Thursday, September 04, 2008






The Drakes are gone, and sadly missed. We won’t see them again until next summer, and that’s a long time.

I finished the cuffs on the swallowtail coat, and have embarked on the collar. I should finish that today if the first draft is successful. There is a certain amount of confusion – and this time, I think the confusion is in the pattern – about Right Side and Wrong Side, but since the entire collar is in seed stitch, I’m hoping it doesn’t matter.

My friend Helen (who has Chronic Knitting Syndrome, and who knows more than anybody else about what’s where on the World Wide Web) sent me this link to a blogger who has knit the long sleeveless jacket by Sarah Hatton in Rowan’s Colorscape yarn which I was expressing admiration for the other day. I am even more tempted. It’s interesting that she says every ball begins at the same point in the colour sequence – there’s a nice touch for you.

Literature

OK, so much for knitting.

We have been murmuring more and more among ourselves about the W*neappl* book. My sister is convinced that it will be up for a National Book Award any moment now and if that happens we want to let the literary world know that it doesn’t have the priority it claims for itself.

Kristen sent me a link in a comment yesterday to a review of the book on NPR. I have read the review, and written to NPR: “The first book to examine the Dickenson-Higginson friendship -- and to rehabilitate Higginson along the lines Wine*pple has adopted -- was "Dear Preceptor" by Anna Mary Wells, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1963. It is still very readable; you might like to have a look at it.”

And then I wrote to my dear friend Selma -- Joe often refers to her as “Selma the axe murderess” – who works for NPR, asking her to nudge my message along to the right desk.

I also wrote to Houghton Mifflin; I should have done that a long time ago. I think my mother’s book was nominated for some award, biography-of-the-year sort of thing. It didn’t win, but I wondered if HM could tell me exactly what award it was. It might sound good to mention it when we start writing nutty letters to National Book Award judges.

I still don’t have my copy of the new book. The irony is that it now seems to have been published in Britain, and Amazon is promising next-day delivery. (Mine was ordered from America.) Chiz.

See – a whole post with nothing about Sarah Palin.

4 comments:

  1. A whole year - that is a long time, especially when it comes to grandchildren. Have you looked into getting a web cam and going through a free internet site so that you can see and speak to them on a regular basis? Like www.skype.com? Maybe you already have this.

    Looking forward to seeing photos of the finished coat.

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  2. Anonymous6:42 PM

    "See – a whole post with nothing about Sarah Palin."

    Bless you; may your skeins always match the last colour and never have knots.

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  3. With regard to Sarah Palin, I admire your restraint, Jean! With regard to the sleeveless jacket, I don't think that you'd be disappointed. I enjoyed knitting it - quick and straightforward - and I am still enjoying wearing it.

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  4. Hi Jean, I have an award for you, come by the blog to pick it up,

    Kathy

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