Sunday, December 05, 2010

A bit of a thaw yesterday. The night was colder again, and there is no further sound of drip when I open the door to Drummond-Place-in-the-dark this morning. But no more snow. I think at the moment, our inclination is to try to get to London tomorrow. I must devote much of today to finding out what sort of service East Coast Main Line thinks they can offer, what Streatham is like underfoot, whether London suburban trains are running.

I crossed off all three of yesterday’s Tasks and have already made today’s list – in fact, any time that can be salvaged today from Mass-going and cooking and eating will need to be dedicated to London-going.

One of the items on yesterday’s list was to finish the Japanese hat. Look at that:

I didn’t get anywhere trying to make a braid with the yarns doubled, so I went for i-cord, and made little pom-poms. Both activities performed with teeth firmly gritted, you may be sure. And I’m not entirely sure that the result isn’t a bit too coarse and heavy for the hat – but I’m certainly not going to attempt anything else. That’s Christmas knitting finished.

And I had time for a little more sock-knitting. I’m now around the heel of Matt’s second sock, and starting the Oliver shaping. Far enough along, in fact, that I’ll need to pluck another ball of sock yarn from the stash to take along if we go to London, and choose the next recipient.

Will I even cast on Round-the-Bend this evening, however tentatively? I made a swatch, the evening we got C.’s news.

I spoke to our niece yesterday. Arrangements are going forward nicely for a homecoming on Wednesday, nursing services, medical services, friends-and-relatives.

(I just figured out how to look at my "Spam inbox", a new feature here on Blogger, and found, to my horror, a comment from you, Dawn, and one from you, Fishwife, among the junk. They have now been published and, more to the point, read and appreciated -- they were both informative, with links, which must have been what upset Blogger. I'll check more often henceforth.)

6 comments:

  1. I think the cords and pom poms look great. I just saw a similar arrangement in a catalog for the hip outdoorsy type. In fact, I may add some to the earflap hat I am knitting for the second time, since I miscalculated the gauge the first time around. grr.

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  2. The hat looks great! I-cord is what I used on my Chullo style hat and I have been happy with it. You were concerned about the ear flaps curling if I remember correctly. Hopefully having the cords and pom poms attached took care of that problem.

    It sounds like the weather in the UK and over much of Europe has been awful. The news reports sound like they could be coming from Canada! Have a safe journey to London.

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  3. =Tamar3:49 PM

    Good thick tie cords are much easier to tie and untie with mittens than skinny little ones. Pompoms make it easier to be sure where the ends are, and keep them from slipping through and turning a bowknot into a hard knot. The hat is perfect.

    Good luck with the weather. We escaped snow this weekend but I'm not so sure about the coming week.

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  4. I can't quite reconstruct the sequence now but last Christmas we were family-less and so decided to go to Westport in the West of Ireland. As the big day approached the weather reports got worse and in the end we cancelled, stayed in Dublin, and had a wonderful time with our neighbourhood friends who were similarly snowed or iced in due to bad weather elsewhere.
    The above aside, I hope you get to London easily and have a nice family visit etc.

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  5. Anonymous7:43 PM

    I agree that the hat with cords & pompoms looks fabulous. Definitely the right ratio now of heft and dainty.

    Beverly

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  6. I think your hat with i-cords seems in proportion. I also wrestled with tie cords today. Don't really like any of the options because they seem difficult to finish neatly. I ended up crocheting a chain with two strands which I liked but, again, how to finish the ends?

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