Friday, February 24, 2023

 Another sunny day. I’ll have to get out soon. This won’t do.

 

I did exercises, though. And knit. I’m now halfway around the first round of Old Shale, and am having trouble with the stitch count. Nothing that can’t be fudged. I should have counted yesterday as well as on Wednesday. It makes me feel awfully old and foolish, though. If I can’t even knit Old Shale – Gudrun says that children are given it to do, on Shetland – I might as well indeed retire to my care home and garter stitch squares.

 

Thank you for your thoughts on blocking. That’s an interesting idea, Tamar, to do it in halves. I went through all this only three years ago, when I knit a hap from this same pattern for wee Hamish, above, in the colours of the South African flag. The South African flag has a great many colours. I think, in the end, I left one out. I saw the shawl recently, when I went to call on their kittens. It’s in good shape. Blocking was a problem then, too, but I must have been considerably more agile.

 

The single beds in the spare room aren’t quite big enough, and are separated by furniture I don’t want to get involved in moving – although that’s a possibility. I think in the end I did Hamish's shawl on one of the beds, diagonally, pinning the extra corners down over the sides of the mattress. I’d need too many foam blocking mats. I could do it on the double bed and move into the spare room myself for a night or two. But I don’t want to do that. I’m very fond of my bedroom.

 

Wordle: I scored six, for the second time this week. I didn’t use any Jean-words, either. I had greens for the first two letters, and each time, after typing in lines three, and four, and five, I had a couple of heartbeats when I thought I’d cracked it. Nobody else had much trouble to speak of. They mostly got fours. Roger and Mark were the stars, with threes. Theo needed five – that’s some comfort.

5 comments:

  1. Mary Lou7:26 PM

    Without markers I am hopeless at keeping track in Old Shale. It seems so simple, then suddenly I have too many or too few yarnovers. I got Wordle in three today! Can you take the shawl to your neighborhood knit shop and have someone block it for you?

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  2. Soak the shawl early in the morning and pin it to the double bed, hopefully it will be dry enough by bedtime.

    Marilyn, Chicago

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  3. Anonymous1:17 PM

    I personally use so many stitch markers when I knit lace that I ought to invest in companies that produces them. And I’m counting like a mad person. You are not alone. I still enjoy the challenge / process though.
    KJ

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  4. =Tamar4:24 PM

    There's a cold front passing through here. The prediction is that it will be warm again tomorrow but tonight it will go below freezing. Just reminding us that it's February, and knitwear is useful as well as pretty.

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  5. how about a piece of foam board that would span the two single beds? i bought some years ago from a local big box hardware type store (Home Depot). i think it came in a certain width and i just taped them together - i would block on the top of the piano by putting the lid down and placing the board (which was rather large with all the panels open) on top. once i had pinned the item down i would let it dry a bit and then stand it in the long hallway in front of a bookshelf (at the time i lived in a very long very narrow railroad apt)

    I imagine Helen could help you tape the panels together and then you could place them on the two beds and sit in a chair to pin with Danielle perhaps helping.

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