I Didn’t Knit A Stitch May 24, 2009

I took my knitting (a purple sock) to the Dublin City Book Fair today but I didn’t have time to knit even one stitch.  I usually have good knitting time at the Book Fairs but today I was so busy either selling or buying that I didn’t even take my knitting out of my rucksack.

 Ready to unpack the 250+ books to sell at the Book Fair.

There were so many interesting people to talk with, either other sellers or customers.

 Old cemetary beside the hotel where the book fair is held

It was such a lovely morning.  Before the Fair started we had time to wander around an old cemetary.  One of the other sellers told us the history of the cemetary – it was used to bury the victims of a tragedy off the Dublin coast.  Two ships were being used to transport troops and their families from Dublin to the Continent to fight in the Napoleonic Wars.  It was a stormy November night and the ships foundered and hundreds of people lost their lives.  These people were laid to rest in this cemetary – a tragic story.

As for the selling of my books – I had a good day and had some surprising sales.  Since most of the books I sell are ones I have liked but feel it’s time to move them on, I am especially pleased when someone comes along and buys the book or books in anticipation of a good read themselves.  I felt that way particularly today when a customer came along and spent a long time browsing my books set in India.  She ended up buying quite a few and I felt that my books were going to a good home.  Among the books she bought were several by R.K. Narayan who is an author I like very much.

Baby Surprise No. 4 May 21, 2009

  Baby Surprise No. 4

  Baby Surprise No. 4 and Baby Surprise No. 3

I used the Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern to knit the  two Baby Surprises show above.  They were knit with the same hand-dyed 4 ply Whitefaced Woodland yarn (purchased from Freyaln) and knit with the same Addi Turbo circular needle no. 4. 25 mm.  Is it an optical illusion that one looks smaller than the other? 

I went slightly wrong in my stitch count for BS no. 4 but I don’t think enough to account for the apparently smaller result.

Today I am going in to town to look for buttons and then I will be able to finish the jackets.

p.s. the pattern I used was an Elizabeth Zimmermann Ltd. Newsletter and leaflet No. 21, Surprise Jacket.  Fall’68.  Free until spring ‘69; then 25 cents.

I have been making entries recently on my other much neglected blog.  Feel free to check it out.   www.8countries62years.wordpress.com

Rugs for Sale May 19, 2009

Rug sold yesterday

A friend wanted to buy one of my rugs as a remembrance of our friendship when we move to Seattle.  Pictured above is the one she bought yesterday.  The colours don’t show up very well in this photo but they are soft greys.  Very pleasing.  This is not the first rug my friend has bought from me – she has several in her home and has also given some as presents to her children.  It’s nice to have a friend like this – thank you Wendy!

The Colour is Purple May 18, 2009

Today we had lunch at Harvey Nichols in the Dundrum Town Centre.  Very good food.  As I chatted with Ian I was struck by the number of people behind him who were all wearing purple.

 

All wearing purple - except Ian

 

Then someone walked in wearing purple trousers.  And another person in purple sat down near us.  Were we in the purple section of the cafe?  Was this a special Alice Walker day?  So I put on my purple and green hat, and then my purple rain jacket.  Could I join the Purple Club?  

 

  Well qualified I think to apply to the Purple Group

I went to SpecSavers to pick up my new glasses – they were handed to me in a purple case.  Then as I walked home what should I see but a purple car.

  Purple car on Ailesbury Grove

Just the other day there was a beautiful lavender bush in bloom just beyond this car but today it was past its peak and not even worthy of a photo.  

I’ll have to wear a purple blouse tomorrow.   And of course my purple trousers.

p.s. As I sort through our belongings in preparation for our move to Seattle memories have been stirred and I have been making a number of entries on my much neglected other blog.  These are not textile related but worthy of being read none the less.     www.8countries62years.wordpress.com

49 Years in Bed May 18, 2009

I can’t resist doing a quick blog this morning after reading the Irish Times.  There is a small column entitled Irish Times Oddities.  One of the Oddities this morning is the following:  ……”who spent an unbroken period of 49 years in bed.  At the age of 11 he met with an accident that caused spine trouble, from which he never recovered.  In order to contribute to his support he learned to do crotchet work, at which he became proficient.  He lived with a sister, who cared for him and managed a small holding near the Northern Border.”  dated September 28th 1927

 

What got me was the little cartoon of the aged man doing “crochet”.

 

  It’s hard to spot in this reproduction but the man is actually doing knitting.  Did the cartoonist get it wrong or did the reporter?  To the lay person, knitting and crochet, it’s all the same. Most people can’t tell the difference unless they actually knit or crochet themselves.

Curiosity Killed the Cat May 17, 2009

 Charlie comes to call – he is stalking our black cat Slinki.

There’s an old saying – curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.  Happily in our case curiosity did not kill our neighbour’s cat Charlie and besides he should have 9 lives, shouldn’t he.  Charlie, an orange moggie, comes over to play with our cat Slinki, a black moggie with evil eyes.  In recent days we have been busy packing and removing items from our garden sheds.  Charlie has been very curious and has enjoyed investigating the sheds and the contents thereof.  Inadvertently I have managed to lock him in one of the sheds twice and the neighbour has had to come looking for him.  Rather embarrassing.  I’ll have to search more carefully in future to be sure he’s not lurking somewhere in the rafters of the shed.  Charlie and Slinki have a great time scampering about our house.  We have to chase them out at mealtime.  Then they choose the night-time to scamper about on the flat roof overhead.  Their footprints are loud and clear.

