The Scarf, and other matters

We're going to the country today -- back Thur or Fri. Winter is putting up some spirited resistance in its retreat, but the forecast this morning predicts that spring is about to join us.

My sister sounds well. She had been afraid she would have to cancel the work scheduled for this week, but she is able to go ahead.

The scarf is under way --

The Alpaca Scarf


The picture is terrible. The colours are in fact dark, rich reds.

The beginning proved a dreadful struggle. At the point where we left off yesterday, I had decided to switch to fisherman's rib. I didn't like the effect and there was a technical problem, too boring to describe, about my plan of starting with a few inches of the main shade and then switching to shadow stripes.

So I ripped it out yet again and thought I'd return to brioche stitch, with shadow stripes from the start. I followed the directions in IK precisely, and came to grief again. The two-colour instructions are not as elaborate as the basic ones, and don't include an illustration. I may have been doing it wrong. If I was right, the "brioche purl" is not as easy a manoeuvre as the knit stitch in plain brioche.

By this time I was feeling panic-y, as when one has chosen the wrong question to attempt on an examination, and time is running short.

I ripped again and tried pure one-colour brioche from the IK instructions. Another failure.

I hurled IK away (not really) and got out KWT, remembering that I had knit some watchcaps in brioche stitch from its pages. EZ was, as ever, a great comfort as well as a faithful guide. Brioche stitch is not easy -- "[It] is written on my heart like Calais on Mary Tudor's," she says. She describes it as a "richer and fruitier" rib than fisherman's. "Fruitier" is perfect. The instructions can be found in the index under "H" for "hat".

Maybe when this is over I will do myself a swatch of brioche and fisherman's -- there are various ways to do that -- and anything else in their group, and try to figure out the structure. My knitting knowledge is pretty limited in that respect.

Rugby

Most of the interest is gone now. At the beginning of the weekend, both Wales and Ireland were still unbeaten, and we were looking forward to next weekend when they play each other. But France spoiled the fun by beating Ireland on Saturday, in a good game. The other two were dull -- England beat Italy (everybody beats Italy) and Wales beat Scotland (everybody except Italy beats Scotland).

Vicissitudes

My sister, who is a doctor, is working in Africa. It was she who brought the alpaca to London recently, on her way out. She has been helpful and sympathetic about my eye questions this week, as about many family medical crises and anxieties in the past.

On Friday she woke up with the very symptoms of retinal detachment she had been describing to me. She told herself not to be ridiculous, but the symptoms persisted. Her husband drove her for six hours to Pretoria (they started from Maputo in Mozambique, I assume) where it was put right. Not retinal detachment, just a tear. An unnerving experience for all, especially for her, and one which proves that God is watching us and that He has a black sense of humour. Which I think we knew already, although we sometimes forget.

My sister is younger than I am, and not so near-sighted.

Knitting

No picture of the alpaca scarf after all, I'm afraid. It's lovely to knit, like knitting the cat, and brioche stitch is pleasant and easy. BUT I failed, after several attempts, to master the two-colour version. I hope I would be able to get it in the end if I stuck at it, but I'm not going to. I've frogged it, and I'll switch to the similar two-colour fisherman's rib, which I knowI can do. So maybe there'll be a picture tomorrow. Both brioche stitch and fisherman's rib involve, effectively, doing two rows' work for each one row forward, so it's slowish.

Here instead, for today, is a picture of some

Peas

Peas


The smarter supermarkets are selling little growing pea plants this year for consumption whole in salads. (They are not to be found in our local Sainsbury's, however -- Edinburgh must be deemed not chic enough, or too conservative.) So I thought I'd try, using last year's left-over seed, and here you see the result. I harvested this first sttempt yesterday, after taking the photograph. They were delicious, but there weren't enough of them. I must sow more thickly next time.

On to the Alpaca

I finished the first jacket sleeve last night, and started the alpaca scarf which I have been asked to knit as a graduation-from-law-school present for my nephew Theo's girlfriend Kristin. I'm doing it in brioche stitch, as per the current issue of VK. Casting on was something of a struggle -- I was doing it very loosely, over two needles, and the whole thing kept dissolving as I subsequently tried to knit the foundation row. But I'm past that difficulty, and this is clearly going to be a just-one-more-row'er. There should be enough for a picture by tomorrow.

I continue to enjoy Mary Morrison's blog, and the links she provides. It's regularly updated, which is a great thing in a blog.

Non-knit

I have been over-kind to myself the last few days, on account of eyes and things, and am determined to toughen up today. Our newspapers have started publishing a puzzle called Su-Doku by which I am obsessed. It is a nine-by-nine grid, with the 81 squares divided internally in the obvious way into nine three-by-three squares. When the puzzle is solved, each row, each column, and each three-by-three square will contain all the digits from 1 to 9. You start off with a few numbers provided. I can usually solve them up through level "difficult", but only very occasionally manage "friendish" or "diabolical", and waste far too much time trying. The next-day solutions are useless. If you get it right, you know it's right; and if you're stuck, you need someone to explain what number to put in next, and why it's got to be there.

Socks for Thomas-the-Elder 

Relief

The oculist has been phoned, the operation postponed -- my tatties are safe! We'll probably celebrate by going to the country next week. Thank you, everybody, for messages on the subject.

You'll have heard of the goings-on in Parliament. I'm on the side of habeas corpus and our ancient liberties, myself. One gratifying tidbit: a radio journalist remarked yesterday that the situation might resolve itself during the night because the members of the House of Lords were mostly old, and would want to go home to their Ovaltine. I thought he was wrong, and sure enough -- this morning the radio tells me that the House of Lords was almost as crowded and obstreperous at 5 a.m. as it had been previously.

I learned yesterday that Parliament can deem Thursday to go on as long as necessary, and that is what is happening. Gilbert and Sullivan live!

Knitting

Above is a picture of Thomas-the-Elder's socks. The photography is, for some reason, the opposite of washed-out. Those stripes are far less conspicuous in real life.

