Lacy Elephants

While I wait to hear from Sandy Terp, I’ve made a bit of progress by the sheer power of thought. The object is to knit this little fellow, designed for filet crochet. The Mary Thomas system for knitting filet lace – I was wrong; it’s in Mary Thomas’ Book of Knitting Patterns, not her Knitting Book – takes three stitches and four rows to render each little square. The Terp system takes two stitches and three rows.

That’s still pretty big, but it does mean that an elephant could now be contained within the space of one 78-stitch pattern repeat of the Princess shawl. (I think he is 30 squares across, plus border.) I would be grateful if anyone who has “A Gathering of Lace” would have a look at the filet lace unicorn on Sandy’s shawl and give me an opinion about that symbol which looks like the moon coming up over the left shoulder of a mountain. Knit twice in the YO of the row before? I cannot find it anywhere in the book. I could, of course, always just try.

VKB

I was wandering disconsolately around the Internet just now – disconsolate because there were no comments here yesterday – and found two of my missing Vogue Knitting Books listed on Abebooks. I’ve ordered them. The seller also lists one for “Spring 1947”, without a number. I’ve written to him – but I bet it’ll turn out to be her – about that one. In my experience, they are numbered but undated.

Knitting

Otherwise, little to report. I’m getting on fine with the top border of my sister’s shawl, three ranks of simple Amedro roundels. I’m doing the third at the moment. There then follow a whole ten or eleven rows of moss stitch and garter stitch. And that’s it.

Non-knit

I’m worried about my weed-choked vegetables up north, and about the rampant grass. We are going to London on Monday the 29th – any day now. That knocks a good fortnight out of life, by the time we have revved up for the ordeal, and recovered from it. We have been pinned in Edinburgh this week by a series of trivial but ineluctable appointments, and by hideous weather. You can’t cut the grass when it’s raining. My husband wants to view a picture sale on Sunday. So I guess the only thing is to go to Strathardle on Monday, for three nights if he’ll come, for one, if I must go alone again. Three nights – we’d get back on Thursday, obviously – doesn’t leave much time for revving up for London.