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 week has been a week much like the last, without the disquietude of a phone call from the consultant. An appointment to see her in Inverness arrived on Saturday, to take place a week before Christmas. I’ll need to leave bright and early to get there by mid-morning. In the meantime, my arm should be nearly normal by then; the stitches in the incision in my arm have fulfilled their purpose and fallen out, leaving a red patch which is fading day by day.
Cling-on
Early in the week, a delivery from Amazon brought an inexpensive whetstone. I can now sharpen the kitchen knives properly, but more importantly, the reed-scraping knife too. I spent at least an hour sharpening one kitchen knife and then the reed knife. The kitchen knife is now acceptably sharp, and I’m not sure about the reed knife. I’m at that stage of scraping reeds where I don’t know if what I’m doing is correct or not, and if it even matters.
After splitting another reed, I’ve had a minor success in achieving a reed that makes a sound. Then I compared it to the oboe reeds I already have, and was dismayed to find that they were 7mm wide, and the new cane is 9mm! I don’t know for sure, but this may be akin to using too large a knitting needle – the results won’t be satisfactory. I’ve queried this with the supplier and await their reply.
Looking downriver
I’ve been practicing the oboe more too, after being quite lazy about it for quite some months. The orchestra has two concerts in a couple of weeks, and I’d like to be able to play at least a few of the notes. Many get left out at rehearsals because I’m just not fast enough to play them. Practice practice practice . . .
Foggy Day
Another activity that’s fallen by the board, particularly when I was concentrating on sewing in the late summer, has been going out for regular walks. I started to rectify that this week. It’s been good to get out with the camera again. A couple of days were drizzly and foggy, one partly sunny, but all were unseasonably warm. The weather held for the Bonfire Night fireworks on Saturday, which I again enjoyed from the top floor window. There wasn’t much wind, either, so having the window wide open to take photos did not send arctic blasts through the house.
As you can see from the photo of the gansey, I decided to add a simple band around the bicep, just where the gusset ends. It’s a simple decoration of a single purl stitch progressing one stitch to the left for five rows, a purl row ‘vein’, and finally a purl stitch moving towards the right for five rows. There are five plain stitches between the purls. It’s so uncomplicated that it doesn’t need charting. Who knows, maybe next week I’ll be knitting the cuff!
I received my prognosis last week, following the recent op/biopsy. The consultant phoned and said she was completely wrongfooted by the results. She had not expected any cancerous cells to be present, yet there were. But, she went on to say, it was a ‘melanoma in situ’, meaning that it was only present in the upper layers of the skin and had not spread. While the prognosis is ‘excellent’, I’ll have two further appointments. One will be for another op where a 5mm margin around the previous incision will be removed. The second will be to see the consultant again in Inverness, when she’ll give me a complete inspection.
While I hadn’t expected this, I can’t say I’m surprised. In fact, I’ve been waiting about 50 years for skin changes to appear. While I’m not one for sunbathing, for a few summers way back when I was a lifeguard, where being in the sun is part of the job. That, and being very fair-skinned, meant it was just a waiting game. Still, having mortality suddenly slapped in your face is unsettling, and it took a few hours to regain balance.
Near sunset
The museum is closed for the winter now. I continue to go in Mondays to edit photos and chart ganseys, but my Thursday morning is free. I’ve decided to use the time to learn how to make oboe reeds. The tools in the beginner’s kit I’d bought a few years ago are simple, but some are specialised. There’s a special knife used to scrape the cane, and there was also a square of ‘fishskin’, which is used to seal the reed. A doubled piece of cane is bound with thread to a metal piece called the staple, which fits into the end of the oboe. This binding needs to be airtight. However, there are substitutes for the blade and skin. Some people use x-acto knives or knives with snap-off blades. For the skin, cling film or plumber’s tape are sometimes substituted. Nail varnish/polish is also used for this purpose. As the book says, it doesn’t really matter how you get there, it’s the results that count.
Backyard fungus
It’s not a difficult process, but needs to be done just so for the reed to work. The first attempt was a total disaster. One half of the cane was satisfactory after binding, but the other half split in two places. The second and third attempts are better, and I’m working on them. It will probably take many tries to achieve a reed that plays as it should.
With the gansey, it took three attempts to get the right number of stitches around the armhole. Usually, I count the rows on one side and compare it to the number of stitches needed. So, 80 rows and 64 stitches would give a rough ratio of three stitches to every four rows. However, being mathematically challenged, my counting was off and it took two further tries. When that was done, I sped off down the ski slope of the sleeve, and have nearly three inches completed. The sleeves on the original are plain, and I am debating whether to add a pattern band above the elbow, if only to reduce the boredom of constant stockinette.
The weather has been getting increasingly wintry as the weeks pass. During last week, nearly every day was damp and windy. It was unpleasant enough that driving was preferable to walking. When I did venture out to post a letter, I didn’t linger. On the positive side, more time indoors means more knitting time.
