This must be my sixth Baby Surprise, at the very least. And I still don't see how it works. That's the neck shaping, top centre, but...

I've got 17 or 18 more rows to do -- with a bit of luck, the weekend should see the knitting finished and next week should complete the job. I think I'll edge it with i-cord again. The procedure is surprisingly fun, and the result very neat. I still can't decide whether those colours are cheerful or just garish.

Franklin provided a link yesterday to this essay on Finishing: http://sistahcraft.typepad.com/sistahcraft_/2005/09/row_2out_of_sea.html Franklin himself is http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/. He just gets better and better.

After a disasterous childhood where I was the worst of everybody in all home economics classes, I have rather taken the point of view that I'm grown up now and can sew the seam any damn way I like, and I don't have to show it to the teacher, either. But Sahara almost persuades that a little effort would not come amiss. I had never even heard of a Seam Roll.

Non-Knit

My left foot has started to hurt again. I thought we were past that. Our afternoon walk yesterday was unusually fast and long. Propter hoc or merely post? Sorry -- that's for Franklin.

My husband and I read aloud at bed time, and have done so for all of our married life. We've covered a lot: War and Peace, the Barchester novels, Ulysses (which demands to be read aloud) -- anything is possible (even lace knitting) if you just keep at it.

At the moment, we're reading Churchill on the Second World War, and last night we got to Pearl Harbour. It was very moving. The fear in the preceeding weeks had been that the Japanese would attack British interests in the East, or the Dutch East Indies, and America's hands would still be tied. He phoned Roosevelt as soon as he heard the news, and got through, he says, in two or three minutes. I wonder if Tony could get Dubya that quickly today? He went to bed very happy -- there were years of much suffering to come, he was well aware of that, but he also knew that there was no longer the slightest doubt about the outcome. Hitler and Mussolini were doomed. The Island was safe. He quotes Cromwell: "God has delivered them into our hands."

My father was the Associated Press bureau chief in Detroit at the time. I can vividly remember his receiving the phone call that Sunday (and rushing off to the office). My husband, oddly, who was 16, says he doesn't remember it at all.

It's a start! 

That's where I'm leaving the Princess, for the time being. Six rows done. And I could clearly hear Sherazade whisper to me yesterday, Just one more; row seven looks interesting. But Providence delivered a nudge in the form of a meeting with the neighbour whose wife is expecting the baby (with a bad cleft palate) for whom the Baby Surprise is destined.

"How is your wife keeping?" I asked. "Four more weeks!" he said. Four? There we stood, in September, and it's not due until November. Maybe four and a half. Anyway, I knit Surprise last night, and it shouldn't really take much longer. I think all the previous knitting of it was done the day of, and the day after, my second cataract operation. All went well, and I was perfectly comfortable throughout, but the piece has medical connotations for me now which make it hard to love.

I forgot to thank Lorna yesterday for sending me this link: www.guernseywool.co.uk. I know the site, although I've never ordered yarn from it. And she's right, this is probably just what I want for the long cardigan which is bobbing around in my head, so to speak. And the suggestion of Guernsey wool has put me in mind of a couple more books on my shelves which I'll have a look at for pattern ideas. So, thanks.

Non-Knit

I continue to be plagued by the Mytob virus. The persecution has gone on much longer than usual. I get about a dozen of them every day. I'm sure Norton is holding it at bay; it's a nuisance, though. I looked it up this morning, and it doesn't seem to want to do much more than lodge itself in one's computer and replicate itself. Maybe the owner of the machine which is persecuting me doesn't even know it's there.

 

ANOTHER picture from Games Day 

A third knitter who has finished the first chart of the Princess Shawl border turned up in the Heirloom Knitting Group yesterday. And I know that someone has finished it, and is winning prizes at fairs all over Australia with it. And there are other laggards like me, struggling with the edging or just beyond.

Given how many patterns we all own, and how formidable a project this is, and the fact that it was issued in a limited edition, it seems remarkable how many of us are actually doing it. Jean, the knitter who knits Princess while commuting, posted a comment here yesterday. Read it and marvel.

As for me, I'm doing row six. And yes, I know I said I'd stop after four. This will have to be it. I'll knock off and go back to the two smaller projects (perhaps with a few rows of Princess in between). And by the time they're finished I will know whether a First Holy Communion veil for granddaughter Rachel is on the cards, or whether daughter Rachel has been able to find the one I knit for granddaughter Lizzie. An initial search has failed to reveal it. Mail to China is rather chancy -- everything gets there in the end, but often after weeks of delay. Another reason why it would be nice to find Lizzie's veil, so that (little) Rachel's father James could take it back in his own hands in November.

