Perhaps I got a little bit more than usual done yesterday; perhaps not. I don’t feel that I feel as strong as I ought to feel.

One of our carers left recently on maternity leave. We heard today that she has a little girl, very much the desired sex. I tidied up the Milo Bambino – we’d nearly forgotten about that one – and applied a bit of judicious steam iron in lieu of blocking, and packaged it up nicely for her. Another FO! 

Today’s teaser-hap is another stunner, by the Icelandic designer Helene Magnusson. I restrained myself with some difficulty from ordering the yarn kit immediately.

It is not, by the way, for these bursts of girlish enthusiasm that KD wants to thank me – but I’m glad to hear that they have inspired some to order the book. I sent her my obituary of Gladys Amedro from the Scotsman, and responded when she put out that appeal for people who had knit the famous Paton’s leaflet by “Mrs Hunter of Unst” in the ‘50’s.

Comments

Thank you for all of them. You can be sure that I’ll tell you all about the book launch. We are about to face a sad gap between the revelation of the final teaser-haps and the release of the actual book, a 10-day desert. Fuguestateknits, I am sure this book is, as you say, a classic and a keeper.

I am greatly looking forward to KD’s chapter on the traditional construction of haps. I was rather alarmed when she said that there was more purling than might have been expected in her own contribution, the Moder Dy. If I knit it, as is quite likely, there will be less. I might wrap and turn at a corner – as I did for the edging of the Dunfallandy blankie, and nobody has complained yet. Or I might try to master Fleegle’s technique for garter-stitch-in-the-round using two balls of wool.

KnitWit, I was worried by your comment a couple of days ago, fearing that you wouldn’t have the courage to knit Gudrun Johnston’s Hansel pattern. I’ve bought it; it’s safely there in my Ravelry library. I have read through it hastily: it’s not difficult if you don’t mind purling, and I’m sure you’d have fun. I have the hap-piest of memories of my first hap, the one in Madeline Weston’s Traditional Sweater Book. Her method is rather unusual – borders-inward, half of the shawl at a time, so that at the end you have two corner seams to sew. But no purling. Like Gudrun’s pattern, it’s done in Shetland jumper-weight which makes it a pretty quick project.

Tomorrow is the big day when I’m going off to Strathardle for an overnight stay. I’ll be back here on Thursday, insh’Allah.

I’m sorry about yesterday's silence. The confusion of having-people-about throws me into a real old-woman tizzy these days.

But WHAT excitement – the launch of the Haps book right around the corner, a few steps beyond the Hussains’ invaluable corner shop, closer than the butcher or the fishmonger! It could hardly be more convenient unless they had decided to have it in our own sitting room – and that might have been awkward. Of course I will be there! Kathy’s Knits is a good choice, because she sells exclusively British wools, and because KD used to live around here. But still a most unexpected blessing.

Yesterday's teaser-hap was a spectacular "fancy" from Lucy Hague (who will be at the opening), and today's is a cosy shoulder-wrap from Hazel Tindall herself. 

KD has written to me saying that she is going to give me a copy of the book because I “helped” – quod absurdum est. Or if I did, I have already been more than repaid in pleasurable anticipation. In either case, now she doesn’t have to send one. She can either give it to me that day, or I will more than hap-pily  buy one and have it signed by her and Jen and Gudrun and Lucy. I’ve taken Gudrun’s Craftsy class on hap-knitting and am rather afraid of her.

Other knitting news is good, too. I’ve finished and blocked the Neap Tide shawl. At first, I thought I could just pat it into position, but then I found that it lacked two or three inches in width – and anyway, no lace edging ever knit has failed to be improved by being pinned out. So I’ve done that, and am very pleased indeed with the result. It is very close to the dimensions on the schematic.

I took two pictures but can only download one.

Perdita likes to help with blocking, but she also likes to pull the pins out and bat them about. I fear she might swallow one, and have to exclude her from the room. She is determined to get back in, and she is a good deal more nimble than I am.

I’ve enjoyed every moment of the process, and am delighted with the result, and also have an extra twinge of pleasure at having actually finished something I bought at the LYF market that happy but extravagant morning.

I knit a couple more rows on the half-brioche sweater last night, and am ready to begin the patterning on the front. And it is now time to face up to the Sous Sous, of course, as well.

Today’s hap is a small one, lacy all over, a “fancy hap” according to KD. Not as startlingly wonderful as some of the others, but wonderful nonetheless.