There is a real oddity about the yarn, too. I am using Lang Jawoll, which is put up in 45 gram balls which claim 190 metres. Socka, my old friend, comes in 50 gram balls of 210 metres. Thomas' socks are done on exactly the pattern of other gents to whom he is related -- 64 stitches on 1's, 50 rounds of 2x2 ribbing, 90 rounds of st st, heel, foot. In Socka, the first ball runs out somewhere maybe 2/3rds of the way along the foot (and I've knit lots of gents' socks with Socka). This yarn, as you see, lasted until the toe-decreases were under way. I only had two balls of it, so I knew I would have to put in something else for the end of the foot, and I am particularly pleased with the effect, which really does look like a design feature. The young are so conservative -- I had been a bit worried about changing colour in mid-foot.

But the geometry of it (if that's the right word) mystifies me. Could I have done fewer than 90 rounds in the leg? I'd better count.

Do you think I'll get my books from Meg today?

ready for wrist ribbing 

Decision

A nice note from Mary, and one from my sister, confirm in their different ways my preference for postponing the eye-replacement until the Work's All Done This Fall. I'll phone the oculist today if husband agrees.

The jacket is ready for its wrist-ribbing. The sleeve looks a bit short, and I may cut the front steek and try it on before I proceed. Or maybe not. The twirling-around-in-lap thing, as one knits the sleeve, would be worse if the front were open. Twirling isn't too bad, if I take care to keep the working yarns up and away from the sweater. Entwining is the enemy here.

The picture is washed-out, again. I'll take one in natural light soon, now that we've got some natural light.

"Knitting" magazine

The new British magazine, now monthly. As usual, there is no pattern I have any interest in knitting. There never has been, since the beginning. But they are not repellent, and the articles are interesting, and above all, there are the ads. And it's a two-way thing, of course -- now that there is somewhere to advertise, it's worth a supplier's trouble to risk the fancier yarns. Koigu, Cherry Tree Hill, and Lorna's Laces -- all favourites of mine -- are now available here.

On the other hand, there are a couple of ads for alpaca in the current issue. I followed them up, in pursuit of my idea of a Fair Isle alpaca sweater. I could get round the too-hot difficulty by knitting another jacket, of course. The websites were disappointing. One offered a very limited range of dull colours, the other didn't show colour at all, just invited me to write for a shade card.

And I vaguely hoped that the cheap dollar (to which the Chinese yuan is pegged) might have inspired someone to venture on a good range of cashmere. But no dice there.

Eyes

I saw the Great Man. After eyedrops and many machines, he told me that I have unusually long eyes (a factor in my life-long short-sightedness) which involves an increased risk of a detached retina. This risk, I gather, operates at all times, even as I sit here, and is also a complicating factor in cataract surgery.  If the retina does detach, it will need further surgery to put it right and will never be as good as before.

 

I had thought that I had committed myself to a conveyor-belt leading to eye-replacement surgery soon, but he lobbed the ball back into my court. It's my decision.

 

If all goes swimmingly well, he still thinks that six weeks without driving is about right. Putting drops in my eyes every day -- will I be capable of that? -- and having follow-up examinations.

 

I have pretty well decided, if my husband will let me, to postpone it all until October. The worry, of course, is our little house in the country.  By then we could have celebrated the Games, dug the potatoes, battened down the house for the winter, and would be ready to face the worst that fate could produce for us. It would be taking a bit of a chance on my current driving, but the decision is hedged with risks on all sides. If it happens right away, even if all goes well, we would spend April aching for Strathardle. And if it didn't go well, the thought of the daffodils blooming unseen and the grass growing uncat and the seed potatoes rotting in their trays, would make it far worse.

 

When I got home from all this, I found a message from Meg about the books I just ordered. I had stoically asked for them to be sent surface mail:

 

"OK Jean - your books all went off yesterday - together - and Air Mail was
only a few $ more that Surface - so we deducted the $4 for your early order
of O.K. and you should have the parcel in 8-12 biz days...?"

There's a woman to do business with!

Knitting

I got nicely forward with the ribbing of the second sock for Thomas-the-elder during the intervals of eye testing, and the second sleeve of the jacket has inched forward. That project  is going to take a lot of finishing, when the knitting is done -- the sort of thing it's best not to think about, like eye surgery.

Mary Morrison's URL (recommended yesterday) is http://morcatknits.typepad.com/. The first link in her "Bloggin' Along" list, also mentioned yesterday -- the one that connects to the page of the Shetland lace designer whose work is beyond imagining in its beauty -- is http://members.shaw.ca/wool-garden/studio/studio.html#robes

 

Too Much To Say

The oculist rang up yesterday. I have an appointment this evening to meet the man who is going to do my eye-replacement operation, and have some tests. I had begun to hope they would forget all about it.

Yesterday I visited Mary Morrison's blog, inspired by her comment here. It has been added to my Blog list, and I will visit often. Apart from the interest of her own writing, she provides a list of links to knitterly sites -- I've only followed the first one, so far, although I plan to work my way conscientiously through them all. The first is for a Shetland lace site, a Canadian woman, whose work is of simply breathtaking beauty, and I knew nothing about it. I find I can't leave this text behind and go get Mary's URL for you, so I'll put it in tomorrow. But it can easily be found in her comment here, a couple of days ago.

Mary rightly aaid that the Elizabeth Lavold pattern was the only thing of interest in the current Knitter's. I have EL's first book, and admire it extravagantly, although I have yet to knit anything from it. I'm interested in her yarn, of which I have read great things. It looks dull, in the photograph in Knitter's and in the Patternworks catalogue. But I don't believe it.

Here is how I keep yarn when I am doing a multi-coloured project:

The Fair Isle jacket


I think the container was intended for butlers to keep silver knives and forks in, in their butler's pantries. My husband bought it for me many years ago, and I find it very useful.

The new British magazine Knitting, now monthly, turned up yesterday. And I have knit 11 inches of the first jacket sleeve -- I need 14, and then the wrist-ribbing. So the end is in sight. Of that, and of my eye appointment, more to come...

The Kitchen at Rhuba Beag 

Laetare Sunday

After today, we'll revert to pictures of knitting. The Fair Isle jacket sleeve is sizzling along -- I'll have to switch to two circulars today, and start adding the unfortunate colours which I eliminated early on, so that the bottom of the sleeve will echo the bottom of the jacket and make the whole look, I hope, unified.

And while we were away last week, I finished the first of a pair of socks for Thomas the Elder. We will have a picture of that soon, too.

But for today, here are Alexander and Ketki and Jamie (in his Scotland rugby shirt) in their kitchen. It's a wonderful house (we hadn't seen it before), designed by the local laird (who is an architect) for his sister when she married 15 years ago. The marriage failed promptly.

