Wednesday, March 02, 2016

So here we are, waiting.

I’ve heard nothing from the hospital. Private care is expected soon – I could have put her off until tomorrow, but my husband was weak yesterday. I will be glad to have someone here when he is delivered, even if, in fact, it means that she will just be sitting around for most of the time. Or all of it.

Gosia has just been here for two hours, so there is not much that needs to be done. The bed is ready. The sitting room has been tidied (mostly of knitting) and hoovered. The cat has had a wonderful morning helping with everything, and has now gone to sleep in front of the Aga.

I found my Edinburgh Yarn Fest receipts without much difficulty, and have printed them: Carol Feller on gradient yarns, Tomofholland on darning, Woolly Wormhead on sideways-ness. It all seemed wonderful in October – all I needed to do was secure an extra hour of mid-day private care, and off I could go. Confronted with actuality, it’s not that easy.

I’m not that strong. 

I’m still hoping I can do one of them – it will be hard to choose. And I’m still very much hoping I can get to the market – everybody who is anybody in British yarn-production will be there, and Kate Davies has even said she hopes to see me there.

In the course of all this, I found an old email which seemed to say that Carol Feller would suggest some gradient yarns for us before the class. That hasn’t happened. I carefully re-read the class specification yesterday – she really does mean “gradient”, not hand-painted skeins that go round and round.

I’ve got another Knitcircus sock set, besides the one I’m knitting. I can take that. But I also, yesterday, went ahead and ordered two sets of Pigeonroof graduated skeins from Loop – to knit Milo Bambino for the great-grandchild. We’ve pretty well reached the any-moment-now stage on that one.

I felt, on the one hand, uneasy about ordering the yarn before we’ve actually got the baby. And, on the other, why not? When Rachel and Ed got married, an unbelievable number of years ago, he forbade her to wear something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue – God’s love is not to be so constrained, he said. And he was right.


I’m afraid that what follows reveals an unpleasant side to my character: I was pleased to discover that one of the very few things you can still sign up for, and pay for, at EYF is Susan Crawford talking about the Vintage Shetland Project, and showing a film. She still has no book to promote. I’ll skip that.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:37 PM

    Good luck today. I'm sure your husband will be so pleased to be home.

    I really hope you are able to do all three of your workshops. Don't you think once the carer is in place and you are there, you will feel more up to it?

    I don't think your attitude to Ms. Crawford is at all nasty. It is beginning to feel like a swindle, whether she meant that at the beginning or not, and none of us likes to feel taken advantage of.

    Beverly in NJ

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  2. Think of how many books she could have sold at the Yarn Fest. Too bad. Best wishes for smooth sailing today.

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  3. Hi Jean! Prayers for peaceful settling when your husband arrives home. I hope you can enjoy the EYF as much as possible.

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  4. There is a thread on the EYF board on Ravelry for vendors to list what they are bringing to EYF - for example, the Buffalo Yarn Co. are bringing some KnitCircus gradients. Just saying…
    Hope things go smoothly today

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  5. Anonymous1:38 PM

    I think it was around the same time I supported two crowd-funded projects - Vintage Shetland Knitting and a bluetooth speaker (Princeton Audio). Both have been delayed, neither has yet delivered. (The speaker cost quite a bit more, too.) Now, besides this revealing my tastes, I think the communication between the two is quite instructive. Princeton Audio sends out lots of messages, keeps us informed on progress, sends photos of speakers soon to ship (3 - 4 months late). They are aiming for transparency. Am I happy about the delay? No. Do I understand that delays happen? Yes. The difference is in the amount of communication. It is easier to feel more charitably inclined when one has a sense of what is going in, in more concrete terms.
    My 2¢,
    CKP

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  6. I enjoyed your lovely long post today, but I'm afraid that after the word "Aga" I was a bit distracted. "She has an Aga!" I kept thinking, enviously, even though in my climate (MD, USA), it wouldn't be much good much of the time. Hope the homecoming goes well.

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  7. Diana3:49 PM

    I don't blame you for being peeved, Jean. She over-promised and under-delivered. I think crowdfunding books is generally a bad idea, especially when the author isn't a professional writer and/or lacks a publishing background. (I work in publishing, btw.) Those are a lot of skills you have to bring to the table, and few people have all of them so I can see why significant delays occur. I bet your granddaughter Hellie might agree with me. ;-)

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  8. While I understand annoyance about the delay in publication of the Vintage Shetland Project I can't agree with all the criticisms. For one thing, the author has four previously published books so to say she isn't a professional writer is inaccurate. I have gotten a fair number of updates by subscribing to her blog, so to say she hasn't updated people is a bit misleading, she just isn't always sending out emails.

    We have to remember that we are all victims of the success of the crowdfunding appeal...enough extra money was raised to enable them to spend more time in Shetland, time spent in more research that has delayed publication but that will ultimately produce an even better book. I, for one, am anxiously awaiting my copy with a touch of frustration at the delay but with more anticipation at the lovely book I'm sure will come!

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