Earlier this week, a story in a radio news bulletin caught my attention. It should bolster the spirits of all those who hate going to the dentist. Researchers at King’s College London have discovered that toothpaste containing keratin can repair tooth enamel:
“The King’s College London team of scientists discovered that keratin produces a protective coating that mimics the structure and function of natural enamel when it comes into contact with minerals in saliva.”
While this is amazing of itself, I also wonder how they made the leap from protein fibres to applying them to teeth to repair enamel.
Study in Black & White
These past few weeks, I’ve also been concentrating on a sewing project. It’s a sleeveless coat using a costume pattern based on a man’s coat from the mid 18th C. Think ‘Outlander’. While the pattern itself is straightforward, I’m making changes. The most significant are to add pockets, lots of them – four in the lining and two ‘hand-warmer’ ones on the exterior. The pattern only has two large, flapped pockets at hip level on the exterior.
Swirl of Michaelmas Daisies
A heavily pocketed sleeveless vest is a garment I’ve made repeatedly over the past 25 years. They are perfect for wearing in the warmer months. All your stuff can go into pockets meaning you needn’t lug a handbag. I first got the idea after seeing a pattern on the internet – the ‘Shoppers’ Vest’ (https://saf-t-pockets.com/shoppers-vest-9500/). The first was reversible. When it was time to make the second, I realised that I’d never used the reversibility, and since then they’ve all been unreversible. I varied the second by making it knee length. The third had an appliquéd design. The fourth was made using a different pattern entirely, although I used the original pattern as a guide to pocket placement. I’d also planned to make detachable sleeves for the fourth, to extend its use into spring and autumn, but never did.
Dancing Stem
Every seven or eight years, the current one wears out and is retired, and after 8 years of faithful service the fourth is due for replacement. It will indeed be very different from the first inspiration, with fewer pockets, detachable sleeves, a stand collar, and sturdier, more tailored construction. It’s been taking a long time because of the amount of hand sewing involved. But I reason that it’ll be worn for years to come, and the better it’s made now, the longer it will last.
Ripening Fruit
And at long last, the gansey is done, and it can be seen above in all its unblocked glory. I put in an extra spurt on Sunday morning and finished it in time for the weekly progress pics. There’s still some problem solving to do – the extra long gussets will need to be taken care of. But I’m pleased that it’s completed at last. I even have a full ball of yarn plus a few yards left over – there was no need to panic buy extra all those months ago. As for the next, I’ve chosen the colour – Frangipani Greystone – but not the pattern. I can get started on the ribbing while I make up my mind.
It was a bit breezy last week, even for Caithness. Ferries to and from Orkney were cancelled. Storm Floris blew through Scotland on Monday and Tuesday, ripping countless leaves from the trees like sails in a gale. In Wick, one tree landed on a statue of Dr John Alexander, dislodging but not toppling it from its plinth. According to the John o’Groat Journal, “Dr John Alexander (1839-1901) was a highly respected medical officer of health for Caithness. The statue was erected a few years after his death.”
The high winds – Wick had the highest reported gust of 84 mph – also prompted a postponement of a trip to Edinburgh. I’d planned to travel on Monday or Tuesday, but decided that perhaps Wednesday would be better, allowing one day for the storm and one day for the clear-up. It was just as well, as two of the bridges on the route had been closed, causing a lengthy detour.
Storm-toss’d trees
The journey to Edinburgh was also to test the feasibility of a longer trip in an electric vehicle. It was unexpectedly doable. On the outward leg, I made one charging stop about 200 miles away. I made two stops on the way home, one at a Starbucks in Perth, where I’d charged on the outbound journey, and one at a garden centre outside Inverness. Both were preferable and far more pleasant for a break than a motorway service area.
The reason for the trip was an annual eye exam. The cataract they’d found the year before had become slightly worse, but didn’t need repair yet. I’m slightly more farsighted, and the frames I wear regularly need updated lenses. And then, still being tired from the long drive, I chose new frames. That’s one of the reasons I still go to the optometrists in Edinburgh – they have a fun, funky collection of frames.