I'll take a picture of the Princess tomorrow, with the little patterns beginning to emerge.

Franklin's blog (http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/) is particularly good today. I'm not the only one who has trouble with necklines.

Non-Knit

I've switched to the photo above for my 05-06 computer wallpaper. The ones I took on purpose on Games Day of Rachel, Alexander, James and Helen look funny when stretched to fit the screen. The one I showed you the other day is too gloomy. This has knitting and cheerfulness, but is missing Helen. That's nephew Theo and his girlfriend Kristin on the left, and Alexander's wife Ketki on the right. In between are James, Rachel, and Alexander.

Sure enough, anxiety rises to fill the place left by the income tax. But I made a bit of progress yesterday at taking some of the long-neglected corners of life back into cultivation.

The reading machine 

There were two posts to the Heirloom Knitting group this morning from people who have finished the first border chart of the Princess Shawl. That is, they're about 1/3rd of the way through. Both said that it is vastly easier than the edging, which coincides with my experience. One of them said that a row a day is about what can be achieved, which also coincides. One of them said she had been taking it with her as commuter knitting -- that I can't imagine.

Today's photograph is of a Reading Machine we bought in an antique shop once. It has been standing unused in the sitting room for a long time. The idea was supposed to be that I could use it to prop up a book for reading while I was knitting. Theoretically that is feasible, but of late I don't seem to be very good at reading while knitting. However, yesterday I decided it would be perfect for holding the border charts. And so it is.

I'm now on Row 4.

I ordered some books from Interweave yesterday -- somehow, that doesn't seem as vicious as buying yarn. Nancy Bush's Vintage Socks, Knitting in Estonia by the same author, and Pam Allan's scarf book. A report will eventually follow.

Non-Knit

I got the income tax return into the mail as hoped. More than in other years, I think, I had the most glorious sensation of freedom and renewal, as if I had finished sitting the exam, or the scan had come back negative. Life will, undoubtedly, rear up to overwhelm me again soon.

 

Spectators at the Strathardle Highland Gathering 

I've started the Princess Shawl border. There are 219 rows in it. I've done one of them, and begun the second. It's surprisingly easy, astonishing, really, after that edging. I was well more than half-way through the 85 repeats of the edging before I learned the pattern. Whereas I had the first row border pattern in my head after two or three repeats, and was able to knit happily across without looking at the chart. But it still takes quite a long time to knit 865 stitches.

Betty, yesterday's commenter, has been to Stitches, happy woman! (although I gather it wasn't quite as good as usual this year, vendor-wise) and bought a lace sampler scarf kit. This sort of ties in with Obscure's comment of the day before: lace is tempting, lace is fun, but what to do with it? I love knitting cosy shawls in Shetland jumper weight or its equivalent, but then what? If I try wearing one, my husband says it makes me look like a crazed social worker. For cosy, in the cold winter, both he and I prefer a Pakastani shepherd's shawl (rectangular, woven) which our son Alexander brought back for us when he went trekking in the Himalayas once.

Scarves are a perfect solution. Or just give up, like me and the Princess, and knit something which is of no use whatsoever to anyone. If I do finish it, it'll have been lost or eaten by moths before we have a bride in position to wear it.

Knitting and Stitching Show

Our October visit to London (art, "Guys and Dolls", Thomas-the-Elder's belated 21st birthday dinner) coincides, miraculously, with the Knitting and Stitching show at the Alexandra Palace. I'd like to go, and have the happy prospect in addition of meeting Mary Morrison (http://morcatknits.typepad.com/), one of my favourite Bloggers. I'm not sure I'll make it -- the Ally Pally is a long way north, and Streatham, where we'll be, is a long way south, and the only open day is the one that ends with the birthday dinner; but I'm hoping. Mary has provided herself with a Europe-friendly mobile telephone, and I've got the number. At the worst, we'll talk.

Non-Knit

I finished the income tax yesterday, bar a number or two. Today I must decide whether to file on-line, as the government is keen to have me do. Or send it off in the mail as usual. The thing is, I don't want to know immediately what we'll have to pay in January. I want to get that letter from the tax man which says, "I am pleased to agree your figures" and makes me feel as if I'd got a gold star on my homework.

