This past week, particularly the latter half, has been so full I’ve occasionally wondered whether I’m coming or going. On Wednesday, the handbell group played carols in Dunbeath at their community Health & Wellbeing Hub. It’s a small day centre whose purpose is to prioritise local health and well-being, particularly of the over 50s. It’s a vibrant facility with lots going on: walking groups, art & craft workshops, a singing group, bingo, whist, and a tech class. They also serve lunches nearly every day, and if you can’t come to the centre, they will deliver. We came away thinking that perhaps we all should retire to Dunbeath!
Abandoned
Wednesday evening was another orchestra rehearsal. After a brief practice at home in the afternoon and the rehearsal itself, I decided that I will leave notes out. No one will notice. Two more rehearsals are scheduled for Sunday afternoon and Wednesday evening. After that . . . maybe the Christmas cards will get done.
Thursday morning the handbell ringers were part of a team-building exercise at a training facility. There were about 20 attendees. Few had read music before, and none had rung handbells. We ringers took on the task of being the ‘bouncing ball’, pointing out the notes as they played. Our music director, after a wobbly start, had them playing a slow rendition of ‘Jingle, Bells’ after 45 minutes. They were all chuffed. Afterwards, when the handbell team chatted over a cuppa, the discussion was not ‘if’, but ‘when’, we might do it again.
Foam-stitched carpet
The next gansey was started on Thursday afternoon, at the newly-formed ‘Gansey Gals’ at the Waterlines Heritage & Visitor Centre in Lybster. The group formed as after a two-session gansey workshop held there in October. Located next to the harbour, the windows look out to the Moray Firth, so there’s always somewhere to gaze into the distance and rest your eyes. There’s a small café there too. We knit, chat, and share expertise. It’s a golden opportunity to step away from stressors for a few hours and get some solid knitting done.
As mentioned last week, the pattern for latest gansey is again from one of the Johnston glass plate negatives. I’ve shortened its moniker to ‘Moss and Diamonds’ simply because it sounds better than ‘Moss and Squat Diamonds’. The first draft of the calculations has been done and needs double-checking. I don’t want to make any bone-headed errors like I did for the last two! In the meantime, though, I can start on the welt as I know the number of stitches needed. It’s not clear from the plate, but I strongly suspect that the body is ribbed from hem to yoke. As baggier jumpers are more the vogue now, there will be a conventional welt and a gently ribbed body, with the welt K2 P1 and the body K5 P1. This will retain the spirit if not the letter of the original.
It’s dark and rainy as I write, after a quite gloomy day. But that’s only to be expected at this time of year. The Christmas season is well under way, with streetlight decorations blazing, having suddenly appeared like spring blooms, though instead of bursting through the earth into the light, they’re shooting up to bring light to the darkness. Domestic decorations are up too. One house I pass regularly was fully festooned before November was out. Another in the same town at least waited until December, and not to be outdone, they can probably be seen from space.
Christmas decorations at St Fergus’
At mid-day Wednesday, the bellringers played carols at the Befriending Caithness Christmas do. Before we performed our carols, they provided a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings – a main course (chicken, turkey, or veggie), mixed veg, mash, roast potatoes, sprouts, and dessert (Christmas pudding with custard or fudge cake). I’d chosen the Christmas pudding with custard, and the brandied custard was so good I’d have been happy with just a bowlful of that. We snapped our crackers, donned our hats, shared silly cracker jokes, and tucked in. During coffee, the local primary school sang Christmas songs. They’d memorised the words to all the songs! We made our appearance after them.
River foam
In the evening, it was orchestra practice, starting on the Christmas music for two carol concerts we are doing jointly with a local choir. The music isn’t too difficult, but I still need to practice at home. Some of the pieces go rather higher than I’m used to playing.
On late afternoon Friday, a few items of furniture were delivered from the family home in Northamptonshire. Nothing is of great value except sentimental – a Victorian satin beech chest of drawers, a side table with barley twist legs, a spinning chair, a Chinese carved camphorwood chest, a pedestal desk that Gordon liked. The chest of drawers came from the bedroom where we stayed. Its drawers had been filled with various linens, blankets, and framed pictures back in May. I did the same with the pedestal desk, but only in the largest drawer on the side with the conventional three drawers. The other side has numerous shallow drawers, maybe two inches deep. My mother-in-law had stored her seed collection there.
Texture of Grasses
There’s still been time for some knitting, and I’ve filled the space between ganseys with the ‘chargepoint’ socks. The heels are turned and I’ve just started the leg. I’ve chosen both the yarn and the pattern for the next gansey. It’ll be slightly darker this time – Helford Blue. It’s a mid-tone blue, not too dark. The pattern comes from a Johnston glass plate without a name or date, so I’ve given it the catchy name of “Moss and Squat Diamonds”. It has bands of moss stitch alternating with diamonds, with a narrow border between. The sleeves are also banded until mid-forearm, where the ribbing starts.