Rose in the Rain
The week has been filled with little things. The kitchen clock, a wedding gift from work colleagues, stopped working after 40 years of faithful service. I prized it apart and replaced the movement, but this was unsatisfactory. The replacement arms were half the size and their gold colour was indiscernible on the clock’s beige face, and the hour hand wouldn’t grip the spindle properly. The clock is greatly missed, and I’ve chosen a replacement online. There’s also a new vacuum cleaner in the same basket. The old one starts, makes a gasping ‘thwpp’ sound, and loses suction. It too is old, at least 20 years, and like the clock, has given sterling service and is due for retirement.
Later in the week, the kitchen floor and hob & surround were steam-cleaned. Very little cleaning has been done over the past year, so this was a significant event. Both needed it. The kitchen floor was slippery after a frying session and the hob was in a terrible state. Now the floor is safe and the hob gleams pleasingly. For good measure the frying pan was also steam-cleaned because it was still gungy despite an intensive dishwasher cycle.
Tree in infra-red
Over the past few cold weeks, I’ve been puzzled why the radiators weren’t warming up. Finally, I thought to look at the on/off times programmed in heating control box. That was the problem. At some point, when I thought I’d changed the times for the hot water, I’d changed the central heating times instead. A quick face-palm and button-pressing session later, the radiators come on when they should and the house is slowly warming.
A Cloud at Sunset
With the gansey, I can hardly believe the progress that’s been made. The back is complete, and I’m ready to shape the front neckline. The calculations for the are done and have been checked twice. As with most things knitting, numbers and maths are involved. Divide the number of stitches on the front by three. Take the result and divide it by four. Add that number to the first and second thirds of the neckline stitches and subtract double that number from the centre third stitches. With me so far? In this case, I had 179 stitches. That can be divided roughly equally into three segments of 60 – 59 – 60 stitches. Add 14 (from 59/4) to 60 and subtract 28 from 59, to get 74 – 31 – 74. Using removable stitch markers or scraps of yarn, place markers after 60sts, 74 sts, 105 sts, and 119 sts. To shape the neckline, starting on the right side, work to 3 stitches before the 2nd marker, knit two together, knit 1. Turn, k1, p1, work to the end of the row. Decrease 1 st every other row until there are 60 stitches left (this should be the 1st marker), then work straight to the required length. Work the other shoulder in a similar way, but start at the neckline edge with a k1, k2tog.
It’s been a week with appointments and cancellations, though only one of each. The appointment was for day case surgery to remove a small brown patch. This had once been two tiny moles, but over the last ten years had changed to become one larger, paler spot with a different surface texture. I’d seen a consultant a few years ago and was prescribed some cream to treat this and other patches, but this spot was not affected. At the last appointment, the consultant prescribed a different cream, but that didn’t work either. At the follow-up appointment, she recommended that the spot be removed. This is what was removed last week. It’s been sent for testing too. I should hear shortly, but I’m not concerned.
Hospital Stairwell
I haven’t had surgery since my wisdom teeth were removed, so in a way this was a new experience. Then, there had been a stay in hospital and general anaesthetic. This time, I walked to the hospital, was shown to a ward, and knit socks while I waited for the surgeon, who bounced in a while later, preceded by murmurs of “he’s coming” along the corridor. His first remark was not to ask after my health, but to say he admired my shoelaces! (They are dyed the colours of the rainbow, bought to replace boring grey ones.) He explained the procedure and left.
Infrared Landscape
Shortly thereafter, a young nurse escorted me along the winding corridors to the operating theatre. The surgeon, a nurse, and someone I assumed was the anaesthetist were already there. More shoelace admiration occurred as I got on the bed. I was covered with a sheet, the lights blazed on, and I clamped my eyes shut. Local anaesthetic hurts more if you see it being injected. The young nurse sat by my side, and the operation began. Her sole purpose seemed to be to chat, distract, and keep me calm. I only felt from some pressure, and the op was soon over. When I opened my eyes there was a huge dressing on my arm.
Infrared Hawthorn
A few minutes later I felt well enough to sit up, and the nurse escorted me back to the ward. Another nurse made me a cuppa while the discharge letter was prepared, and then I walked home. As with the dentist, the anaesthetic seems to spread further after the filling is done; part of my hand went numb until ten hours later, when the numbness abated. The wound was not painful even then. A few days later, I took the dressing off. There’s a large area of bruising surrounding an inch-long wound which has been closed with dissolvable stitches.
In the gloaming
And the cancellation? The Covid & flu jabs were moved forward to next month.
Having a large portion of my arm under a bandage has not impeded the knitting. The division for front and back has been reached, and I’m zipping to and fro on the back. It’s getting to the stage where it feels heavy and bulky on my lap, but at the same time the weather is cooler so it provides some extra warmth as the nights drawn in.
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.
