Ta-Dah!

 

My first ever attempt at a traditional Fair Isle beanie. It won't  be the last but I'm not about to cast on another just yet! It's a bit of an effort.  I have to say the last few rounds which I had to do on dpns reminded me exactly why I am so grateful to the person who invented the small circular needle, thereby enabling me to knit socks. Because if I had to do them on dpns then my first pair would have been my last.

But I am quite pleased with this. It's made in Shetland Spindrift and given that there are literally hundreds of colours in the range I would never have got started, had not the lovely Sharon  at greatbritishyarns.co.uk/ stocked their themed Inspiration packs, of five different co-ordinating colours, which makes life a lot easier. 

The Latest Saturday Slaughters Book

 is Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka.

Unless you enjoy dead flat prose descriptions of stereotypical  American teenagers which go into rather more detail about their acne than any normally sensitive person can stomach, my advice would be 'Don't Bother.' 

100 Books to Read poster - No. 26

Ok Ok  I know I  sometimes find it difficult to decide the connection between the book and the little picture on the poster, but this time I have that problem in spades. 

So, take a look at this. 

and explain to me, if you can, how that says Wuthering Heights?

If you know me, or if you don't know me but have read this blog for a while, you will  know that I am not the biggest fam of either Charlotte or Emily Bronte, so I wasn't looking forward to reading this at all. However I decided recently that, as far as the poster reading went, I was going to concentrate on those that I owned, since this would not involve me in spending money or hassling the local librarians to get things. And the first one that I came to on the poster that was also on my bookshelves was Wuthering Heights. 

In the beginning I thought, well maybe this won't be too bad. The writing has a little more energy than I remember. Then I thought Now I get it. It's really an C18 Gothic novel and now that I realise that maybe it won't be too bad. Then I thought Gosh, these are a bunch of horrible, non-credible people and this book is really really badly structured. And then I thought I was right all along, this is a silly book and the world would not have  been a worse place if it had never been published.  

This does rather beg the question What am I missing? since many people adore it and critics certainly find lots to say about it, and praise in it. 

Next one up is not a classic by most definitions, but it is going to be a great deal more enjoyable! 

This is my Not Mother's Day Not Rant

 Honesty there were so many things I wanted to rant about on Mothers Day,. Starting with the pictures of policemen knocking women to the ground and them pinning them there, while one of their colleagues was being charged with the abduction and murder of the woman they had gathered to remember.

Then there was the Hunterian Gallery Picture of the Day on their social media pages, especially chosen for mothers day apparently, and featuring a picture which used to be called 'Woman Fruit and Flowers'; now just called Fruit and Flowers due to what the curator approvingly called the masterly way in which the woman had become simply a collection of curves and circles just like the fruit and flowers. 

And then there was this gravestone which we came across on our walk at Skaill.

So birth and death dates for the woman in the grave, a scriptural quotation and then the remaining six lines are all about her father. Someone paid for that to be engraved on a stone commemorating Agnes but all she gets is a brief acknowledgement that well yes, she did actually exist, but look how much more important her father was. She never did anything  but lets's not miss a chance to point out what a great man her dad was, eh, lads? 

Is it any wonder women get cross?

Not my favourite ever pair of socks

 I've finished two pairs of socks for the OH on consecutive days. 

The first one is an unhappy marriage of pattern and yarn

the pattern gets lost, which I didn't  think  would happen, as the one on the pattern picture was also done in variegated yarn and the texture was quite visible. You live and learn. It didn't help that I don't like the wool itself; it was the first instalment of the Giddy Knits 2021 Once Upon a Yarn Club. I really like almost everything else of hers that I've ever seen/bought so this was a bit of a disappointment. That said the February one is lurvlee. Anyway the OH says he likes them and I find I don't really care whether he really does or is just saying that. I'm just pleased they are off the needle. 

And these of course are just his bog standard bright socks,  with some of the wool I bought in Fife last August. There's only one lot of wool and a kit left from that haul now, so that's a good feeling. It will presumably be an even better feeling when they are both done too, but that won't be this week. Or next. 

Nails for Spring

 Fresh from the home of my 'nail technician', spring nails

And aptly enough I noticed on my walk home that the daffodils that line the drive are just starting to open today too.

Baking Subscription March

 

Greek yoghurt chocolate cake. 

It's delicious. 

You'll see I didn't pipe rosettes with the ganache enriched buttercream through the middle,  for all the usual reasons. It doesn't take away from the taste, or even the look of the cake, I don't think. 

There was lots of the buttercream left over and we've put it in the freezer for the next time I make chocolate cup cakes. 

Meanwhile I don't think this cake is going to last long. 

Knitting Catch Up

I've been quite productive recently although not as good as I might have been with recording finished things here. 

