labeled “reserved.” Hmmm. Then we saw little boxes and finally a sign that explain how much it cost to park for how many hours. I actually found the sign a bit confusing, but it was pretty clear that parking was not free. There was no one around to ask for clarification. After a bit of snooping around we found that they had an interesting little parking meter that you put money into, which then dispensed a ticket with the time on it and how long you intended to park. Depending upon how long one intended to park determined how much money should be put in. The ticket is then placed on the dashboard where it could be seen by anyone who came by to check that parking tickets were purchased. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, the ticket boxes were placed in two or three locations on each floor. We tried about 3 boxes, none of which seemed to do anything. So we were confused and didn’t know what we were doing wrong. Then a woman go out of her car and “casually” I followed to observed her. . . in short, the ticket boxes weren’t working, ah ha! It took hunting down all the ticket boxes in the garage to finally find one that worked. Whew, okay, so now that we finally got our parking ticket, we headed across the street to the Manx Museum.
After our ordeal in the parking lot, we were delighted to find that the Manx Museum was free of charge. We didn’t take a lot of pictures while inside because we were too busy reading and looking at all the displays. Later, we realized that we could take pics inside the museums so we got more pics in other museums. But in the Manx Museum we only got a few shots in. With my interest in knitting, naturally I had to take a picture of one of their traditional ganseys.
Apparently, the Manx ganseys are known to be rather plain, however, I was not aware that they used more than one color in their ganseys. Lots of the gansey pics I’ve seen have all been one color.
One of the interesting archaeological finds on the Isle of Man are the roundhouses. Roundhouses were built partially underground. Here’s a model of one of them.
The model shows what the top looked like with the grass covering, while the front portion gives an inside view of the roundhouse underground. Several of these were found on the island and it’s not entirely sure of who and how these roundhouses were occupied and for what purpose if only during certain times of the year or full-time. We encountered more info on the roundhouse at the House of Mannanin Museum, so took more pics there which I will show later. For now, a little more info can be read about the roundhouses here.
The Vikings were known to be one of the oldest settlers on the Isle of Man, and as such, Viking burials have been excavated there. Two of the burials revealed that the bodies were buried in their boats along with much of their belongs. Our friends on the island later took us to one of the burial sites called Chapel Hill Ladoole. It was a treat to not only read about it at the Manx Museum, but to also be taken to the actual burial site. Here’s a pic of the sign leading to the burial ground. Thank God for our friends because Brian and I would never have found it on our own. The roads are narrow and winding, and the signs are quite small and easy to pass up. This sign was behind a gate and embedded in foliage.
As the sign states, about 100 yards away is the Viking burial site. The marker reads thus:
And here are the stones marking the outline of the boat.
There is also a small Keeill very close by (a few yards away) which is believed to have pre-existed before the Vikings. The current remains are believed to have been built later in the 10th or 11th century. A Keeill is a church. There are a few other burial spots nearby as well. The view from this spot is lovely. The sea can be easily seen off in the distance.
Many stone slabs carved into crosses served as burial markers. I believe they’ve discovered about 204 of these grave markers. Again, I had but to mention an interest in these crosses and our friends whisked us out to see a collection of them in Maughold. There are a large variety of them. Some better preserved than others, and others more intricate in detail than others. Here’s an example of what they look like.
And from the Manx Museum, these are some of the names found on the crosses.
Hmmm. The only names that look somewhat familiar are Juan, Olaf, and “maybe” Thorstein and Thorwald.
Okay, it’s late again, so must hit the hay and continue this another time. Gee, I know I’m skipping a lot of what was at the museum. I was pretty captivated with the maps, especially how they changed over time. The Manx Museum also has a natural history gallery. It’s quite small, but a virtual view of it can be viewed here. I’ll try to share more of Manx history when I post on the House of Mannanin. We took more pictures in there.
Marlakins
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07.06.08
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Uncategorized, felt projects, knitting and crocheting at 11:41 pm by Administrator
Today, July 6th, marks my seven year anniversary since my last blood transfusion! Seven years ago today, I was too pooped to do anything but spend the day at the transfusion center receiving red blood cells. Today, I spent the day doing ordinary house chores like any other healthy person. I trimmed the plants in the backyard, shopped for groceries, read a book that I picked up at the library, knitted, and more. Reaching this milestone makes an otherwise ordinary day sweet as honey. Today I relished in the fact that I was able to do ordinary things because years ago, when I was transfusion dependent, doing ordinary things at times were a struggle. Ordinary things like spreading the sheets and blankets on my bed, washing dishes, washing my hair, etc. all got me tired. Today, I could thank God that I was able to wash my dishes and make my bed, trim the trees and shower, drive out to shop, chat with the neighbor, and still have more time and energy to fool around with my hobbies like reading and knitting. Today was no ordinary ordinary day. It was my special ordinary day.
I was going to update by sharing what I was knitting today, but realized that I’ve finished other projects and never got around to uploading them onto the blog. So I might as well do that now. Lately I’ve been mostly working on socks. Brian and Matthew really like the socks I’ve made for them. Andrew and Aaron aren’t so picky with socks, so they think they’re just the same as the store bought ones. I beg to differ because while they may “feel the same,” I think they look better, ha! Brian and Matthew say they feel better. They must feel the TLC in them. . . 
