A pretty good day. Helen came around in the late morning,
and we did a single circuit of the gardens, both being worn out by our serious
catching-up sessions at the computer keyboard earlier on. I wrote a perfectly
simple email to the lawyer which should have been done weeks ago.
And having trumped Alexander yesterday by identifying (as I
suppose) frost damage to his potato foliage, today I did the same to James. The
question came up on our family WhatsApp: what is the relationship between
Hamish Myemi (one week old today) and those little girls in London, Orla and
Ruby and Camilla and Juliet? And James, who is good at that sort of thing, said
that they were second cousins. But they’re not, they’re third cousins; and he
agrees that I am right.
So I feel very smug.
AND the package came from Ginger Twist: two
gently-contrasting skeins of her Yakety-Yak 4ply (60% merino, 20% yak, 20%
silk) with a pattern for a hat and some mitts. I am rather anti-mitt, but there
may well be enough yarn for two hats. This yarn may be the successor to the
Luscious 4ply with which I seem to be knitting an EPS.
I've successfully downloaded the patterns for Carol Sunday's Machu Picchu and her brioche cowl. I have raised the question in her ravelry group of whether I can knit MP bottom-up. Arne would certainly say yes.
There was once – I must have told you this – when one of the
knitting categories for the Home Industries Tent at the Strathardle Games was “men’s
gloves”, and I knit a pair and won first prize because there was no other
entry. Fingers are awful and I resolved never to do them again, and
haven’t. I know EZ has a way of doing
them with i-cord but I’m not tempted.
That’s no excuse for not knitting mitts, or even mittens.
Non-knit
The good weather with which this remarkable spring has been
blessed has meant an occasional fly in the kitchen. Paradox is delighted. She
jumps up and claps her hands together to catch them the way my husband used to
do with moths. Here is a picture of a cat who thinks she sees a fly:
Unknown (comment yesterday): I think you’ll find me on
Instagram if you just look for jeanmiles. There will be some numbers stuck on the end.
Today my calico cat was attacking a moth, which I encouraged mightily. And her exertions were such that she upended a 4.5 foot high plant, which distributed potting soil all over the rug. The moth came back to watch the tidy-up, and was dispatched by me.
ReplyDeleteI think any pattern written for top down may be knitted bottom up, just some number tracking to do. Or, if that's a problem, I have worked sleeves and body from bottom up and then grafted them with the top down part. ( If you don't mind kitchener stitch.)
ReplyDeleteEarly on im I'm my knitting career I heard that people actually knitted gloves and I wondered why anyone would ever want to put themselves through that. Then I met a young girl at a knitting event who was smilingly doing just that with size 0 American knitting needles. I still get amazed (and slightly horrified) just thinking about it. Chloe
ReplyDeleteI knit one pair of gloves and that was plenty. Wanted to mention you are JeanMiles8442 and the photos are lovely.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago a cousin of mine had a polydactyl cat that had wandered in from the woods. It could fold each front paw enough to catch a moth single-pawed. Before she realized that, she had already had it neutered, but oh, how we wished she could have bred it. It was also intelligent enough not to be fooled by a hand under a blanket.
ReplyDeleteRe gloves, I've made two pairs of Sanquhar gloves, and a pair of cabled gloves in silk and cashmere. I don't mind the process, but my fingers are warmer in mittens.
ReplyDeleteRe cats, I had a polydactyl--he had 2 thumbs and could open cabinet doors and catch things neatly. Of the five kittens he sired with our female, only one had extra toes (on all four of her feet). Makes me think it's a recessive trait?