Today is, among other things, the start of meteorological winter here in the UK. Of course it’s also the official start of the Christmas Season, but after the hoopla of Black Friday, Black Friday Week, Cyber Monday, and Thanksgiving, perhaps many of us have had enough already. I’ve done my share of Black Friday shopping, buying fabric for garments I may never make or wear. Thinking about this – I’ve got enough of a stash to open a small shop – I’ve reasoned that most of the purchases are aspirational. They’re supplies for garments that appeal to me, and in a way once the supplies are purchased, the garment exists, at least in potentia.
Clouds – Water – Foam
The ’serious’ orchestra concerts are done for the year. While the first concert in Wick went well from my point of view, the second in Thurso on Wednesday evening was less successful. It was not a disaster, but I could have done better. For excuses I can say that it was an evening concert, and that the acoustics in the hall put me off. The first concert was held in a carpeted church, the second in our regular rehearsal space of a school gym. Its wooden floor reflected the sound, making every note sound far too loud in my ears. The carpeted floor lead me to believe ‘hey, you can do this’, while the bare boards said ‘you’re too loud and you sound terrible’. Hey ho. We’re back in the hall this week for rehearsals of Christmas music.
Backlit branch
The weather has again been too inclement for long walks, and I’ve been staying in doing indoor things. Like shopping Black Friday sales and emptying my inbox of e-mails promoting said sales. I’ve also started work on a newsletter for a group I belong to, which would usually come out in the autumn. However, after some delays it has now become a Christmas newsletter. I’ve been experimenting with AI to generate images using the group’s name and logo. It’s been frustrating and rewarding. Frustrating because after each prompt, you must wait until it generates the image. Then, as it is unlikely to be what you want, the prompt needs to be modified and resent. This continues until you give up in frustration or the results are so bad you start again. But I reckon that in the long run, it’s quicker than if I had to do it all myself.
The Chart. The gansey’s chevrons are 2 sets wider.
I haven’t given up on the gansey, for as you can see, it is finished. It’s taken three months and a week, and apart from slightly deep armholes, it’s come out well. The bands on the sleeve add the tiniest bit of interest and helped to alleviate the tedium of knitting miles of stockinette. I hope to get it blocked by next week, when I’ll share the graduation photos. The pattern for the next gansey is undecided. There’s lots of charts and photos to review, and then there’s the colour to choose . . . denim, moonlight, turquoise, amethyst, Cornish gold . . .?
On Tuesday I toddled off in the biting cold sleet for the operation on my arm. After a brief wait, the same cheerful surgeon came in to prep me beforehand. He drew on my arm with his ballpoint, marking the amount that would be removed. It was about twice more than I expected. I feebly tried to bargain with him, but his reply “You don’t want to come back, do you” ended the discussion. Then he escorted me to the theatre, where I got comfortable on the operating table while they attached a padded tray for my arm. Then the anaesthetic was injected, and there was a short wait for it to take effect. It’s possible the wait wasn’t long enough, for when they commenced, and this is where it was different from last time, for it hurt. As the surgeon had said, “let me know if it’s painful”, I did. Then there was another jab in my arm to inject more anaesthetic. After that, they started again, and there was no sensation, apart from the stitches, which were less painful than the anaesthetic injections. As before I kept my eyes shut – some things I don’t need to see – and after the stitches I could feel the surgeon stretching and manipulating the skin around the incision. I had no idea what he was doing. All was revealed a few days later when I took the bandage off. He’d been pulling the edges together in order to tape it shut.
A Good Reason to Stay In
Thankfully, getting another piece out of my arm hasn’t slowed me down. But the weather has been either raining, sleeting or cold, so I haven’t been out much. On Wednesday morning I drove through snow to a bell practice in Thurso. By evening, after a day of blizzardy showers and temperatures near freezing, I decided it was too inclement to drive back to Thurso for orchestra rehearsal. While a rehearsal would have been better, I practiced at home instead. For the past week, I’ve been practicing nearly twice a day, and it has helped a lot. The fingering is better and the notes more secure.
Sunday afternoon
The first concert of two was Saturday afternoon in Wick. There was a short practice in the morning, to quickly run through any tricky bits and get used to the sound of the room. I was glad of this, as there were a few bars that I had to play on my own. All the practice, both at home and at orchestra rehearsals, paid off, as I wasn’t overwrought when the time came. It wasn’t great – not by any means – but it wasn’t a disaster. We get to do it all again on Wednesday night in Thurso.
