Cleaning
went well, and I feel rather hopeful about the prospect of Getting a Grip.
Joanna, for that is her name, blitzed the kitchen for two hours before my
husband got up, and then polished off the ironing. She’ll be back on Saturday
of next week.
I’m still
not feeling quite on top of my game, physically, post norovirus. Or maybe I
have just slipped another step down the pathway of inevitable decline.
Whatever, we are going to attempt some Art today – the Bellany retrospective at
the National Gallery. The first problem will be getting there. I am not sure my
husband will want to walk even as far as Dundas Street
I must face
up to getting a Disabled badge for the car, as soon as I’ve done the Income
Tax.
The other
thing we must face up to is opening our own Christmas presents. I know what
mine is – the new Alice Munro collection. My husband’s is that Microsoft
Surface I was talking about. His grandson Alistair was booked to give him a
tutorial in its use on Boxing Day, over there on the shores of Loch Fyne. If
you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans for tomorrow. I’m not at all
sure I feel up to it. He will be irritated by the learning process, and will express himself in terms he would not have used to Alistair.
Knitting, last night, hit a snag which, when I tell you of it, will increase
the sense of creeping senility implied in the paragraphs above.
I wound the
new skein, attached it, and knit perhaps an inch and a half at the top of the
sleeve before I grasped that I was using a ball of madelinetosh Dusty Rose (I
think it’s called) – left over from that EZ jacket I recently finished. In
tone, if not in colour, it is similar to the Firewood (I think it’s called)
which I am using for the Gardening Sweater, and of course on my fingers it felt
exactly the same. And light is not all that revealing, this time of year.
I don’t
know why the almost-complete ball was lying about – it should have been in the
stash cupboard in a bag with the other recent left-over reds.
The moral
of the story is my favourite of EZ’s maxims – Look at your knitting.
Once I did that,
the mistake was easily rectified. The red came out, the stitches stood up
handsomely for reclaiming, the inch and a half has been re-knit with the right
yarn.
Dear Jean, anyone could make that colour mistake AT ANY AGE. Don't be too hard on yourself - feel foolish if you must, but rest assured you are not! And when you have recovered from that, please tell me where I can find the u-shaped cable needle which has evaporated in my house.
ReplyDeleteGet a taxi to the gallery. It'll come to your door, when you want it to, and take you where you want to go. And, you won't have to worry about parking. When you want to go home, just summon another... A few pounds well spent, I reckon.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the cleaner was a success. I'm sure it must be easier to clean other people's houses than your own - you don't get caught up in that thing of trying to put away one thing, and when opening the cupboard getting distracted by a long-forgotten something or other....
I'm finding it very hard to knit or sew in anything but full daylight. DH solved the problem with a cheap anglepoise lamp from IKEA and a daylight bulb from John Lewis. It doesn't look ver bonny but ithas made an amzing difference. Might be worth a try? Catriona
ReplyDeleteThese days when I am looking for good light to check color (or anything) I remember mentally rolling my eyes when my Grandmother, when pairing socks in the laundry, would enlist my help to tell which were black and which were navy blue. (All those boys in the house.) What goes around comes around, I guess. I am glad the cleaning went well and I hope the Art does as well.
ReplyDeletePlease don't be too hasty to assign your knitting error to your age. Remember my traveling sweater I was knitting before my trip with Kath? It wasn't until I pulled it out to show a friend that I realized I had knit one whole skein that was a different dye lot. EZ was right. It is important to look at your knitting.
ReplyDeleteWould Archie be able to come over for an afternoon and help his grandfather with the Surface? Most kids his age are computer/gadget savvy, and even if it is something he hasn't used before he could probably spend an afternoon figuring it out, then give your husband some lessons.
Do Alistair and you have access to Skype? What about a Skype call?
ReplyDeleteThose darn runaway yarn balls making mischief. Don't blame it on yourself. We've all done that. Even the Yarn Harlot.
I think I recall reading somewhere that somewhere in Scotland (?) knitting was mostly a summer and outdoor activity, because of the lack of light in winter. I try to arrange my knitting seasonally by color: darker in the summer and lighter in the winter.
ReplyDeleteMy mom has a cleaner come once a week. Now that she can no longer walk due to arthritis, she cannot clean, and my dad can only do so much. As it is he is King of the Laundry.
ReplyDeleteI hate cleaning. Hate it so much that I think I once shocked a dear student who I remarked that my greatest goal in life is to make enough money to hire a weekly cleaning lady.
This past summer a male friend of mine had his wife away in Japan visiting family for two months. He was so desperate for a hot meal (apparently he cannot really cook for himself) that he would scrub my floors and banish pet hairs from my apartment in return for hot meals. It wasn't a bad trade.
I have one very large ongoing project, a shawl, almost a blanket, also reddish in color, that I am only able to work on while knitting outdoors. I just can't see the stitches under artificial light. Perhaps I will finish next summer!
ReplyDeleteI had been wondering how your husband liked the Surface. It was advertised ad nauseam on TV over the holidays here in the US.
Did you see that Nancy Marchant has a new Brioche knitting class on Craftsy? Looks good...and it is on sale this week!
I am working on the 1840 Nightcap that Franklin Habit wrote about in Knitty, and I can't work on it at night. Every time I knit 3 rows, I have to take out 2. I spent the entire time at my knitting group today unknitting. I need to do it during the day so I get it done by the end of the month. Luckily, I'm not knitting anything else with a color that is close. We all have our knitting ups and downs.
ReplyDeleteDid your husband have any questions or comments about Joanna's first visit? Hope it continues to go well.
Margaret Mary
I recently bought Ott light bulbs for my regular floor lamp beside my knitting chair. It has made all the difference.
ReplyDeleteI received a "Surface" for Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it. If your husband has questions that I can help with email me at theresa dot innis at gmail dot com.