So I’ve decided that I want the boys in my family to have at least 7 pairs of handmade socks each. One for every day of the week. I’m about half way there now, so still need to keep knitting. And likely when I’m done, they’ll need replacements, ha ha. Above is a pair I recently finished for Brian. He wanted socks that had cables. I still haven’t figured out how to take good pictures showing closeup details. Today I got a chance to play around with it a bit, so let’s see how I did. Brian was a good sock model.
Brian has wanted me to learn how to knit socks for years now. He even bought me an instruction book, which I’ve had for about 20 years, ha ha! Last year I finally learned how to knit socks, and Brian was overjoyed. Yes, it’s the little things that make him happy. But you know how it is when we get something. . . soon we want “more.” Brian was soon requesting that I make socks with cables running up them. The first pair I made I found that they were too tight for his legs, so I gave them to Andrew who has thinner legs than Brian. I learned that cabling makes the piece narrower. This time I cast on more stitches to accommodate for the cabling and this time they fit! It was so sweet to see the expression on his face upon receiving his first pair of handmade cable socks, ha! Just encourages me to knit more!
Then, my mom asked me to knit up another little felted purse for her. While Brian really likes handmade socks, my mom really likes felted purses. My sister bought her a present when they went down to San Diego. It was a cool lime green outfit with embroidery. My mom wanted a felted purse to match. They call that “malande,” in Tagalog, ha ha! Course I probably didn’t spell that right, but phonetically, I think other Filipinos will know what I mean. Ever since she was younger she liked to have her outfits match with her purse and shoes, etc. Boy, I couldn’t keep track of that. So, I went to Yarns Unlimited in Santa Monica and found the exact color by Cascade. I like Cascade’s 220 wool for felting. I just love the way yarn looks all twisted up so had to take a pic of it. I also found that Yarns Unlimited was having a sale, so I picked up more sock yarn, heheheh.
Anyway, so here’s the finished purse. Next to it is a pair of socks that I’m working on for Matthew.
My mom usually dresses up the purse by attaching pins or broaches to them.
On a more exciting note “for me,” is I learned another way to make socks. So far I’ve already learned how to knit socks from the top down, and from the toe up with gussets. What I wanted to learn was how to knit socks with short row heels. This week I finally learned how! Here’s a pic of my first sock made with short row heels. The sock on the left has a short row heel, while the sock on the right has a gusset. Eh, I realize it’s not easy to see it in the picture, so I took another one closer up and labeled what I’m talking about.
Hope this is clearer.
The darkness of the sock makes it hard to see the gusset, so here’s another attempt to get closer and point out the gusset. The top of the pic is where my toes are pointing. The right side of the pic is where my ankle is.
Basically, there are added stitches to make up a gusset, while in the short row heel method does not add any additional stitches. The reason why I wanted to learn both methods is because different designs lend themselves to different knitting methods. I’ve been designing my own socks, but found that there are some designs that don’t work well with socks with gussets and vice versa. The sock above is a sock I made for myself last May while Brian and I were on our trip to the UK. We had lots of waiting time at the airports. Here’s what the pair looks like on.
Here’s a closeup of the socks I’m working on for Matty. I turned off the flash to see if maybe the flash was washing out the details. I think I really need to learn how to play around with lighting. The cable twist in the middle kinda reminds me of bathroom tile, the moldings along the edges.
For anyone who likes Brown Sheep Company’s Wildfoote yarn, you might like to check out Yarns Unlimited because when I went on Wednesday, it was priced 1/2 off. So I picked up the colors that I haven’t used from them yet. Not a large selection of colors, but the price was good. Here’s a pic of the colors I got. Plus I still have a couple balls of Regia that I have not tried, yet. So far the majority of my socks have been made with Trekking and Wildfoote, but I’ve also used Paton’s Kroy sock yarn, and Lorna’s Laces. Very nice yarns. I’ve also tried other handspun, and dyed sock yarns, which were also very nice. There are so many other brands I want to try! But for now, this is what’s next on the plate.
Before I end this post, I wanted to add something that I found while browsing through my pictures on my computer. When I first learned how to make crocheted cats last year, the boys kept wanting to rough my cat up. We finally agreed that they would have to make their own crocheted cats if they wanted to rough them up. I know it sounds funny for guys to knit and crochet, but I reminded them that men used to knit before women did, just like men used to be professional tailors and chefs before women. And even today there are professional tailors and chefs who are men. Good sailors need to know how to make knots, sew, and cook. In the old days of sailing and even today in the Navy, it’s the men who do their cooking, cleaning, and sewing to repair sails. Well, maybe not “sails” on Navy ships today, but on the smaller ships with sails. Hunters don’t only hunt and start fires, they cook too. So knit they did, and this is what they made. . .
LOL, well, I had to hand it to them. At least they made their cats look like Tom cats. . .
Marlakins
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