A few years ago, 18 to be more precise, I wrote a memoir which I called 8 Countries, 62 years. Now at age 80 I plan to write the sequel and fill in a few gaps. Yesterday at church coffee hour I was asked the conversation starter question – how did you meet the man you married – or words to that effect.
It’s a long story – or a very short story.
Step 1 – we met in Kenya in August 1966.
Ian at the Nairobi Show, September 1966
caption for the above postcard, Old Woman at Spinning-wheel by E.E. Taylor, 1886. Published by J. Arthur Dixon Ltd., Great Britain, and Printed by them for the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Co. Down, N. Ireland
caption for painting above – Standing Spinner, Jean Francois Millet, French, 1814-1875, Oil on canvas……
As part of her current European visit Hillary Clinton came to Dublin.
photo from the front page of the Irish Times, Monday, Oct. 12 2009
From Dublin she went on to Belfast and addressed the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Her speech was carefully crafted and according to the Irish Times newspaper this morning was generally well received. As I listened to her on the news last night though my ears perked up when she said she was going to weave the opposing sides together stitch by stitch. Hmm I thought. Is it possible to weave stitches together?? Knit stitches together wouldn’t have sounded half so good – nor would crochet stitches together. Or loop stitches together. But what about join stitches together.
I can only conclude that Hillary is not a weaver nor is her speech writer and that their careful crafting did not extend to the textile arts.
p.s. I used to be a speech writer for the King of Bhutan. Should I apply for a job in President Obama’s administration?
I’m still knitting hats. Am now up to hat number 20 or thereabouts. My sales have a way to go to catch up with my productivity. This hat was knit with a strand of Lodband (an Icelandic lace weight I think) and a strand of Noro on a size 3 circular Addi Turbo needle. The knitting is quite tight and consequently I think the hat would only fit a child’s head. I suspect I should have used a larger needle.
I like the Icelandic Lodband yarn so I am now knitting a short sleeve sweater with 2 strands of brown Lodband. 
My progress so far – about 8″
Icelandic Lodband, 50 g, ca. 225 m
The sweater being knit on a size 3.25 circular needle. I cast on 192 stitches. Progress is slow but the yarn is nice to knit with. The knitting is quite tight.
Pattern for the brown short sleeve sweater. The red is very attractive but try to picture it in brown.
The map shows the scene of our travels over the past couple of days. As the passenger, I could knit while enjoying the lovely scenery. More of that in another post.
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Janet's thread 