Sunday, June 22, 2008

I think I am sinking deeper and deeper into the Slough of Despond, at least as far as knitting is concerned. But Mel and David are safely married, and the Drummond Place Garden Party was all the jollier for taking place in the rain. I knit only a row or two yesterday – I’m half way through the patterned border at the bottom of the back of the dinosaur sweater. I am of two minds as to whether to continue today, or knock off for some pleasant scarf-time.

Two of the newspapers we read celebrated the solstice yesterday with articles about Unst, the most northerly inhabited point of the British Isles. Neither mentioned knitting, which is roughly like writing about Champagne without mentioning sparkling wine, but one was good enough to cut out and keep anyway. There used to be a radar station there, watching for Russians. When it finally closed, the island lost half its population.

I strongly suspect I’ll never get to Lake Van, or to the Sicilian village which inspired the fictional Donnafugata, but I still cling to the hope of seeing Lerwick one day, and going on to Unst.

We’ve had another donation to our Obama-thermometer, after a long drought, and I’ve matched it.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:14 AM

    Glad you reminded me about Unst - I see there are some wonderful websites if you just type the name into Google. I'd love to see it.
    I've been reading about Scottish Islands this week as my mother's family were from Stroma off John o Groats. Tough conditions, lots of good knitting!
    Jenny S

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  2. Hmmm, no yacht. Perhaps a bus to a ferry and we can all chip in and get Sharon Miller to give a presentation?

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  3. Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes. In 2000 we were married and chose Shetland for our holiday - bird-watching, knitting..We prefer Northern climates but were surprised to find that we needed to wear both our thick and thin walking jumpers at the same time as there was a very biting wind. The people were wonderfully hospitable, however, and everywhere there was evidence of oil- wealth.
    Knitwear shops, often with individual designers, were fairly frequent, with wonderful colour combinations, but, I am sad to say that J and S were a huge disappointment.

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  4. I hope you spent some pleasant knitting time today. Not enjoying the knitting process is like eating gormet cuisine with a cold - blah and tasteless and far from enjoyable.

    I'm all for Mary Lou's suggestion! :-) How wonderful to explore the northern-most climes of Scotland AND meet Sharon Miller!

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  5. Anonymous12:13 AM

    I'm all for us joining Mary Lou and Stash Haus with Sharon Miller in Unst! That would be a great time, especially since I know all of you except Sharon!! My Unst Lace Stole was my first lace with the pattern every row (knitted lace?) and I absolutely loved it so visiting Unst would be special!!

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