Tuesday, March 20, 2018


It has been spring again today, and a bit warmer than yesterday. The National Gallery has finished taking books. I’ll go in there tomorrow – it’s a particularly cold room – and see what can be done about shelf space by moving things around.

There have been no workmen today, and I have done lots of knitting. I finished the corrugated rib; it got a bit more comfortable towards the end. I watched Meg’s video  again, on the subject of setting the pattern. I counted and counted and counted. Even so, I got the first row of the Calcutta Cup somewhat wrong, and had to move the base of the cup two stitches to the right each time on the second row.

Colour knitting can be corrected on the next pass, much as one could replace a knit with a purl. The trouble is tension – the wrong-colour yarn which now drops behind threatens to form an unwanted loop, while the right-colour yarn, fetched from a float, will be too tight if you try this over more than two consecutive stitches.

I think I’m all right, and the third row went fine. When I knit this motif previously, on the swatch scarf, I did it upside down because I was approaching one end of the scarf and I thought it would look better with its feet towards the outside world. And I think I was right.




I was tired that evening (as often) and hesitated for fear that knitting it upside down would also knit it backwards, but that didn’t happen. But the inevitable result is that knitting it right-side-up feels like a whole new Calcutta Cup.

So the only problem that remains – well, apart from establishing the Fair Isle motifs themselves – is the question of whether the vest is going to be too big. If I keep industriously at it, I ought to have enough done by the time I head for Loch Fyne on Good Friday that I can thread it on something slippery (remembering your advice from long ago, Mary Lou) and try it on Alexander. If I do have to start again (oh, horror! horror!) it’ll have to be done with incomplete motifs, starting and stopping at the “side seam”. There certainly isn’t enough spare fabric to take out a whole repeat.

Here is Archie’s not-quite-big-enough sock. I ordered some more yarn last night, something of Kaffe’s with a name involving chilli’s. Perhaps even wilder than this, certainly redder.


Is this the finest tail in the Second New Town?





9 comments:

  1. A fine tail, indeed. And a splendid swatch-scarf.

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  2. I wonder if there is a smaller museum library or college library that might be interested in some of the remainder of your husband's books. Of course then there would be all the rigamarole of finding and arranging that, which may be more than anyone wants to take on. That tail is just astounding.

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  3. It would be possible, if the vest really needs to be made smaller, to take an actual side seam out on each side. You could lose two inches or more by doing this. No one would notice, because they would assume it had been knit flat. 2ply jumper weight is quite light enough to mean that the bulk of a seam like this is quite invisible in wear. I had to do this on my brown Museum waistcoat - of course that was knitted flat, and the back was plain dark brown.

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    1. =Tamar8:21 PM

      You wouldn't even need to cut anything. I'd let Archie have the final say as to whether he thinks it will be too big, or whether he may grow into it.

      That is truly a magnificently fluffy tail!

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  4. Does she do the dusting while she's up there? That tail looks as if it would be good for dusting.

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  5. Don't you fear for the china/porcelain that is up there with her tail?

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  6. Anonymous1:04 PM

    Well, if cats can learn to flush the toilet (according to at least one cat video out there) then the least Paradox can do is help with the housekeeping. Chloe

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  7. She's more tail than cat!

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  8. Love that tail - and your cat tales.

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