I am about to order The Opinionated Knitter and a couple of other books from Schoolhouse.

Googling about yesterday, I found a good range of fairly fine-gauge alpaca: Blue Sky Alpaca at the Yarn Co. An alpaca sweater would be terribly hot, but still it's tempting. One of the great attractions of knitting, I feel, is the way one's desires are always so much more extensive than the time available between cradle and grave for actually knitting. One solution is multiple-WIPs. I used to do that. But it doesn't really solve the problem.

Thomas the Younger 

Where To Begin?

Blogger threatened its old trick just now, of removing a photograph when I try to surroud it with text, so I shall leave today's one un-implanted. That's Thomas the Younger, as the caption indeed asserts, and he is as aimiable a baby as the photograph suggests.

We had a grand time with Alexander and Ketki and their sons in Argyll. More photographs will follow.

Just as we were leaving here on Wednesday -- in a state of some nervous tension, as there is effectively only one bus a day, and the taxi was late -- the mail came with no fewer than three knit items: the alpaca yarn my sister had imported, a Patternworks catalogue, and the new Knitters' , only six weeks after the arrival of the last one.

Except for the yarn, the excitement is less than it sounds. I hadn't seen a Patternworks catalogue since the great move from Ploughkeepsie. Is it somewhat less wonderful than it once was? Or has the Internet made me blase? And nothing siezes me by the throat in the magazine, either.

A few days ago I posted a picture of Ketki wearing a colourful alpaca sweater, store-boughten in NY. I only once knit a sweater in alpaca, deliciousness itself to do, but the thing immediately stretched to knee-length. I abandoned it before it reached my ankles. But it occurred to me, after posting that picture, that maybe the Fair Isle technique would solidify the yarn. There is nothing in the Patternworks catalogue (which runs too heavily to Bulky and Super=Bulky for my taste) which might do, but I am about to explore Elann alpaca-and-silk on-line.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am whizzing along with the first sleeve of the Fair Isle jacket. I didn't get much done last night, after our return, but I did manage the arithmetic for the decreases (I hope I did). My current plan is to finish the first sleeve before I interrupt things to knit the newly-arrived alpaca into a skinny scarf.

Modern Technology

Daughter Rachel's computer has gone off to some shop, to rectify whatever it was my brother-in-law did to it while trying to set up a wireless network. Meanwhile my sister has discovered that there is another wireless network somewhere so near that she can log on in mid-air from her laptop. It's all too much for me.

I am making pretty good progress with my website, except that I have hit the problem, encountered before, that I upload things, and can see that the file is there on my server's computer, and they don't show up when I log on to my own website. And who knows why? I have learned through painful experience that browsers, at least mine, can't read files with capital letters in their names. But that's not the difficulty this time. And there are no friendly XP-type error messages to help.

Back to Knitting

The jacket sleeve is proceeding swimmingly. Twirling it around in my lap is not as bad as expected (although of course it will get worse) and is more than offset by the sheer joy of completing a round so quickly, after all those weeks of circumnavigating the torso. I even found myself last night wondering if I should carry straight on and knit another Fair Isle, now that I've got the parameters back in my head.

My smart granddaughter Hellie had a look at the Clapotis on-line yesterday, and likes it a lot. Here's (a rather washed-out photograph of) the yarn I have in mind:

Cherry Tree Hill DK


Since there are clearly far fewer mills in the world than dye-ers, this may even be the precise yarn specified, under a different name. But this will have to wait until the jacket is finished. I will interrupt it to knit a skinny rib scarf in the alpaca when it arrives -- I think I'll go for brioche stitch, as in the latest IK. But that's because there's a deadline. Hellie's Clapotis is under no such compulsion and I will force myself, with difficulty, to wait.

Plans

We're going to Argyll tomorrow to visit Alexander and Ketki (and Jamie and Thomas-the-Younger) on the shores of Loch Fyne. Another Blog hiatus, until Friday or Saturday. What a restless pair we are.

Rugby

Well, Ireland won, and it was a grand game, very exciting. But even I feel that the referee was hard on England. It'll be interesting to see what the papers say this morning.

Knitting

I've heard from my sister, from London. She and her husband (and my alpaca yarn) are safely in London, on their way to southern Africa, except for the yarn. Roger is most helpfully setting up a wireless network for my daughter's household which has, for the moment, cut them off from the outside world entirely. I want to ask Rachel to ask her stylish 18-year-old daughter Helen to have a look at the Chapotis pattern and tell me what she thinks. I've got enough yarn in a Cheery Tree Hill merino-and-silk DK and am itching to get started. Perhaps I'll just knit it and then see who wants it. The colorway is rather bright: peacock, in fact. Not me, I feel.

Here's the Fair Isle jacket:

Distinct progress


I'm rather pleased with it. The shoulders are grafted. I decided, after re-reading both Starmore and Meg, to do the sleeves top-down. Starmore suggests having a good look after an inch or so, to see whether one has picked up the right number of stitches. Is it flaring outwards? or, alternatively, puckering? It might even be worth threading stitches onto waste yarn and having a real look. I think I've got it right -- there are 74 rounds of pattern above the armhole. I've picked up 70 stitches each way, up and down. Fair Isle stitches are much closer to being squares (=row gauge same as stitch gauge) than plain st st, because the colors pull the stitches in. But not quite.

The other thing I did on my free afternoon on Friday was to re-block the wretched ribwarmer. I think I've got it now, although I'll hit it with the steam iron this morning. My shape leaves a lot to be desire, viewed dispassionately in a full-length mirror.

Not Disaster, After All

I finished the body of the Fair Isle jacket yesterday. I thought I owned at least four sets of double-pointed needles in every size known to man, but a search of the box failed to reveal any in the size I want for knitting the sleeves. (I've got a short circular for the top, and plenty of the necessary size for the ribbing.)

So I thought I'd have to do it from the top down after all, starting with the circular and buying some dp's on Monday. (Although on reflection I can just occupy myself with the wrist ribbing today.)

So I cut the steeks with intrepidity and set to, to graft the shoulders. And discovered that there were fewer stitches in the front sections than I expected.

