Wednesday, June 24, 2015

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The initial remark is from Perdita, who is being a Very Great Help again this morning. 

Yesterday was another good day. My husband really is a bit better – and the catheter is out. Maybe we can pull this off after all.

I knitted another three and a half rows of Fantoosh – I'm sort of halfway through the penultimate, 22-lozenge rank. So far, this hyperactive kitten has combined surprisingly well with knitting. Yesterday, she slept on my husband's chair while I watched Pointless and the news, and knitted. On other days, she has actually slept on my lap.

“Sequence Knitting” turned up, a fortnight before I would have thought it possible. AND the man delivering it – it's large, and it required a signature – rang the doorbell only moments after I got back from the hospital. It's usually the other way around.

It's interesting, although I haven't got very far yet. The idea is simple – “sequence knitting” is any repeated stitch pattern. K2P2, for instance, over a multiple of four stitches, produces a result with which we are all familiar. Then try it over a multiple of five. Then try starting each new row where you left off, rather than beginning the stitch sequence anew. And so forth. I look forward to reading on.

It is another self-published book, like Kate Davies' ones and Lucy Hague's “Celtic Cable Shawls”. Is this the future?

On that topic (Celtic cables) – I'm currently doing Melissa Leapman's Craftsy class on “Infinate Cables”. I must face up to Alasdair Post-Quinn on double knitting. I've got his book, and I signed up for the class ages ago. It sounds so difficult. All the more reason at least to lie in bed watching the lessons, with Perdita trying to catch the yarn on the screen.

Perdita

I thought for a moment this morning, in my bath, that I had developed a really interesting dermatological condition on my lower legs, ankle to knee. Then I realised I was seeing the pinpricks where the kitten had been climbing me. Her original owner warned me that she was a climber. Floor to ceiling curtains are of no interest – it's people she climbs.


I shall have to get a pair of loose-fitting heavy corduroy trousers – or a new cat.

8 comments:

  1. Do the corduroy trouser choice. A kitten deserves it's playground. When my Mother's little cat had kittens, the one with tabby patches became known as Bramble, because he was the climber of the bunch. The others were just boring. And black and white.

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  2. You have of course read Paul Gallico?

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  3. I recommend Lucy Neatby's craftsy class on double knitting as a good introduction to the technique before embarking on APQ's extreme double knitting. Working with just one colour to understand what is happening before going to 2 colours and charts is really helpful (and gives all sorts of ideas for adding pockets to garments etc)

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  4. Soon Perdita will have her own posts. Good news about your husband. Did they ever figure out the hand?

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  5. Perdita sounds like a very good cat. We once had a black fluffy cat who climbed people.

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  6. What good news about your husband, at last! Let's hope the kitten takes to him, as lap-sitting is a very good de-stressor.

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  7. Randi6:13 PM

    Re: Lucy Neatby/ double knitting:
    https://instagram.com/p/3_kDNbjqXz/
    https://instagram.com/p/3_j5s8jqXe/

    These are links to the separate sides of her Blossom blanket, which is about 5' across, and double knit in fingering weight. The sides join/switch at the lines which mark the petals. Pretty astonishing!

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  8. You are lucky to have been adopted by a dilute calico; gray instead of black, peach for orange, and cream for white. They say that coloration does not predict the feline temperament but the three dilute calicos we have had over 35 years of marriage have all been friendly, affectionate, as loyal as a pup, and with large vocabularies and very loud purrs. You hit the kitty jackpot.

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