Strathardle

We got there, we got back. Tuesday was a grim day, grudging thaw, dirty snow. We were there for several hours before I got the kitchen warm enough (10 degrees centigrade) for the refrigerator to switch itself on. But Wednesday was a fine spring day, unforecast, unexpected. I see that it was the same in Jedburgh. We got a lot done, mostly in the way of putting things into our new hut. But I also humped another load of manure back over the field, and limed the couple of square yards of garden which I had managed to turn over during that balmy spell in January.


Soil chemistry is not a subject in which I excel, so the lime was a bit of an experiment.

The pink noses of rhubarb are now showing under that pot. Otherwise no progress. The ground is still frozen hard.

Observe the newly-dug rabbit hole, next to the snowdrops.




























Knitting

I have finished knitting Rachel’s striped Koigu. I brought it back here. Stripes Meanz Endz, and I am now hard at work on them. I wove in each new colour as I added it, but I don’t entirely trust Koigu (or any yarn) so I am now securing each one as well. Then there will be buttons, and the sleeve seams. The body was knit in the round, and the sleeves set in and shoulders joined with a three-needle bind-off as I went along, so things could be worse.

It looks rather large. Which is better, at this stage, than looking rather small.

“Knitting”

The new magazine, the so-called April issue, was waiting for me when we got back.

And what should it contain but a shrug: simple – two long sleeves and a back piece; and knit of a Noro yarn I had never heard of, “Blossom”. I Googled for it last night, and needless to say….

Knitting-wise, the trick would be to get the back piece exactly right, so that the shoulder sections would stay on the shoulders. The pattern suggests constantly trying it on oneself as one goes along, which rather militates against knitting it for an absent granddaughter. And I think it might backfire, strategically, at the Games. The judges would be likely to have seen the pattern and to feel that I was trying to buy victory with an expensive yarn.

But I’m tempted – I who have recently bought two lots of yarn for the one shrug pattern I have already determined on – an EZ ribwarmer with sleeves.

There is also, in this issue, a pattern for a child’s sweater in something called “Garnstudio Inka” . Interestingly variegated, and I found a British source for that, too.

My current Yarn Score for Ought Six (no. of balls of yarn acquired subtracted from no. disposed of, by knitting or otherwise) is minus 41. So I must keep hold of myself. But I feel that “Knitting” has arrived.