Patience, Karen (comments yesterday) and I have now heard from Susan Crawford, so all is at least reasonably well. Her second fortnightly report is about the difficulties of reconstructing the pattern – in a range of sizes -- for a particularly difficult and beautiful ‘50’s cardigan. She has produced a range of wool in colours to match the antique ones. One of the photographs in the new report shows the modern sweater, knit in the new Susan Crawford yarns, and as far as one can judge from a computer screen, the match is pretty well perfect. This is going to be good when it all comes together.

The Neap Tide shawl is all but finished. A few more rows, tidying, blocking. Today should do it, except that Greek Helen and her family are about to arrive and excitement may overwhelm me. As I said yesterday, I’ll miss it.

Thank you for your thoughts about e-books. I very much like the idea of, in future, buying any book that sounds like a book-of-patterns for the Kindle app on my iPad, and printing out any patterns that I actually want to knit. I can’t, at a glance, see how to do that, but I’ve just Google’d the question and there seem to be answers. I probably won’t want to knit any of them anyway. I’ll be too busy knitting haps.

Today’s teaser-hap is by Gudrun Johnston, and it’s another good one. I’m clearly going to have to spend the rest of my life knitting haps. I clicked on everything in sight in Jen’s blog entry introducing today’s shawl, and I particularly like, for its colours and simplicity, Gudrun’s “Hansel”. I’d better put that one in the Queue before it gets away. I may even turn out to prefer it to KD’s own hap-book hap, Moder Dy.

I’m going to be rather sorry when the haps book is finally published, and this delicious interval ends – waking up in the morning and spending the first hour and a half of the day in a state of happy anticipation of the forthcoming hap. With the near-certainty that it won’t disappoint.

Poor Susan Crawford! On May 10^th, she wrote a message which she said was the first of a series of fortnightly reports about the progress of her book. That was 16 days ago. Never mind the book, I am now somewhat worried about the woman, if even a promise to update us once a fortnight is too much for her to keep.

I have sped on with the Neap Tide shawl. The part is finished, where I decrease a bit more slowly during two repeats of the edging pattern. Now it’s all systems go for the end, and I suddenly realise that I won’t have it to knit for much longer. I’m going to miss it. I’ve got the half-brioche sweater to steady myself by, as I face up to the Sous Sous again.

Comments

Wooleidi, I don’t think electronic will do it for me, with knitting books, although I haven’t really tried. I have bought a couple of cookery books that way, and it didn’t work. But I do think I can prune my absurdly large stash of knitting books quite a bit, when the time comes, by adhering to the principle of taking reference books along with me, and leaving books of patterns behind.

But even that won’t entirely work – I’ve got Madeline Weston’s “Traditional Sweater Book” here on the table beside me, and Rae Compton’s “Complete Book of Traditional Knitting”. The former because it contains the pattern of the first hap I ever knit, the latter because Susan Crawford referred to it in her first (and so far, only) fortnightly message. Both are essentially books of patterns, especially so Weston; both I would want with me for the final move.

And what about my few 19^th century knitting books? Unlike Franklin, I don’t think I’m ever going to knit from them – but could I leave them behind? This is going to be very difficult.

Sue, (comment yesterday), whatever is speeding towards you from Susan Crawford, it couldn’t possibly be the Vintage Shetland book. Publication is now scheduled for August 15. Let us know!

Today’s teaser-hap is another “Oh, wow!” Maybe we’re going to have to knit our ways through this book after all. It’s by Kate's co-editor, Jen Arnall-Culliford. It looks as if it might involve a daunting amount of k1,p1 rib for the sake of making it reversible, but that should be trivial for one such as I who has (almost) knit the Sous Sous of solid double moss stitch.

Kate Davies’ blog and wonderful photographs warmed me towards the Veera Valimaki hap yesterday. It’s done with madtosh yarns, which of course I love. What fun it would be to choose two for that particular combination!

One of the particularly delightful things about all this, is looking forward to the half of the book we’re not hearing about just now, Kate’s research into Shetland hap shawls. She is a trained academic, a university lecturer until her stroke early in 2010. If by any chance you don’t know about it, read this and then read this.

And now, look at her: designer, stylist, businesswoman, and I can’t think of a noun to cover the creation of Buachaille – not a matter of some pretty colours and her name tag on somebody else’s base, but a whole new yarn which she has engineered from sheep to mill to dye pot. Famous, and loved, in a wholly different world. There are clichés to hand, about ill winds, and doors opening as others close, but they all seem inadequate to this extraordinary situation. I was surprised, looking out the links above, to be reminded how very recently it all started.

