Notes on the White Gansey April 29, 2007

  Just a few comments on the white gansey.  Last night I finished the sleeves – I started out knitting the 2 sleeves on size 3.25 mm bamboo needles.  I got a bit impatient with that and decided I would continue one of the sleeves on an Addi Turbo circular.  I carried on with one of the sleeves on the bamboo needles.  Then I finished the other sleeve on the circular.  I regretted knitting the 2nd sleeve on the circular needle – partly because the circular needle wasn’t quite long enough to accommodate the 65 sleeve stitches comfortably.  Then when it came time to join the sleeves to the body of the sweater I found it difficult again to incorporate the sleeve that had been knit on the circular needle. 

But now all the stitches for the yoke have been joined – the front and back and the 2 sleeves and I am knitting around on the 3.25 mm circular for 1 1/2 inches.  Then it will be time to start the decreases.  I have placed markers at each of the seam points.

The use of the 3.25 mm needle is interesting compared with the 3.75 mm which I used for the green gansey.  More on that later.

Where have I been? April 29, 2007

The secret is out – I have been to Connecticut to my sister’s surprise 80th birthday party.  A wonderful family reunion.  Here’s a photo of Nan with our son David.  David lives nearby so it was a treat for me that he and his family could come to the party to meet up with the American  relatives.  A great family reunion and then a good visit with David and family.  Back to Dublin all too soon.

 Knitting news – my project while I was away was to work on another gansey – this one is in lime green Dale of Norway Heilo.  I have now cast that aside and resumed work on the white gansey in Tivoli Celtic Aran.

   

  

When I got back to Dublin I found that there has been some alarming news from Shetland re the range of colours from Jamieson and Smith.  In Glastonbury Conn. I was looking for something to go with my Dale of Norway lime green Heilo.  It was a very rushed visit to the yarn shop but I found 2 lovely shades of green and have come home with 4 oz. of Jamieson’s Shetland double knitting.  Not sure I will eventually use these with the lime green but I liked the Jamieson’s colours and texture.  I’m a great one for just getting a bit of yarn I like and sampling with it – that’s how I end up with a big stash and Hodge Podge blankets.

On the reading front – I am on a Patrick O’Brian kick and want to read one after another.  I am now about half way through the series of 20 books.  Reading The Far Side of the World.  Other reading during my trip was a wonderful book about Nepal – Travels in Nepal by Charlie Pye-Smith, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, and Cadillac Jack by Larry McMurtry.  I thought that would complete my reading of books by Larry McMurtry but of course he is still writing and has come out with a new one – so that has been added to my shelf of unreads.  Barnes & Noble in Connecticut and the The Toadstool Bookshop in New Hampshire had a boost in sales when I hit those stores.

Progress on the latest gansey April 17, 2007

     This gansey is going to be white – the lawn bowling season is here and we have our first match tomorrow.  I won’t have the gansey finished in time – knitting sleeves is an endless activity.  I’ve only got as far as shown in the photo because we have been watching the World Cup Cricket matches in the West Indies.  Ireland has done so well – we are very proud of them.

We have had a lovely visit with Ian’s brother Stanley (aka Jasper) who usually resides in Winnipeg Manitoba.  He was with us for a week and we had numerous expeditions and lunches at familiar places around the countryside – Johnny Fox’s Pub, the Queen’s in Dalkey, Airfield Farm in Dundrum, Harvey Nichols in the Dundrum Town Centre.  The weather certainly co-operated – what a wonderful spell of sunshine.

Taking stock April 12, 2007

 

I’m taking stock of my knitting projects this morning.  The green gansey is finished, the purple grape gansey morphed into a tank top, a white gansey has been started, a mis-shapen blue gansey has been partially dismantled, and Hodge Podge 4 is started.

I finished reading The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood – a present from my Seattle family.  Turned out to be rather a good book but maybe not to be read if you are feeling low.  Knitting can be therapeutic – in fact, that is the point of the book – but I’m not sure it’s the book to read if you have had a recent cause for grief.

