Saturday, October 22, 2011


It started with 316 stitches – I’m down to 260, just at that delicious cusp when the long rows begin to feel shorter. If all continues well, I should reach the v-neck shaping today and things will go even faster.

I was right – the 6th skein is dark, like the 5th, so there is no second line across the work. That means it is essential either that this current skein be enough to finish the body, or that I find another dark one.

And there’s good news on the Effortless front, although not-so-good for my poor sister. She broke her left wrist a month ago. It had to be surgically repaired. It is not making the progress she had hoped for (she’s younger than I am, but still, in her 70’s) and she has decided against her original carry-on-luggage-only plan for her trip to Britain next month.

That means she’ll have room for some yarn.

So I spent a very happy hour yesterday with the Jimmy Bean website. They didn’t have Byzantine or Tart or Smoky Orchid or Thoreau, but I decided to look on that merely as a slight simplification of the choice. I wound up with Dried Rose. Golden Hickory and Rosewood were strong contenders, Duchess a temptation.

But after all this needn’t be the last madelinetosh DK I ever knit. Who would like a sweater?

Non-knit

Thank you for the bean report, catdownunder. I have trouble with “clockwise” and “anticlockwise” but I think the answer is that Australian beans behave just like British ones. Something of a disappointment.

This morning’s ambition is to go to the Edinburgh Farmer’s Market, which happens every Saturday in the shadow of the Castle. Often intended, rarely achieved, for me. I want some mutton, a favourite of my husband’s, and some rare-breed pork chops which won’t taste like cardboard. It’s not (entirely) the butcher’s fault – the Modern Pig is bred for leanness.

So I’ll leave it there.

4 comments:

  1. Oh, I am sorry to disappoint you. It is also a myth that water goes down the plug hole a different way. In reality it can go down either way.I hated growing up and finding out these things.

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  2. My boyfriend and I were at the Edinburgh Farmer's Market today--but probably after you, we made it there at 1:30, just before closing, and are now richer by meat and a fractal cauliflower.

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  3. Anonymous6:13 PM

    catdownunder - what? what? I don't understand about the water in the drain. It can go down "either way"? Please explain, please? (I have kicked myself because when I was in Chile I didn't notice the water thing - maybe there was nothing to notice.)
    Beverly near Yosemite CA

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  4. Beverly it is true - I have blogged about it today but you can Google it and find out for yourself.

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