Thursday, July 19, 2007

Dreary, dreary day. Dark as November. Today is the day of our scheduled yarn crawl, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

The target shop is good enough that it’s just possible they’ll have the spring Knitter’s. If I can look through it for a moment, I’ll know for sure whether I’ve seen it before or not.

The computer has done something funny: half-an-hour ago, less, I read a comment asking what “long-nebbed” (or “nebbit”) means. I think from the context it must mean “long-eared” – the subject was guess-what familiar garden pest – but I don’t know the word either, and our Scots dictionary lives in Kirkmichael. I’ll try to remember to look it up when we’re next there.

But where is the comment? Who wrote it? I couldn’t have imagined something so specific.

Last night’s melon-knitting went well. I think I might get around the fourth corner and finish the whole thing this evening. There’s more waste yarn to unpick, when I get to the point where the edging began, but not very much of it.

Then Sam’s remaining ear, and his horns, and then…

I read in the paper the other day that sheep have tags in their left ears, any colour but red. I will have a cautious look when we are next in the company of sheep, and consider whether Sam needs one.

The day is too grey, and my mood too low, to attempt more. I did write to an editor of Knitting yesterday, to suggest that they pursue the question of who knits for Prince Charles (no reply as yet), and am grateful for the other suggestions.

7 comments:

  1. Your neb is your nose, Jean, so 'lang-nebbit' means 'long-nosed'.

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  2. Anonymous12:00 PM

    Jean,

    Helen beat me to it.

    By the way, the comment has not gone, it is in the comments to your Wednesday post (with the photo of PoW). The animal in question is a piglet so long-nosed makes sense.

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  3. The Danish word for beak is 'naeb' (spelt with ae, one letter which I can't duplicate on this keyboard) which sounds very much like 'neb'.
    I think they might well be related.

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  4. As sheep don't come naturally with tags, I would say you'd probably do fine by Sam to leave it out and let him be just a bit of a wild beastie.

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  5. Thank you all commenters! 'Twas I that enquired on the long-nebbit description of a piglet. The only Google reference was to a man with pompous opinions so Inge's contribution also makes sense!

    Jean, go bravely into the 'night' and find yarns to warm the soul. I'll send you some of our sunshine. Frost everywhere and we don't get above 7C but lovely blue skies.

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  6. I say put a BLUE tag in, to give the judges the right idea. (Unless, of course, your fair's winning ribbons are some other color than blue)

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  7. Hi Jean :-)

    I think Inge was right about there being a coonnection to the Danish word "næb" - at least this link seems to support that theory http://www.allwords.com/word-nebbed.html

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