Thursday, October 04, 2012


Miscellany

We woke in the night, as hoped, and turned on the presidential debate. It acted, at least on me, fully as efficiently as “Moby Dick” on Mary Lou -- (see her comment here on Tuesday’s post, as well as the blog entry to which I link) – with the result that I heard very little. Commentators are unanimous this morning that Romney did much better than Obama.

[Mary Lou, “Moby Dick” is a biggie that we have never attempted for bedtime reading. We had been talking only recently about having a go – you may just have inspired us to make the effort. “Good Soldier” next, though, definitely. Fenimore Cooper is another author I have never read a syllable of. Lake George, where I went to Camp Stitches in ’99 and ’00, is, I think I remember being told, the very heart of Natty Bumppo territory. That’s another maybe we should try. I think my husband read both in his youth, but that doesn’t disqualify them for bedtime. We’ll have finished Lewis Grassic Gibbon by the weekend, not before time.]

We – me and his parents in Athens – had a touching email from Archie yesterday about his first CCF lesson (that’s the army for schoolboys, essentially). They dressed in camouflage, including their faces, and learned to crawl like soldiers. It was really fun, he said. Archie has not been very enthusiastic about the active life in recent years. The school is clearly doing rather well at getting him to move about. Last week it was Scottish country dancing.

Knitting

Thanks for the nice comments about the mitered jacket. EZ was a true engineer of knitting: reconstructing this one from her sketchy notes (which is what happened) was a most appropriate act of homage. It’s a lot of fun.

All goes well with the sleeve. I might even finish the st st bit today. It ends in a garter stitch band, knit sideways. Another provisional cast-on (by now, I have forgotten everything I learned about that subject earlier in the year), knit around attaching it stitch by stitch, another graft.

The whole thing is beginning to look and feel like a garment. I like, among other things, the weight of it. I wonder if sport weight yarn might not be too thin for Ed’s gardening sweater. On the other hand, London always feels surprisingly warm, when one steps off the train from Edinburgh in Kings Cross.

That’s the nice thing about not having ordered the yarn yet – I can go on thinking about it.

Thursday is moving on without me – I must go.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad Archie is getting on well - I did CCF (combined cadet force) at school too, and had lots of fun in the RAF section flying in chipmunks (two seater light aircraft) once a term. When I was 16 I went on a camp and learned to fly a glider, culminating in a solo flight. My mother refused to sign the consent forms on account of her (now conquered) fear of flying, so my dad had to sign. And when I got back, my mother asked who was with me when I went solo. Noone I said - that's what it means, mum = on your own.

    Happy days.

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  2. Anonymous7:57 PM

    Jean, thanks for directing me to Loop. We're in London for the week, and I realized the other day we are actually staying within walking distance. I visited this evening and loved the place! The ladies are charming and helpful and the stock is good quality and nicely varied. You'll appreciate the selection of Madeleine Tosh. :)

    Judith, from but not currently in Ottawa

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