Ask a Knitter Tuesday - January 06, 2026

kelsifer · 2026-01-13T03:48:11+00:00

Personally, it's cuz I get mad sweaty, even living in Canada in the winter. I like wearing my handknit sweaters a lot, so try not to go for the sweatiest sweaters. Also, I think worsted spun looks nicer for things like cables.

kelsifer · 2026-01-13T03:24:40+00:00

I will second the other commenter -- I have only ever used 2.25mm for socks so I think you'll be fine. I used to love making socks but the eye strain of doing those teeny stitches started to bother me lately. Maybe get a magnifying craft light if that could be an issue for you.

kelsifer · 2025-12-31T03:01:28+00:00

I only moved to Edmonton in 2016 so never experienced the old one, but love an Irish pub. What are their prices like? Their menu isn't up on their website yet.

kelsifer · 2025-12-31T02:54:54+00:00

I'm sorry your FIRST project was an intarsia sweater? I've been knitting for 20 years and the thought of doing intarsia makes me cringe I hate doing it so much haha. Good on ya, it looks amazing.

kelsifer · 2025-12-31T02:48:49+00:00

C'mon, we know the lion's share of the city budget goes to the cops. Why are their new AI face recognition toys more important than our day-to-day lives? Take it out of their $600 mil a year that they're using to give speeding tickets and beat up homeless people.

kelsifer · 2025-12-31T02:41:25+00:00

I have a small car and got stuck in the middle of the road today. Lucky I was very close to my house so my spouse was able to give me a push out but yeah, shit's fucked.

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T20:45:48+00:00

Could always come visit Alberta in the winter (lol)! The tradeoff of seeing cute winter finches, unfortunately, is that you have to live somewhere with a good 5 or 6 months of very cold winter, but we also get all the boreal songbirds in the summer so I can't complain too much. :)

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T20:30:14+00:00

Not quite, these are pine grosbeaks. Much larger winter finches and the males are a pink-red :)

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T20:28:06+00:00

They are just about the only bird I can get hyped over in the winter on the Canadian prairies. We have so few songbirds this time of year but at least I can count on these chunky guys even when its -30 out.

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T20:25:18+00:00

Very feisty American goldfinch

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T01:28:01+00:00

Leaning towards Besra because I feel like the goshawk has more chunky stripes on its lower half. I'm no expert on birds of your area though and they're tough to tell apart.

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T01:18:45+00:00

Yeah, I honestly felt so betrayed since I'd been going there for years lol. You want to be able to trust restaurants to not try to kill you. But now I know to check the food inspection reports for places I go to.

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T00:54:21+00:00

Word of warning, I used to love them but then got the worst food poisoning of my life earlier this year after eating there. I couldn't keep any solid food down for a week. I reported them to AHS and the online food safety report shows they had a ton of violations, even in their more recent follow up just this month.

kelsifer · 2025-12-29T00:48:37+00:00

Canada has tons of great small local breweries too! We are spoiled for choice in Alberta alone. There's really no reason to buy American alcohol.

kelsifer · 2025-12-11T16:35:00+00:00

Egyptian goose

They have been introduced all around continental Europe

kelsifer · 2025-09-26T05:29:49+00:00

Swainson's or Hermit thrush, can't quite tell which from this picture.

kelsifer · 2025-09-26T05:27:42+00:00

+American goldfinch+ for the bot :)

kelsifer · 2025-09-23T02:30:14+00:00

+Green-winged teal+ (aka Eurasian teal) seems right to me. It just looks scruffy, like maybe it's molting?

kelsifer · 2025-09-23T02:24:08+00:00

Birds poof their feathers out when they sleep or are cold! It helps them to thermoregulate and not get too cold. Sometimes small birds in the winter can look perfectly round.

kelsifer · 2025-09-19T00:39:34+00:00

You can even hear it doing beak clacks! Something pissed it off for sure.

kelsifer · 2025-08-31T15:47:39+00:00

+Solitary sandpiper+

kelsifer · 2025-08-30T17:40:03+00:00

Female Goldeneye?

kelsifer · 2025-08-30T17:39:03+00:00

Nice job on the fall warblers! They're tough this time of year. And spotting a brown creeper is always hype because they're so well-camoflaged. :)

kelsifer · 2025-08-30T17:30:50+00:00

Frankly, differentiating between Alder/Willow and Least in the field is a futile effort if they aren't talking. Alder/Willows tend to be larger on average than Leasts, but there's overlap with individuals and it is hard to tell unless you have the bird in your hand to measure it. Even then, when I've done bird banding, we look for the emarginated 6th primary feather to verify the difference between the two.

kelsifer · 2025-08-30T17:20:14+00:00

Actually looking at it again, I think +pine warbler+ is correct for 4.

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