Thinking about it while cooking supper, I figured out that that could only be because there were fewer stitches to begin with, in the front than in the back. Had I placed the gussets and the sleeve steeks wrongly? Would I have to rip back to the point where the gussets start? (=most of the sweater)

Thinking about it when subsequently doing the washing-up. however, I remembered that there are supposed to be fewer stitches in front, to allow for the button band. And counting stitches in my head in the wakeful stretches of the night, I find that all has gone to plan -- except that if I had been fully on top of the problem when planning the neck, I'd have made it narrower. I can always fill it in with some extra ribbing.

So today I'll graft the shoulders and start a sleeve, from one direction or the other. There's always the two-circular method of circular knitting, after all. Maybe I don't really need more needles.

Other Topics

Here's a picture of Rachel's Koigu sweater, as it has been left behind in the country:

Rachel's Koigu sweater


Five-row stripes are utterly delicious to knit. For the ribbing, I seemed to go round and round without getting anywhere, nearly forever. Now I'm whizzing forward in a way easily measurable to the eye. It's glorious. A picture of the prototype, and the pattern, namely James-the-Younger's Koigu sweater, are on my website at
http://www.jeanmile.demon.co.uk/jamie's%20koigu.htm.

I've done some updating of the website, although I'm not finished yet. The Alexander Mileses and the Beijing Mileses are updated, but the Thessaloniki people are yet to do. And I don't seem to have any recent pics of Rachel's family. My main problem is not knowing how to degrade photographs into fewer pixels to make them easy to download. Maybe I don't need to worry; maybe everybody's got broadband. The Beijing Mileses went to Angkor Wat over the Chinese New Year holiday. They sent me some mega-pixel pics, nice ones, which I've posted at http://www.jeanmile.demon.co.uk/china.htm -- if anybody has the patience to wait for them.

Rugby

We had last weekend off. Yesterday, Scotland beat Italy in a scrappy and highly unsatisfactory match -- both teams were boo'd for boring play. And Wales beat France, in Paris, in a well-played thriller. Both France and Wales were so far unbeaten yesterday morning, and both had beaten England, the Big One, so both could reasonably hope for an unbeaten season. France did it last year, Wales, most recently, about 25 years ago. (Scotland did it in 1990, Ireland not for 100 years.)

So Welsh hopes live.

Meanwhile, however, England play Ireland in Dublin today. And the Irish, too, are so far unbeaten, although their victories are over the tiddlers, Italy and Scotland. But they're riding high, and they have home advantage, and England are cross and out-of-sorts due to two unexzpected losses. It could be a good one.

The Wallaby Revisited

More comments! This is wonderful!

Incorporating pictures into the text seems to be working well enough (...goeth before a fall) inspiring me to hope that my earlier problems were due to some aberration of Blogger's which they have now corrected.

Here, from last week, is a picture of Ketki with her son Thomas-the-Younger, wearing the Wallaby I knit as a Christmas present in 2004 for his cousin Fergus. Fergus will be three in ten days' time. T-the-Y is 3 1/2 months.

Ketki and Thomas-the-Younger
Ketki is wearing a gorgeous alpaca sweater which her husband Alexander bought for her in NY. Peruvian Connection?

I had an unusual free afternoon yesterday, and feel that I got a lot done. Some ironing. Looking out scraps of grey Shetland yarn for the ribbing of the Fair Isle jacket -- I will probably start the first sleeve this evening, and the point of this enterprise is to do it all from stash. Buying even one more skein is forbidden. Tidying pictures into folders and saving them to CD to relieve both camera and computer of clutter. Working on my website (which remains, however, as yet unbeamed into cyber-space).

Just a couple of more rounds to go on the body of the jacket. My (very inadequate) notes on one I knit a decade or so ago, suggest that I knit the sleeves top-down. I'm going to do them bottom-up this time, so as not to have to keep twirling the whole heavy thing around in my lap. I read a comment on some mailing list recently from someone who had trouble making the sleeve fit, doing it that way. Careful attention to gauge (ha!) should help, and careful calculation. Not my forte.

The Jacket, again

So exciting! I looked down through the Blog just now and found a COMMENT, from Brigid! She's not the first to have commented, but she is the first to have done it through Haloscan in a way that makes the comment visible to other readers, and answerable by me. How grown-up can you get?

I have been corresponding with Judith about the Clapotis scarf. More about that soon. I'm really taken with the idea.

My sister and my alpaca yarn will be in London this weekend, and I should receive the latter next week. That's exciting, too.

But to the main business of the day. You will remember that our daughter Rachel and some of her family were here last week. Here is Rachel with her potential jacket:

Rachel with her jacket


I am slightly worried about length. I calculated 17" to the armpits, and carefully figured out where to start the sleeve gussets so that I would have 25 stitches in the gusset when I reached 17". But with only 23 gusset stitches, or was it 21? I found I had my 17", so I started the sleeve-hole. Now, when I come to measure that same distance, I can scarcely get 16". (So my original gusset calculation was right.)

I am sure I can recover the missing inch in the blocking, but I am making the sleeve-hole a bit longer than planned, too. I will finish the neckline decreases today, and will then add an extra inch. It'll just have to be a low neckline.

That's the trouble with knitting. It keeps squirming around like a small child, and measurements aren't to be trusted.

It was Cold

...but we had a nice time.

The weather was the hardest it has been all winter, but until yesterday, also rather lovely. The contrast between the winter weather and the waxing spring sunshine was rather like a hot fudge sundae. Yesterday, however, we left in a proper blizzard and the first 12 miles of the jmourneyb were a very uncomfortable 20 mph crawl. Driving will be worse today, for ice.

I think I will make a practice of posting a picture of my vegetable garden on the first day back, each time.

Cold


The red noses of the rhubarb under the pot are now visible at ground level. And I set my seed potatoes to chit. Otherwise no progress. It is hard to believe that a fortnight before, at the end of January, I was kneeling in the sunshine rooting out creeping buttercup.

Knitting, however, progressed nicely. Picture soon. I got a fair amound of firewood sawed. And I feel much happier about the eye-thing. now that I feel sure I am as safe as I ever was (except for the slower reactions of old age), driving on familiar roads in broad daylight.

Country knitting is Koigu, a sweater for Rachel on the same lines as Jamie's one. I have heard from vendor friends, and friends of vendors, that it has been difficult to get supplies recently. It sounds from what I have read as if the whole thing depends on the genius of one woman. Maybe I should think of stockpiling.

