Monday, November 30, 2020

Dies Atra

 

Another fairly nice day, by November’s standards. Another circuit of the garden. I got a couple of trivial things done, too: I renewed the New Yorker, and wrote to my Italian tutor (which has to be done in Italian).

 

And I made  some progress on that Evandoon sleeve. I’ve decided that Magic Loop isn’t for me, after all. The only dps I can find without a Serious Search are half a millimetre too small, 3.5s instead of 4s. I think I’ll try them anyway, tomorrow. I’m about down to the elbow of this first sleeve. I’d really like to speed things up.

 

Kate Davies’ weekend essay this time was about patchwork, which the latest pattern strongly suggests. It is interesting, as has been the case with her essays all along.

 

I didn’t mean to suggest yesterday that women aren’t, often, very, very good at chess. I am proud to discover this talent among you. But they don’t yet play at the very top. My sister has suggested a Zoom meeting at the end of the week, at which she will tell me her thots on the subject. I tremble, slightly. Also, I am going – via Zoom – to a talk at her club in DC tomorrow, about Il Gattopardo. That can’t fail to be interesting.

 

I’ve finished Lucarelli’s “Almost Blue”. It’s the best thriller I’ve read in a while, really scary.

 

I’m going to attempt sourdough again tomorrow. It’s been a while. I’ve revved up my starter -- that means taking it out of the refrigerator and feeding it every day for a while, until it gets nice and bubbly. The innovation this time is going to be to make my “levain” tonight, so that I’ll be ready for the off when I get up tomorrow. My recipe says to leave it about 8 hours – that’s not quite long enough, the way I sleep. But other recipes say 12 hours, which would be fine. Advice is everywhere, and often conflicting. I feel a great loyalty to my recipe, because it has worked pretty well so far, starting from complete ignorance on my part. (Good Food Magazine, May 2020). But I think it’s time to be adventurous.

10 comments:

  1. I don’t play chess, I am barely able to play basic card games. My mother used to say that I lacked card sense. Once, a 10 year old was trying to coach me, saying I had to see what cards were already played. I’ll stick to my knitting. However, I did read that Walter Tevis modeled Beth Harmon’s style of play on Bobby Fischer, as he thought women couldn’t compete.

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  2. And sympathy on the dies atra. Did you know that Dr. Anthony Fauci studied classics and ancient language before heading to medical school?

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  3. Anonymous9:45 AM

    Jean, I can understand why you abandoned Magic Loop. Under certain circumstances (like decreasing to close the top of a hat) it's like wrestling alligators. That's why I tried to give so many tips. It seemed "worth a try." Beyond that, life's too short. Long live dps! ... Card Sense. Reminds me of The Smart One. The Pretty One. Glad those days are over. Chloe

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  4. I admit that I am not a fan of magic loop (which seems to be sacrilege these days) . I can do it, I just don’t see the point. Then of course, DPs don’t hold any fear for me, I have almost every size I am likely to need, and know exactly where they are ( or have ever since my sister made me that lovely roll) . On the other hand, very few of my circular needles are longer than 24”, so they aren’t really adequate for manic loop anyway.

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  5. I would sooner use two sets of circulars than Magic Loop. I'm currently using something similar to Addi Flexiflips for socks and finding them very effective.

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  6. I drop double pointed needles every time I have to change to the next one. With a cable I just fish it up. Just a bad habit that makes it necessary to use magic loop.

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  7. I keep forgetting to use the free needle using done and end all with two thirds of the stitches on one needle...

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  8. When I knitted the Gaudi sweater - top down - I knitted the sleeves flat and grafted them on. I hate knitting sleeves top-down on to a sweater body. And the second one is worse.

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  9. Anonymous1:05 PM

    I also often end up with all my stitches on two needles which is why I am a Defender of the Magic Loop. It is always interesting to me how different all our brains are. Chloe

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  10. Grreat blog you have here

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