I gave a little more thought to the idea of plucking out from my shelves the books I have actually knit from. Not so easy. I must have all of EZ, to begin with, whether I have actually knit anything from a particular book or not. And much of Kaffe, similarly.

It might be more useful to think of assembling the little collection which must go with me to the nursing home when my time comes. For reading matter, I can rely on the iPad – I think I can trust our children and our finances to ensure a nursing home with wi-fi. But for knitting books, one needs paper. And there may not be much shelf space there. Mary Thomas, EZ, Kaffe, Barbara Walker, Sharon Miller, KD, Eichenseer-Grill-Kron for Bavarian twisted stitch… they may have to find room for another bookcase, after all.

There’s a strong bias towards reference books in that little list.  Even in one’s terminal nursing home, one can download individual patterns from hither and yon as required. It may be a useful brake to apply to book-buying henceforth: will I want this one with me in the nursing home? Haps, certainly.

Meanwhile, the Neap Tide shawl progresses very nicely. A couple more days should see it done. I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer, and counted stitches. I seemed to have two too few. That was easily adjusted by omitting two decreases. I found it alarmingly difficult to work out what to do, however. Too few? Too many? Skip a decrease? Put in an extra one? 

I had an excited email from Greek Helen yesterday – she said she follows Kate Davies on Instagram and had just seen Tom of Holland’s hap. “Oh wow”, was Helen’s comment – and that, presumably, without being fully aware of its hexagonal wonderfulness, or of the equivalent wonderfulness of Buachaille. I had better add it to my Queue.

Today’s teaser-hap is by Veera Valimaki. I know the name – VK? although I’m sure I’ve never knit anything by her, nor can I associate a pattern with the name. Her hap is another good one, but it doesn’t quite suggest delicious snuggling like the preceding ones.

What a brilliant launch this is proving to be – at presumably little or no cost. Poor Susan Crawford!

I awfully like your idea, Melfina, (comment yesterday) of trying to knit at least one thing from every book on one’s shelves, and one from every year’s-worth of a magazine. I’m too old to embark on such a project, but it might still be interesting to rearrange the books to put all the ones I’ve knit from together. There’s a great appeal in trying to structure one’s knitting.

I like the idea of a KAL, too, although I’ve never done one. There is talk of an informal one to start soon, involving Sharon Miller’s new pattern, the Jewel Long Shawl. We’ll see.

Little to report. I advanced the Neap Tide shawl somewhat, but not much: it was an interrupted and uncomfortable day, yesterday. But I’ve eliminated nearly 40 stitches and am whizzing forward, at least intermittently. 

I wake these days in a state of great excitement, and as soon as I have put on enough clothes to be able to open the door to the early-morning carer without embarrassment, I go on-line to see today’s teaser-hap. I had a whole hour’s wait this morning – but was rewarded by Tom of Holland.  

It’s an interesting thought, Amy, to knit right through all the patterns in a particular book. Like you, I would never do it. But this is clearly a case when the idea is at least remotely thinkable, and it will be fun to watch Ravelry and see whether such a group forms. What a wonderful pile of haps would result, after a couple of years.

I’m pretty sure that the book I have knit the most from, surely more than half, is Amedro’s “Shetland Lace”. But I wouldn’t want to commit myself to doing the rest.

Heart-warming story

Ten days ago, one of the very best of the private carers we have daily, James Lawrie by name, told us that he had a client of 106, Ben, a bit tottery and more than a bit hard of hearing, but still able to distinguish a hawk from a handsaw, and a passionate Hibs fan. James had conceived the idea of taking Ben to the Scottish Cup final.

He had a friend who would provide a limo to take Ben to Hampden Park in Glasgow. But he needed tickets. You would have thought the football club would jump at the chance – Ben is obviously one of the oldest people in Britain, and I would be willing to venture a modest bet that he is the oldest to be living independently.

But James was having no luck. He went to the club and showed his ID as a Bluebird Carer and explained his mission, and they said he would have to send the request by email. He did that, and did it again, and had no reply.

So at that point, when we last saw him, James thought the best he would be able to do would be to get Ben to the Hibs clubhouse on Saturday to watch the match there.

But now it turns out that wiser counsels prevailed, somehow or other. Cinderella went to the ball. James will be here again on Friday – they send us a weekly schedule of who is coming on which day – and I expect to hear all about it.

Ben was not even born the last time Hibs won the Scottish FA Cup.

