Gansey Nation

I’m back home after my trip south.  It was only 12 days, but felt longer.  The burgeoning of Spring was apparent further south, where the hedges along the motorways were starting to sprout with green.  The signs of Spring here are quieter; the leaves on the roses are starting to grow, as are the buds on the clematis.  Another sure sign of the turning season is the sudden blossoming of ‘For Sale’ signs on local houses.  Our neighbours’ is one; they are moving to England after two decades in Caithness.

New growth on the rosebush

The primary purpose of my trip was to attend a short course on making and playing bamboo pipes at Cadhay Manor, near Exeter in Devon.  In this beautiful venue, a small group four pipers and five recorder players made and played pipes.  Most of the recorder players were completely new to pipes, and took to it like ducks to water.  Two attendees had travelled from the US specifically for the course. It was an intensive few days, and far too short.  We’d barely begun before it was over.   

Cadhay Manor

After the course I visited friends in Southport and Edinburgh.  In Southport, we did lots of nothing, which is what I needed after an intensive few days.  Our only activity dropping off Gordon’s stereo for repair in the town centre, as it had failed over the past few years.  In the evenings, as my friend hadn’t seen it, we binge-watched ‘Ted Lasso’.  I enjoyed re-watching it and caught up on my knitting.

Rhododendron

The next stop was Edinburgh.  I visited the ‘Botanics’, the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, and had a wander round.  It wasn’t particularly warm, but it was mostly sunny.  The daffodils were blooming, as were some late snowdrops.  The rhododendrons were starting too, with large flowers of white, pink or red.  I had a good wander around, finding a few nooks I hadn’t seen before, and ended with lunch at the café.

Sculptures at the Botanics

After that, I visited an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the photos of Alfred Buckham.  Mostly taken in the 1910s-30s, these are aerial landscapes taken from open cockpit planes.  He refused to wear a seatbelt and leant over the side of the plane with his glass plate camera, after having tied one leg to the seat!  He is best known for his composite photos, the most famous of which is an aerial view of Edinburgh Castle, with a biplane flying over it. The negatives of the castle, clouds, and plane were combined in a print to form the final image.  All editing was done on the print, not the plate, as was usual at the time. He meticulously catalogued and stored his plates for future use. 

Spiral staircase at Cadhay

While I lost a few days’ knitting while at the course, I did manage to catch up during my visits.  The first sleeve was finished and the stitches for the second picked up before I went away.  Now, the pattern bands on the second sleeve are nearly finished, and then it will be plain sailing with k5 p1 to the k2 p2 cuff.  This gansey seems to have sped along.  If I keep it up, it may be finished in under four months.

The weather.  After ‘How are you?’, it’s often one of the first topics of conversation.  ‘Isn’t it cold’, ‘Lovely fine weather we’re having’, etc.  But just now, ‘Isn’t it cold’ is frequently followed by ‘I can’t wait for it to end’ or ‘When will it stop?”.  For the weather is still the same, and it’s been nearly a month.  This time last year, we were having sunshine.  I look back at my photos incredulously; the blue skies seem unbelievable. 

This week has been much like the last with the same activities. The notable exception was a visit to the dentist for a yearly check-up.  It was sleeting on the way there and showering with snow on the return.  In between, I passed my check-up with flying colours.  I mentioned I was having sensitivity in one of my teeth.  She explained it was due to bone loss and would varnish the offending tooth near the gum to lessen the effects.  While still wondering how this would work, she dabbed it on the tooth and immediately cured it with a handheld UV light.  They cure fillings with UV light too.  Such technological advances!  It’s a far cry from the dentistry of my childhood.  Now, if they would only invent a drill that doesn’t whine like a buzz saw. 

This time last year . . .

With the sewing projects, I’ve tried on the velvety dress and the pinafore.  Both have hemlines that are too long.  The dress is too long through the torso and needs shortening by at least four inches.  The pinafore reaches to the top of my feet and will need at least six inches taken off.  The hemming will get done when I determine the best way to do both tasks.  It’s not a simple matter of trimming off the excess.  For that to be successful, the garment needs to have a level hem to start with.  In the case of the pinafore, one part is longer than the rest.

This time last year: looking through the lifeboat house supports.

Such good progress is being made on the gansey that I’m beginning to think it might be finished by the end of the month.  I’m a handful of rows away from finishing the front.  The gansey will have an indented neckline.  To work this,  I’ve taken the number of stitches on the front and divided it by three (180 / 3 = 60).  Then I’ve divided that number by four (60 / 4 = 15), and added that number to the first and last thirds (60 + 15 = 75).  These augmented thirds are the on either side of the neck, and the centre half third (60 – 30 = 30) is the bottom of the neck opening.  The ‘thirds’ needn’t be precisely a third – it will depend on the number of stitches and if you want to align the neckline edge with the stitch pattern. The neckline is shaped by reducing one stitch at the neckline edge every other row until the added quarter is gone.  At that point, the shoulder is knit straight to the required length.  In this case, the decreases for the neck edge end at the top, where it will be joined to the shoulder strap.