Snow
Remember last week when I said the chart for the sleeve band didn’t need to be changed? What was I thinking? I either misremembered or misinterpreted what I’d been told, because when the band on the second sleeve was finished, it did not mirror the first. So I ripped it out and knit it again – it was only 11 rows. The sleeve is about halfway complete now, and as always it’ll get quicker as the sleeve narrows.
It was a slightly busier week this week, for preparations for Christmas events are starting to populate the diary. Two additional handbell meetings have been scheduled, and the first took place Wednesday morning, when we practiced Christmas carols. We’ve been booked to play at nursing homes and befrienders’ groups scattered around Caithness, plus a booking for a ‘team building’ exercise. There’s also a carol service just before Christmas, which we’ll do jointly with the Caithness Brass Band. We’re sounding pretty good, and it’s still just November.
Late Roses
On Tuesday, the hospital phoned with a choice of appointments for the next excision. The soonest choice was the following Tuesday, or later in that week. I chose the Tuesday (tomorrow)so that it would be done and healed by Christmas. Later in the day, they phoned again. My first thought was that they had to cancel, but instead they had received a cancellation and were offering me that slot. However, I had to decline, as it was for the next day when I had extra bell practice. Tomorrow is soon enough.
Later in the week, I ventured into the kitchen to bake a cake. A few weeks previously, I’d impulse-bought a punnet of three persimmons. Not knowing what to do with them, I found a recipe online for persimmon cake. When I finally came to make it, the first hurdle was to solve my lack of baking powder. The second was to figure out the right size of pan, as the recipe specified a size I don’t own. The solution to the first was sodium bicarb and an acid. For the second, some maths and sideways thinking – I made two smaller ones instead. The sodium bicarb was an excellent substitute, and one of the cakes is in the freezer for later consumption.
Leap in the Dark
As it’s been an uneventful week, I’ve surfed the internet for interesting content. On this day in 1558, Elizabeth I ascended to the throne of England upon the death of her half-sister Mary. Elizabeth was 25 and reigned until her death in 1603 at the age of 70. One of her first actions was to re-establish and consolidate the English Protestant church, which had suffered under Mary’s Catholic reign.
In 1970 – and this is significant to every computer user – Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the computer mouse. As well as the ubiquitous mouse, Engelbart pioneered many other user interfaces for computers, such as hypertext, networked computers, and graphical interfaces, thereby making computers more accessible.
St Fergus’ through the trees
The cuff on the gansey has been finished and cast off. The simple band around the bicep breaks up the acres of plain knitting without being overpowering. The stitches for the second sleeve have been picked up and five rows knit. The pattern band, when I get to it, should mirror the first. Gordon found that nothing needs to be done to the pattern to accomplish this. It sounds counter-intuitive, but because the pattern is rotated 180°, it stays the same. Progress on a gansey rarely seems speedy, but after the last one, this one seems to be rapidly nearing completion.
This past week, particularly the latter half, has been so full I’ve occasionally wondered whether I’m coming or going. On Wednesday, the handbell group played carols in Dunbeath at their community Health & Wellbeing Hub. It’s a small day centre whose purpose is to prioritise local health and well-being, particularly of the over 50s. It’s a vibrant facility with lots going on: walking groups, art & craft workshops, a singing group, bingo, whist, and a tech class. They also serve lunches nearly every day, and if you can’t come to the centre, they will deliver. We came away thinking that perhaps we all should retire to Dunbeath!
Thursday morning the handbell ringers were part of a team-building exercise at a training facility. There were about 20 attendees. Few had read music before, and none had rung handbells. We ringers took on the task of being the ‘bouncing ball’, pointing out the notes as they played. Our music director, after a wobbly start, had them playing a slow rendition of ‘Jingle, Bells’ after 45 minutes. They were all chuffed. Afterwards, when the handbell team chatted over a cuppa, the discussion was not ‘if’, but ‘when’, we might do it again.
As mentioned last week, the pattern for latest gansey is again from one of the Johnston glass plate negatives. I’ve shortened its moniker to ‘Moss and Diamonds’ simply because it sounds better than ‘Moss and Squat Diamonds’. The first draft of the calculations has been done and needs double-checking. I don’t want to make any bone-headed errors like I did for the last two! In the meantime, though, I can start on the welt as I know the number of stitches needed. It’s not clear from the plate, but I strongly suspect that the body is ribbed from hem to yoke. As baggier jumpers are more the vogue now, there will be a conventional welt and a gently ribbed body, with the welt K2 P1 and the body K5 P1. This will retain the spirit if not the letter of the original.
