A good night’s sleep seems to have cured the computer of any
wish to speak Greek, but I am proceeding with caution.
Barbara (comment yesterday) – you had the same idea as
Duffy, who emailed me privately. And of course you are both absolutely right –
I should get in touch with Hazel Tindall before the class if I want her to show
me how to pick up stitches from a lace edging. I’ll think about it. I mean, I may be so embarrassed as to abandon the idea altogether.
And, Shandy, I am delighted to hear that your Houlland is to
be reprieved, and agree absolutely that what you have hit upon must be defined
as a workaround. The Blind Followers I was grumbling about, were the modern knitters,
with the world at their fingertips via the Internet, and with all the wonderful
books now available, who would still follow an old pattern that told them to knit a
Shetland shawl – any shawl – in six pieces and sew them together.
In 1958, when I did exactly that, even “Knitting Without
Tears” was still 13 years in the future.
Knitting went well again today. I have reached, indeed
almost finished, row 24 of Mrs Hunter’s border pattern. A major landmark looms –
the next row will finish off the first set of motifs, and row 27 will establish
the next one, lozenges again, but different lozenges. And I am more than
halfway to the first decrease row, namely row 40. There’s still a long, long
way to go, but this is definitely progress.
And the tax continues well. My ambition is to finish it in the
next fortnight, so that if anything goes wrong with the terrifying task of
logging in to the government website through multiple layers of security, and
actually filing the return, I will have time to panic before the January 31
deadline.
The thought of Hazel Tindall and my class has focused my thoughts on the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I am sure I will spend a foolish amount
of money, and for the next few weeks I can enjoy thinking about what patterns I
might like to buy yarn for. Brooklyn Tweed is coming this year – do you think that means Jared himself? –
so one thing to do is to wander through his recent lookbooks.
It might be salutary to look in the stash cupboard and see
how much EYF 2016 is still there. I’ve looked at my Ravelry queue and find that
either I’ve got the yarn already, or I’m not sure I still want to knit
whatever-it-is.
I like your idea that you need to allow yourself time to panic with the tax return. It is an attitude closely related to my dearly beloved's who has always, when driving any distance to an important appointment, felt the need to allow time to deal with two punctures on the way. As a family, we are pathologically early for everything!
ReplyDeleteAnd there is always the wonderfully helpful Liz Lovick who can be consulted. (I emailed her with a question for the class I am teaching expecting a couple of sentences at most in reply and got a full page of detailed and very useful information.)
ReplyDeleteWell, would it be blind following to knit in six pieces or blind following to do otherwise? Choices abound!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to plan for some EYF purchases. Makes better use of specialty yarn opportunities!
Following the hint from Beth on Donna Smith's remarks, I located her contributions to the Houlland thread. Ravelry -Donna Smith - Peerie Donna - Posts. Encouraged by her words, and with good lighting, I managed to locate a consistent pick-up point on my edging, and it is now ready to start the charted body. Thank you for your support, as ever.
ReplyDeleteRe blind followers - I attend a weekly knitting group where there are two types of knitters - those who buy the pattern and just follow the instructions and those who never use a pattern at all but just knit from experience. No active Ravelry members at all. It still surprises me, but there it is.
Great! Glad you are poised to continue your Houlland
DeleteSo glad to hear you've managed a pick-up strategy for Houlland. Following with interest, as at some point (after carpal tunnel release and some UFO action) I'd like to attempt it.
DeleteI'm so looking forward to EYF, first time for me as well as Mr Flood! I will be there with my daughter who is a young knitter (turning 18 in a few days from now). My son will stay in the hotel room and will be perfectly content with his laptop and a supply of food.
ReplyDelete