Wick (Double Diamonds): Week 1, 4 May

Another uneventful week, starting with a few days of glorious wall-to-wall sunshine and ending with cloud and drizzle.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get out in it often and instead have been spending even moretime at the computer.  But first, I completed a sewing project that’s been waiting several weeks to be finished.  It’s a dress, and the sleeves and hem are finished with an applied band similar to a waistband.  One long edge of the bands had been sewn and pressed in half.  To complete the bands, the other long edge needed to be sewn.  In the meantime, it lay on the ironing board, patiently waiting.  Its time came at the beginning of the week, when the bands were ‘stitched in the ditch’ successfully.

After this, I tackled the jumble of gansey-related files that reside on three external disks and the hard disk.  The muddle has arisen through many years of working on files at the museum and backing them up on different devices at the same time.  Also, the database I have at home to keep track of the files hadn’t been kept up to date. The database, a free content management program designed for photographers, contains thumbnails from the museum website.  These are tagged with information about the photos or showing the files’ status (edited, charted, etc.).  It’s been very useful.  The database was the easiest to update, but then the various storage devices needed to be compared to find if they all contained the same files.  It became a little more complicated when one of the storage devices was lost a couple years ago.  It wasn’t a disaster, as nothing important was lost, but some files only exist as ‘print ready’ copies.    

Clifftop Tulip

The purpose of all this weeding was to determine which photos remain to be edited and charted.  The ‘print ready’ files don’t need to be edited again, and they went in one folder.  Files that hadn’t been edited went in another, and some that didn’t need to be edited because there were no ganseys went in another.  This still left quite a few files in the ‘to be edited’ folder, but fortunately there aren’t many gansey photos among them.  Most are of other knitwear – lace shawls, scarves, Fair Isle sweaters, children in knitwear – and that’s a separate project.

Basking bunnies

As you can see, the hood is now complete.  Knitting the hood extension was be quite quick, and I’ve moved on to the next gansey, this time in Frangipani Claret.  After more staring at photos and charts, I’ve chosen another pattern from the Johnston Collection photos, dubbed ‘Double Diamonds’.  The plate is badly damaged, but there’s enough detail to discern a pattern of vertical panels of diamonds on the yoke.  All the panels are the same width, and alternate between large and small diamonds.  The original also has a ribbed body, but my version with have a ribbed ‘feel’ instead. 

Just launched

I’ll be away next week, so there will be no blog.  Friend S and I are spending a week in York.  We’re taking the train, so hopefully this will mean lots of knitting! I’ll block the hood when I return and show it then.