But with that out of the way -- the deadline is September 30 -- I can look forward to the new month and the new magazines, Knitting and Kitchen Garden and the cookery ones. The tax job had been looming as a dreadful barrier between me and the first week of October.

That's another picture from Games Day, above. It's the one I've set as my computer wallpaper for the year. Sort of elegaic.

The "Magyar", from Rowan Book 8, probably 1989, my new KF kit from Ebay 

That's better 

My friend in WA got the kit for KF's "Magyar" pattern for me from Ebay! It's on its way.

It appears above -- I hope; I haven't scanned it yet. It is, to my eye, as close as the great man could get to a pattern which would qualify for inclusion in the You Knit What? website (http://youknitwhat.blogspot.com/ ) But that's not the point. It's that whole bag of discontinued Rowan yarns in colours he designed himself. Also above (I hope) is the other KF pattern from Rowan 8. That's better. I could use that. I also have all his books, I think, including the one that's just swatches, so there will be no difficulty in finding a pattern. Time to knit it, is the problem.

Meanwhile, I've put the row of holes in the Princess Shawl, and then knit two of the subsequent four plain rows. So that the moment when I actually start knitting the Princess Shawl is not far away. Sharon Miller's Gossamer Merino is utterly amazing, cloud-like and insubstantial and strong. 865 stitches don't crowd the needle at all.

"Obscure" points out, in one of those unanswerable comments, that lace knitting is the perfect fix for the cash-strapped. You can knit and knit and knit, with high-end expensive yarns, and scarcely spend anything. When I was very young and very poor, I knit Rachel a Shetland shawl while I was pregnant with her. The pattern was a Paton's leaflet -- I found it again recently in a charity shop, to my great delight. Edging and the four trapezoids and the centre were knit separately and sewed together. But the point here is that I bought those balls of yarn separately, one at a time, as needed, because I couldn't afford to get them all at once.

James in China reads this Blog sometimes -- the Chinese block it, not because they fear my subversive views on knitting but because everything from Blogger is blocked, just in case. But James knows a work-around, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Chinese haven't figured it out as well. He reminds me that his daughter Rachel (it gets confusing) will make her First Holy Communion next April: what about a veil for her? So I have set Rachel-the-Elder to work looking for her daughter Lizzie's veil. If she finds it, I'll bring it back from our October visit to London and wash and dress it for James to take back to China after his November appearance for his father's birthday. If she can't -- and she couldn't find the Shetland shawl just mentioned, the last time anyone wanted it -- I'll do another. 

The plan, you may remember, is to set the Princess Shawl aside once I have established the lace patterns, and finish off the two small projects which linger nearby spreading a miasma of guilt (the Baby Surprise, and Fergus's Wallaby). I'll do that, as planned, and then either return to the Princess or embark on a veil, as the situation requires. 

The striped Koigu -- latest 

There's the striped Koigu I'm knitting at Kirkmichael. I had hoped to finish that sleeve, and am in fact within three rows of the end. I'll pick up stitches around the sleevehole and connect it with a three-needle bindoff the next time we're there.

The neck will be finished with a placket and a ribbed collar. I've got the latest Knitter's in position in the Burnside knitting drawer, with what looks like a promising article about collars. And the VK book, for the its bit on plackets. But there's another sleeve to do before the commencement of these delights, of course.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I did count the edging repeats for the Princess Shawl again yesterday, and there are 85. So that's a relief. I counted each section as I knit across, marking the last point counted with a coil-less pin, moving it each time, and writing down the answer. The hardest part was adding up the column of figures at the end, but the majority of attempts came out at the hoped-for answer.

I'm now knitting the row of holes.

Joe mentions, in his comment below somewhere, the difficulty of embarking on a project like this when you want to have something to show in a Blog, day by day. It's a problem all right, but I refuse to let the tail wag the dog. I'll just have to post pictures of grandchildren and saucepans. My real, at least potential, problem with Blogging is the impossibility of knitting something secret for any of the people who read regularly.

People compliment my lace knitting, and I am touched and grateful, but there's really nothing to it. K2tog, yo, and an attitude of mind that doesn't look forward to the finish. The sacrament of the present moment, maybe.

The sad, autumnal vegetable garden, yesterday 

Our new garden shed, with apple tree, left. 

