Non-knit
Norwich City held Chelsea to a
goal-less draw, the best news we've had for a while. Liverpool have
still got to beat Crystal Palace today.
Knitting
We've all known for the last few days
that people in the audience at the production of Titus Andronicus at
the Globe have been fainting at the sight of the violence. What I didn't know
until yesterday is that the actress playing Lavinia, whose mutilation
causes such havoc, is Flora Spencer-Longhurst...
...the daughter of old friends.
The sweater she is wearing here (I was
not responsible for the trousers or shoes) is based on the patchwork jumper in
Pam Dawson's “Knitting Fashion” from the mid-70's. That was one
of the pivotal books in my knitting career, up there with Kaffe's
“Glorious Knitting” and Amedro and later Miller on Shetland Lace.
It's available for pennies on Abebooks,
if you're interested.
EZ doesn't figure in my list of pivotal
books. She sort of crept up on me. An article in the Sunday Times
first introduced her to me. This was probably in the 70's, too –
knitting was suddenly everywhere. You could send in for the pattern
of the Baby Surprise. I did, and still have it, much-tattered
mimeographed pages (that takes you back) from which I have knit many
times.
EZ's books came later, for me.
As for Flora, Greek Helen and Archie
and I saw her in a two-hander called “Wonderland” with Michael
Maloney at the Festival Fringe two or three years ago – can't
remember which – and Helen said then that Flora would go far. There
os a picture of her in yesterday's Sunday Times, page 3,
picturesquely smeared with stage blood.
I've reached round 77 of the borders of
the Unst Bridal Shawl. Round 78 will finish off the current motifs,
an attainable goal for today. And this time there are five whole easy
rounds to be done, before I am to launch the next set of motifs. That
should speed things forward a bit as well as moving me to the third
and final page of the “long charts”.
If I carry out my scheme of knitting
the edging on to the shawl when I finish the borders, and keeping the
edging already knit as the first element in a future Queen Ring
shawl, I will need to add 32 points to it, eight per side
(obviously). That's do-able. The great thing is that the Unst edging
is as deep as the proper Queen Ring one – a narrow edging really
wouldn't do.
Knitting the edging on would probably
take about a month. I am a bit worried about the need to finish the
Kate Davies Rams & Yowes blankie in time for Ted's first birthday
at the end of October, two days before The Wedding. Archie's 18th
is on the same day, but I don't think he'll want a blankie. Ted
will celebrate, according to the current plan, at the wedding venue
which is somewhere in the north of England.
I remember that mid-seventies knitting surge. I also have the book and EZ pattern you refer to! I made named jumpers for my sons from Clothkits (the original, local to me company) patterns and hoped the charity shop would have a customer requiring the same name when they were outgrown by my sons.
ReplyDeleteI've been vaguely confused for a while, and today I figured out how to ask the question: what's the difference between an edging and a border? Somehow, I thought they were the same thing. Is the edging what finishes off the border?
ReplyDeleteOh, dear! Jean, it seems some knitting deadline stress is looming in your future (iPad keeps wanting to correct 'future' with 'furniture'). I have Rams & Yowes, a birthday present from Mr. A in Feb2012, patiently waiting to be knit. I believe I started, was a bit unsure about the tightness of my stranding and put it away. I've been wondering if I should frog and begin again or plod on from where I paused. Perhaps I should blog about it... At any rate, I'm sure you're looking forward to the family celebrations this Fall. Three important milestones all at the same time!
ReplyDeleteI thought the colour scheme in Flora's jumper looked familar; I knit the Pam Dawson one and wore it a lot.
ReplyDelete