Here I am, after all. I woke up feeling odd this morning – a
bit dizzy, unsteady on my feet, no appetite, coughing. I didn’t go to
Kirkmichael. I spent the morning in bed (except for a bit of knitting at the
end) and feel a bit better. I’ll have a proper meal soon.
While in bed, I watched Fruity Knitting 64 – Melinda, you’re
right, that’s the lace one we want. Two Shetland sisters, both lace knitters;
in their 60’s I would guess. We were right – no lace graphs when they were
young. One of them has taken to it duck-to-water, incorporating patterns from
Sharon Miller’s Heirloom Knitting into her work and using squared paper to
plot out her own designs.
The other, embarking on a major design, knits a swatch – it must
be 50 stitches or more – which is a cross-section of a trapezoidal border,
edging to square centre. That lets her plan and see the design horizontally, and
calculate how it will fit into the corners of the trapezoid.
One factor that I had not thought of, is that an experienced
lace knitter can look at a shawl and knit from it, as we might from a chart. My
innocent eye is not capable of that – the lace holes seem to pull the knitting
out of line. All I’m looking for is k, k2tog, YF, k3tog – but I can’t tell who
did what in which row.
I’ve finished row 42 of the Spring Shawl borders. After all
that beddery this morning, I ought to be able to knock off a couple more later
on.
And I need a plan. This stuff is addictive, as Sharon Miller
says; and Elizabeth Johnston warned me not to switch projects mid-stream: that
is, not to try to knit a larger-gauge project in the middle of fine lace
knitting. But I must finish Thomas’ Calcutta cup scarf (=two weeks?) and Matt’s
pocket square (=two evenings?) before Christmas.
Reading
I’m getting on fine with “The Spoils of Poynton”. It’s an
easy one, as Henry James goes. Shandy, to my great embarrassment I can’t
remember the end of “Portrait of a Lady” at all, although I’m sure I’ve read
it. He doesn’t go in for happy endings.