A Great Day at the Market May 16, 2009

This was such a good day at my weekly Kilternan Market. We were very busy. The person who usually sells the vegetables was not there so we two neighbouring crafts people were kept very busy selling spinach, radishes, scallions, salad greens, cauliflowers, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, and even some tomato plants. And I also sold the last 2 pairs of my knitted socks and 3 of my photo notecards. And I’ll add a big plus for seeing and visiting with lots of friends, both fellow members and buyers. Even found out that my fellow woodturner craftsman was once upon a time fluent in Irish. So he can help me with my Irish lessons when there is a lull in the flow of customers. What more could I ask?

Well, the alternative to being busy at the Market is to get some knitting done. I only did 1 row today on Baby Surprise no. 4. That just shows how busy we were.

I’m still having trouble uploading images and links to my blog entries. I’m working on the problem but if it doesn’t get resolved soon, I’ll switch to another provider.

Writing Class May 15, 2009

A few years ago I did an adult education course in writing. It was a very interesting class. We had all sorts of assignments and we had to read out our compositions. It was rather daunting at first and I felt quite shy and self-conscious about it. On the other hand it was very entertaining to hear the others in the class. One learned a lot about each of the 15 or so contributors. I enjoyed the class very much – it was so sociable and also we received good criticism and tips for improving our writing.

Our teacher was primarily interested in poetry, being a poet herself with several published works. I felt she wanted to turn each of us into poets but still we were allowed to go our own way, up to a point. I was particularly keen to work on my autobiography but she put me down about that. Nevertheless, I continued to work on it. Our first assignment was to write about our earliest memory. Other assignments followed. Eventually we were told to write a poem. I produced the following:

Nantucket, Nantucket, we went to you for memories sake
You did not disappoint us
The boat, the spray, the mist, the emerging outline on the horizon
Summer island of our youth

We walked your cobbled streets
Absorbed your red bricks and your gray shingled cottages
The air of former whaling days
Of widows looking out to sea
Watching for sea-faring husbands never to return

Your sandy beaches, playgrounds for the summer visitors
We were young and carefree, only there to play
Maybe work to earn our keep
But that was quite light-hearted

Waiting table, washing dishes
Cycling to the beach
Midnight swims
Dancing at the Upper Deck
Flirting with the fellows

And yet behind it all lay the ghost of Moby Dick
And all that made Nantucket famous
In former days of sail and ambergris

The beloved grey lady of the sea

I was disappointed. My teacher didn’t like it – I never did figure out quite why. She held off for several weeks but eventually she discussed it for the benefit of the class. Her criticism kind of made me squirm. She said it wasn’t actually a poem. Oh well, I was still very happy with it and was complimented on it by each of the other members of the class. We were all quite supportive of each other.

After a couple of years I ran out of things to write about and also did not want to be a poet, nevermind the criticism by my teacher. I still liked her but I decided to do some other class – I think that’s when I switched to doing the Irish class so that was about 4 years ago.

Today Ian and I were having lunch at Airfield, an urban farm near our home. (WordPress is not allowing me to show a link – I’m beginning to think my photo uploading problems are related to this – I will investigate further)
At another table was a group of about 10 talking animatedly. I spotted my former writing teacher and 2 of my former classmates. So after lunch I went over and spoke with them. One of them, Brigid, remembered me as did Margaret, the other classmate. The teacher also kind of remembered me. Brigid could always be counted on for an amusing piece of writing. I particularly remembered her account of a hippie type wedding on a hill near Newgrange, a world famous pre-historic site here in Ireland. Margaret remembered me for a particular item I wrote early on in the class. My piece was about our son James and Susan’s wedding in Seattle in Room 9 of the King County Courthouse on July 1, 2000. Now here we were 9 years later and I could tell my friends that James and Susan had 3 children and we were going to move to Seattle to be nearer them and other members of our family living across the pond.

I said earlier that the writing class was very sociable. Well, the term had actually finished a couple of weeks ago and the group today had just gathered for coffee and a chat. What fun to see them again.

Beware of the Madra – A Lesson in Irish May 15, 2009

No pictures available for this entry but I want to write about it. We had a most interesting Irish class today. My teacher had a very unfortunate accident a couple of days ago. She was in a hurry to leave home to get to another part of Dublin for 9 a.m. when she had a class to teach. She was hanging out the washing and then returning toward the house. She
kicked a ball for her “silly” madra to chase and she was so busy looking
over her shoulder to watch the dog that she tripped and fell head long,
cracking open her forehead. She was bleeding profusely and was afraid
she would pass out. Nobody would be coming home until 5 o’clock, so she
grabbed her mobile phone and went out in the street – if she had passed out
in the house she thinks she would have died. Anyhow, she phoned a neighbour and the neighbour’s son came to her aid. She asked him to take her up to the doctor. He said what she needed was an ambulance! The ambulance came very promptly and rushed her to accident and emergency in a hospital a few miles away. She was taken in immediately and the doctor stitched her up – 6 stitches did the job. She was allowed home after a bit, still in her slippers and covered with blood, but advised to go to a bigger hospital a little bit further away if she felt dizzy or developed a headache or had any other unusual reaction. Happily she developed none of these after-effects and spent the rest of the day resting, presumably with the madra by her side.

Well, we had a great Irish lesson – all the words for accident and
emergency, doctor, nurse, ambulance etc. Our teacher is such a great person, she was able to tell it all, laugh at herself, and turn it into a teaching tool.

Trouble with Photos May 15, 2009

I have a lot of blogs to write but have been having trouble uploading photos. WordPress changed their system for uploading photos and I can’t seem to make it work. If I can’t resolve the problem, I will have to open up a new blog on another system. I’ll let you know where I am soon.