Back to knitting

Here’s the latest state of the Neap Tide, in two pictures because I couldn’t figure out how to get it in one. The decreases are definitely beginning to tell, and I am speeding on towards the finish:

Hibs won! My husband and I, unaccustomed to watching football, gave up 15 minutes before the end, with Rangers in the lead and apparently in command of the field. So we missed a thrilling finish and a rather interesting riot to follow.

I’m much enjoying the daily teaser-haps from the forthcoming book. I was wrong about Carol Feller’s pattern – it’s not available yet. I jumped to the wrong conclusion from the fact that it is in three projects already – but that turns out to be Carol and her test knitters. My conclusion, that the designers in this book retain their copyrights, may still be on track.

I was surprised to learn yesterday that “happenstance” is an American word. It’s not one that exactly trips off the tongue every day or so, but it had never occurred to me that it is not in general pan-atlantic circulation. Dictionaries confirm. The shorter OED doesn’t have it, Webster’s International (which has everything except for “Kitchener stitch”) gives it as “humorous, U.S.” I never thought of it as humorous. I thought it was just a useful word.

I made some progress with the Neap Shawl. The point where the straight central section turns south towards the tail is clearly obvious. But only about 10 stitches have been eliminated so far, and the garter stitch section feels as wide as ever to the knitter. I think it's time for a picture. 

I don’t care much for football (as you will have surmised) – but this is something special. Go, Hibs!

Well, the yarn arrived – the Buachaille for “Miss Rachel’s Yoke” -- and it’s wonderful so everything is all right. At least on that front.

Kate Davies’ “Moder Dy” hap is indeed enormous. I think the reason is that Buachaille is really a bit too large a yarn for a traditional hap pattern. I suspect the pattern could be knit very successfully in jumper-weight yarn (as KD herself suggests in yesterday’s blog).

It would be fun to try “Moder Dy” with Jamieson & Smith’s “Shetland Heritage” yarn, and indeed that may be the path I will go down. But I am thinking of this, not as something to huddle under myself, but as a blankie for the Next Baby – there’s bound to be one, sooner or later. So I may stick with Buachaille.

(It turns out that that word is no harder to spell than many another, if one puts one’s mind to it. Pronunciation is another matter.)

And while we’re thinking about Shetland – the Shetland Textile Museum, at the Bod of Gremista on the edge of Lerwick, has just opened for the season with an exhibition called “Fair Isle Makes Its Mark”; by “Fair Isle” meaning the island of that name, not just the style of colour-work. The exhibition traces the history of knitting on Fair Isle. All this and Whalsay too!

I have knit on, as hoped, and finished the (enormous) centre section of the Neap Tide shawl, and begun the decreases on the far side. They are achieved with K3tog’s, always a difficult stitch. I am being very careful. It’s the middle stitch which tends, with me, to lurk quietly while I knit the next few rows and then make a sudden and disastrous bid for freedom.

I think I have spotted the place where there are two repeats in which the decreases will have to slow down. Soon the decreases will begin to make themselves felt, and the work will seem to go faster. When I reach those two repeats, I’ll count stitches and calculate.

No, still no yarn. I begin to be a teensy bit worried. But the website says they post Royal Mail second class.

Today’s teaser for the Hap Book is a design by Kate herself – “Moder Dy”. A pretty traditional hap, pretty wonderful. I can see it elbowing its way to the top of my queue as soon as available. Yesterday’s teaser hap from Carol Feller can be purchased right away, as an individual pattern; for this one, you have to wait for the book. I deduce that the contributors have retained their own copyrights from the beginning.

I spent some happy time yesterday clicking on links from Kate Davies’ post about the book, leading me soon to Ella Gordon and her blog post (May 8) about the exhibition of “Fair Isle Knitting Through the Decades” at the Whalsay Heritage Centre. It is enough to decide one to abandon one’s responsibilities forthwith and go to Whalsay next week. Kristie, what about it?

Ella has posted lots of good pictures. Some of the designs are extremely interesting. There is a vest on which the patterns appear to be diagonal – knit on the bias? The two fronts don’t seem to match all that well. The back, viewed in reverse through the v-neck, seems to have horizontal patterning. An interesting idea, less than perfectly worked out?

Quite a few – not a majority, but more than one might have expected – have patterns arranged vertically.

For actual knitting here in Edinburgh, on with the Neap Tide. No more unpicking of the Sous Sous – my little knitting scissors have been tidied away somewhere; I’m sure they’ll re-emerge soon. I should finish the long, long straight section of the Neap Tide shawl today, and begin the descent on the other side. On the way up, I knit almost all of the repeats with increases on every right-side row. But for two of them, the increases were only every fourth row, as specified in the pattern – I soon realised that if I went on like that, it would be a dreadfully long time before I achieved the desired width. And I didn’t grasp that, since I was also falling far short on row gauge, I might as well go on with the gentle increase.

