Saturday, October 01, 2016

We’ve got to start with this one – The Last Day of That Part of Their Lives:


Today they all, except for Fergus (second from left) will set off for Tomorrow. They’ll drive to their other grandmother in Cheshire and then, on Sunday, one car will go to Oxford with Mungo (right) and another to Lancaster with Archie (left). Other universities have been fully functional for a week or so. Granddaughter Rachel, at Leeds, studying Russian and Chinese, already knows the Russian alphabet.

And I am horrified to see those cigarettes.

Knitting

Another successful day. Five rows of Uncia is a tough assignment, but I managed it yet again. I finished the Whiskey Barrel sock – except for finishing it – and cast on a Regia colourway called “Mosaic” for Helen.

I managed two points of the Hansel Hap edging – and then counted the stitches to the end. Each point consumes seven, and apparently I am left with a remainder of four: about as bad as it could be. I’ll re-count today, and try to count how many points I’ve done since the third corner, and try to think what to do, if the first count is right: suppress four, or add three?

Flipboard came up trumps this morning, as it occasionally does, and I have pre-ordered this book  – “People Knitting: a Century of Photographs”. I wonder if it will include my all-time favourite, seen here before: that little girl, in the Shetland Museum archives, pausing to stroke the cat who stands beside her, tail absolutely vertical.

I shouldn’t go on ordering and pre-ordering books, if I ever hope to get out of this house. Twice this week, looking for something to take my husband to read in hospital, I have found things on our shelves which I didn’t know we had and which, bibliographically speaking, are probably pretty valuable (Henry Miller, Oscar Wilde). Those shelves will have to be cleared volume-by-volume.

Personal

All this talk of gardening tools has suggested to me that there is someone on my Christmas list who would make good use of the one we have been discussing. I hope I’ll order it today.


And, Shandy, thank you again for yesterday’s comment. I was too flattened, as usual, after hospital visiting, to go out in search of the Times. But Mungo and Archie came over to sit with me for a while at the end of the afternoon to say goodbye – and they bought it, on their way here. I’ll be able to take it to my husband today, and he will be very glad to have it. 

8 comments:

  1. Love that photo! From past experience I would say that a separate car would be needed for each student for the belongings they "need" these days.

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    1. The book you mention does indeed contain the photo of the girl knitting and the cat with the erect tail.

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  2. Please tell Rachel "молодец," and best of luck to her cousins. Here in the States, most of us are deep in midterm exam season. I am looking forward to fall break next weekend, and hoping I might be able, at last, to set up and use the rigid-heddle loom I bought at the start pf September!

    I cannot imagine the book sorting. Courage.

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  3. Anonymous1:39 PM

    a marvelous family picture. How exciting for the boys. Will those lucky parents actually have time alone together! Thanks for the info about the (oriental) hoe. Looked just like something I could use and ordered two. one for me and one for my son and daughter-in-law, who are deeply into the organic garden movement and share their crops:)Won't you need extra time for sorting the library? Time for revisiting beloved stories with memories attached and time to extricate yourself. what sad fun.

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  4. I just pre-ordered the photo book yesterday as well, but as an e-book. Photos on the ipad are really sharp, and I can zoom in. Plus, trying to have fewer books. Sweet that the boys came to say goodbye, I'm sure you'll miss having Archie so close.

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  5. I've been a reader for a while now and have never commented. I just want you to know how much I enjoy snippets of your life in a part of the world that is so different from mine (I'm in South Carolina in the U.S.). I also find myself thinking about you at odd times and want you to know that I'm praying for you and your family. This is a difficult time for you and it's lovely to see how knitting grounds us and keeps us sane!

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  6. =Tamar9:14 PM

    Oh,the book sorting. I've been attempting something like that and it's just mindboggling. Yet occasionally there are books that I am quite happy to let go. I have far too many that, after reading, I feel I would have done better to get from the library. Except that the libraries around here wouldn't have them. *sigh*

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  7. Anonymous12:12 AM

    Hi, jean, I am at a workshop w/ Meg Swansen right now and I saw the People-knitting book today when we were all at the warehouse. Lovely,lovely book. Mary in Cincinnati

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