On Wednesday, after nearly two months of planning, thinking, basting, sewing, and unpicking, I sewed the last button on the summer coat. It is far from ‘perfect’ – the back is puzzlingly slightly longer than the front – but I’m pleased with it. It fits better than the previous iteration, being more structured. While wearable, there is one flaw – there’s no way to tidily close the fronts, which billow open in the Caithness breezes. The solution – big hooks & eyes – are on the way. They’ll be unobtrusively applied behind the front edges.
There was a trip to the post office this week too, but on this occasion I went when the local branch was open. This time it was to mail contract documents for one of my brother-in-law’s properties, and a box containing my previous camera. A few years ago, I’d tried to sell it via a second-hand photography equipment dealer, but it had been returned because there were scratches on the sensor. I mentioned this to a friend, and immediately she suggested converting it to infra-red. Part of an infra-red conversion is the removal of the top layer of the sensor, so it doesn’t matter if there are scratches.
In preparation for a bamboo pipe workshop in a few days, I started printing music for the participants on Saturday. I took over the music printing for the group a year ago but haven’t needed to do it until now. It’s taken some time to get it right. I’d planned to print four A4 pages on an A3 sheet, two to a side, to make a booklet out of three sheets. The help files weren’t very helpful regarding two-sided printing, only instructing to select the appropriate setting in the print menu. What it didn’t say was that on this printer, you can’t print A3 on both sides unless it’s done manually, feeding the sheets in one by one. Nor did it say that you can’t print double-sided on A4 using the main tray – that can only be done from the rear feed. It’s been a steep learning curve, with many failed attempts, but I think I have a handle on it now.
Setting up
On Sunday, I ventured out of the house to ring handbells with the handbell team at a local church. We played acceptably and had an audience that was larger than the group itself. It was part of the UK’s ‘Doors Open Day’, which occurs this weekend each year. Museums, galleries, churches, and private historic homes all over the country are open for free. The church had asked us to play to entertain visitors.
Now that the summer coat is finished, I should have more time to concentrate on the knitting, but printing and preparing for the upcoming course has taken priority. However, I knit when I can, and progress hasn’t stalled completely. I hope to get significant knitting done over the next couple of weeks, when I’m away at the course. Regular service will resume 14 October.
The biggest adventure this past week was going to the post office. Not particularly exciting, I realise. Nearly every week, I think to myself, “I must take thus and such to the post office”. By the time I get organised, it’s Friday and the post office is shut, and the task is shunted forward to the next week, when the same thing happens again. The fallback plan is to drive to the next closest post office 8 miles away. As the parcel absolutely had to be sent ASAP, that is what I did.
The box is destined for Propagansey, which is happening this week. The parcel is crammed full of four ‘Sunday best’ ganseys and prints from the Johnston Collection. Three of the four were knit by Gordon: ‘Wick Leaf’ in navy, ‘Fergus Ferguson in cream, and an unblogged one, ‘Cumming Brothers’, also in cream. The fourth is the one just completed, ‘D Gillies’ in navy. It’s rather splendid, if I don’t say so myself, as long as no one looks at the inside. If you’re near the Methodist church in Fylingthorpe, North Yorkshire, this coming week, pop in and have a look – it sounds like Gansey Heaven.
Late bloomer
With the summer coat, I’ve finally started stitching the buttonholes. After decided to reduce the number of buttonholes on the lapels from 22 to 16, they needed to be respaced. That had me scratching my head, trying to get the distances precise, but eventually I realised it wouldn’t matter if they were off by a few millimeters. Loth to spend time on sample buttonholes, I jumped right in on the sleeve cuffs, which have three each. After those, I worked the buttonholes on the pocket flaps. Finally, I started at the bottom of the lapels, working one buttonhole on each side alternately. The end is in sight; there are only five to go.
Today is a day all mystery novel lovers should mark, for it is the birthday of Agatha Christie, who was born on this day in 1890. According to Agatha Christie Limited, the official website:
“Outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap.”
From browsing the site, one of the ‘100 Facts about Agatha Christie’ : “She is credited with being the first Western woman to stand up on a surf board. This happened when she visited South Africa and then Hawaii in 1922.”
Fields in late summer
It would not take a Miss Marple to deduce from the photo above that progress on the gansey is slowly creeping forward. It’s about halfway to the bottom of the gusset. The stitch pattern is a welcome relief compared to the last. It’s easy to memorise and it’s possible to build up a rhythm. Rows are much quicker when there’s not a complicated pattern.
