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.
As frequently happens, this week was much like last week. The weather has been the same, except perhaps for an added seasoning of brief glimpses of blue sky. I did the same things and went the same places. The sewing project has changed from a jumper/pinafore to a velvety dress. The jumper/pinafore has quite a long hemline and I’m delaying hemming as long as possible. The velvety dress is being made using a pattern from a new-to-me company based in Berlin. So far, I’ve only sewn the pockets, and that took an afternoon of multiple pinnings, hand bastings, and removing bastings.
So I’m afraid I’ll have to fall back on ‘what happens today’. The most obvious, of course, is Groundhog Day. The internet, that fount of useful and useless knowledge, also informs me that two other rodents share the day – hedgehogs and marmots. Marmot Day is celebrated in Alaska, where it became an official holiday in 2009. Other animals also have their day today, notably brown dogs and sled dogs.
For those of you with a musical bent, it is National Ukelele Day. In the UK, 2 February (or the first Monday in February), has been designated ‘National Sickie Day’. This was coined in 2011 after research showing that it was the day workers were most likely to be absent. More recently, other Mondays have supplanted 2 February. Last year it was 6 January.
But before all these ‘fun’ holidays came about, there was Candlemas. This day, one of the oldest ‘holy days’, denotes the end of Christmas, the Presentation of Christ in the temple, and the Purification of Mary. Secular celebrations take various forms. In France, crepes are consumed, in Mexico, tamales. In Poland, candles were placed in windows to ward off storms. However, the focus of the holiday is to celebrate the Virgin Birth, a central tenet of Christianity.
Shot of a lifetime, 2025 – a gull’s shadow on a slate upright
Various interesting events happened on 2 February. In 1653, New Amsterdam became a city. It was later renamed New York City. In 1848, the first Chinese immigrants arrived in San Francisco. Four years later, in 1852, the first public men’s toilet opened in London. In 1876, the baseball National League was formed, with teams from Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, and St Louis. But the patent issued today in 1892 is probably the one that affects us most. This patent, granted to William Painter, was for the bottle cap. While it can an inconvenience when we can’t find the tool to lever it off, the new cap was more reliable than other methods used at the time.
The gansey has been coming along very nicely, despite a minor reversal last week. I’ve put in long talking book sessions to fit in more knitting, and am pleased to say that the back is now complete. The stitch pattern isn’t complicated, and once it’s set up there’s no need to refer to a chart. This speeds things up too.
It was Burns’ Night last night, the annual celebration of Robert Burns, the Scottish Bard. It all started when a group of his friends got together in 1801, five years after his passing, to celebrate his life and work. Over time, the custom spread worldwide. Dinners are held on 25 January, or the nearest convenient date, and the traditional fare is haggis, neeps, and tatties. I didn’t pipe in the haggis or recite poetry, but haggis and tatties were on the menu. The haggis was, of course, vegetarian.
First snowdrops
The highlight of the week was spotting the first snowdrops. They’re just starting to bloom along the riverside path. That was on Monday, before the weather became too vile for walks. And vile was the right word for it – strong blustery winds and piercing rain. I’ve taken advantage of this to concentrate on sewing. I’ve nearly finished a jumper/pinafore, which only lacks a hem. The garment needs to hang a few days prior to hemming, as the skirt is largely on the bias. If it’s not hung and allowed to ‘drop’, it will drop and cause unevenness later. For this project, I’ve learned how to install an invisible zipper, using on-line videos. There have been a few mistakes, too, that needed amending. There seems to be at least one in every garment. Unpicking was tedious – the garment is black with black thread.
Rain on the window
On Tuesday, I visited the orchestra’s First Oboe, for a section practice. We played through some of the latest orchestra music which includes pieces from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. In one of the pieces, we’re cygnets. In future, we hope to work on duets when she can find them in her stash. The only ones she could lay her hands on were far too difficult for me! We both enjoyed our session, and plan to repeat it regularly.
Bridge & Heron
The knitting and I went down a fork in the road this past week or so. We went a good distance along the path, realised it wouldn’t arrive at our destination, and had to backtrack. The result of any creative endeavour is the product of many micro-decisions along the way, and in this case I’d not heeded the roadmap. The problem was the first panel of diamonds. Instead of following the chart and doing three diamonds vertically, I’d done four. I nearly ripped out ten rows when I noticed, but decided to keep going. When I finished the next moss band, however, I realised that ripping in the first place would have been better than ripping now. If not, the next diamond panel would be only two diamonds tall, and the yoke would be unbalanced. So on Saturday night I frogged it back to the third diamond. But do not fret, I’ve already re-knit half of the unpicked rows. It’s a lesson I can’t seem to learn – pay attention to the plan, and stick to it!
