Thursday, January 25, 2007

We’re moving forward, website-wise. I’ve pared down the opening page into a basic who’s-who of the immediate family, where each of them lives, and what their children are called. I’ve signed up with UK-Cheapest and had an email from them which may or may not explain how to get access to my webspace. They say to wait for a bit to let the new domain name bed down. I thought and thought yesterday and finally came up with milestones, which I liked a lot, but it turned out that all the variants (milestone, milestones, mile-stone, mile-stones) with all possible suffixes had been bought up by the same person.

So I went for millepassuum which is Miles in Latin. As I suspected, nobody else wants that one. I think I’ll leave the whole topic now until we get back from London.

So, knitting

While we were in Strathardle last week, I got back to grips with Ketki’s gansey. I finished the back, and am progressing nicely up the front. The joys of provisional cast-ons and shoulder straps are not far away.

A little while ago my friend Helen showed me a navy blue gansey which had belonged to her father, knit on Eriskay I think she said. It was stunning in every detail, not least a split collar with silver-type buttons. And it didn’t hesitate to include stretches of plain st st.

With that in mind, I abandoned plans for double moss st and did a couple of inches plain at the top of the back, carrying the seven-stitch strips of broken rib up to the shoulder. The same strips will appear on the shoulder straps and run down the otherwise-plain sleeves.






This is a front view:

I stopped the main pattern before the top because I didn’t want to cut one of those trees. I put in a few rows of garter stitch as a division-line. The only difference between front and back – since I have opted for an Unshaped Neck – is that the front has a centred tree and the back has a broken rib strip in the middle.

Here in Edinburgh, I’ve finished the first Calcutta Cup sleeve and started the second. Two-circular knitting has been resumed, and feels very clumsy, but at least I’ve started and it won’t last long.

We’re going to London tomorrow. I’ll try to log in from there at some point. Deidra, Oyster cards are a London thing, well worth getting if you’re going to be there a few days. You pay for bus and tube and rail journeys by swiping the card, and you go to the newsagent and get more money squirted into it when necessary. It’s great fun, and journeys paid for by Oyster Card are actually somewhat cheaper.

8 comments:

  1. "Happy Birthday Helen" was the song title of a popular Melbourne band, Things of Stone and Wood, when I was in my twenties. The lyrics were a rather beautiful love song... if you like your love ballads done pub rock style! I'm looking forward to the Miles site so I can finally get your family sorted in terms of which children belong to whom and in which locale!

    Loving the work on the gansey. Ketki will be an oject of envy when she wears it!

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  2. Anonymous2:03 PM

    Your pictures and knitting are beautiful. Your blog makes me happy. We will miss you while you are in London.

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  3. Anonymous4:15 PM

    Thank you for the info on the Oyster cards, Jean, and I do love watching Ketki's sweater progress. I can't wait for the next Calcutta Cup update.
    I like the blog changes. I've got to find my courage and start one after the newest grandchild arrives next month and I've the time to experiment.

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  4. Anonymous6:26 PM

    Ketki's gansey is even prettier than I expected it to be. It's nice that you found out about the Eriskay gansey in time to benefit from the example. (Will you be posting more details about the Eriskay pattern? I'm merely curious as I doubt I'll ever knit one.)

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  5. Ketkis' gansey looks wonderful. I would have loved to see the Eriskay gansey too, it sounded exquisite.
    The new blog template is looking good - I've finally taken the plunge to start a blog, and love looking at all the different styles.
    Enjoy London!

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  6. Jean,

    I lived in Falkirk for a while, and the woman I lived with was (and is) a knitter. Not that it matters (about living there. Being a knitter is important).

    Thank you for reminding me, through your blog, about the good people and excellent environs of Scotland. I haven't been over for a visit for seven years, and that's far too long.

    That was a preamble to a brief mention of how I love your wit, your descriptions of Edinburgh and your choice comments about current events - although I'm about a year behind - working on January 2006 right now. I'm deliciously excited about the next twelve months (of archives and real life).

    Misty

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  7. Jean, will this trend extend to Edinburgh?

    http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1143011.0.a_knit_at_the_movies.php

    Hope you're having a great time in London; are you on a yarn diet (wicked grin)?

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  8. Just a polite note to say "tag, you're it". If you'd like to play, details are on my blog.

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