Only during the Festival
Edinburgh is chock-a-block during August, packed to the gills with Festival and Fringe go-ers. There wasn’t anything I fancied in the Festival programme, and the Fringe programme . . . is so massive that it’s impossible to find anything. There are posters all over town as well, but few of them appealed. Thus, I didn’t attend any events.
I stayed with a friend as I usually do, just a few steps from a convenient bus stop. One of the trips into town was amusing. Soon after one stop, a young woman’s voice shouted from the back in an American accent, “Give a great big woo hoo if you love Eddinberg!” In the pin-drop silence that followed, everyone held their breath, waiting to see who had the temerity to woo hoo. I whispered to my seatmate, “Where is this Eddinberg?” She replied, slightly sourly, “I don’t know, but it’s not where I live.”
Welcome Home
As a consequence of the time away, there hasn’t been much progress on the gansey this week. It came with me to Edinburgh but wasn’t even taken out of the bag. When I wasn’t traipsing in town, I was chatting with my friend and her daughter. I’ll do my best to catch up this week.
I’ve been doing hours of work on my gansey database lately. Over the years, I haven’t been updating it systematically. It’s not a huge database – under 400 items – and only about 250 of these are gansey-related. The rest are other knitwear items in Johnston Collection photos – shawls, haps, jumpers, hats, scarves. The duplicate entries are now culled and the rest updated. In the process, I’ve found some photos that weren’t in the database, photos that haven’t been edited, and some that need re-editing. It’s back to square one – editing the photos first, then charting them when the editing phase is done. A long project made even longer. But it’ll be worth it in the end.
Colour on the cliffs
Town has been abuzz this week with the local Gala. Lasting for over a week, the Gala starts with a parade on one Saturday and ends the following Saturday with a huge bonfire and fireworks. The parade has floats by local businesses and groups, the pipe band, and the Gala Queen and her court. Up until the 1950s, it was the Herring Queen – her crown and throne are now in the Wick Heritage Museum collection. During the week, there are many events, mostly for younger folk – a youth highland games using foam cabers, for example. There was also a dog show, a roller disco, a fancy dress competition, and even a baby show. The crew of the Isabella Fortuna, the museum’s fishing boat, dressed up as pirates one day and welcomed all on board.
Treasure Hunt
The fireworks and bonfire caught me out. Led astray by the notices on FB which said ‘from 10 p.m.’, I was duly waiting at the window soon thereafter. The bonfire had been lit, its glow gleaming above the trees. I waited and waited. Around 1025, bored, I went off to brush my teeth. Of course, the display started while I was away, and I missed the first bursts.
Of a similar sparky nature, the chargepoint for the car was installed on Friday. It took two engineers most of the day. After checking the maximum load – when I scurried about turning on the dryer, kettle, microwave, oven, and electric heaters – and checking the earthing for the water intake and gas meter, the process began to install the necessary surge protection, relay boxes, cables, chargepoint, and cable holder. Near the end, the power was off for half an hour, and after this the installation was completed and tidied up. They gave me a run-through, and it shouldn’t be more complicated than plugging the car in and pressing ‘go’.
All being well, the gansey should be completed in the next week or so. With the rounds getting shorter, the knitting goes faster and faster. The cabled cuff will slow me down a bit. Then I’ll block it severely and solve the extra-long gusset puzzle. For the next gansey, I will choose something more straightforward, resisting the temptation to knit the gansey with completely patterned sleeves which I noticed recently in the database.
This week’s routine was varied from the norm by two events. The first was a funeral on Monday, and the second was on Tuesday when I followed my usual schedule of doing the weekly shop. I’d been stymied the week before by the supermarket being out of eggplant/aubergine and had to substitute courgette/zucchini. This week I checked first, and found that none of the local shops carry corn meal. I skipped forward to plan B, and chose a different recipe.
Bzzz
The new car has a nifty feature where the boot will open automatically when you stand behind it. This is very useful if you’ve got a box of groceries in your arms and don’t want to lower the box, open the boot, and pick up the box. With the groceries duly deposited in the boot, I pressed the button to close the tailgate.
