Saturday, September 13, 2014

I had a grand time with our old friend from Birmingham but ran behind the clock for most of the rest of the day. I've embarked on the mooskit stripe on the return half of the Rams & Yowes border.

Hat, thank you for the tip about Franklin's toddler's brioche sweater in Knitty. I like it, and the accompanying article, as always with him, is a delight to read. He says that the original Weldon's pattern says that the rib can accommodate a growing child; you just have to knit an appropriate length. I did a half-day at a Stitches conference once on Designing for Children with somebody famous – probably Kristin Nicholas. She said the same thing, I remember – children get taller, but don't expand very much.

Referendum

The Orange Order is going to march through Edinburgh today in support of the Union. That won't help. They're scary. I hope they'll lighten it up a bit, and maybe leave out the open bibles and crowns.

Mr Salmond has been helicoptering about visiting “the seven cities of Scotland”. It's easy to think of six, but I had to google for the seventh. It's Stirling, not Lerwick as I had hoped.

The polls continue to be very tight, with No just ahead. Businesses are becoming more outspoken about the economic dangers of independence, and now one of the more rabid socialists on the nationalist team has threatened that there will be retaliation after a Yes vote.

Roy Bremner (I'm a big fan) was good in the Telegraph yesterday, but even he left my husband unmoved.

Greek Helen says that Archie – we can count on a No vote there – is afraid that Independence would mean higher school fees, to the point where he couldn't stay at Merchiston. There's no danger of that – he has only one more academic year after this one anyway, and it would take a few years to unpick Scotland from the rUK. But it's desperately touching to learn that he is happy enough there to entertain such a worry.

Non-knit

I have begun to think seriously about The Wedding, not just the technical question of whether or not I'm going to try to persuade my husband to attempt it, but also what I'm going to wear. November 1: I'll probably need a COAT. A shawl might do the trick, if I took along a respectable-looking bag into which I could cram it. I'll look in the drawer, but I don't think there's anything suitable. Too late now.


And then there will have to be shoes. This is going to require more strength than I think I can muster.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:56 AM

    Thank you for the link to Rory Bremner's article-I enjoyed it. As a child of the fifties, I always had my jumpers knitted top down by my granny so that the length of rib could be increased-sometimes in a different colour if thatwas all the wool that was available! I hope there is a way you can both go to the wedding as it's lovelyto be part of family celebrations. Catriona

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  2. I, too, hope you can figure it all out so to go to the wedding. Family, and Being Present are more important than which shoes we wear. Though I worry about the same things. My jeans and Birks don't make for an outfit for a wedding.

    Last night Jimmy Fallon (Tonight Show) made mention if your referendum...so I guess there is awareness looming here.

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  3. Wedding prep: we were chatting at my weaving guild on Thursday and someone made the comment: "At our age, every dress-up outfit begins with the shoes. If you can find a pair of comfortable shoes everything else has to work with it." So true!

    Thanks for the link to Bremner's article. Keeping good thoughts for the coming week and the vote.

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  4. Ruth in Ontario, Canada2:22 PM

    I second Pattie's comment above. The bride and groom won't care a fig about what you wear, I'm sure, as long as you are able to be there. And who cares what anybody else thinks, sez I. When I was getting married, my matron of honour phoned me in tears to say that her dress-in-progress had mistakenly gone out in the trash and that she didn't think she would be able to come. I told her roundly that I didn't care if she showed up in blue jeans, as long as she did indeed show up.

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  5. My mum knitted my jumpers when I was very little because I was quite tall for my age and everything else left my tummy bare! Sympathy for the shoes etc. at least now you can check out the shoes online to see what you like the look of before you go out? Even order them and try them on at home if you want, though there is the problem of returns.
    But I agree, your presence is the important bit.

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  6. =Tamar7:40 PM

    My niece fit into the same overalls starting at age two and lasting until age eight. At first they were loose so as to fit around the diapers, and at the end we had added a foot or so of strips of fabric* to lengthen them and the straps were at their utmost length. But the waist still fit.
    *many colors; it was the 1970s.

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