Sunday, November 15, 2020

 

The new series of The Crown is out today on Netflix, and I’m afraid I’ve been binging as on a big box of chocolates. Some of it is preposterous; all of it is fascinating. I didn’t even get much knitting done to compensate. I have embarked on the final broad stripe of the Evandoon, as the pattern is written, and I strongly suspect that more length will be needed. And that a try-on would be a good idea.

 

The difficulty will be that in the pattern as written, the final rib is the colour that the next stripe would have been -- and that matches, in turn, the colour at the top. How does Kate Davies handle this problem in her larger sizes? I think I’ll have to apply myself to find out. Although I think the only possible answer is to lengthen, keeping the stripe sequence as set, and then revert to the start-and-finish colour when it’s long enough, even though it won’t be that colour’s turn.

 

Today’s weekend essay from Kate is about the colour yellow, predominant in this week’s sweater pattern. I trust these essays will be in the book at the end – I am finding them very interesting.

 

Life

 

I did a bit better with my morning walk today, with C. We set out earlier than Archie and I had yesterday: that’s probably why. Her daughter Christina, whose neck is broken, is making good progress. Doctors say that, if she weren’t breast-feeding, she could leave off the neck brace at night. Wee Hamish, who is in fine fettle, is six months old. I think she might think of weaning.


I can't believe that I'm more active than you are, Tamar (comment yesterday). No one could be more droopy than I. The circuit of Drummond Place Garden is a very scant 1/4 mile.

 

The weekend papers have published the first of the year’s Christmas Present Suggestions, a genre I love. I am much struck with the fact that 60 years ago, when I first began reading such journalism, I always felt that I couldn’t afford that much for a single present. And the feeling is exactly the same now, when I am so much more prosperous. The Suggestions manage to keep two squares ahead.

 

I am also suffering from my annual tendency to find things that I would like for myself in greater abundance than useful Present Suggestions.

4 comments:

  1. Both my daughters, who each have two children, nursed forever, it seems, well past one year. And after her maternity leave was up, my older daughter pumped and froze the breast milk for the baby. My younger daughter lives in Melbourne Australia, which has a standard one year maternity leave. She is still nursing the little one who is now nine months. She will not pump, but gradually wean by only nursing in the evenings. I do see the convenience; no bottles to sterilize or formula to mix but it does mean one is tethered to the baby!

    I admire your persistence with Italian. Learning a second language at an older age is not easy!

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  2. Both my daughters, who each have two children, nursed forever, it seems, well past one year. And after her maternity leave was up, my older daughter pumped and froze the breast milk for the baby. My younger daughter lives in Melbourne Australia, which has a standard one year maternity leave. She is still nursing the little one who is now nine months. She will not pump, but gradually wean by only nursing in the evenings. I do see the convenience; no bottles to sterilize or formula to mix but it does mean one is tethered to the baby!

    I admire your persistence with Italian. Learning a second language at an older age is not easy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I forgot about The Crown. I know what I’ll be watching this evening!

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  4. =Tamar2:35 AM

    I am indolent by nature and this quarantine thing has made it worse by giving me a solid excuse for not going out window-shopping, which used to be my major inducement to walk instead of sit.

    Oh, those suggested gift lists! Many of them are absurd to begin with, even before the price tag. Some years ago I saw a plain knitted beanie offered for close to three hundred dollars. It was identical in style, materials, and gauge to one offered elsewhere for five dollars. The price tag should have been solid gold!

    ReplyDelete