Now I have moved on to Ladysmith by Giles Folen – a novel about the Boer War.  A change from my diet of historical naval fiction – Patrick O’Brien, Alexander Kent, Douglas Reeman.

At the Dublin City Book Fair April 9, 2007

  This is what I might have been doing today – just add a bit of knitting.  For a while I had a table at the bimonthly Book Fair.  I really enjoyed it.  I saw and met lots of interesting people – and also spent the day knitting.  Alas, sales did not keep up with enthusiasm.  I am a reader and the books I was trying to sell were ones that I had read but no longer wished to keep.  All the other sellers at the Book Fair were “in the trade” so to speak and their books would be of interest primarily to collectors.  I was in the wrong place but it was enjoyable none the less – and the sales I did make really gave me a boost – a sale to a fellow reader – someone who wanted to read a book that I had enjoyed.  Now I just go to browse and I enjoy not only looking at the books for sale but also meeting up with some of my recently acquired friends in the book trade.

As a point of interest, one of the books I was looking at today appeared to be a book about Irish grammar.  It had the word “paradigm” in the title.  I keep seeing that word and not knowing exactly what it means.  So now at home I have looked it up, and according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary the definition is “an example or pattern, esp. a representative set of the inflections of a noun, verb, etc.”  I should have been able to figure that out – but I didn’t – and now I would like to look at that Irish grammar book again! 

p.s. by the way – there weren’t any knitting book treasures to be found.

Transition to a tank top April 6, 2007

 

Now I have finished the body of the Purple Grape gansey and I am so pleased that I think it might just remain a Tank Top as opposed to becoming a gansey, as originally intended.  Maybe this lovely weather is influencing my decision.

Little things mean a lot – in working on the Purple Grape I “lost” my favourite stitch marker.  Looked everywhere and gave it up for somehow getting lost.  Lo and behold, it has appeared underneath the jigsaw puzzle board.  Happiness.

More sunshine today – the cat loves it and so do I.  Can you find her in the picture above?  She is probably contemplating going through the trellis into the garden next door.  Living up to her name of Slinky Malinki.

Knitting display in the Spring sunshine April 3, 2007

    What a lovely day we had yesterday – I had a good time taking photos of Hodge Podge 3 on display in the Spring sunshine.  The border on Hodge Podge 3 is finished.  Goal for Hodge Podge 4 – an even edge all round. 

The Spring Tulip photo was taken a few days ago when we had a brief glimpse of the sun. 

And the progress on the Purple Grape photo was taken yesterday evening.  Sunday evening is usually a very good television viewing time.  Great progress was made while watching Persuasion, the Sunday night offering in the current Jane Austen series on UTV/ITV.  Also on Sunday night is the Antiques Roadshow and now a new BBC series called Play It Again.  This week it was about a celebrity comedien (whose name I can’t remember) but whose efforts to learn to play the banjo were very entertaining.

It’s that time of year again April 1, 2007

  

 The purple grape gansey is well under way.  Our local yarn shop is closing so I have stocked up on enough yarn to see me to completion.  It’s going to be slightly different from the green gansey but not much.  Am mulling over what to do about the sleeves and shoulders.  Meanwhile I am knitting happily on the body of the sweater.

I finished the border for Hodge Podge 3 and took a photo in the morning sunshine.   With Hodge Podge 3 finished for all but the pressing and the sewing in of a few stray ends, I am thinking of Hodge Podge 4.  I think I will try to be more orderly with HP 4, maybe work to a template to try to keep the shape more even.

The outdoor lawn bowling season opened officially yesterday.  Looks good, doesn’t it.  We went down today and I wore the Green Gansey – it kept me nice and warm.  The sun makes things look quite idyllic but the air is still cold and if the sun goes behind a cloud, then it’s time for more woollies.