Lindsey, thank you for the pointer to the Posh Knitters thread on Ravelry. Most interesting. (I had never even heard of Posh Yarns – so much for me.) If Dee posts those beautiful yarns on her website on Sunday and is sold out by Tuesday morning, I don’t see why she should bother to go to KnitCamp or anywhere else. But her unexplained change-of-mind remains intriguing.
It does sound as if the organiser of KnitCamp is over-stretched -- running a new LYS and doing the camp in her spare time. Wait and watch. I was surprised to learn that there had been one last year. I remember the Ravelry weekend in Coventry, but not a camp. It couldn’t have been on the scale of this one.
Jabot
I finished Tier Two, but haven’t blocked it. Tier Three, slightly larger, is well underway. I am toying with the idea of having a different lace pattern in the central rectangle of Tier Four. It will be the largest of all. The idea of change is to amuse myself – the current pattern, although I think effective for the purpose, is pretty boring. A change would violate the very first principle of design: Keep it Simple, Stupid. On the other hand, the central pattern doesn’t really show at all – expect perhaps on the lowest tier – so no one would notice.
The Doris edging does show, and must remain unchanged. The only trouble with it is, it’s so easy. I keep finding that I have fallen asleep at the wheel and don’t remember what row I have just knit, and therefore what comes next.
Here are some pictures to cheer us up on a cold, wet morning – James and Cathy on their wedding day, he in an antique jabot he had borrowed, demonstrating that there’s no one right way to do it.
And Thomas-the-Elder – just plain Thomas, in those days – wore the kilt as well. But without a jabot.
This all happened on the First of August, 1992. It was the 2000th First of August – there is a passage in Cassius Dio which allows us to date the decree of the Roman senate changing the name of the month Sextilis to honour the emperor Augustus. (The next emperor, Tiberius, was offered September but turned it down – what if there are more than 12 emperors? he said. You’ve got to love him for it.)
Comments
Tamar, Sundbo’s discussion of soul-warmers strongly suggests that you are right, that they originated as bed jackets.
Jean, I very much like your idea of testing a pattern by asking yourself whether you could do the washing-up in it. I will remember that.
Mary Lou, I love the idea of not wanting to look like a tourist on the Beijing subway. We missed out on public transport when we were there – usually a major pleasure of travelling – because the SARS scare was at its height. On the other hand, we had the Great Wall entirely to ourselves
Our daughter was married in the evening on a New Hampshire mountain one July. I knit her an ivory linen shrug as NH evenings can be chilly, even in July, and her dress was strapless.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, it was 95 degrees that day, and even in the evening no one needed a shrug! (We didn't mind, as every other Saturday that summer it had rained.) But it was much too hot for dancing! Just one more example of a shrug that wasn't worn.
Barbara M.
I have been chomping at the bit to say this and now that I understand the jabot to be going to Beijing I think I must. Four is considered the worst of numbers there ... so perhaps you could consider a fifth tier. Nothing comes in fours ... ever. The symbol for four is the same as the symbol for death and is very unlucky. Hope I haven't horned in ...
ReplyDeleteMeg's comment reminds me of the odd numbering or lack thereof for the floors in the tower block where my Hong Kong family live.
ReplyDeleteThe jabot will be assembled after all the tiers are knitted, am I right? If so, then you could knit both versions of the end piece and compare the effect. Of course you'd knit the different pattern first - if it just didn't work, you could then knit the familiar design, having had a break.
ReplyDelete