When I knit Jamie's sweater, I worked out the pattern in detail (hard work) and posted it on my website. (Address in sidebar) This time, I hope I will be able just to change the numbers and post the adult version with minimal labour. We shall see.

Going Away, Again

Let's try incorporating the picture again. It worked last time.

We're going away to the country tomorrow, to chit my potatoes and be measured for a new stair carpet and receive a policeman who will come to inspect my husband's provision for keeping firearms. I'll work on Rachel's Koigu sweater.

This picture arrived today, without accompanying text. It is of my youngest granddaughter, Kirsty, who lives in Beijing. Her appearance here does not suggest, however, the arctic conditions of northern China in February. They must have gone off somewhere for the New Year holiday. (Kirsty has younger cousins on our side of the family, but they're all boys.)

Kirsty


I have lots of knitterly things to say. The Spring IK come today. Judith wrote to me about the Clapotis (http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTclapotis.html) which everyone was talking about on the Knitlist the last time I was there. And, hey! I like it. When we get back I will find out what weight of yarn is specified, and examine my stash. I like the designer's Blog, too -- she writes well, and lives in Paris. But it is in very small, faint type on a white background and involves altogether too much eye-work. Not least of the things I love about Queer Joe is that he is legible.

Judith also recommended the group Knitting Beyond the Hebrides. I've joined, and like it, and hope not to be overwhelmed by the number of messages. http://www.knittingbeyondthehebrides.org/

Meanwhile Rachel and part of her family are here. Alexander and his family drove over from the west coast today. When we get back, I will produce pictures of Rachel holding up her Fair Isle jacket; and of Thomas Miles, Thomas the Younger, wearing the Wallaby I knit for his cousin Fergus for Christmas. It shrank.

The neck steek 

Most of yesterday's knitting time was devoted instead to counting and measuring and thinking -- not activities I enjoy much. But the neck steek is started. I've now got to try to decrease one stitch on either side of it -- three stitches in -- every other row 10 times. Slightly confusing, while changing colours and keeping the pattern straight.

I've heard from Candace Strick (mentioned yesterday). Her beautiful Merging Colors yarn (a new venture) is dyed in color-lengths specific to the project, so I can't just buy it and hope to make a jumper. I was afraid of that. More patterns are planned, she says, including a jumper (=pullover), and I think my wisest course is to try to wait. It's not as if I didn't have plenty to knit.

The London crowd (daughter and some of family) are arriving this evening. I muist spend the day making beds and tidying away enough of the yarn which festoons the sitting room to make it feasible for everyone to sit down.

I got a leaflet yesterday from Knitter's -- they can move things swiftly through the post when it's in their interest -- about the Irish holiday they are running soon. I've nothing against Ireland, which I have seen too little of, and which I am sure is beautiful and interesting. But the Knitter's tour seems remarkably short on knitting.

The jacket, inside-out 

The Internet seems to have straightened itself out, thank goodness.

Here's a time-filling picture of the inside of the Fair Isle jacket, looking much like the outside. I should start the neck steek this evening -- the last few rounds seem interminable. I've decided to solve the design problem by restoring the unwanted colours (pink, bright blue, bright red) for the first few inches of each sleeve. On the ever-sound design principle: if you can't disguise it, make it a Feature.

Its intended wearer, Rachel, rang up from London yesterday proposing herself and husband and two youngest children for a lightening half-term visit, tomorrow through Saturday morning. So I'll be able to show it to her, and measure her for the sleeves.

I got an email yesterday from Strickwear, Candace Eisner Strick's on-line source for yarn and designs. She's taken to the dye pots, and the result, in the form of a shawl called Adagio, is achingly beautiful. See for yourself: http://www.strickwear.com/cgi-bin/viewitem.pl?cat=1034.

But I've got a drawer-ful of shawls I enjoyed knitting and rarely wear, especially now that I no longer go to Stitches events. When I do wear them, they make me look like a crazed social worker, according to my husband. But what if Candace' "merging colors" yarn could be knit into a perfectly plain pullover? I have made enquiries.

The 50's Lace Leaflet 

I've got Internet problems this morning. Will this message ever see the light of day?

If it does, above will appear a pic of the leaflet I mentioned yesterday, supplied by Jamieson and Smith. There are three full-scale lace masterpieces in it, and a few lesser items. I find, to my surprise, that I can't remember which of the three I've already knit -- it'll be there in the archives, but I'll have to look. They now look incredibly daunting, but that's probably a good reason to tackle one of them. They're written for cobweb yarn, but gauge doesn't matter much in these realms. Call it a stole and give it to my sister-in-law.

Another inch forward with the jacket. When I start doing lace again, the daily reports will be even more boring. One little excitement looms: I amuse myself by keeping a spreadsheet record annually of yarn-in and yarn-out. It's a pretty inaccurate measure of what is happening to the stash, since it is possible to do a lot of knitting without ever actually finishing a ball or skein. As witness the Fair Isle jacket: so far, not a single ball has been consumed. In fact, in 2005, I have so far dispatched only one, a Debbie Bliss "Maya" at Kirimichael, on the ribwarmer.

Well, the looming excitement is that all five background shades are getting distinctly low and will expire more or less simultaneously in the predictable future.

Rugby

On Saturday, all was predictable. Wales thumped Italy and Ireland did the same to us. Yesterday, however, England were leading France by a satisfactory-seeming margin at half-time and France went on to win by one point. It was not, I think a very good match from a conoisseur's point of view, but it was so exciting it left me breathless. So now both England and Scotland have lost their opening two matches -- a gloriously preposterous state of affairs.

The Rest of Life

I've been using some of the time free'd up by the blessed absence of the Knitlist to go back to work on my website, sadly neglected in recent months. The address is in the sidebar, but don't look now. It's a mess. The youngest grandchild isn't even there yet.

Less than two inches to go, on the Fair Isle jacket, before it will be time to start the neck steek. Another picture promised then.

Marian Poller of Luvfairisle (http://www.marianknits.blogspot.com/) -- mentioned on Saturday but spelled wrong -- wrote to suggest a lacy scarf as a suitable project for the Chinese yarn mentioned and illustrated on Friday. A simple and elegant idea. There's a lot of the stuff. I could knit a scarf and go on to do a tee-shirt, if I wanted to. Jamieson & Smith in Lerwick used to sell, I hope they still do, a reprint of a 50's-looking booklet of Shetland scarf patterns, some of them very challenging indeed. I'm not a passionate lace-chart person, but when I did one from that booklet, I found I simply had to chart it, row-by-row as I went along. Otherwise there was only a long grey row of instructions which would have been impossible to knit without someone to sit there and read them aloud to me. The booklet is meticulously proof-read. Somehow one knows that, just looking at it.

