Saturday, June 08, 2013

I was wrong about the weather yesterday – the rest of the country (Scotland, GB, take your pick) had another glorious day, but the clouds over Drummond Place didn’t burn away until late in the afternoon, so the chillis stayed in the kitchen all day. Today will clearly be better.

The first flowers on the better Apache plant have faded. The excitement now is to see whether they have set fruit. On Big Nameless, an unfertilised flower falls at the slightest touch of a fingernail. That’s not happening on the Apache, so maybe…

Knitting

One of the things one learns in a long life is that, no matter how outré a vice one adopts, there are other people out there who practice it, too. Kristieinbc, and perhaps you, too, Karen, are fellow stashers of Craftsy classes!

Yesterday I not only signed up for Stephen West’s class, I actually watched the first lesson (despite having two unfinished courses to my credit, and two other unwatched ones). He is young, good-looking, rather camp. (Am I allowed to say that?) Maybe he was just camping it up for Craftsy. I’m not complaining; camp is fun. It is not a word, incidentally, that I would apply to Franklin. He’s fun in a different way.

We’re knitting a shawl. In the first lesson we started off with a very interesting little garter stitch square. Perhaps I’ll just dip into the madelinetosh sock bag and have a go. And then watch Lesson Two! What wickedness!

Karen, I was interested in what you said about double knitting. I wondered why Craftsy offered two classes, especially when one of them was by Alasdair P-Q himself. I’ve got his book (somewhere – things are getting out of hand) and will never knit from it, I am sure. It all sounds too difficult and tight. But I am willing to be persuaded by the man himself. And now I know that if it still sounds too difficult, I can try Lucy Neatby. I love her, anyway.

And then there’s Brioche Knitting, and Designing with Cables, and…

I must get back to Herzog (saving Franklin, like the best chocolate in the collection, to be savoured at the end). I have sort of decided that I don’t like Fitted, when it means knitting that defines female ins and outs. I prefer to relax in a Relax. On the other hand, a well-fitting sweater, such as Herzog wears as she teaches, is a fine thing. I must press on.

As for what is going on here, I measured Relax2 this morning. It comes to 36cm and for a moment I thot, hey! but then I consulted the pattern, and it turns out, for the size I am aiming at, that I need 38. I don’t think I’ll measure again. I’ll count eight rounds – I’m counting anyway, for the placement of the eyelets – and then start increasing.

Stephen W promises directional increases in Lesson Two. Karma, wouldn’t you say?

Anonymous, I was most interested to learn that the absence of Rowen Art Yarn from John Lewis, St James’ Centre, Edinburgh, isn’t just a local eccentricity.

5 comments:

  1. Jean, I have been enjoying your posts for some time and could not resist commenting on this one. Just before I read your post today, I had signed up for Stephen West's shawl class.:) I am afraid I am also a Craftsy class 'stasher'. I am working my way through Amy Herzog's, finishing the Artemisia sweater and have Double Knitting (and now the shawls) simmering in the background. You always bring a smile to my mornings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If it's any comfort, it rained here yesterday, though the garden appreciated it so it wasn't all bad. But my uncle and aunt tell me it didn't rain in central London. I was amused by EZ's comments about double knitting (in the Almanac?), she shows one how to do it, but makes it clear that she is not a fan.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought of you today as I got a skein of Rowan Art Yarn (rusty tones) in a wool shop in Leuven, Belgium!

    ReplyDelete
  4. i too love to start my day with Jean - since on the East Coast it will have been long posted by our morning time.

    i bought the Herzog book as it was on sale on amazon.. have only flipped thru it but am saving it for time to sit and ponder.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just catching up here Jean. I'm a Craftsy class stasher too!

    ReplyDelete