Wednesday, March 15, 2017

That was a more productive day on the knitting front. I have finished sewing the half-brioche sweater together and knitting the plackets. I am maybe half-way through the collar. There are a good many loose ends to tidy away when that is done. Even so, I might finish tomorrow.

Which reminds me of another tidbit from Hazel Tindall. When you knit Fair Isle, you wind up with a fringe of ends up one side seam (on the inside) where you have attached a new colour every couple of rows. She said that it is all right to tidy and secure the loose ends by knotting. That’s what I’ve always done and would have continued doing, whatever she said, but I am enormously gratified to have her approval.

She didn’t press her way of knitting on us, although she was happy to demonstrate. She did say at the beginning, though, when we were all casting on our mug haps, that it is easier to join the work without twisting if, at that point, the stitches are on only two needles. Quite true, it turns out. I have always changed direction after casting on a sock, and ribbed one or even two rows back and forth before joining, but perhaps henceforth I’ll do it her way.

I enjoyed the beginning of Meg’s Fair Isle video, and hope to watch some more this evening. I left her about to tell me how to cast on in a way that would stop corrugated rib from flaring outwards.

Non-knit

Alexander came to see us, as often on a Wednesday. He is as depressed as I am at the prospect of another independence referendum – two more years of anxiety and bad temper, and then ---

He thinks that so profound a change should require a bit more than a simple majority, like constitutional amendments in the US. I’m inclined to agree.


He and his family will be here for the match against Italy on Saturday, the last day of the Six Nations tournament. But he and I are both almost more interested in Ireland-England at the end of the afternoon. Can Ireland stop the juggernaut? 

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:46 PM

    I find it easiest to do the join with 3 needles. With 2, I find it rather tight, while with 4, it is too floppy. With 3, they form a stable plane, with no tendency to twist and not too much tugging to get the stitches pulled over. I then knit with 3+1 for 4 or so rounds before adding the 5th needle. I much prefer using 4+1 for the bulk of the knitting as I have less trouble with laddering that way.

    If you & Alexander are depressed about another independence vote, think how depressed all us (living in the) USians are about the state of things here!

    Beverly in NJ

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  2. My understanding is that Westminster has to agree to another referendum - and that's not likely to happen any time soon. I think Sturgeon needs to look at the figures too. She would lose at present and may in the future. Realistically Scotland cannot go it alone. There is no guarantee that they would be able to enter the EU alone - a process which would in any case take years.
    I can just hear my paternal great grandmother from Caithness on the topic!

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  3. Now I really must set some time aside to watch Hazel Tindall's video. I wondered if Sturgeon was playing a bit of a game with May and the leavers to slow things down and confuse the issue. I echo Beverly on life under 45.

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  4. I always use three plus one for sock knitting. I can't imagine how awkward it would be to knit from two needles like that, although it must work for her. Surely the other side must be constantly in the way?

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  5. and the latest from 45 is eliminating all the endowments for arts and humanities and the corporation for public broadcasting and increasing military by 54 billion. i am so angry at the Democratic party leadership - they blew it big time. if they do not step up and deal with this man and impeach him, then... that move to shetland seems less a dream and more an escape plan (or maybe nova scotia).
    sigh
    its so hard every day to read the Times and WaPo and see more nonsense and destruction from the WH.
    the only good news is that the budget is so ridiculous that conservative Rep are going to have a hard time winning moderate Rep and thus it should be totally rewritten in compromise. but 45 continues on his spouting of lies. i wish the national tv press would not cover him. oh well back to work ...

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