Letâs start with the good news, and really itâs as good as good can be: the hospital consultant confirmed that I donât have oesophageal cancer after all (or cancer of the lymph nodes, or thyroid, or any other place known to medical science theyâd thought I might have it) and she doesnât want to see me again. Of course, the world is full of people who never want to see me again so on its own this isnât as impressive as it could be, but given that the growth on my vocal cords has gotten smaller now Iâm not coughing all the time, I seem to be – cautiously, hopefully – out of the medical woods.
Path in the Forest
To establish this I had to get up close and personal one more time with the dreaded endoscope, the cold steel tube that slides up the nose and down the throat. Itâs rather like being attacked by an amorous robot octopus. (I can usually keep it together right up to the moment when they ask you to say âEeeeeâ with the tube in place, which is a bit like trying to whistle while gargling.) By way of a bonus, the consultant said my various infections had gone as well, and described the inside of my nose as âpristineâ, which means Iâll never be short of a chat-up line again.
Scarfskerry Harbour
Alas, nature abhors a vacuum, or as Job puts it, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. And so Iâve got a new medical condition to stop me getting bored: the top knuckle of my left little finger has swollen up and the tip is starting to grow crooked, like a branch sprouting out of a polled tree. Hurts like the dickens, too. Itâs probably arthritis. So itâs as they say, what we lose on the swings we gain on the roundabouts (though Iâve never been sure exactly what Iâm likely to lose on the swings, unless itâs my lunch). We all have to dree our weird, or submit to our fate, so Iâm really not complaining; all the same, I canât help wondering if it had to be quite this weirdâŚ?
Sitting on the Fence
In parish notices weâve received pictures of a rather splendid gansey knit by Belinda for her son. Itâs knit using Frangipani dark navy yarn, and is a combination of cables, diamonds and chevrons, and other things too. Many congratulations to Belinda, not just for completing the gansey, no mean feat in itself, but also for what looks like a perfect fit, and thanks for sharing it with us.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Mrs Laidlaw’s Pattern
My own current gansey project is of course Mrs Laidlawâs belter of a pattern from Seahouses, taken from Gladys Thompsonâs book. Itâs knit in Frangipani Breton yarn, a lovely autumnal russet shade, and is a combination of moss stitch panels at the edges, and trees and flags interspersed with crinkly bits. (What do you call those wriggling line patterns in between the trees? They remind me of the French âepiâ bread, cut to resemble ears of wheat.) Itâs a classic pattern and Iâm looking forward to recreating it over the coming weeks and months.
Hello Gordon, Good news ! it seems to me that your happy days are here again!
I tried to open the gallery in order to see Belindas gansey, but the gallery is not available.
Belinda
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Thanks for the pattern, it looks great.
Regards from Finland .
Thank you Judit, every day is a happy day đ.
Sorry about the link to Belindaâs page, should be fixed now. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!
Oh, hurrah!, so glad about the good medical news. Very selfishly, as I’d really miss your posts if something went badly awry.
(OK, truth be told, I am also very glad for you, even more so than for me.)
The squiggles…are exactly that for me.
Thanks Ellen, itâs always good to know weâd be missed!
Hooray for good news!
No doubt there is a very specific name for the crinkles, but it’s probably a different name in every village.
Hi Tamar, and thank you. As for the squiggles, I like to think of them as âyesterdayâs spaghettiâ!
hello Gordon, Knitting is great for keeping arthritis at bay, so you can’t stop! đ
For your crinkles, I’m guessing they probably depict the waves, as in traditional Fair Isle patterns. Except in Fair Isle, they are full-blown zigzags.
Hi Mary, it doesnât hurt when I knit, or at least only occasionally, so itâs a case of so far so good! Mind you, I bought so much yarn recently I canât afford to stop nowâŚ
Oh gosh Gordon! Iâm glad to hear you are out of the woods with one ailment. Sadly, there always seems to be anotherđ¤Śđźââď¸ Hang in there with the getting-older stuff.
Hello Hope, great to hear from you! I shouldnât complain really, itâs something of a surprise to me that Iâve reached middle-middle age at all, but a welcome one, and some collateral damage along the way is only to be expected⌠đ
Good to hear that youâre doing well and that you have been given the all clear. To keep with the sea if you are able to get bbc iPlayer I would recommend you watch âVillages by the Sea â the episode on Robin Hoodâs Bay is interesting in respect of Ganseys even a cameo with Deb Gillanders. Sorry to hear you may be developing arthritis in your fingers. Would not wish this upon anyone, best wishes.
Hi Kevin, thank you and yes, I remember that programme. And you canât do better than interview Deb, which reminds me sheâs running âPropaganseyâ, the gansey exhibition, again this year, where a couple of my Caithness ganseys will be lurking at the back. If youâre in the area itâs well worth a visit.
Delighted to hear the good news! My excuse for knitting (not that I need one) is that it keeps my fingers limber, since I have that crooked finger tip too.
Then I wonât get nagged that I prefer to knit and watch Last of the Summer Wine or a Miss Marple.
Hi Lois, my left hand tends to be fairly stationary when I knit, with the right hand doing most of the work, so I donât know that itâs getting a lot of exercise. Mind you, I donât have to tell the doctor that! And Iâve been telling people knitting and listening to Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd is therapeutic for years!
So happy that there is nothing serious going on healthy-wise, and that you have a pristine nose. I loved the quote of “dree our weird” but I agree, arthritis is talked about as a nuisance but is incredibly painful and sometimes debilitating. I hope your fingers manage to keep their activity in spite of it. Belinda’s gansey is beautiful and inspiring! Mine is in the doldrums but I will get back to it in a month or so after some refreshing travel. By the way, I took it with me and got stuck trying to figure out what to do as I got closer to the neck edge. I didn’t have any of my usual library with me, but your website saved my day and I was able to figure out my plan and move on with your guidance. Thank-you for creating this website and for your relaxed method of knitting ganseys!!
Hi Betsy, thank you and Iâm glad you found us of help! Before I started the blog I used to set aside ganseys in the summer, as we lived in Wales and Somerset and it was just too warm to have a big heavy sweater on your lap. Not a problem I have now weâre in the far north of Scotland, mind you!
Gordon, that’s superb news on most of the medical front – what a relief that must be! While more and more things are treatable, how much better not to have to undergo such.
On the digital medical front, may the finger be better. If it’s of interest, Liz finds that some forms of dietary controls can reduce arthritis pain…
PS. that’s a //really// lovely looking gansey in progress!
Thanks Richard, there are days when the finger hurts a lot, and days when it doesnât, and Iâm aware that this is probably just a taste of things to come, but given the alternatives, Iâll happily settle for a little bit of joint pain!