Sunday, December 15, 2013

Not too bad a day, yesterday. My hair looks much better – Charles first cut it for me when I was about to set forth to Theo and Jenni's wedding four and a half years ago. In those days, I told him to aim for Hillary Clinton but she has apparently lost interest in hair lately so we now emulate the Home Secretary.


Then when I got home I couldn't get in, because the ancient carpet in the hall had ruched up – I am surprised that the spell check accepts that word – and blocked the door, Fortunately my husband was near at hand, We didn't do anything about it for the rest of the day. I may have to take the shears to it before I dare go out to get the Sunday paper.

I have only two slightly difficult Christmas cards to write. I ought to be able to dispatch the lot tomorro. I can always dash off one or two more if we hear from anyone unexpected. And I wrapped the presents for the Loch Fyne Mileses. It's a start.

I thought of someone who might like “Life After Life” and tried to order it as a supplementary present. Amazon, to my astonishment, was out of stock. If I were Kate Atkinson, I think I'd be cross. That must be the publisher's fault.

Knitting

I still haven't taken the steam iron to the Sensible Christmas Project. I'll have to do so soon, in order to wrap it up. I should reach the front neck shaping of Milano/Relax3 today.

Annie Modesitt has started selling her own yarn, in nice nearly-solid shades. I like nearly-solids, but do we need more of them in a world that already contains madelinetosh?

Franklin's latest blog for Lion Brand is up. Not his best, but Franklin is always worth reading.

Current Affairs


I have not been following Nelson Mandela's obsequies with any great attention, much as I admired him. So I may be wrong about this. I read in the Scotsman that the Dalai Lama was not there – is not there -- because the South African govt wouldn't give him a visa. Is that true? Why did other news sources not mention it? And why should South Africa be in thrall to the Chinese, which is the only conceivable reason for refusing the visa?

I did another reset, and Blogger is mercifully free of pop-up ads this morning.

4 comments:

  1. No, the Dalai Lama was not there. He is trying to avoid controversy by not saying why he isn't there but the reality is that South Africa won't grant him a visa because the Chinese have "asked" (told) them not to.
    The Chinese are pouring money into South Africa of course but they don't like the Dalai Lama. (The Chinese don't like Archbishop Desmond Tutu either because he has criticised the ANC which might account for the "misunderstanding" of the off-on invitation to attend the funeral service but at least Tutu attended.

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  2. The Book Depository have Life after Life. A few pounds more expensive but free delivery.

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  3. MadTosh is so popular that it is really difficult for shops to know when, if , and what will come in a order. The Yarnery is going to have a replacement yarn that uses the same base and looks to be gorgeous, I'll let you know when I get a look at it up close. (Many dyers use the same base, but it's all in the colors!)

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  4. do you know about DIZZYSHEEP.COM - its a website for a yarn store in Rochester, NY. They have a very active presence on Ravelry because they do special sales thru the year... Spinoffs over Labor Day and Memorial Day and now the Twelve Days of Christmas.

    the method has changed since the previous years, this year each day starting with Dec 12 - has a new item for sale at midnight according to the day - as in day one has one item, day two has two items but they are always the same kind of item ... like the first item is sock yarn, the second alpaca, etc.

    there is a spreadsheet at the Ravelry group (look for the topic Dizzy 12 days). that helps you keep track

    anyway, there are discounts as well to be used when you go over $50. (easy to do).

    not that you need more yarn but you might be interested in looking - the change this year is that each item stays up the whole day - so you have the whole day unless it sells out to reflect and purchase.

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