Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Back to real life.

I didn’t do any knitting at all yesterday – it’s wonderful how much time that frees up.

An impudent young squirrel found its way to our bird feeder yesterday – two stories up. It must have climbed up the pipes. It was completely unworried by Perdita, and even by me, knocking on the pane. I had to open the window before it moved, and even then, it was back in a few minutes. Impudent and intelligent. Scary.



I didn’t do as much Uncia as I had hoped, while away. Even the slight jiggle of a smooth train seemed a bit off-putting. But I got some done in London, and a couple of rows on the way back. I’m now at work on the final chart, with 34 rows to go – only a week, if I keep at it assiduously. I cabled away without a cable needle, not very adroitly or very quickly, but the result is perfectly satisfactory and I was very glad indeed not to have the extra item (the cable needle) to worry about.

A dear friend emailed yesterday about the Montbretia – the cover-picture of the Haps book. She has done it, spending big bucks on the specified yarn, and is completely unhappy with the result because of that bump at the top, clearly visible on the schematic. And indeed the designer (Carol Feller, no less) refers to it in her introduction to the pattern: “It can be bunched up around your neck but by having the extra fabric you have the option of opening it out over your shoulders…”

I looked at Ravelry. The few knitters who have actually finished tended to agree with my friend, although one did say that the lump could be pulled half-up around the face in hard weather.

I haven’t been tempted, being constitutionally averse to bobbles. But I’m sorry to hear such news.

Other knitting

I was there poised over the keyboard at 2 p.m. on Saturday – a good reason for not attempting Art that day. I got myself into Hazel Tindall’s class at the EYF next year. It was sold out within the hour.


Poor Susan Crawford is having a grim time with chemotherapy, like many before her. She hopes to get the book (Vintage Shetland Project) to the printer next month, and is worried about money. The crowdfunding has all been spent.. She needs the proceeds from the book, and the attendant sales of yarn kits, to keep afloat. 

5 comments:

  1. The risk with crowdfunded projects. If you underestimated the time it would take or the cost of production, you end up with out-of-pocket costs. Hopefully she will be able to pull it off.

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  2. Haveing a dreadful time trying to post with the browser OPERA so am finally giving up and posting from my iPad. Not sure why .... anyway

    so glad you had a good trip wth your family. Having never been to London (maybe this year) i always thought it was very walkable and lots of transport.

    That photo of Perdita is priceless! What a personality she has! Imagine the two of you have had some good cuddling time since your return!

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  3. I am constitutionally averse to bobbles as well. I won't even look at patterns with bobbles. Squirrels are the bane of my garden. Worse than the bunnies.

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  4. Squirrels can climb harling, both going up and going back down head first. When I was at school in James Gillespie's we could see a four story harled gable end from the windows of the English classroom. All work stopped when a squirrel started the climb up or down. None of them ever fell.

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  5. Squirrels used to climb the brick fourplexes near where I lived in Minneapolis. It was shocking to suddenly see a squirrel clinging to the outside of a window screen a few inches from where I sat on a sofa. The screen seemed quite frail all at once and the squirrel looked a lot more like a rat up close.

    I'm sorry to hear that about the Montbretia shape. I like the look of the piece but already knew it would need some adapting to perform well on a completely different figure than the small-ish, thinnish one in the book photos. I noticed that one woman who had knit it called it "essentially unwearable," quite a harsh judgment.

    It's been frustrating to me lately how much designers don't think about sizing for shawls/haps/stoles etc on bigger/bustier/taller bodies or make any provision for alterations that might be needed. I've knit a couple of pieces lately that could each use 6-10" of additional length to fit me the way I want them to, and now I don't want to knit anything similar without addressing that issue. Unfortunately that puts a lot of the pieces in "Haps" off the list for me.

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