Friday, April 27, 2012


I got out of bed this morning to find sunshine beyond the windows, for the first time in a very long while. The forecasts are still appalling, but how a moment of cheerfulness does lift the spirits!

And as I contemplated my computer and struggled with its slownesses, the doorbell rang and I was handed a large, light-weight package from Amazon. Do they do Welsh onions? Had I ordered some and forgotten? But when I got down to the very bottom of the box, there was Candace Strick’s sock book, “Strick-ly Socks”,  from Amazon.com. Packed more conventionally it would easily have gone through the letter box.

Further struggles with the computer have given me time to spend a few moments with it. I think the “revolutionary” bit is based in the discovery that toes and heels are the same thing, both hourglass shapes if flattened out. The “amazingly simple” bit will prove itself in action.  A two-hour class with Candace would make all clear. Explaining it in written words is harder.

But the text is very easy to follow, and the explanatory photographs excellent. The photograph of Candace shows a woman 10 or 12 years older than the one I remember. Oh, dear.

When I have polished off the snood, I think I will allow myself to polish off the current socks, Lizzie’s Hundertwasser ones with the Gibson-Roberts heel, and go on to somebody else with a Strong heel, before addressing the Tulip Cardigan.

The snood has reached stripe CBB on the return journey, with no balls of yarn running short. Only three stripes to go after this one. That will bring us back to AAA, already knit except that I will lengthen it with a few more rows at this end.

Knitting is a most satisfactory craft in the way that it can accompany one through life’s difficulties (such as the dining room ceiling) and also through the good bits, there ready to pick up and get going on without having to dedicate half a room or half a day to the project.

No progress yesterday on the ceiling front. I need to talk to David at ChemDry, the man who said we need a new ceiling. A promise that he would phone wasn’t realised yesterday. I will continue to pursue him today.

Comments

Barbara M, in NH, before life sweeps on too far, I want to say how much I like “going to Cedar Rapids” (comment, Sunday, April 22). One to remember.

3 comments:

  1. I was similarly delighted to see a blue sky and wreaths of sunshine garlanded about the garden when I woke this morning. The sky scarf will be perked up no end by some bright blue!

    Good luck with the ceiling man/people...I hope the sunshine cheers them up too :)

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  2. We have a story similar to the Cedar rabbits. When our preschooler (now almost 33) was told that he would need to take a screening test for kindergarten he asked "Is it indoors or out?" and, when told it would be inside said "I think if they are going to give me a screaming test they should do it outside!"

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  3. "Knitting is a most satisfactory craft in the way that it can accompany one through life’s difficulties ... and also through the good bits, there ready to pick up and get going on without having to dedicate half a room or half a day to the project."

    May I quote this on my Facebook page? This describes my feelings about knitting to a tee.

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