So now my task is to find those two, so that I can balance them as I go downhill.

I am rather inclined at the moment to carry on with this shawl until I finish it, rather than trying to fit it into a scheme with other projects.

No “Miss Rachel’s Yoke” arrived yesterday. Surely it will today.

Sharon Miller has published a new pattern – The Jewel Long Shawl. I’ve ordered. And Kate Davies has started taking pre-orders for the hap book, and releasing the designs one by one. Today’s is by Carol Feller and I like it – but I don’t think it’s the one I’m waiting for.

I really must get some serious lace back into the schedule a.s.a.p., while I still can.

I have sort of re-engaged with Ravelry, after being encouraged by you to go back there and add all my recent purchases and their patterns to my Queue. I was surprised to discover that I already had a considerable queue – a few things that have been dealt with, one way or another: the Relax, the Sous Sous. Others I am no longer interested in: Anhinga, February Lady Sweater. But others, totally forgotten, of some interest: Mixed Feelings Pleated Tee, [BIG]rubble.

I mean to move on to dealing with my Projects. I have already deleted some, forgotten or of very minor interest, and mean to add current WIPs and, at the very least, the Dunfallandy blankie.

In my early Ravelry days I actually catalogued the stash – all that yarn which is now, I hope, being enjoyed at the women’s prison before they close it down. I don’t think I’ll do that again. I'd better find those pictures and delete them.

I knit on yesterday, on the Neap Tide shawl, still engaged with the long flat central portion, and reflecting on how I could have shaped the shawl much closer to the designer’s intention – gentler slopes up and down, shorter central section – if I had paid careful attention to gauge from the beginning. I’m still not complaining. This is going to be good.

I had a lot of fun last night putting all those projects for which I have yarn and pattern into my Ravelry queue, as you suggested, Lisa and Joni. And like you, Lisa, I spent such happy time doing it that there was little or none left for blogging.

As with anything, an actual, finite, written-down list is less terrifying and less depressing than the vague feeling that I’ve-bought-too-much. Although that remains true.

As for actual knitting, I went on with the Neap Tide shawl. I found the ball bands, and they are both from the same dye lot. The shawl is beginning to feel substantial, but when I stretch it out on the floor and measure, it is still short of a metre. (The finished size is supposed to be two metres, and I am past half way.) I’m not going to worry. Blocking can achieve wonders, and anyway it feels as if it will be big enough.

The new IK turned up. New editor, lots of really good patterns, especially shawls and summer tops. And I’m interested in the Summit Vest, towards the end. It’s closed with a zipper. (Horror! Horror!) The zipper is of a different colour to the knitting, and set in so that the tape shows. My died-and-gone-to-heaven dream is that Franklin will come to the EYF next year and teach his class on fastenings, but until then I am rather taken with the thought that a little clumsiness may not be the end of the world.

The one thing I would complain about with this issue, is that there’s nothing to read. There is what I am sure is an extremely useful article about designing set-in sleeves, but all that arithmetic is less than soothing at the end of a long hard day. I speak as one who is not afraid of arithmetic.

Here is the promised picture of the sweater I knit for Rachel, long ago. “1969” the magazine says – she was 11 that year. I knit it twice – both times for her? I can’t remember. I never knit the hat, but I like it. Maybe there will be enough Buachaille left over from Miss Rachel’s Yoke to attempt it.

Politics

I am sorry for anything I said yesterday that offended anyone. All of us are nervy in this extraordinary election year, and I will try really hard not to overstep again. My sister emailed me in defense of Hillary, and I replied with the paragraph I had been polishing in my head for publication here. Just as well. Hillary hurt my feelings, all those years ago, with her famous line about baking cookies, and I have found it hard to acknowledge her undoubted abilities ever since.

And Kentucky couldn’t make up its mind.

For a while, I wrote blog entries at night and then tweaked them a bit before morning posting. Trouble is, there often wasn’t any time at all in the morning. So I started posting at night.

But this morning there is a brief window of time – and I do want to say, before Kentucky starts voting, how disappointed I am in Mrs Clinton’s announcement that, if she wins, she will put her husband in charge of running the country. So very yesterday. She would scarcely be the first woman president at all – it would just be Bill’s third term.

We’ll see what Kentucky thinks.

New system: post at night.

That was a reasonably good day. My husband was not terribly well, but not very ill, either.

