Wednesday, May 01, 2013


All is more or less in hand for lunch, but I will try to be brisk this morning. Many thanks for help with recipes.  I have added some comments to yesterday's comments on the subject. Our lunch guest will not be in Edinburgh very long, so I will not be called on for chit-chat: she’ll need to spend the time talking shop with my husband. I’ll need to see enough of her to judge the lay of the land -- whether he can work with her -- but lunch will suffice for that.

The sock progresses through the tedious ribbing.

I have recovered from my Epaminondas moment and am determined to stride boldly forward with the 2nd Relax. I want to go on with my Herzog lessons before beginning, however, at least to the point where she expounds her theory (sounds good to me) about achieving fit across the shoulders before you start, and altering other parts of the pattern as needs be. Some self-measuring is sure to be involved.

The trouble with the 1st Relax had nothing to do with gauge or swatching – I got the size I was aiming at; it’s just that that size was totally inappropriate for the pattern, which demanded extravagant ease.  I’ve got my original swatch, and I also made notes about the final, blocked gauge before I sent the sweater off to Hellie. So in that respect I’m ready to roll.

Yesterday as well as sock-knitting I attached the first of my three little edging strips to its little centre square with whip stitch. Rather fun. Now I am ready to move on to the next part of that lesson with Franklin, which I think is going to be about mattress stitch. But Herzog is currently more urgent.

The Noro sock yarn turned up. I don’t think it’s quite right for my husband, texture-wise. I am increasingly resolved to attempt some toe-up socks for him and see if I can’t get the fit right.

I got the seeds sown on the doorstep yesterday, too: sorrel and Welsh onions and huauzontle, in separate containers. I wonder if my previous failure with doorstep vegetables has been due to lack of feeding. My husband tends to regard “feeding” plants as sissified  – manuring the soil in advance is all right. But I think vegetables in pots probably need Miracle-Gro.

(The Word spell-check accepts “sissified” but has never heard of “manuring”.)

3 comments:

  1. My gardening expert friend told me that you must feed potted plants regularly. This is due to the fact that the nutrients get washed out with the constant watering, something that doesn't happen with plants in the ground. It sounds reasonable to me.

    I hope your lunch goes well!

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  2. I tried to reply to your previous post but the show Lynne Rossetto Kasper is The Splendid Table. The podcasts are here: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/podcasts/xml/splendid_table/kitchen_questions.xml

    Hope your day goes well!

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  3. I would swatch and block the Noro,I've heard it softens,

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