Another good knitting blog, re-discovered as I was tidying my Internet Favourites yesterday, is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "The Yarn Harlot" -- http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/. The current post, about the death of the family goldfish, is most affecting.

The Comment situation doesn't seem to be entirely resolved yet. There are now two systems -- Blogger's own, in tiny print, comes first. It allows messages to be visible, for the first time, if you click on it, but they're still anonymous from my point of view, unless, I gather, you have a Blogger Blog of your own. Bouquets to Kathy for the first ever visible comment. Then comes the system I laboured to install last week, where it says "Comments" and "Trackback" (what does that mean?) in larger type. That one wasn't working yesterday, but now is. It's an independent system from Haloscan as used by grown-up Bloggers like Queer Joe. I think that's the one to go for. Maybe I can use my new-found daring to get rid of the Blogger one.

Today I'm going to defy fate and drive our car to the supermarket.

 

Blog'ery

I can't think of anything to take a picture of.

I had a great time yesterday -- I found the very mailing list I want to belong to. Isn't the Internet wonderful? It's called UKallotments@yahoogroups.com. Allotments are publically-owned (usually) sites of otherwise waste land in cities, which are rented out in small plots at a nominal rent to gardeners, almost entirely for the purpose of growing vegetables. My London son-in-law, Rachel's husband, has one. I was worried when I saw how inactive the list was -- only one post in the last week -- but I am stirring it up in true Knitlist fashion with a lively discussion of potato blignt.

I've pretty well decided to give up knit-related list-reading altogether, sadly, because the Knitlist has been a big thing in my life. Being in touch with fellow-fanatics, after a lifetime of knitting alone... And I have made, through it, important flesh-and-blood friends and other, trusted cyber-ones. But it's not like that now. Tedium has taken over. Knitflame is no better, although the posts are shorter. I'll struggle on with UKhandknitters for a while, perhaps.

Blog-reading will have to supply the lack. There's plenty of tedium to be had from that source, too, but some treasures as well. My faves being:

www.queerjoe.blogspot.com -- as I keep endlessly remarking.

http://www.marianknits.blogspot.com/ -- this one is called "Livfairisle" and is written by a long-standing cyber-friend (of Knitlist origin) called Marian Poller. She lives in Israel and travels the world.

http://www.modeknit.com/blog/index.html -- Annie Modesitt's blog. She's a professional, so this one is especially interesting.

http://www.knittingcurmudgeon.com./ -- Marilyn Roberts is the Knitting Curmudgeon. Funny and provocative.

It's not exactly a blog, but an old Knitlist member whose name anyone will remember who has ever read the list, namely Judy Sumner, sends out a periodic report on her experiences teaching knitting in a chain store. She used to post these to the Knitlist. The moderators got worried about "advertising" because she often mentioned the name of the store. They told her not to, and she stopped, but Knitflame kept on about it and the moderators decided -- over my strenuous protest -- to make her stop sending the reports altogether. So she sends them privately, still, touchingly, not mentioning the store by name when she can avoid it. She's JASUMNER@aol.com and I am sure she'll be delighted to add you to her listif you write to her. (She works for A.C. Moore-- there! I said it!)

Further suggestions gratefully received. There are hundreds out there, too many of them in small type on white backgrounds, difficult for my old eyes.

Rugby

Ireland are here in Edinburgh today to play Scotland. Brian O'Driscoll their handsome captain was injured last week and isn't playing. I suppose, given our performance last week, plus home advantage, plus no O'Driscoll, that we have a ghost of a chance. Wales should beat Italy without much difficulty. Then tomorrow France play England in London. England are not often beaten, and almost never when they play at home -- although Ireland did it last year.

Just so you're warned.

 

Chinese yarn

A daring experiment today -- I am trying to incorporate the picture IN the post. In the earlly days, when I did that, the picture, previously successfully sent to Blogger, tended to disappear when I re-posted it with text.

I think I've improved the Comment situation -- just when Blogger itself announces that _it_ has. One way or the other, I hope I can now reply to comments, and that other people can see them.

I felt happy all day yesterday about Prince Chjarles and Mrs PB.

Well here's the pic (or not):

Chinese yarn
It shows some yarn I bought in Beijing nearly two years ago.

In the shop, I thought it was Shetland jumper weight, to be merged with my extensive stash, but when I got it home I found it was distinctly lace-weight. No label at all, gorgeously soft, conceivably even cashmere? Never mind -- the question is what to do with it? and I remain pretty devoid of ideas. Shawls are fun to knit but nobody wears them. Would a side-to-side tee-shirt shape work, like the "Simple Stripes" in KF's "Glorious Knitting"? How does knitting drape when knitted side-to-side?

I've been wondering what to read, now that I'm clear of the Knitlist. (I'm still a member, but I doubt if I'll ever read it again. Too much, too boring.) Maybe I'll give up knitting lists altogether, and just read blogs. I wonder if I could find a vegetable growers list?

The Fair Isle jacket progresses -- unfortunately, that's all there is going to be to say on most days, now, until we get to the next exciting development which will be the neckline.

The Fair Isle jacket -- latest 

Gusset and Steek 

Calmer

I exchanged emails with my sister (who is a doctor) all day yesterday about eye-replacements. I am much comforted by all she says.

My seed potatoes arrived yesterday. Now we'll have to face up to deciding about Strathardle -- am I fit to drive there? My husband seems to think, yes. His own eyesight is acute, and although he doesn't drive, he backseat-drives from the front seat, constantly. He'd know, I think. But not today. I'm tired.

The jacket progresses, as you see. The upper picture is more faithful to the colours, and you can see what I'm worried about -- the change in the effect when I took the pink out, and made other, lesser changes. The lower picture purports to show the sleeve gusset on a stitch-holder, with a sleeve-opening steek replacing them. I found Meg's writings on neckhole steeks, and will certainly try. I also thinki I'll do it her way and knit the sleeves independently and join them at the top. My notes don't say which way I did them on the prototype jacket 12 years ago. Top-down, probably.

