Monday, March 19, 2018


The weather has calmed down, for the moment. Today was a cold spring day, such as are not uncommon in March. Archie came to lunch – his term seems to have ended already, and won’t resume for a month or so. He is flying to Greece tomorrow to join his father and brother (Mungo, the one in Jordan) to lounge around a bit, and then drive to Turkey for a while, all three of them. They'll be back for Easter, all three.

I couldn’t give him lunch, so we walked up the hill to a Mexican place just off St Andrew Square. Not bad, and the walk was no doubt good for me, although thoroughly exhausting.

I rapidly finished off his sock this morning, so that he could try it on. It’s a good sock, and the foot-length is perfect, but the leg is too snug. Archie is big. I should have done it on 72 stitches instead of 64.

It would be absurd to rip out a perfectly satisfactory sock. So the thing to do is to knit its pair, at some point, for somebody else, and start afresh for Archie. Kaffe has some interesting yarn under the heading Chilli Pepper. The sad thing about this procedure would be that none of the new pair will have been knit in Palermo, but that is a minor consideration compared to having socks that fit.

Meanwhile I have pressed on with corrugated ribbing. It is slow, demanding work, and I wonder if I’ll ever try it again, but I like the result.

The National Gallery has turned up, in the person of a pleasant young woman, to collect some books for their library from among my husband’s, promised them – and selected by them – some years ago. We have been held up recently by a maternity leave. I had hoped she would make a space for me to house my knitting books in, but it looks as her selection is more hit-and-miss than that. I feel that if I could get my knitting books properly stashed, the rest of the house would fall into order of its own accord.

And the kitchen has reached a point of (waterless) stasis. The joiner has finished and has gone away for the time being. A man came today and measured for the work surfaces which will come back next week with the sink already fixed in place. The floor and the tiles on the walls and of course the painting remain to be done. Maybe they will get on with some of that this week.

4 comments:

  1. This is the worst part of any renovation, waiting for all of the "parts" to fall in line and be finished. Person A must wait for person B who must wait for person C....it will make anyone nuts. Sending you whatever mojo I have to make it happen soon!

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  2. Oh, Jean, I feel the stress of your renovations! And what Julie said above is so true! I have been doing a major re-no for the past 6+ months. After complaining about the process and (frequent) lack of progress I try to remind myself that these are truly first world problems, and I try to keep the upper lip stiff. I was out of my house for more than 4 months, being cared for by friends and family. I'm so thankful to be back home now, and I look forward to the completion of my kitchen, too. I'm thinking yours will be done first! Bless you, keep writing. Your blog is always a bright spot in my day.

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  3. Anonymous9:26 AM

    Without a doubt if your knitting books are shepherded into their fold the rest of your life will also magically fall into place. That is my experience, anyway. Mine are currently awaiting a sheepdog to round up the strays and weed out some that are past their prime (but not yet vintage). CarolGilham

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  4. Perhaps you can entice another party to look for treasures in your husband's art books to make room. Or get Archie to box some up, neatly labled, of course.

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