I proceeded with my plan for the Sous Sous. I have unpicked the neck edging from the back neck, and even got a bit ahead of myself by starting to unpick one of the shoulders. They were done with a stout back stitch, I am afraid – I couldn’t make mattress stitch work. I didn’t do very much: one unconsidered snip, one impatient tug, and the neat bottom edging which I am struggling to recover, could be ruined.

I then went on with the Neap Tide. I’d like to get it to the decrease stage before laying it aside. The point where I joined in the second skein is slightly detectable, and I am slightly annoyed. I’m sure I haven’t consciously thrown away either ball band: if I find both, I’ll compare them. I bought them at the EYF, from Old Maiden Aunt herself. That doesn’t exempt me from checking dye lots.

The joining-line isn’t all that bad, however, and will be less so when the scarf is a bit scrunched up and tossed with insouciance about the shoulders. And it means that if the worst happens, and I don’t have quite enough to finish despite my careful positioning of the centre marker, I can order another skein and risk another join line without worrying too much.

I printed the pattern for Miss Rachel’s yoke today, and also for the Crazy Stripes tee. (Let’s not forget my little splurge at Ginger Twist recently.) Lots of pages, for both, and the printer twice demanded a new ink cartridge, and I am pleased to report that I was able to give it what it required without deflecting it from its task. Last time, a new cartridge meant that I completely lost touch with the printer and had to invite a friend in to re-establish contact.

And I’ve heard from KD’s shop that my parcel-has-been-dispatched. This is exciting. I’ve seen Buachaille – at the end of last year, I used to go sit at Kathy’s Knits while a carer was here, and knit hats for Christmas presents, and talk to Kathy when the shop was quiet. She was a member of the Seven Skeins Club (or however many skeins it was – I’m not sure) and showed me some. But now I am about to have a whole armful of my own,

Amy, I had already thought of knitting the gauntlet pattern, or some of it, onto the lower sleeve, and am greatly heartened by the fact that you have done it.

Southern Gal, no, I’m not using Ravelry properly. But that’s a very good idea, to find a category for the projects in which I suddenly abound: yarn bought with a specific pattern in mind. Well – USO, of course, UnStarted Object. There must be a way to list them in Ravelry, and that’s what I ought to do.

I’ll try to find and scan for you the pattern of the yoked Fair Isle sweater I knit for our Rachel, many years ago. That pattern wasn’t just about discovering that I could knit Fair Isle, it also introduced me to the acute pleasure of knitting a yoke. KD tries to describe the sensation in her yoke book.

I am grateful for all your sympathy – especially for yours, Judith, which came so quickly after I had posted last night about my disaster with the Sous Sous.

The danger of its becoming a UFO is high. My current plan is to address the steps I mentioned last night, one at a time. Today I unpicked the grafting that held the ends of the neck edging together. Tomorrow I will unpick the edging itself from the back neck. Then one shoulder seam. Then the other.

And I will certainly go see what people are saying on Ravelry, as you advise. I don’t use that resource nearly enough, nor do I contribute to it as I ought.

I have a dreadful confession: after that talk the other day, mostly my own, about what-are-we-going-to-do-while-Kate-Davies-closes-the-shop-down-for-a-wee-while, I went and ordered the kit for Miss Rachel’s Yoke and Gauntlets. It reminds me of a VK pattern I knit for our Rachel long ago, when she was a young teen-ager. It was the pattern in the doing of which I suddenly discovered that I could do Fair Isle – drop-and-throw, as ever, with my right hand; continental picking with the left. I can’t do continental with my left hand by itself, only in conjunction with a different colour in the right hand.

That’s fine, as far as it goes, but I have far too many projects in the yarn cupboard already. Perhaps giving away all that stash was a mistake. Perhaps it kept me grounded.

Maybe I could restrain myself more effectivly if I wrote down a list of the projects I have acquired – remembering that my sister is soon to arrive with the discontinued madtosh DK for my husband’s (much-needed) long-sleeved v-neck sweater. And I must certainly resolve not to order yarn in the evening when such judgment as I retain is distorted by exhaustion.

As for actual knitting, I went on with the Neap Tide shawl. If my vague calculations are roughly right, it will be about the size the designer intended, and will use the same weight of wool. But it will involve vastly more knitting. In the straight centre section upon which I am now engaged, the designer (our own Mary Lou) asks for six pattern repeats. I will have knit 16. On many more stitches.

Literary criticism

Perdita often sits on the kitchen windowsill, looking at birds and making little chattering sounds while thrashing her tail. We think often of Gray’s wonderful poem, “her conscious tail her joy declared”. My husband and I saw the very vase in an exhibition in London not all that long ago.