A few days ago, I walked up the riverside path to the end. Last Monday, the beginning of the path had been flooded due to snowmelt and rain. I didn’t expect to get very far, but river levels have dropped enough that I was able to make it to the mound at the end. This small hillock is covered on one slope with gorse, which covers it in yellow blossom in the late spring. Next to the gorse, stone steps lead up to the top, which is on a level with the countryside beyond. On the top, there is a tiny clearing behind the gorse, with three large flat boulders perfect for sitting on. I usually stop here with a flask of coffee, looking at the clouds and listening to the birds.
it was a frosty morning.
The path along the riverside was clear, apart from water-borne drifts of last year’s dried grasses. It was like walking on a deep, spongy carpet. As I walked back, I noticed a willow sapling growing out of a ditch. It had clumps of grass leaves in its upper branches, about six feet above the level of the path. I had no idea it would get this deep, but then, I usually turn back when the water level is above the tops of my shoes.
As I’ve been in a sewing mood recently, I spent more time this week on the lounge floor. Two tops were laid out, cut, and even sewn. Garments are certainly quicker to assemble when the seam allowances don’t need finishing. For non-sewers, I’ll elaborate. When you sew two pieces of fabric together using a conventional sewing machine, the edges – the seam allowances – are on the inside of the garment. If this fabric frays easily, the edges should be finished so the garment doesn’t eventually fall apart. This involves more ironing and sewing, meaning the seam is sewn at least twice – once for the seam and again to finish the edges. But an overlocker finishes, sews, and trims the edges at the same time, and on top of that sews faster than a regular sewing machine. This works particularly well with knit fabric. With woven fabric, the edges can be overlocked first and then seamed on a regular machine.
Another pattern was printed and assembled too, and then the fabric and pattern laid and cut. Due to a single layer layout, the fabric needed to be shifted and realigned three times, due to a lack of floor space. Most home sewing patterns have the fabric doubled. It was tedious but necessary.
Wrack on the fence
But despite not wanting to step away from the sewing, good progress has been achieved with the knitting. The second of the pattern bands on the yoke is done. The diamonds form pleasing textural ups-and-downs. These don’t appear on the original photo, leaving me to believe that I’ve probably not charted it correctly. But given the lack of detail in the photo, there’s probably no way it could be charted ‘correctly’.
Last week, the weather was so inclement that I rarely crossed the threshold. On Tuesday, during a slight thaw, I strapped on my ice grips and slushed to the supermarket. It seemed safer than digging out the car and negotiating the stone pillars at the end of the unplowed driveway. But the sidewalks were clear enough that I came back without the grips, carefully. I haven’t felt shut in even though the museum was closed and handbell and orchestra practices cancelled. I’ve been enjoying my extra week off.
W I P
A significant part of the time has been spent crawling on the lounge floor. Firstly, it’s because the dining table is covered in stuff. Secondly, because I bought some sewing patterns online, and they were PDFs, as is the modern way. On the plus side, you get your pattern immediately and can print only the size you need. On the negative side, after pages are printed you have to stick them all together. While they should have registration marks to align them, on the first pattern they were outside the print area. I devised a template to show where the marks should be, and this helped. The second pattern had clear registration marks, but the pattern booklet didn’t say how to assemble the pages. Should I line up the red lines, or the green diamonds? The internet confirmed it was the green diamonds. The third pattern had clear registration marks and comprehensive assembly instructions, but the marks sometimes disappeared behind the pattern’s printing.
Winter sunrise
Partway through the third pattern, the tape ran out and I resorted to a glue pen. This proved to be quicker. There was no fiddling with long lengths of tape, hoping it wouldn’t stick to itself or to the wrong place on the paper. The technique I used to align the pages was to place foam squares on the floor, pierce a hole in the registration marks and align them to the neighbouring sheet, then pin them down. Once aligned, it was a simple matter to tape the pages together, or gluing by lifting an edge, applying glue, and laying the edge back down. Then I cut out the pattern pieces. Given the amount of time it took aligning and affixing, next time I will seriously consider sending them off to be printed.
Snow textures
When I wasn’t scrabbling on the floor, I did manage to get some knitting done. As expected, progress has slowed, but this is mostly due to knitting less. The yoke is well under way, and the first pattern band of blocks of K3 P3 has been completed. In one more row, the gusset will be half done. The change in the pattern to an equal mix of knits and purls made the knitting feel a bit ‘sloppy’, so I’ve changed down to a 2mm needle to combat any widening tendencies. I’m not sure whether it’s the needle itself or its size, but it feels much better now.
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. 