New readers start here -- when we get back from Kirkmichael, the next day's Blog begins with a picture of my vegetable garden. There it is, boring as ever. I didn't get much forrader at tidying it up for the winter, as my time and energies were devoted to giving the grass its last cut for '05. I didn't get that finished either, although nearly, before the rains came on Thursday.

The other picture is of our brand new garden shed. The apple is called, I think, Keswick Codlin. We planted it recently, and we are very proud of it.

The reason I anticipate new readers is that when I sat down to the computer last night, stoned with weariness, to check my email and QueerJoe's blog (http://www.queerjoe.blogspot.com/) I found there a recommendation of this Blog. More than that: there are comments here, see below, from him and from the Curmudgeon (http://www.knittingcurmudgeon.com./) and from my new hero Franklin (http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/). Talk about cups running over.

Both Joe -- "Lively, articulate" -- and the Curmudgeon -- "A literate Blog by a well-informed knitter" -- are endorsed by no less an authority than the Victoria and Albert Museum (http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/knitting/weblogs/index.html). I think Franklin probably hadn't started writing when they composed the page.

The BBC did a series about Edward and Mrs Simpson many years ago. The theme tune for the programs, surely a genuine song of the period, sings itself forever in my head:

"I'm the happiest of females:

I danced with a man/who danced with a girl/who danced with the Prince of Wales." Well, this morning, that's me.

Time for Knitting

Tomorrow, the Kirkmichael striped Koigu. I made some progress.

The Princess Shawl, being at a stage which the most exhausted knitter could comprehend, moved forward last night. I finished the first row of plain knitting after picking up all those stitches, and found the count seriously short. I sprinkled extra stitches about in the second row, and I think we're now right: 12 right-hand edge stitches, 10 groups of 78 for the main section, and a left-hand edge of 73.

I worried somewhat: the random scattering of extra stitches may mean that the high point of repeat #43 -- half-way through the 85 repeats -- may not fall precisely at the centre. I don't think that will matter. The final triangle has to be centered precisely on the midway stitch of the rectangle I am about to start knitting. I think if I get that right -- and I've got to -- all will be well.

Then I began to entertain a more recondite worry: was the stitch count out because I had not, in fact, knit 85 repeats? I pinned it out on the floor and counted, you may remember, and the count confirmed what the Peg-It board was telling me. It will be almost impossible to count again, now that it's all bunched up on the needle, but I may have to try,to set my mind at rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've picked up 850 stitches! (I hope) 

Look that that!

Counting stitches while I picked them up, trying to get exactly ten from each repeat, soon proved to be far too difficult, so I just sat back and slid the needle through all the stitches. I now have to do four plain rows, which should give me plenty of time to adjust the count, add the required 15 extra stitches hither and yon, and get the markers in place for the pattern repeats. Then a row of holes, then four more plain, and then the fireworks start.

I can see just from the few plain stitches that I knit last night, that this thing will soon become -- has become -- close to an obsession. I have sort of decided to do the nine rows just described and then perhaps four rows of lace, to get the patterns set, and then STOP and deal with the Wallaby and the Baby Surprise. Otherwise I can see I am on the slippery slope back to multiple wippery.

Ebay

I mentioned, I think, that Sheila had tipped me off about a KF kit on Ebay which I couldn't bid for since I didn't have an American address. Well, it didn't sell and was re-offered and I wrote to a dear friend in Washington state and asked her to bid for me. Meanwhile Alexander, who trades somewhat on Ebay although not usually in knitting wool (the works of Edward Gorey are his speciality), offered to bid for me. (He's not meant to read the Blog, but sometimes does.) When I hadn't heard from my friend by last night, I told him to go ahead. This morning, an email from Gail -- she's already put in a bid on my behalf. I have visions of them bidding frantically against each other.

Comments

I meant to say thank you yesterday to the people who straightened me out on Queer Joe and the Curmudgeon -- they're not brother and sister, after all. I knew they were real-world friends, and indeed my real-world friend Selma of Woodstock is also a friend of theirs, and crops up occasionally in Joe's blog. So I'm glad to have the relationships clear. It is Selma who told me -- I think I've mentioned this -- that in real life Joe is more curmudgeonly, and the Curmudgeon less so, than they appear in their Blogs.

Movements

We're going to Kirkmichael today, and will be back on Friday if all goes well. Blogging to be resumed on Saturday.

 

 

 

85 repeats done!