But today I decided, and will continue to believe, that it wasn’t as bad as all that. Selima was a perfectly healthy cat. She climbed out of the vase, wet, furious and embarrassed as cats are when they have made fools of themselves. Gray made a better poem by providing a different ending.

Today Archie and Fergus are coming – Fergus to stay, at least overnight. He’s having an exeat from school, or something of the sort, and we are all going out to a rather wonderful-sounding Turkish cafe for lunch. I will have to do some scrambling, to have lunch to leave with the carer for my husband and also to make provision for the other three weekend meals. Archie is on the very verge of his A-Level exams and for him, life is real, life is earnest. He’ll go back to school after delivering Fergus and lunching.

The news on the local knitting front is that, at last, I re-engaged with the Sous Sous. I cast off the front shoulders and sewed them to the back shoulders, not without difficulty. There is a narrow ribbed edging to the very deep v-neck at the front. The instruction is to leave it on a safety pin on one side, and knit it onwards by itself on the other, until long enough to reach across the back neck.

I did that, and then grafted it to those stitches on the safety pin, being very careful not to twist. Then I tried to sew it to the back neck, and found that it was twisted.

That’s where I am now, or a bit beyond – I have un-grafted, and am ready to do it again. The important thing is that the Sous Sous is back in my hands, and I think the worst is over. I should be able to pick up stitches for at least one sleeve today.

....

That much, I wrote last night, expecting to post this morning. I didn't manage that, but I got everything else done and we had a fine lunch and my husband was well cared for. In the afternoon I started measuring down the Sous Sous for the sleeves.

I found myself wondering why the back was unfinished at the bottom edge, while the front had a nice little edging. After only a very little pondering of this problem, I found the answer: the back has been attached upside down. Its nice little edging is subsumed in the shoulder seams.

I am sure you can imagine my state of near-despair. All I have got to do is un-graft the neck edging (again), unpick its attachment to the back neck, and unpick the shoulder seams. It doesn’t sound too bad, put like that. But…

Yesterday we had our walk – perhaps two miles, along the Water of Lieth to Inverlieth Park, back through Stockbridge. I would have said about two miles, my friend thinks less. It was a good stretch, for me.

I think you may be right, Chloe and others, that what I want is a wrist pedometer. If there were some measure for this new weakness – lung capacity? oxygen saturation? – it would be nice to monitor that, but I doubt if it can be done. Sleep patterns and heart rates seem to me fairly useless. I’ll keep working on it.

I came home tired, as I would have felt after eight or ten miles only a few years ago. So tired that I didn’t knit at all. There was the Neap Tide shawl, ready to be picked up and progressed with. But I had promised sterner things for myself and was paralysed into total inactivity.

I spent some more time with Jared’s Wool People 10. There are some thoroughly good things there, although nothing that quite makes me want to fling down the needles and order the yarn and start on it right away.

Much more exciting is the news from Kate Davies that it’s All Systems Go for the hap book. I had somehow got the idea that it wouldn’t be out until the second half of the year, but it’s going to the printers next week and to US in early June. Once it's at the printers, pre-ordering will start, and she’s going to suspend other activities in her shop from then – someone has already commented with the problem that sprang to my mind: what if I want to cast on a hap right away with some Buachaille yarn – but I can’t order the yarn until I’ve seen the haps?

Patience, is the only possible answer.

Little to report. The day slid away from us yesterday, and the walk didn’t happen. We’re about to try again today. Alexander came over from Glasgow and cut his father’s hair with very successful results.

Thank you for your help with fitness bracelets. I’m afraid I’m a bit startled at the prices – me, who would happily spend that much on knitting I may well never get around to. I need to think this thing through: what do I want of a bracelet, other than step-counting? I don’t have a smart phone. I will talk to my sister about it – she’ll be here soon, and she’s keen on fitness.

As for actual knitting, I carried out the steps of my new Plan as outlined yesterday. Now comes the challenge of actually laying the Neap Tide shawl aside and joining those shoulders on the Sous Sous, and picking up stitches for the sleeves. Once when my mother was moving house, and overwhelmed with to-do’s, a neighbour advised her to start with the job that bugged her the most. Very good advice.

The only news I know on the knitting front is that Wool People 10 is out. That’s a Ravelry link – I can’t get through to the actual Look Book this morning. I saw it last night: photography wonderful, as usual; patterns deserving of more study.

