Largely non-knit, although there’s some at the end.

Lent

It’s wonderful when things fit together.

I have a half-memory of reading somewhere that Evelyn Waugh (who was very devout) happily smoked his Easter cigar in the afternoon of Holy Saturday, but, if so, I have no memory of where I acquired this nugget. I tried googling, and learned that he always went on retreat in a monastery in the days just before Easter – well, I knew that much already – and that the retreat ended with an “anticipated” Easter Mass on the Saturday morning. That was news.

Waugh was very cross indeed when the liturgical reforms that followed Vatican II swept the practice away.

I have no memory of it, and I am sure I have never attended such a Mass. Maybe it only happened in monasteries. But if it ever happened anywhere, it certainly means that Lent was over by Saturday morning.

And this fits perfectly with your father’s memory, Fiona (comment yesterday) – because I believe that in the Olden Days, before Vatican II, Mass was always said between midnight and noon, and never in the other half of the day. So next Saturday I will have my first cider at noon in honour of both men.

You’re right about the 40 days, too. It’s really a bit odd. The Eastern Orthodox start Lent two days earlier than we do, meaning that the 40 days are finished on Maundy Thursday, before the Triduum starts – that’s the Latin word meaning “three days”. It is a liturgical season all of its own, and should surely come after Lent the way the Greeks do it.

Knitting

Here’s the Tannehill. That dark line amidships where I added a new skein, looks more conspicuous than ever. Two different skeins were employed on either side of the v-neck. Mercifully, it didn’t happen again.

I’ve now increased enough stitches on either side of the sleeve that it no longer feels as if it’s moving fast, but in fact I’m doing fine. Fair Isle tomorrow, with a clear conscience.