Saturday, July 05, 2014

Today's walk has been cancelled. The end-of-term collapse has manifested itself as a bad cold for our niece. We've rescheduled for the 17th. It's a disappointment, but it takes the pressure off this morning. James and his two daughters will be here late on Monday, and we will proceed to Strathardle on Tuesday. No sooner do we get back here, than the Greeks arrive. Lots going on. I'm just as glad to take it slow today.

Knitting proceeds well. I've done 26 bumps of the edging of the Unst Bridal Shawl, and the first corner is fast approaching, since I started somewhere in the middle of one side. That will be a good point for a photograph, once I'm around that corner. Maybe there are 50 bumps per side. Does that sound familiar?

Here's a thing, though. Sharon says to attach the edging by knitting one stitch from the border at the end of every inward row, and then, at the beginning of the next row, knit it again, and knit the next stitch, and pass the first one over.

I'm not doing it that way. I have added a stitch at the edge of the edging. Its sole function is to liaise with the border. At the end of every inward row, I knit it together with the next stitch from the border. At the beginning of the next row, I slip it.

This is producing a very nice, neat join. The only thing is, it is also producing a fold line. The edging wants to lie neatly down on the wrong side. I have fair confidence that blocking will take care of the problem. Confidence, but not certainly. And what will happen in future years when there is no one around who knows how to block lace? Will the edging revert to folding?

So I've learned something, It's a completely useless piece of information for me, since I will never knit a shawl centre-outwards again. Perhaps the better lesson to carry away is, do it Sharon's way. I hesitate to change techniques in mid-stream, although that would be a possibility, after the corner.

CSJ0423: I found and enjoyed the NPR article about Shetland, but I can't make the audio perform. Maddening.

There's something in Zite this morning about a forthcoming book to be called Vintage Shetland. The photo-shoot is scheduled for “a remote island off Shetland later this summer” – and the author is appealing for people to knit up some of the patterns, now. in July. Talk about living on the edge! Here's the link, if you're interested.

Non-knit


Foggy Knitter, I'd love to have that reference from Sackville-West or Jekyll about a planting scheme for a window box, if you ever come across it again. Or maybe I could Google? We have a north-facing window box off my husband's study. He has abandoned that room of late in favour of colonising the dining room and the window box has run to weeds. It would be good to take it in hand again under expert guidance.

5 comments:

  1. Re: knitting on the border - I have only done this once (hangs head in shame) but that was on Eunny' Print o' the Wave, and I did it per instructions which was the way you are doing it, i.e. slipping the first stitch going outwards. Though I didn't put in an extra stitch, since that seemed to be allowed for anyway in the chart. Point is, it behaved beautifully after blocking. And if future generations forget about blocking, they will never know how clever we were!

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  2. There is a reference to it here, it was Gertrude Jekyll
    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lWgAMGRxungC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=gertrude+jekyll+window+box&source=bl&ots=zg094-5-lo&sig=C83Oi9DM5zQd-KotA4W06xQSi8c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OOi3U_aOHeuv7AbViIHYDQ&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=gertrude%20jekyll%20window%20box&f=false Sorry for the long link... will see if I can find any more information

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  3. Found it, it's a piece from her book Wood and Garden, towards the end of this chapter: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36279/36279-h/36279-h.htm#Page_171

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  4. Thanks to Foggy Knitter I have been wandering through Gertrude Jekyll. Her eponymous flower is doing beautifully in my garden this year, and the fragrance is heavenly.

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  5. Sackville-West says in her book 'In Your Garden' that gardening in tubs might be helpful,interesting and amusing! She also says to paint them the colour of coffee with far,far too much milk in it and to paint the bands round them (she's talking about half-barrels, obviously)the colour of coffee with no milk at all!As for plants in shady places, she suggests primulas, phlox,azaleas, hydrangeas and foxgloves for height.

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