I’ve knit at least one pattern of Jared’s, but have never used one of his yarns. That’s e344444ioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo78yi90i     -- intervention by Perdita; what is the matter with that cat? That’s one for the bucket list, I was about to say. Along with Buachaille – I’m hoping there’ll be something for that in the hap book.                                                                                 

So Bernie won another primary –in West Virginia where Hillary beat Barack handily in 2008. And the polls are showing Hillary and Donald alarmingly close in key states, whereas up until now we had been told that she’d beat him easily in the general election.

I’m glad to be watching this one from a distance.

Knitting

The Neap Tide shawl is now very near the end of the first skein, and measures 87cm if I tug it a bit. I think I’ll count on blocking to get me the rest of the way to a metre, rather than ordering more yarn. I’ll knit to the end of the skein, mark the end of the last complete pattern repeat as the half-way point, wind the second skein (because that’s a lengthy and slightly tedious procedure) and then return to other projects for a while. A plan.

Susan Crawford has promised us fortnightly updates on the much-delayed progress of the Vintage Shetland Project, and yesterday I got the first of them. It centred on Elizabeth Henry, the first, apparently, to transcribe Shetland lace patterns. Crawford has tracked her down, with much difficulty, and found her archives.

And meanwhile Kate Davies thinks she has identified “Mrs Hunter of Unst”. It will be a great year for the unsung heroines of Shetland lace, when both books are published.

Crawford’s update sent me back to Rae Compton’s “Complete Book of Traditional Knitting”. I hadn’t looked at it for a long time. It’s a thoroughly good book. She includes a brisk biography of Mrs Henry, and that’s what started Crawford off on her search. 

I especially like – have always liked – the picture on page 121 of “a grey-green modern Shetland sweater, designed, knitted and worn by Mrs Annabel Bray of Sandwick, Shetland”.  It’s a superb sweater, masterfully knit – photographed from the neck down.

Non-knit

Today I’m going for a proper walk along the Water of Leith. It’s another good one, weather-wise. Southern Gal, I like the idea of a fitness bracelet. Does anybody have any recommendations? I used to wear a pedometer sometimes and, unlike you, was always disappointed at the score when all I had done was be active (as I thought) around the house.

I laughed aloud when I saw your comment, Mary Lou: nothing such fun as a shared reference. And I was horrified by yours, Beth, saying that the scene (Marshall McLuhan in “Annie Hall”) is often cut for TV. Too high-brow, do you think?

All I meant about garter stitch is that it somehow shows up all the irregularities in one’s knitting, much more so than st st, and makes it so difficult to correct a mistake even three or four rows down. And, yes, I’ve got one of those two-headed crochet hooks and I still can’t do it neatly.

All continues well with the Neap Tide shawl. Very soon now I shall finish the first skein and be able to decide how to proceed – another skein? Or declare the point I have reached, half-way?

Our television problem seems to be solved, or to have solved itself.  And the friend who has been assisting us throughout, came and sat with my husband at the end of the afternoon yesterday so that I could do two more circuits of Drummond Place Gardens. Theoretically, I am sure, shopping counts as walking. And I’m on my feet a lot here in the house. But I feel that a regime might be more helpful. Today I've already done three circuits. And, yes, Beth, you can still speak of “doing the messages” in Edinburgh.

Sharon Miller is about to publish another pattern, called the Jewel Long Shawl. That’s exciting news. There is talk on the Heirloom Knitting Group of an informal KAL. I’m tempted. But what I don’t need is another project. Absolutely not.

Cookery

A notable feature of Hellie and Matt’s wonderful wedding last September, was the Chicken Shop Hot Sauce provided on every table. I assumed at the time that once I got home, I could order some on the internet. Not so. You have to go to the Chicken Shop – a London chain of about half-a-dozen places, very well worth a visit.

Alexander has tried to reconstruct the recipe from the ingredients on the bottle:

100 grams red Habaneros, chopped

2 white onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3 large tomatoes, chopped

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoon sugar

Soften the onions for a minute or two, then add everything else. Cook over a gentle heat with the lid on for 10 minutes or so until it all becomes soft. Put it all in a blender. Add vinegar and sugar and blend.

The interesting thing is how much difference can be made by gentle tweaks to this simple-sounding formula. I now use a tin of good Italian tomatoes. I’m having trouble getting fresh habaneros. Last time, I used 20 grams of dried and wound up with a sauce which could easily double as a paint-stripper. I think the recipe probably needs more vinegar – it is the first ingredient listed on the Chicken Shop label.

There are whole websites devoted to chilli sauce recipes. I am surprised that no one – until now – has tried to re-create this one.