Monday, November 19, 2007

Today is my husband's 82nd birthday.

I didn’t quite finish the ribbing for Theo’s gansey. The next session will see it done. I’ll spend this week’s Osteoporosis Half Hour (when I take my pill on Wednesday morning) finishing the charting of the initials.

The cashmere is heaven to work with, and is knitting up beautifully. There is not the slightest sign that I can detect, however, of the hoped-for irregularity in the dye. And it’s awfully blue.

I am braced for the possibility of having to start again after a few inches of body, if the size is wrong. If my knitting could be said to have improved in my later years, it would be for that reason alone: that I have learned at last to rip and start again, if something is not right.

And I have trouble calculating from swatches, however generously large I knit them. (Meg says somewhere that she never knits swatches. Sensible woman.) I think of Major Erskine in Evelyn Waugh’s “Men at Arms”, who “…was strangely dishevelled in appearance. His uniform was correct and clean but it never seemed to fit him, not through any fault of the tailor’s, but rather because the major seemed to change shape from time to time during the day.”

This is the picture my sister referred to in her comment yesterday. That’s Theo on the left.


11 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Mr Miles.
    How will you celebrate?

    n

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  2. Happy Birthday Jean's DH!

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  3. I have seen that photo before. I was going to mention yesterday (but got waylaid by work) that I don't particularly dislike Obama, but I do have some reservations. I think that a lot of it for me is the concern that he seems a little too good to be true. Of more recent and specific concern, though, is his campaigning at events with "ex-gay" gospel singer/minister Donnie McClurkin, among others. Allying himself, even if only incidentally (although I think that his campaign either organized or sponsored these events), with someone who says that people like myself are "trying to kill our children" is simply unacceptable. It is also, disappointingly, simply more of the same.

    In the end, I will likely not vote for Obama in the primary. It seems that the candidate whose views are closest to my own is Mike Gravel, who has the proverbial snowball's chance of winning, but it seems those views should at least get some representation at the ballot box. Come the election itself, I'll vote for whomever the Dems put forward, even if it means holding my nose while doing so.

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  4. Anonymous10:50 AM

    Happy Birthday Mr Miles! I hope you both have a lovely day & lots of treats :)

    Have to admit I'm rubbish at politics & know very little about it, and am very impressed by the photo!

    It seems with politics these days that there's only ever a 2 horse race, that there's never anyone truly inspiring, and that you never get who you actually want, and you just have to make a decision between what you feel is the lesser of two evils. With what little I do know about US politics, my gut feeling has always been to like Obama, so am disturbed to see the info from Mel, and will certainly be educating myself a bit, even though I have no say in the outcome!

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  5. Happy Birthday to the DH!

    Have to ask: what is his favorite birthday dinner/cake?
    My husband's is fried chicken and mashed potatoes ... in late June, which can be hot to cook!

    Am also glad to know that I am not alone in not making many swatches...
    Maryjo

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  6. oh yes swatches seem to live their own life sometimes. and maybe we do change during the day. as a child i read an awful story about a little girl in some kind of camp during ww2 or maybe in siberia who had to knit a sweater for money. when she finally finished and the lady came to pick it up it didn't fit and she got no money but only the remark: you should have known i would gain weight when you saw my cow. i have no idea why this has stayed with me.
    i am knitting a sweater that might be way too blue too. or maybe not. and way to big. or maybe not.
    and congratulations on your hubby's 82nd. still a spring chicken in our day and time.

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  7. Anonymous1:16 PM

    Birthday Greetings to your husband. I hope you celebrate in a memorable way.

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  8. Happy Birthday, Mr. Miles! I'm glad you told us that Theo was on the left! Otherwise, I wouldn't have known which gentleman he was.(Giggle)

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  9. Anonymous2:40 PM

    Happy Birthday, Mr. Miles, and may you have many more.
    I always get a gauge of 7.6 on Fair Isle. Just took one off the needle yesterday with a gauge of 6.2!!! Yikes. I could have blocked it into a shawl.
    Ron from Mexico

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  10. Anonymous8:26 PM

    Happy Birthday, Señor Miles - I hope there's a great cake for you!

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  11. Happy Birthday to Mr. Miles - wishing you health and happiness.

    As for the race for '08, I'm not sure who will have my vote - other than to say I'd never vote for Hillary. The debates have been interesting but I have not narrowed my support down to one candidate. Unfortunately, the one voice in the campaign who is speaking truth to power - Kucinich - will not be the party's nominee.

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