Tuesday, May 28, 2019


Miscellaneous

The new issue of Delicious magazine fell through the letter-box today. There’s a non-knitting article about Shetland. Three café-restaurants are recommended – we of the Knitting Adventure ate at all of them, and the two we ate at which aren’t mentioned were, if anything, even better. There is also a box about Ronnie Eunson and his Uradale farm – see the yarn-wheels above.

Archie sent me a link to Juns Kitchen not so much for the cooking (although that is interesting) as for the cats.

Archie was here yesterday, found Perdita – whom I hadn’t seen all that morning – and suggested that we feed her separately. She was touchingly grateful. I think there’s not much doubt that she’s being bullied by her younger, smaller and ostensibly pleasanter sister.

For the moment, we are living apart. Paradox has taken over (she thinks) as the Cat In Charge. She welcomes me home from the supermarket, sleeps with me in the middle of the bed, helps with the knitting.

I am more than ever worried about leaving them for 8 days when I go to the wedding in July. Arrangements can and will be made -- but nobody will be available who knows and cares for them like Archie.

Knitting

Progress. I must show you a picture of the Spring Shawl soon. Like the Princess Shawl itself, it is essentially a half-hap. In this case, it begins at one corner of (what would become if you allowed it to) the central square. So the initial rows go fast, as an easy mesh is established. Soon, the mesh will divide and proceed up each side of the central triangle and a rather more complicated pattern will be established in the centre.

The Princess adopts the opposite approach. You start with the edging, then pick up stitches and knit two borders, and then -- thinking (erroneously) that you must be almost finished  -- knit the triangle between them.

There is an article in the Times this morning about knitting and mindfulness, by a man, with a thoroughly unconvincing picture. I certainly find lace knitting very conducive to mindfulness. It’s not difficult, but it needs attention.It’s going to take forever, so it’s no use thinking about what’s coming next. There’s nothing for it but to concentrate on the present moment – I think that’s what mindfulness is about.

5 comments:

  1. You sent me back to th Times where I had missed the mindful knitting first go - it is one of Those Pictures that so annoy isn't it!? They take a piece of work in progress, tell some random person to hold it in both hands, and call it an illustration. He isn't even holding the yarn!
    But yes, knitting can be very therapeutic, and we know that without the fancy explanations.

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  2. I couldn’t find the Times article (behind the paywall) but the Wall Street Journal had a similar article with employees of Google and NYU medical students soothing their amygdala’s.

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  3. Loved the video from Juns Kitchen.

    I hope your two cats can find peace, but from experience my two maintained a polite distance
    after years of hissing.

    My knitting group read the Wall Street Journal article last night!

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  4. Those lucky, lucky, Juns Kitchen cats! Mine are sufficently thankful for Whiskas As Good As It Looks with extra gravy. All our other 'pairs' of cats have managed to share a dish of food - they were all brother/sister pairs. These two, which we have had for 16 years now, have always needed separate plates. They are both female - could that be the reason?
    We've been visiting a relative who is in hospital, and in the bookshop I found an Inspector Montalbano book, 'the voice of the violin'. So I have bought it for £1. At the moment I'm not concentrating on anything much except Freecell and crochet granny squares - I suppose that's a sort of mindfulness, probably more like mindemptiness. Life suddenly got too full. But the opening chapters have managed to catch my attention.

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  5. i think cats go thru moods and stages like adolescents.. i have two who are step brother/sister (same mother). they have weeks of ignoring each other and then i will find them curled up together. however i have ALWAYS fed them in separate places. one of them is smaller and can jump, the other is larger and only manages jumping bed height. so he gets his food on the floor on his own tray and Isolde (the smaller one) gets here on a tray on the counter. they are both very happy with this arrangement. perhaps try feeding Perdita on a counter or table (i will not get into the 'cats on the counter' arguments - those who can jump will do it when we are away and asleep so i just always wipe them down.. really its their house too- at least thats my opinion) good luck with this!

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