When I worked on the Knitlist, I was a member, with the other moderators, of a small private Yahoo Group to which we all posted all our messages to each other about Knitlist business, so that there would be a common archive. Today I got a message from someone who thought I was still a Listmom. I forwarded it to that address, and it bounced, because it seems I'm not a member any more.  Meaning, of course, that someone has gone in and thrown me out. I feel more than slightly miffed. I had thought to remain on the scene as a slightly tetchy elder statesman. I shudda been told, at least.

Oddly, perhaps, I found I was still a Moderator of the Knitlist, according to Yahoo. I figured out how to undo that status myself, so have had the small satisfaction of laying down my commission before it was stripped from me.

The latest issue of the British magazine "Knitting" turned up the other day -- it's now monthly. I have never knit anything from it nor been seriously tempted to. but I'm glad it's here. Now, according to the UKhandknitters group, there is to be another British magazine, starting in March. So all we need are some yarn shops, and we're all set for a renaissance.

While we were in Kirkmichael last week, I got this year's Games programme, and my heart sank. The two knitting categories are 1) a poncho and 2) best use of 100 grams of yarn. I refuse to knit a poncho. I suppose I could use exactly 100 grams for a pair of socks, if I did them toe-up, but I don't want to do them toe-up. The baking categories which granddaughter Lizzie might enter looked similarly dismal. What are "petticoat tails"? That was one of them.

But a second reading proved more cheerful. In the handicrafts section there appears "Hat-- any craft". So I'll knit my friend Janis Witkins' hat from the latest Knitter's -- or do I gather that there's another one just out? Anyway, Janis Witkins' hat. And Lizzie can try for the Jublee Rosebowl: a recipe for coffee-and-pecan cake is included. Everybody has to use the same recipe. It sounds delicious, even if she doesn't win.

The oddest thing about living in the antipodes, even odder than having to walk about on your hands, must be observing Lent in the diminishing light of autumn.

 

 

Ash Wednesday

Perhaps, after all. no illustration today.

The eye news is as bad as feared. I'm really not safe on the roads, and will have a (very expensive) cataract operation at some point in the next couple of months. I won't, at least for the moment, go in to the tedious reasons for why-not-immediately. Waiting for the National Health Service would get me the operation free, but would mean waiting all summer.

I had thought a cataract operation involved peeling off a cataract and revealing, anew, the world. My man says that it involves, on the contrary, OPENING THE EYE (mustn't shout) and replacing the lens with a plastic one. I will even have some imput, as we say, on choosing how myopic my new eye is to be. Could this be true? Is the man sane?

I am fortunate that my life is a fairly structured one. I cannot fall upon the floor and shout and scream. There are beds to be made and meals to be cooked and a general understanding that too much fuss is not to be made. But oh! dear.

I don't know what we'll do about Strathardle. Take a chance, I suspect, when my seed potatoes arrive and need to be set out to chit; perhaps pick a moment when we can stay a whole week; and then, once we're safely back here,  wait. My eye man says that in some American states it is possible to get a restricted license, allowing one, for instance, to drive in broad daylight but not at night. I think he thinks I'm more or less all right for that sort of thing. But the Worst Case Scenario is when something happens and the insurance company says, you-didn't-tell-us-your-sight-was-that-bad.

Enough of that. I've resumed knitting the Fair Isle jacket. I was wandering around the internet yesterday and discovered that the Knitting Curmudgeon (http://www.knittingcurmudgeon.com./) recommends the book "Sweaters From Camp" for its pages of technique. I own it, and got it out, and indeed it's pretty good. I will soon need to know how to deal with steeks. I'll need to cut (and secure?) the armhole steeks, in order to knit the sleeves. Even before that, how to shape the neckline? I had thought that I would switch, at that point, to knitting back and forth, cutting the yarn after every row and starting again at the other end -- I've done that at some point in my past, and I believe that that's what they do on Shetland. What I (and the Shetlanders, as I understand it) refuse to do, is purl.

But Meg says in "Sweaters from Camp" that a steek will work at the neckline, too. I don't quite see how, but I'll think about it. I have, in my day, knit a sweater right up to the neck, defined a v-neck with first basting and then machine stitching, and then cut it out. Worked fine.

I've been in touch with a website which offers commenting facilities (and is used by both Queer Joe and the Curmudgeon). I've copied the necessary code, and I've printed out my template to CONtemplate. So maybe that's progress.

jean@jeanmile.demon.co.uk

Our new refrigerator 

Fat Tuesday

It always distresses my pedantic soul when the word "carnival" is applied to anything except today. The word means, of course, farewell-to-meat, and even if Lent is not to be observed with quite that rigour, "carnival" ought to imply, I think, a day (or days) which precede a period of fasting of some sort. Merely prancing about the streets and singing and shouting doesn't entirely qualify, in my view.

Be that as it may...

The refrigerator arrived promptly, and looks much like its predecessor. It's not as tall as I expected (that's good)  We were distinctly anxious in advance about whether it would fit between the hanging cupboard and the next wall. We measured and measured and measured, and we were right -- but we weren't sure of that until it slid back into its place. Curiously, the photograph seems to suggest that it stands forward of the wall cupboard, but that is not the case. Now there are far too many refrigerators around here. The City of Edinburgh will eventually remove our old one, if we can't find a deserving charity in the meantime. I hate throwing away a functioning machine, however elderly.

Today is the day of my ordeal with the oculist. One thing which has always been a comfort to me, when visiting my Eye Man, is that, whatever he says, it's not going to be a moral issue. No matter how bad my eyes turn out to be today, it won't be because I didn't floss, or didn't eat enough fruit and vegetables, or didn't exercise enough. Not that I accuse myself of any of those faults.

I have had a most sustaining message from my long-time cyber-friend Marion, who knows something about eyes. I'm still scared.

The Ribwarmer

I finished edging it for the third time. I think it's fine, although it could probably do with being blocked again. For the moment I've just stuiffed it in the cupboard. Now back to the Fair Isle jacket. I'm concerned, again, that the transition from the part where I was messing around with colour, to the part where I am happy with my selection, is too great. Picture tomorrow.

A Groundhog 

I was going to leave this one un-illustrated, but my sister sent me that nice groundhog from Essex, CT.

I stumbled on an interesting blog yesterday: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ It's called "Baghdad Burning" and purports to be the diary of a resident. It sounds genuine. She must be either a native English speaker (probably) or have spent some years in Britain or America. Time may tell.

