Six-Six-Six

My teeth are fine, thanks.

In the last couple of days, I’ve received photographs of grandchildren from around the world – Beijing, Thessaloniki, and the shores of Loch Fyne. However, since I have the VKB bit between my freshly-descaled teeth, I think I’ll go on with that, for today.

I’ve heard from the seller of the two I bought on Saturday. I paid her by Paypal, and she says she posted them yesterday. Great excitement. The two gems of my collection are numbers 14 and 15, pre-war. After those, the new additions, from 1947, will be the oldest. I also won yesterday’s auction, paying not much – but it was of a more recent vintage, so that’s only fair. That seller requires a cheque in the mail, and since the clearance of cheques is fully as slow as it was before the days of the horseless carriage, I’ll have to wait awhile on that one.

I've made some not-very-good scans of two from my long-standing VKB wish-list. Blogger actually admits to having trouble, this morning. They may or may not appear above. The black-and-white one (if so) is autumn, ’58; and the other, autumn ‘61, if my arithmetic serves. Models in the latter issue are still photographed with cigarettes.

Both are 3-ply, as mentioned yesterday. The brown one is “Sirdar Majestic” at 17 sts to 2 in on 3mm needles and the other “Jaeger Classic Fingering 3-ply”, 15 sts to 2 in on 3.25mm’s. The needle sizes are American 3’s and 4’s, respectively. Fancy going to all that trouble, in the latter case, and printing the photograph in black-and-white. Both are knit sideways, seam-to-seam.

Thank you for the suggestions about replacing the yarn, in yesterday’s comments. I messed around myself for a while, Googling on “3-ply fingering yarn” and decided that sock yarn would be a pretty good bet. Smooth and capable of being knit to a fine gauge while still draping.

Jean-in-E suggested “Helen’s Lace”. I love that yarn, and have knit several shawls in it. See “Fergus’ Shetland shawl”, “JAK Miles’s Shetland shawl” and “Jenny’s shawl” on my website. Thomas-the-Younger had a shawl of it, too, which I don’t seem to have recorded. Two of those shawls involved finishing a whole skein and starting the next one. Lorna Miser herself was here for a yarn crawl one happy day a couple of years ago – I asked: she herself had never achieved that.

But I don’t think it would work here. Too fine and too silky.

And, Jean: what Starmore book is “Lochinver” in? I looked and couldn’t find it, but my collection isn’t complete. I’d hate to risk walking past you in the street without a nod.

Lorna, I don’t know quite what I don’t like about the shrug I’m knitting. Maybe it’s fine. Maybe I should stop grumbling. I got the sleeve stitches fully added yesterday and now have to knit straight on quite a few stitches for four inches.