Fr David Gemmell

It was a good funeral. I got there nearly an hour early, and found the Cathedral nearly full. I got a seat behind a large pillar. Pretty soon they were standing in the side aisles and three-or-four-deep at the back. Then the stewards stopped letting people in, and the ones who had merely come on time had to listen (via loudspeakers) in the porch or the café or outside on the steps. Priests went out to them with communion in due course.

Someone, towards the end, had the wit to mention Christopher Wren’s epitaph, on his tomb in St Paul’s: si monumentum requiris, circumspice. If you want to see his memorial, look around you.

But – rather like President Kennedy’s death – it’s still hard to believe, now that all the fuss is over, that Fr David won’t be there next Sunday.

Miscellany, partly knitting-related

It’s one of those mornings when inspiration suddenly fails. This is the day when J*mes must leave Lh*sa; his permission expires. I’m sure I’m miles behind with commenting on interesting comments.

The new Knitty is up. I’ve provided a link to the pattern I like best. I won’t even think of knitting it, though, because the gauge is too heavy and the needles too big for my comfort. However, I hope somebody can explain the line in the introduction, “For those who prefer not to use wool due to the mulesing controversy…”

I just looked up “mulesing” in the OED, confident that I wouldn’t find it, but I did. I think essentially I’m probably on Mr Mules’ side, a fly-struck sheep being a pretty unhappy creature. I think I gather from the OED citations that merino sheep in particular have the sort of bottoms which can benefit (if that’s the word) from mulesing. (Merino sheep won't "do" in Britain.) I’d still like to know where the controversy rages. I could always google it…

Theo’s gansey progresses nicely. I must stop soon and chart the initials BHO in seed stitch. I think this is the moment to think and think again about knitting them top-down, and then chart them upside down, so that I can knit the chart from right to left and have it come out right.

Dorie, the thought of those chocolate crosses, as mentioned in your blog, will enrich my Easter no end. There’s no stopping the secularisation of Christian festivals – even Groundhog Day and Mother’s Day are examples – so it’s best not to worry about it. Does it happen to other religions?

I loved GW Bush’s green necktie on television last night, as he tried to reassure us about the collapse of the world’s financial systems. Nobody told him, then, that St Patrick’s Day had been transferred for this year to last Saturday, as it is never celebrated in Holy Week.

[Later: I was wrong about this, and the President was right. I knew that the feast had been transferred, and that Mrs Clinton had marched in a St Patrick's Day parade on the Saturday, so I assumed everybody had observed the transference. But no. It was celebrated yesterday in Ireland as well as the US -- and bugger Holy Week.]

Shandy, you’re right, I was thinking of knitting a child’s sweater of KF sock yarn, tempest-style for the body, stripes in the same colourway for sleeves. With the line-up for ’08 standing as it does, it’ll have to go onto the HALFPINT list. (Have A Lovely… Project…No Time: I can’t remember what the F or the I stand for.)