Sunday, March 20, 2005

Yesterday

     A whole blog-entry vanished into the ether yesterday, when I tried to publish it, so all we were left with was the photograph, published separately, of progress made on Rachel's striped Koigu when we were in the country last week. As light and warmth increase, less time will be spent huddled by the fire when we are there, and progress will be slower.

The Calcutta Cup

The international rugby season ended yesterday. France beat Italy of course, Wales beat Ireland (making this season a clean sweet for Wales) and England beat Scotland. The England-Scotland match always comes at the end, and has a trophy of its own, one of the oldest in the sporting world. The cup certainly appears to be of Indian manufacture, and is said to have been competed for originally  by teams of British civil servants in India, who melted down the sixpences in their pockets to have it made.

Be that as it may, England almost always win. The victory commemorated on my mug was the most recent Scotttish one, a true miracle. We had been beaten by everybody that year, including even Italy. England, contrariwise, had beaten everybody and came up here on that last day to complete their clean sweep. I drink my morning coffee from it in Calcutta Cup week, and on Laetare Sunday in mid-Lent. The word means "rejoice" and it was on that liturgical day in 1990 that the great victory occurred. Now I have hung it up for another year.

One of our grandchildren was born in 2000. I knit the Cup into her Christening shawl. http://www.jeanmile.demon.co.uk/gown.htm

The Scarf

progresses. Tedium is now the enemy. I have knit nearly three feet -- and will have enough yarn to proceed as far as necessary. So that's a relief. My shape-it scarf is six and a half feet. I may reduce that a bit here, but not much.

Jamieson 3

What a standard they maintain. There are severak things in this latest book that make me want to down tools and start knitting now. Namely, the big Bressay jacket at the end, the Patchwork jacket, the Trellis jacket, and the Islander pullover. Plus there are good Fair Isle's and cables. The Trellis jacket is one of those mitred-garter-stitch-stripes affairs. It is a seam they have mined before, but this one is a lulu.

I now read Mary Morrison's blog every morning (http://morcatknits.typepad.com/), and am inspired by her beautiful cable work to go back to that area of life. But I don't need even Jamieson 3 for that: I want to consider knitting Elizabeth Lavold, whom I love but have never attempted, or even perhaps devising something with travelling stitch patterns. I took a day-course on that from Candace Eisner Strick at Camp Stitches in '99. It was fascinating, but I have never used the technique since. Nor has she written the book about it which I keep nagging her to attempt.

 

 

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