I took a short break from Sunday chores yesterday afternoon. It was for a specific reason – at 3 PM there was to be a test of the Emergency Alert System. I didn’t want to be next to a mobile phone when the alarm signal was broadcast. And it was just as well – I could clearly hear the alarm signal a floor away. It reminded me of my childhood, when on both TV and radio the fateful words “This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System” would ring out.
The EBS was used in the US from 1963 to 1997, having been modelled on a system used in Hawaii. Its purpose was to provide the President a means to widely communicate war or national crisis, but was never used for this. It was tested regularly, as millions of Americans can attest. In 1997, The Emergency Alert System replaced it, and is more or less the same. It is tested nationally about once a year and locally about once a month.
Rain in the distance
The UK had a ‘four minute warning’ system from the Cold War up to 1992. A new system was developed in 2013, when it was first tested, but it wasn’t dopted. Seven years later, the need became more urgent, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2020. Initially, the government worked with UK mobile networks to inform the populace of lockdown rules, but then started to develop a proper alert system, which was tested nationally a year later. The system was launched in 2023 and is tested every two years. It has seen action only three times, once for an unexploded WWII bomb in Plymouth, and twice for severe weather.
View of Wick
Alert systems aside, I’m still hard at work on the sewing. I’d hoped to finish it a week ago but there has been problem solving and unpicking along the way. The back vent needed a fair bit of thought. The pattern specifies a simple slit, made by folding under wide center back seam allowances. I decided a proper vent, where one side underlaps, would look better. Internet searches provided a solution, but I did need to add a piece to the lining to have enough fabric in the right places. It works, and looks good on the outside, but on the inside . . . But that has been done, and the coat and lining are hemmed as well. It’s completed, apart from the buttonholes and buttons. I’ve made a change there too, reducing the number of buttons in order to have fewer buttonholes to hand sew.
Hoverfly on late rose
The lilac gansey hasn’t been ignored, of course. The colour in last week’s pic was off, it’s decidedly greyer. It’s another one of those colours that is difficult to photograph. I fit in a row or two whenever I can. Thursday mornings at the museum are a godsend, as apart from when visitors arrive, it’s dedicated knitting time. The patterning is more visible now, and this will continue all the way up to the shoulders.
Today is the start of meteorological autumn, and the weather seems to agree. It’s been rather nice this past week, some would even say glorious. Temperatures have been around 20 C, light winds, nary a cloud. The trees are starting to shed their leaves, and there’s a hint of a chill in the mornings. Several times there’s been condensation on the windows. Definitely summer sliding into autumn weather. And there’s been some rain too, which is much needed.
Rosebud
While the sun has been taunting, “It’s beautiful weather, go for a walk”, I’ve been immured indoors, still concentrating on the sewing project. It’s had its ups and downs this week. On the plus side, I’ve figured out how to attach the removable sleeves, using ribbons on the sleeves and loops in the body’s armholes. The sleeves, their linings, and the ribbons have been sewn together at the top, leaving the lining seam at the cuff to be sewn later. On the minus side, I thought I’d attached the shell and body lining together correctly, but due to a lack of foresight, it was then impossible to turn the garment right side out. The stitching needed to be unpicked and resewn from the right side. But when that’s done, there’s only the back vent, hem and the buttonholes to complete. And there’s lots of buttonholes, all of which will be hand sewn. The end is in sight.
Today marks the discovery of the RMS Titanic in 1985. Two groups of scientists, from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the French National Institute of Oceanography, worked together to locate the wreck. While finding the ship had been the aim of the project, a second purpose was to perform sea trials on new sonar and camera equipment. In December that year, the same equipment was used to explore more of the mid-ocean ridge system in the east Pacific. In twenty days, they were able to nearly equal the previous twelve years’ discoveries. The mid-ocean ridge system is a chain of sub-sea mountains spanning 45,000 miles and is the earth’s largest geological feature.
(c) Wick Heritage Society. Used with permission.
There’s gansey news too. The blue gansey has been relieved from its torture on the blocking wires and has been tried on. It could fit better – the body is baggy which in turn makes the sleeves longer. The body is also long, but if the welt is flipped up, it’s about right. These cavils aside, it’s very satisfying just to look at. Perhaps I should source a long pole and display it.
Ripening plums
With the current gansey, I’ve been yomping ahead. The ribbing is complete, and the full-body pattern is starting to show. It’s a simple pattern of small chevrons alternating with ribbing, chosen as a relief from the complexity of the previous gansey. In the original photo, the chevrons are seven stitches wide, but in order to fit the garment, they’ve been modified to nine stitches wide. With this small change, there are the same number of chevron panels as the original.
