Patience Indeed

Laar by Gudrun Johnston (in progress)

In Townhouse Yarns Chatham Lace

80% Extrafine Merino Wool, 20% silk; colour Valentine

.... met Jenny stocking This Is Knit (http://www.thisisknit.ie/) with her very own new hand dyed yarns, and kept going…  then came back next day to get this sumptuous pink which, once seen, had lived on in my imagination to the point I more or less had to go and claim it.  

...but that is why I’m now nearly bouncing off the ceiling with  … don’t misunderstand me: the yarn is still beautiful and so is the pattern.... but I just knit Left Front shaping on the Right Front side, and anyone who ever ripped superfine lace back will understand why I’m now on the verge of casting not just the project, but also the fixtures and fittings of the room out... no... through the window.

"Let it roll, baby, roll..." (RIP Jim Morrison today) is taking on a whole new meaning for me..

Another idea came from a friend who suggested shots of tequila...

And only last night I was listening to Handel and meditating on the concept of lace-making inspiring practice of virtues you spend your life trying to instill in your children - tenacity, adherence to good patterns, which may not immediately make sense, but pay high dividends down the line…

AAAAAGHHHHHHH

The colour is still lovely though..

Maybe time to go for a run;

And, like Scarlett, I'll think about it tomorrow.

Green, Green Grass of Home

As I knit the three projects which follow, I was looking at these colours and thinking what I think about them collectively.... For the most part, I see it as a benefit to be Irish, and I like living here. I always felt that having had to consider how to work around others quite a lot has fostered a certain creativity.  Mostly we use the same words as other English speakers, but we communicate differently – I’m especially conscious of this when I travel abroad – slightly amending the way I speak to make myself understood.  Of course this could be a generational thing - a soon-to-be forgotten nuance,  because I grew up in a more internationally isolated world.

I don’t dwell in the past, distant or close. There are so many variables that we can never truly know it.  There’s a place for scientific study of past events, if only to make us truly grateful for those who made sacrifices for our benefit today.   You've got to be careful what you consider "your benefit" to be though, because received hindsight tends to favour winning career paths, which in my opinion favoured regimes, organisations and systems that often have had very little to do with my personal benefit.  Sentimental interpretations of times past have a role in art for sure, because visual art, theatre, literature all travel non linear routes and communicate in language other than factual.  Politicians with lumps in their throats over tragic past, however, are not for me… they leave me icy…That politicians should be empathic is a given, but addressing and combatting tragedy-in-progress professionally on our behalves is their sole meaningful function.

I still have massive faith in the next generation and their much wider world – the strengths and frailties told of in the myths of ancient Greece and Rome will never be unrecognisable to humanity, I expect, but today's communications revolution definitely makes our more bilious aspects that bit harder to conceal and long may that system prevail.

Ocean Green

Uisce, from Contemporary Irish Knits by Carol Feller

in Coolree Hand Dyed “Ocean Green” 50% superwash merino, 50% silk 

Having already knit two UIsce variants, I had wanted to knit one exactly to pattern too, but anytime I'd been ready to start, locating really beautiful worsted weight silk had proved tricky – It’s possible to pre-order, but in these days of moths and cutbacks I’ve resolved to avoid advance buying as I know that in truth it may never happen.  Jacqui from This Is Knit (http://www.thisisknit.ie/) told me that doubling fingering weight equated to worsted and encouraged me to try that instead. So very dubiously indeed I started knitting on the double, in fear and dread that it would ruin the flow and ebb of the colour (which with this beautiful yarn would amount to vandalism).  But the moral of the story is – don’t doubt Jacqui - she said it would blend, and it did!  

I love working to Carol Feller patterns, I could also knit in Coolree forever in any way, shape or form, so I really enjoyed knitting this. The photo above was taken in County Wexford, source of the yarn, on a particularly golden day... all of which struck me as being auspicious in a good way.