Back at the Ranch...

Today's excitement is -- should be -- the arrival of a new refrigerator. All being well, there will be a picture of it tomorrow. We bought the outgoing one 30 years ago.

Tomorrow's excitement (on the other hand) is a visit to my oculist. I am frightened. My eyesight is getting worse. It's fine for most purposes -- I can read, and knit, and cook, and walk about without bumping into things. But am I still safe on the road? When I discussed this with my Eye Man a year ago, there was a certain amount of sucking in of breath through teeth, although he wound up saying I was OK. We could live happily enough (and more cheaply) in Edinburgh without a car -- but we couldn't get to and from Strathardle. Last year I thought, well, I won't go see him in '05 until the crops are in. But then, the other day, I decided that that was irresponsible. I gather that a cataract operation might extend my driving life -- not a pleasant thought, although those who have been through it speak highly of ithe results. My husband could drive, if push came to shove. His eyesight is excellent, despite diabetes. He's out of practice, but still licensed and insured.

Well, of that you will hear more on Wednesday.

The Ribwarmer

I got the old binding off last night. It had to be replaced -- the stitches around the edge looked raised and knit-into, and couldn't be left to themselves. I'm now about half way around. I used extra-big needles for the lower front corner, and did four or five unattached rounds among the attached ones. We shall see. It may need to be blocked again.

Rugby

I got a wonderful message from Julianne yesterday about the France-Scotland match. She (like the Scotland coach) thought we wuz robbed. She sent her message as one of those Anonymous comments, but included her email address in the text and thus could be replied-to. That's another way of doing it. (The other being to email me directly: jean@jeanmile.demon.co.uk)

To finish off the weekend, Ireland beat Italy in Rome yesterday. Ireland are favoured by some to come out on top this year. I think on the whole I will cheer for Wales when those two nations meet, although it is hard not to be in love with the Irish captain, Brian O'Driscoll.

 

 

 

Boring! 

The picture above shows my progress with the ribbing of the newly-commenced Koigu sweater for daughter Rachel. I'm nearly finished with that bit, and on our next visit the fun will start. On his visit last week, James was wearing the prototype. It was interesting to observe from the actual sweater (as I had noticed in photographs of it) that the coloured stripes appear to be wider than the black ones, although each is in fact five rows.

I had a nice message from Serena about the problems of Listmom'ery. I wrote a substantial reply without realising that her message had arrived as one of those anonymous comments that I can't reply to. If you'll write to me at jean@jeanmile.demon.co.uk I'll dig my reply out and send it again, Serena.

I decided yesterday that I have reached the armpits of the Fair Isle jacket -- 17". Even though the gussets only have 21 stitches instead of the 25 I was aiming at. So I put the gussets on stitch holders and cast on steeks above them, and now, alas, I am honour bound to do as promised and turn my sttention back to the blasted ribwarmer with its too-tight edging. It won't take long. Let's get it done.

I wrote the following paragraphs last night. I think I'll leave the tenses unchanged. Think "Saturday":

The sock needles I ordered from Queer Joe a week ago astonished me by turning up today. No customs duty, either. I am delighted with them. I sat down straight away and knit the current travel-sock (destined for grandson Thomas the Elder) onto the new needles. Later in the day, this year's international rugby season began. The opening day proved very exciting, and no knitting was possible except the simplest sock, so the new needles got a good workout. They are made of an Indian wood called "surina", according to Queer Joe. He says they are less brittle than the Brittany birches which have been my favourites up until now, and I can believe it. They are sharper than the Brittany's, too. And a wonderful, soothing colour. http://www.queerjoe.blogspot.com/ -- click on Doublepointed. Highly recommended.

[There are Six Nations in international rugby-- England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales, to list them in alphabetical order. Everybody plays everybody and the best team is declared the winner, but there are various frissons along the way. Each of the other five, for instance, are especially pleased when they or anyone else beats England, because England are so good. Italy has never done it. Wales did it today. We in Scotland cheer for France, in honour of the Auld Alliance, except when they are actually playing us, as they were today. They won, alas -- but it was a thriller. Scotland are universally agreed to be rubbish, down there with Italy; France were last year's winners. The match was in Paris -- playing at home is worth at least one extra man on the field. We were ahead until the last 15 minutes.]

Snowdrops 

My vegetable garden 

Home again, again

A week of astonishing weather -- it must have frightened the Groundhog, because it's deteriorating now. Not only was the air temperature vernal, but the ground was unfrozen and more or less workable. I turned the first spadefuls of earth of 2005, and pulled up some noxious weeds. (Creeping buttercup is my worst enemy.) The joy of working in February is that it'll stay done for a while -- unlike May, when it all has to be done again the following week.

We had a jolly visit from Alexander and Ketki and their sons, but I didn't take any pictures. Thomas the Younger is nearly three months old, and at the most enchanting stage of babyhood, smiling and gurgling and joining fully in the conversation, but immobile. I made a good start on the grown-up striped Koigu I am knitting for daughter Rachel. The tedious initial ribbing, three inches,  is nearly finished -- a picture was taken of that, which will follow soon.

We hope to visit the Alexander Mileses at their new house in the west, later this month. I'll take pictures then.

Today's pictures are (a) snowdrops, on what we grandly call the West Lawn. We've got lots more, but these particular ones were put in by me last spring. (Snowdrops, unlike other bulbs, are best transplanted with their leaves when they are active.) I'm pleased with the result. We don't have any drifts of snowdrops, however, such as we saw everywhere by the roadside as we drove home yesterday. Maybe, in time.

And (b) my vegetable garden, as viewed from the house. The flowerpot-thing is there to force some rhubarb. I had hoped that the first shoots might be making some progress, in this mild winter, but there's no sign of them yet. More pictures of this happy scene will follow, insh'Allah, as the year unfolds.

I am free of the Knitlist, and, at the moment, not even reading it. So there's no excuse for not getting to grips with HTML and improving the Blog out of recognition. And bringing my poor neglected website up to date. Last year on Ash Wednesday (which looms again) I deleted Freecell from my computer. The time thereby free'd up vanished almost at once, and I fear the same thing will happen again.

The Fair Isle jacket is now virtually at the armpits. It looks, indeed, rather long -- I'll do some calculating today. A picture of that, too, will follow soon.