Grandaughters’ skirts, waiting to be finished – and modelled
I’ve been asked about the pattern I used for the skirts. The pattern which set me on my way for the grandaughters’ skirts was purchased in the Village Wool yarn store in Glastonbury Connecticut. The pattern is written by mac & me in Newbury Mass. I didn’t follow the pattern exactly since I knit those skirts in wool and the pattern is written for cotton. 
Photo taken at Nutgrove Shopping Centre one day last week – this was during an absolute downpour. Lo and behold I met up with an old friend and we chatted away as we tried to shelter from the deluge. I hadn’t seen this friend , C, for a long time, only recently at a funeral but we barely recognized each other and didn’t have a chance to chat and get caught up. This time we stopped and exchanged news. She told me about a mutual friend, H, one of my earliest friends here in Dublin. H now lives in Belfast but is going to Seattle for Christmas. Lucky her. In Seattle they are having a family gathering, the children my boys played with during their early years – now all grown up and gone their separate ways but converging again in Seattle.
While in Seattle, H will also meet up with another mutual friend, L, who introduced me to H. L was a college classmate of mine at Middlebury College in Vermont. L had met H when they both were living in Calgary Canada. H moved to Dublin and L came to visit her. L contacted me – this was early days, 1968-69, our first year here in Dublin when we were living in a flat in Rathgar. L and H invited me over one evening and that very kind invitation lead to many more friendships, particularly here in Dundrum.
As I wrote earlier, H is now in Belfast but visits C fairly regularly here in Dublin. We hope to see her again soon, if not here in Dundrum then up in Belfast where Ian’s bother Stanley is now living after many years in Winnipeg. L is now in Seattle – and we hope to see her also – eventually when we finally get there. I feel the world is shrinking and coming full circle.
from sketch to wash
You might think the above is not a very exciting picture but for me it is. I had a great time at my art group today. Usually I just do sketching, but today when I opened up my somewhat abandoned sketch pad, I discovered where I left off last time – namely a sketch of my stash of knitting yarn. This is the photo I sketched from——- 
I really enjoyed doing the sketch and carefully labelling each ball of yarn. I’m not quite sure when I took the photo or when I did the sketch – not all that long ago but certainly pre-move because the table is now on its way to Seattle. The project on the needles on the left is now a skirt waiting to be pressed. The project on the right is almost up to the armholes.
Last night I went to a very interesting art exhibition, and I was particularly struck by the pen and wash work of one of the artists. So when I opened up the sketchbook this morning, I thought aha – that’s what I’m going to do today with the sketch. You might think I didn’t make much progress this morning but it was a big step for me to mix the colours and apply the brush. I’m eager to continue.
this is my latest knitting, almost completed – it’s just straight garter stitch, very simple, lovely sock yarn, 2 strands – 1 plain, 1 self-patterning, size 3 mm circular needle, 190 stitches – I think it might be a baby blanket – like the one below, but I’m open to other suggestions.
baby blanket no. 1
Now there are 2 other projects to finish – the girls’ skirts.
skirts for 2 grandaughters – I just wonder if these are going to work as skirts – they need to be pressed and some sort of ribbon or elastic inserted at the waist – again it’s 2 strands of sock yarn – they might be too heavy or unwieldy – I’d better hurry up and finish them or the girls might have outgrown them – in which case the “skirts” could be morphed into cushion covers
By the way, the cushion underneath the cat was woven by Dori O’Connell – a wonderful weaver living in Cork. I understand that she is now doing photography.
The past few days we have been having very strong winds and severe flooding here in Ireland and in many other parts of the British Isles. Today I was reminded of the title A Mighty Wind, a film made in 2003, not about extremes of weather but a very enjoyable film about a folk music group. I tried to view it in Seattle and I was very jet lagged so I fell asleep early on. But I have managed subsequently to view it several times and have enjoyed it immensely.
photo from the internet
I was reminded of this title today when we were at Airfield , an urban farm very near us here in Dundrum. We were nearly blown off our feet, but these majestic trees were not even stirring. I wonder when they were planted.