And here you have the completed item, pinned out to within an inch of its life. The calculated stitch gauge – 8 st/in and 15 rw/in – wasn’t achievable during blocking. As a result, the gansey is a couple of inches wider and an inch longer than the hoped-for measurements. But better baggy than tight, and shorter than longer. If the length were any greater, it would be a tunic. The extra-long gussets were sewn shut before blocking. On the outside, you might not notice the odd gussets, but on the inside, it’s lumpy. But even so, I am pleased with the result.
Umbellifer
This week, the Caithness Orchestra started its rehearsals for the coming season, and I decided to go back. Last year, I was away so frequently it didn’t seem fair to only occasionally attend. I managed to get some playing in at this first rehearsal, but it still sounds horrible. There were also lots of notes that were beyond my current sight-reading skills. Perhaps I should practice more.
Another umbellifer
The rehearsals are in the evening. Consequently, I need to drive home in the dark, or near dark. Although I used to regularly drive at night, now I avoid it when possible. Other cars’ headlights dazzle, especially modern LED lamps. The edges of the road are less distinguishable, particularly on country lanes. So I was curious to see how the car’s ‘auto headlights’ would perform as I’d not yet driven it at night. They worked brilliantly. The low beams jumped to high beams and back to low beams almost as if I’d done it myself.
The sewing of the new summer jacket continues. The photo shows some of the hand basting. The purple is the backing fabric for the blue embroidered fabric, which was too lightweight on its own and needed bolstering. The circular item is the padstitched collar. The padstitching gives it a curve and adds structure. Presently, I’m sewing the lining and outer together at the centre front.
We haven’t had words for a while, so here are a few: in 1975, ‘cling film’, ‘debit card’, ‘greenhouse gas’, ‘internet’, ‘lightsaber’, ‘psychobabble’, and ‘wide area network’ were added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Still another umbellifer
I’ve been knitting on the next gansey too but haven’t included a photo – an inch of k2 p2 ribbing isn’t that interesting! I have chosen the pattern, and again it will be based on a Johnston Collection photo. The name on the plate is ‘John Nicolson’, and shows two fishermen, but there’s no way of knowing which sitter is Nicolson. One of the ganseys has a pattern of large diamonds and chevrons, and the other has narrow panels of chevrons. It is far, far simpler than the blue gansey just completed, and was chosen for this very reason. The hope is that it can be knit far quicker, too.
On Wednesday, after nearly two months of planning, thinking, basting, sewing, and unpicking, I sewed the last button on the summer coat. It is far from ‘perfect’ – the back is puzzlingly slightly longer than the front – but I’m pleased with it. It fits better than the previous iteration, being more structured. While wearable, there is one flaw – there’s no way to tidily close the fronts, which billow open in the Caithness breezes. The solution – big hooks & eyes – are on the way. They’ll be unobtrusively applied behind the front edges. 
There was a trip to the post office this week too, but on this occasion I went when the local branch was open. This time it was to mail contract documents for one of my brother-in-law’s properties, and a box containing my previous camera. A few years ago, I’d tried to sell it via a second-hand photography equipment dealer, but it had been returned because there were scratches on the sensor. I mentioned this to a friend, and immediately she suggested converting it to infra-red. Part of an infra-red conversion is the removal of the top layer of the sensor, so it doesn’t matter if there are scratches. 
In preparation for a bamboo pipe workshop in a few days, I started printing music for the participants on Saturday. I took over the music printing for the group a year ago but haven’t needed to do it until now. It’s taken some time to get it right. I’d planned to print four A4 pages on an A3 sheet, two to a side, to make a booklet out of three sheets. The help files weren’t very helpful regarding two-sided printing, only instructing to select the appropriate setting in the print menu. What it didn’t say was that on this printer, you can’t print A3 on both sides unless it’s done manually, feeding the sheets in one by one. Nor did it say that you can’t print double-sided on A4 using the main tray – that can only be done from the rear feed. It’s been a steep learning curve, with many failed attempts, but I think I have a handle on it now. 
Now that the summer coat is finished, I should have more time to concentrate on the knitting, but printing and preparing for the upcoming course has taken priority. However, I knit when I can, and progress hasn’t stalled completely. I hope to get significant knitting done over the next couple of weeks, when I’m away at the course. Regular service will resume 14 October.
