Thursday, October 19, 2017

Elaine, thank you very much for the link (comment yesterday) about how electricity came to Unst. I wondered about the RAF. And that’s most interesting, Shandy, that Unst was ahead of rural Cumbria.

Again today, knitting was much impeded by an affectionate kitten. Just when I think I’ve got the sitting room to myself, it comes trotting in, all wreathed in furry smiles. It is a pity Paradox wasn’t the elder sister – she is just the cat my husband wanted, for sitting on his lap in his last months. Perdita was useless.

Here’s today’s cat picture. The scene was not quite as peaceful as it looks, but I do think we are making progress. Milk is a rare treat.



Nor I have started reading Traditional Knitting in North Russia. There’s lots to read in the new VK, and I have gone on turning the pages of Lovick and thinking about the forthcoming great-grandchild. Lovick surprises me by suggesting an acrylic yarn for a baby shawl which is going to be used and washed. I see the point, but…

The Silk Road sock patterns are tempting. I don’t know where I’ve put that book – I thought it was on the sock-book pile. The recommended yarns are each more luxurious-sounding than the last, but none, I think, has more than 10% acrylic (I expect 25%) and several are completely natural. I can’t believe they’d stand up long to being worn on actual human feet, but I’d be delighted to be contradicted.

Fruity Knitting had a q&a session with Nancy Marchant, live for their big-hitting patrons and then available as a podcast for the rest of us. It was interesting. I learned one valuable thing – this long tail cast-on I’m supposed to do with two colours before arriving at her EYF class, does not result in alternate stitches of different colours. It just means that the stitches on the needle are one colour, and the row beneath, the other. I can probably achieve that the old knit-into-the-loop-on-the-left-thumb way.

And I’ve heard Marchant say it herself. I suspect that has saved me a lot of time and anxiety.

I also learn that she has written a new book about the “tuck” system which my class is going to be about. Amazon has never heard of it, but Ysolda is selling it. Marchant said that in the US, it’s available from the Schoolhouse.

She does all her own knitting. That's another thing I learned.

7 comments:

  1. skeindalous12:09 AM

    Interesting that the Tuck Stitches book is available from Ysolde for 14 pounds and from Stephen and Penelope for 32 pounds! Don't see it from Schoolhouse. Looks tempting. Once I am farther along with the Christmas knitting, I will start on Soutache!

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  2. Well, Nancy did say in the Craftsy class I working through that she gave the pattern of the Jacki scarf to her friend for test knitting, who mis-knit it. So she must get some help here and there.

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  3. Those cats do seem to be getting on proper terms with each other - I suspect that they will end up as friends. But don't ever expect them to admit it!

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  4. I must carve out some time to watch Fruity Knitting.

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  5. Anonymous12:57 PM

    Thank you so much, Jean, for the link to Elaine's Comment. It included the co.uk ending that the original version did not. Perhaps Elaine expected that I would know enough computer convention to replace the HTML ending for it. No matter. I did get to enjoy this interesting article and also draw food for thought on how we tend to assume less intellectual awareness from people in remote locations. An old lawyer told me once to "Never Assume" but I keep forgetting :-) Love all the kitty pictures. Chloe

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  6. Some luxurious sock yarns (and fibre blends intended for socks) use silk in place of nylon. It provides the same strength, and a certain something extra at the same time.

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  7. =Tamar3:10 PM

    It sounds to me as though you could simply do a loose-enough backwards loop cast-on using a circular needle, go back to the beginning (because circulars allow that), and knit the first row with the second color, to get the same effect, but I could be wrong. Maybe long-tail turns the "first row" part the other way?

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