Feeling somewhat restored from the ordeal of Glasgow.

Janet, yes, our picture is in the “Glasgow Boys” show at Kelvingrove. Now I want to see the reduced show at the Royal Academy later in the year, to find out if we made the cut. It would also be nice to look at the pictures in somewhat less of a crowd. And you’re right, my husband had to act as he did, in offering the picture to the H*nterian, but his boss didn’t have to take advantage of his scrupulosity. He – the boss – was the man who eventually dropped dead at a Turner exhibition, as mentioned here some weeks ago.

I said to my husband on Tuesday evening that if Andrew had rejected the offer – “You found it, you must keep it” – we would now, at the end of life, be making arrangements for it to go to the H*nterian. But he said no, he would rather see it somewhere less rich in the Glasgow Boys. And indeed, on some recent visits to the H*nterian, we have not even found it on the walls.

Cat, I think you might email Heirloom Knitting to ask how the Love Darg book was sent. Their service is so very good, that they would want to know you are concerned. I got my copy out yesterday, looking for a pattern for the centre of the Amedro shawl. It really is an important contribution to the history of Shetland lace knitting. It deserves reading and re-reading.

I have chosen “spider pattern for shawls”, p. 29, for my centre. It fits perfectly – “repeats of 6 stitches plus 5 extra” goes into 71. Sharon says, ominously, that it is “one of the most complex of lace patterns”. It is printed as knitted lace – action on every row. But she suggests doing it as lace knitting, with plain rows in between, “to learn”. [I hope I’ve got those terms the right way around.]

I would have done it with plain rows anyway, because that is the way the rest of the Amedro patterns work. It doesn’t look terribly difficult – certainly not to one who has survived the Princess edging. We shall see.

Why don’t any of these endless magazines do an article about Sharon Miller? The answer probably is, because she never advertises and never teaches. That’s not sufficient.

Currently, I’m whizzing along with the early rows of the entire Amedro shawl. The edging, now complete, is in garter st., and there are a couple more rows of it once all 509 stitches are settled on the needle – but the main body of the shawl is in st st. This is a splendid opportunity, on those long purl rows returning, to practise the Portuguese method of looping the yarn around the back of one’s neck and flicking the stitches.

Maybe I’ll try it.

Comments

Fishwife, your suggestion of p/hop as a deserving charity for my lace stash, is an interesting one. The charity is certainly worthy – the acronym means “pennies per hours of pleasure”, and the beneficiary is Medecins Sans Frontieres. But the site seems to be offering patterns, for which you pay as you wish. I can’t see anything about wanting yarn.