Monday, February 04, 2013


All well.

The Gardening Sweater is finished except for blocking. I would hope to get that done today. The join between yoke and body needs to lie more smoothly – it’s as smooth as a mill pond in the photographs in EZ’s books.

Front view:

Back yoke:


The phoney seam was easy and fun to do. It looks nice, but is not at all conspicuous. Meg says it helps during blocking, avoiding any tendency towards torque. You can see the sweater trying to twist in the top picture above. She also remarks, and it’s true, that it comes as a surprise to see, when you have released that ladder, how much yarn goes into forming each stitch.

The sweater looks a good size. The yarn is sport weight and I wouldn’t want it any heavier. DK would have been a bit much for balmy London. The neck looks small, but it goes over my own head easily, and I have a notoriously large head. I'll stretch it a bit in the blocking, anyway. 

For the next couple of days I will wind skeins of sock yarn for the tee-shirt. That will take even longer than winding a sport-weight skein, obviously. I plan to relieve the chore from time to time with intervals of sock-knitting. I must re-learn the Fleegle-Strong heel.

The spam has reverted to normal dimensions thank goodness. I’ve told Blogger I want to moderate everything that attaches to a post more than a week old. Previously it was a fortnight. All except one fell into that category yesterday. The one was actually a Louis Vuitton, the classic among spammers. Blogger sent it to my mailbox like all the others, with no hint as to whether or not it had been caught by their own spam filter. So I had to go to the blog and look for it – that’s where the nuisance comes in. And of course it wasn’t there.

Non-knit

I was glad to hear of our shared fondness for Tom Lehrer, Meezermeowmy. It is 59 years – wow! – since I first encountered him, somewhere in the early months of 1954. I went with a group of Oberlin friends to a small theatre in NYC to hear him. I had not known his name before that evening. I can remember Tom Lehrer vividly, but the friends I was with, only through a glass darkly. Were George and Betty Finnegan of the party? I think maybe so. Betty was pregnant.

9 comments:

  1. Hope you enjoyed the rugby, despite the result. We were busy (with a 6th birthday party and 25 excited children) so didn't get to watch - except the highlights. At least Scotland got some tries, something which they lacked for season after season until the last year or two - and I love Scott Johnson's way with words; he's got some good lines (statistics are like bikinis...)

    Next week's match - at Murrayfield - should be good: Scotland vs the triumphant Italy, who stunned France yesterday in a great match. Although such excitement does not make for good knitting....

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  2. I am awed and impressed that you have actually seen Tom Lehrer "live and in person"! Our record of his songs was a great favourite - especially with the children, who liked to sing along with "Poisoning pigeons in the park". I suspect that would qualify us as subversive parents.

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  3. Anonymous12:35 PM

    The sweater is gorgeous! The color is delightfully rich, playful and manly all at once. I'm sure it will give many hours of comfortable and comforting service.

    Re yesterday's post: I was going to suggest a thin lime green stripe for the tee shirt. I can't wait to see it begun.

    Beverly in NJ

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  4. Oh, on Tom Lehrer - I'm also v impressed that you saw him in the flesh! I sometimes wonder which of the memories and events of my life (so far) will turn out to be so memorable or historic. An old friend of mine grew up in a household with many worn Tom Lehrer records, but often embarrassed his mother by singing/shouting 'everyone hates the Jews' from his pushchair...

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  5. The Gardening Sweater is wonderful! And finished just in time for the upcoming spring gardening season. I have always been too afraid to try the phoney seam. I have this vision of messing it up, and ending up with a sweater that completely unravels.

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  6. Anonymous4:37 PM

    Love the sweater, and I'm certain it will block up nicely. I recall EZ saying that she used to be in awe of knitters of previous generations who had such even stitches...until she realized that it had all evened up in repeated washings.

    Tom Lehrer live - wow! Our record is well worn, also. All our girls could sing of poisoned pigeons as well as cheering for Harvard.

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  7. Anonymous5:26 PM

    So glad the garden sweater was a success. It looks so nice. The winding of your sock yarn should go quickly just for the excitement of starting a new project. Looking forward to watching its progress.

    Margaret Mary

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  8. Unlurking, to tell you how much I'm enjoying your blog, and to say that I, too, am a fan of Tom Lehrer, though I never saw him in person. My favorite is 'The Elements Song' ( ... these are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard, and there may be many others, but they haven't been discovered.)

    I think that's going to be a very comfortable sweater, the kind that will be worn thin over the years.

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  9. I greatly admire the garden garment but would never dare to make such a good thing for the Senior Cat to wear in the garden. His are always strictly utilitarian garments made from the left overs. They are irregularly striped - my mother knitted until she reached the end of a ball and then picked up another ball, with no regard for the colour. I plan a little more than that but still make them from left over yarns. Anything else would, according to him, be "too good to wear in shed and garden"!

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