Pareidolia
And then realised that all my keys – house and car, plus the phone – were in the boot and the car was locked. If I’d had the phone, I could have used it to open the car. I feebly tried to open the doors but didn’t want to try too hard for fear of breaking it or to setting off an alarm. Cursing my own stupidity, I pondered what to do. I could walk home – it’s only half a mile – and get the spare car key at home, but the front door was locked. I could shamefacedly call the RAC or a local garage to see if they could assist. There were spare house keys in the house, not useful. Then I remembered my lovely neighbours have a spare set. I strode home, hoping they were in, and knocked on the door. They were in, so it was the work of an instant to obtain the spares, and they even gave me a lift back to the supermarket. I am hoping that leaving the keys in the car is an instance of something I only do once.
A Bird in the Bush
On Thursday, I learned a new word – lasskie – although it’s a variant of the more common ‘lassie’. The two born-and-bred Caithnesians on my Thursday morning shift at the museum frequently use local words, and if I can’t figure one out, I ask. One morning, ‘markies’ was in frequent use – that’s short for ‘Marks & Spencer’. ‘Lasskie’ wasn’t too difficult to guess from context, but ‘markies’ had been a puzzler. The context was shopping in Inverness, but I couldn’t think of any stores with that name.
Nasturtium leaves
The knitting hiatus on the gansey was but the blink of an eye, for the new needles came on Monday. I bought lots of spares of different makes. I chose Addi ‘unicorn’ needles to replace the broken bamboo. The tips are on the dull side, so it’s not as easy to split the yarn as with pointier tips, and the needles themselves have a subtle twist like a narwhal’s horn. With the new needles I’ve been able to surge ahead, and have nearly completed the pattern band on the sleeve. I’ve already started to think about which pattern to knit next.
On Saturday, the weather broke. After a spell of perfect summer weather, the rain arrived late in the afternoon. The timing was perfect in truth, for Friday and Saturday were the days of the County Show, which every other year takes place across the road. It’s not as disruptive as one might think. Traffic is carefully controlled – everyone going in or out of the road is quizzed – so there is no parking on the sidewalks or along the road. Because the road is commandeered for a couple of days, the show committee graciously gives residents a free ticket to the show.
Setting up the tents
As agricultural shows go, it’s quite small, but it is one of the bigger events of the year. People attend year on year to meet their friends and have a blether, look at vintage tractors, visit vendors, and see who has won the competitions. I went on both days, after all it was only across the street. The first day had been recommended because it’s quieter and the floral displays haven’t started to fade. But I went because of the fish & chip van. On the second day, I went to have a closer look at the craft stands but came away empty-handed.
Sunny Weather
Today, it’s been raining off and on, and I can hear the clanking of machinery and sounds of the tents and stock pens being dismantled. In a few days, the only evidence will be the trampled field. At least the rain held off – a few years ago, it was so wet that the town’s shops ran out of wellies.
Who could ask for better weather?
So, wellies. It’s not hard to guess that this derives from the Duke of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo and later Prime Minister. The boots themselves, wellingtons, were originally “a high boot covering the knee in front and cut away behind” (OED). What I didn’t know was that there were also bonnets, hats, mantles (cloaks), corsets, trousers, and coats named after the Duke. There was also a cooking apple, a pudding, a sandwich, and of course Beef Wellington. This last could also be prepared with fish or vegetables. There was even furniture – a Wellington chest – which was a tall narrow chest with shallow drawers.
Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to the current gansey. The first sleeve is done! The cuff is in the spirit of the original, which probably had more stitches, and has 2 by 2 stitch cables crossed every 4th row, separated by 5 stitches of k1 p1 ribbing. There are 11 crossings from beginning to end, which neatly brings it to the right length of 3 inches. There will be a hiatus in the knitting for a few days, because on Friday evening one end of the lovely bamboo circular broke in half. I knew it would break eventually and had been very careful, but this failed without any obvious stress being placed on it. More needles are on the way and should arrive Tuesday.
Earlier this week, a story in a radio news bulletin caught my attention. It should bolster the spirits of all those who hate going to the dentist. Researchers at King’s College London have discovered that toothpaste containing keratin can repair tooth enamel:
