Friday, February 13, 2009

“Tristan” means nothing to me, vis a vis Peter Davison.

Thanks for the dating information, Vivienne. I’ll make a discrete pencil note on the pattern before I put it away. I’m glad not to have to believe that Davison is 60 already. The pattern number, Wren, is 5967.

I hesitate to venture further into television history after my howler yesterday – you’re absolutely right, Bonnie, that it was Ian Carmichael we were offered as Lord Peter, not Richard Briars. My strictures of yesterday remain in place, but slightly less emphatic.

But (to venture anyway) I think my first acquaintance with Peter Davison was in something called “A Most Peculiar Practice”. It was a series about the health centre at a Midland university. Davison was one of the doctors. There was an older one, mad as a hatter, similar to (and perhaps played by the same actor as) the Scots undertaker in Dad’s Army. There was, I think, a middle-aged, sane doctor as well. Does anyone remember? Helen?

Thanks for continued input on the Kindle, too. It did occur to me, after I shot yesterday’s post into the ether, that I might be able to download books onto the desktop and squirt them into the Kindle via a USB port – and Cynthia confirms that this approach will work. Well, watch and wait.

Knitting

Here’s the Princess:


Here’s the hole in her border:


I’ve finished the 10th repeat, and have done a lot of counting. I have achieved just over half – 52.25% -- of the centre. Left and right aren’t quite what they should be, but pretty close on, and the eyeball test is quite satisfactory. The centre seems to hit both sides, left and right, right in the middle of their respective penultimate “feathers”. On we go.

Cynthia, who is clearly good with numbers, tells me that I am about 75% of the way through the entire project, and therefore I have enough yarn – three balls left, out of ten. She adds, and my heart fills with dismay, that the top edging will be longer than the original one.

I started nearly three years ago, in May, 2006. There are 85 repeats in the first edging, and it’s a tricky pattern. I think I had done fully 50 repeats before I had completely mastered it. I had my cataract operations that summer and amused myself while the surgeon was delving into my eye, by mentally reciting the edging pattern, using “take” and “cast”, Shetland-fashion, for k2tog and YO: I had something, too, for a double decrease, but I’ve forgotten what. The left eye (separate occasion) was trickier, I remember, and I got all the way through twice.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:46 AM

    You're right, as usual. Peter Davison played Dr. Stephen Dakers on A Very Peculiar Practice, but before that he was Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small, about a veterinary practice. That's where I first saw him in the US.

    Your Princess is beautiful, and the moth hole looks as if it can be repaired. I laughed softly to myself at your description of reciting the edging. Those 85 repeats were the longest, most provoking knitting I have ever done, and I am not looking forward to doing them again at the end. However, Princess WILL be finished..... in our lifetimes, insha'allah.

    Cynthia

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  2. I remember A Very Peculiar Practice...I have the book somewhere, and series 1&2 were repeated on one of the Sky channels a wee while back. (Series 2 was rubbish...) The older doctor was Dr Jock McCannon played by Graham Crowden (Waiting for God) and Dr Bob Buzzard was David Troughton.(Coincidentally, he was the son of Dr Who Patrick Troughton.) Dr Rose Marie was played by Barbara Flynn.

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  3. Thanks Spinning Fishwife for the reminder of who played Buzzard. |He was certainly not the sane character - if anyone was, it was Peter Davison's character. I suspect the point was that you had to be mad to work there, so, if you weren't to start with, they would see to it that you soon would be!

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  4. Anonymous11:46 AM

    I had to catch my breath a bit there when I scrolled down to the picture. Beautiful.

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  5. Anonymous1:10 PM

    I watched A Very Peculiar Practice as a teenager - it was one of the programmes I watched regularly with my Mum. (MASH being another regular - unless the snooker was put on instead.)

    I bought her the DVDs as a present a few years ago.

    We were really amused to see a very young Hugh Grant in a couple of episodes.

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  6. So funny you should mention A Very Peculiar Practice - I was in it! (Sadly I didn't meet Hugh Grant) I was at Keele university, where some of the scene were filmed and they needed extras. Consequently I actually have a copy of it on DVD. I was chained to a building during some sort of protest - it was very boring filiming, but we were paid well and the food was brilliant!

    Good luck with Princess - I'm following your progress with interest and envy - I want to be good enough at knitting lace to tackle it or the wedding ring shawl at some point.

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  7. You put the heart across me showing that horrible hole in the Princess...although I liked your note yesterday about inexorable decay, and I agree that the fix will be an entirely congruous addition.

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  8. I think Peter Davidson's character in All Creatures Great and Small was wactually Tristram Farnon, not Tristan. (although it the internet seems to disagree with me, I think this may be an occasion when the internet it wrong...) Excellent books, and i have fond memories of watching the tv series when I was a child.

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  9. Jen, unfortunately you're incorrect. It is Tristan.

    It's been very interesting watching Peter Davison's foray into various programs. It's amusing to see him on a knitting pattern though.

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  10. That's right, it was Tristan, and Siegfried was his elder brother - supposedly their parents liked Wagner!

    just love your Princess. will I ever get as far as you? and I so agree about the border. But I really don't understand why??? when I examine it, the pattern's quite logical, so why is it so fiendish? :(

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