Alas, the Kaffe Fassett socks which I knit for 2 of my grandaughters are too small – or is it that their feet have grown too big? I knit the socks several months ago. In our mad flurry of moving house, I finally got around to popping the socks in an envelope and posting them. Otherwise the socks might have disappeared entirely – now I understand they are being used for Teddies and then in due course will be passed on to baby Ethan.
sock in progress (not one of the too small socks, but at least it’s a colourful photo)
finished pair – these were knit while I was in Seattle and lead to the request for 3 more pairs
Most of us are familiar with the image of Miss Marple calmly knitting while she ponders a crime she is trying to solve. Here is another film where knitting appeared – very briefly but certainly part of the story. The film is Together With You, a Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige. It’s a lovely story – rather bitter/sweet. The father and his 13 year old son go to Beijing in search of a violin teacher. The father is a very humble man and has few resources except his genuine honest character. The father and son have their ups and downs in their search for a suitable teacher.
In the knitting scene, the father is shown trying to knit, rather awkwardly, but the jumper is half done. He is using yarn he unpicked from a jumper which his son had outgrown. Red is an important colour in the film and sure enough the yarn is red. A young lady/girl of rather dubious character befriends the young (13 year old) boy) and his father. She is surprised to find the father knitting and she snatches the needles and yarn out of his hands and proceeds to knit very proficiently and rapidly. A touching scene. And the resulting jumper is even more touching. A striking red with a very prominent white musical symbol – all part of the story.
It’s a lovely film. I recommend it. Particularly for music lovers.
We have moved and are settling into our new temporary home. We emptied the previous house which we had owned for 40 years, moved some of the items across the street to our new temporary home, and sent a big container on its way across the seas to Seattle. It’s not difficult to get used to our present quarters. The cat has probably adjusted best of all, and he has told his friends about it also. We awoke to find Slinki and his pal Charlie looking in our bedroom window. Clever cats!
The cats are enjoying exploring the fences and shrubs and a new profile of roof space. We have a lovely birch tree in the garden and I’ve seen little birds hopping about.
Have I brought my knitting? The answer is yes – just. I had to rescue it from the shippers. They had packed it to send to Seattle and I found that box just in time – slit it open and took out my various cat boxes with my knitting projects. No problem.
the stash – the cat box photos are still in the camera.
Here is the finished edition of baby blanket no. 1.
Baby Blanket no. 1 – Knit with 2 strands of sock wool – 1 strand multicoloured, 1 strand plain – size 3 100 cm circular needle but not knit in a circle. It was knit going back and forth all the time – garter stitch. It’s packed now for our move across the street – I’ll put in the measurements when we get unpacked.
Here is the remaining stash of knitting yarn – 50 balls of wool.
Remaining stash of knitting yarn – 50 balls.
How many more baby blankets will I knit? I’ve started my 2nd one so we’ll see how I get on. I have 112 stitches for the 2nd one. I am making it slightly narrower – maybe 2 inches narrower – than baby blanket no. 1.
the stash all packed and 3 different projects in the cat food boxes – all ready to be moved across the street to our temporary home
Might as well be getting some fun and some statistics out of this knitting, packing, and moving process.
Regular readers of this blog know that we have been planning a move from Dublin to Seattle. With that objective in mind, we have been packing since last April, I think. Clearing the house. Boxes and boxes and boxes. We piled them up in 3 garden sheds and one of the bedrooms. We anticipated moving sometime in the summer. Well, here we are in November and finally on Friday the packers have come and taken them away. The house doesn’t look very different. How are we managing to live without all these things. I wonder. And I wonder how we’ll feel when we have to unpack all these things in Seattle.
here they are loading the van
more boxes for the van
finished for the day – the van is almost full
They’ll be back with another van to complete the job on Monday.