So ages ago I did  these and the friend who sent me that wool sent some plainer gray too so the OH also got a hat and cowl 

there is still sufficient wool left from both lots to do matching mitts but I haven't managed to get round to those yet. I have however done these mittens  - 

to match a hat I  put up some while ago. 

There has been progress on the blanket with one square for this month blocked and complete, anther one on the blocking board, a third half done and the fourth still queued. 

Also on the needles just now are two pairs of socks, both for the OH and my first ever go at a traditional  fair isle beanie. They are all almost finished and I'm hoping they'll all be done by the end of the weekend. And then I can cast on some more socks. I feel this is the year I may turn into a sock production facility. 

And now I feel like death

 I had no side effects from my jab for hours. I was done at about 9.15 and went to bed at midnight feeling fine. Almost as soon as I lay down my arm started to throb, I developed a headache and began to shiver. Followed up with aches all over. I was so disappointed as I had gone to bed thinking I had been one of the lucky ones who wasn't going to have side effects. Never mind,  I thought as I drifted off to sleep, I  expect this will all have worn off by morning. 

Only it hadn't. If anything I felt slightly worse. So much worse in fact that I took a paracetamol. Only those who know me well will realise quite how badly I must have felt, to do that. However I had an on-line class at eleven that I didn't want to miss so I was forced to dose myself up. I was sorely tempted to pop a jumper on over my pyjamas and pretend that I was dressed, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, although I did swap track suit bottoms for the more normal jeans with a belt. Which was fine because I can only be seen from the shoulders up. 

I'm now havering between trying to read in the sunroom, and falling asleep because it's really warm in there, trying to do some of my new jigsaw puzzle in the kitchen which is quite cold and where I will not fall asleep, or giving up and going back to bed. 

While I contemplate the alternatives here's a picture of a bonny bit of Orkney which I took on Sunday.

It was blow-y!

I've Been Jabbed!

First dose of Covid vaccine this morning. Had to be at the vaccination centre in Kirkwall for 9.00 am. Now yawning my head off but unable to say whether that's fatigue from the vaccine or just me not used to getting up quite as early as I did! 

Very well organised and efficient, glad I've been done. And now the wait begins for  the second dose. 

Pine

 

Not a random tree name, but a book. 

Like What We Did In The Dark this is a book that lots of my Scot Lit friends raved about so I thought I would have a look and see what all the fuss was about. 

It was about a girl who lived in a small Highland village with her father, her mother having mysteriously disappeared ten years previously. 

She lives in a dilapidated house (why? her father is an expert carpenter who makes kitchens and furniture for a living) on the border of a pine forest, hence presumably the name of the book. 

I wasn't too suited with this. It felt like the author had lots of good ideas about character and atmosphere  (although not plot) and threw them all in with the result that the novel was, for me, a very unsatisfying hodge podge.

I can't see why people raved about this and honestly I'm beginning to think that I've got too picky to enjoy books any more, but possibly the thing to do is to stay away from 'literary fiction' and stick to genres/ authors which  I know I enjoy. 

Some Good News

I was debating whether to make this post about more knitting or more books but in the end decided to use it to record the fact that I am due to get my first Covid vaccine on Monday at 9.00 am. The early start is the price you pay/reward you get (delete according to mood) for having a surname beginning with A. 

Other excitements include an appointment for a hair cut on Saturday, fancy new nails for spring on Monday and booking a holiday for the beginning of August. This last may be a triumph of hope over expectation but I thought if we booked it for a long way in advance we might have some chance of actually getting it, so fingers crossed for a week in Devon this summer. I am so longing for some time away, although once we can travel again the first trip will be to Glasgow to see Son No 2. 

Socks for Canada - March

 

Nothing fancy this month, basic plain sock pattern, knitted in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply, Black because he doesn't like bright; contrast cuffs toes and heels to make them more fun to knit and to use up some WYS leftovers. . There will be a couple more pairs like this before the year is out!

April will be in a slightly more interesting wool and have a bit of a pattern. Meanwhile for anyone playing along, the clue to the sequence this month is Abbot. 

M I A

 I know, I know. I looked at the blog last night and thought, where did that week go? And it took me a while to remember what it was that I was doing last week that took up so much time, but I finally remembered that most of Mon-Wed was taken up with the Celtic Art Course.  

There was the normal class prep for Tuesday which always takes up a fair chunk of Monday. Last week it was Pictish symbols and there was a lot to read and speculate over. I enjoyed speculating with the rest of them although I have to say I find topics like this where there can be only speculation and no resolution frustrating in the extreme. This is why I would make a rubbish archaeologist. 

It was also the week the first assignment was due in. I think I've made passing reference here previously to the fact that this was an 'essay' with a word count of 1500, including references and  with a tolerance of 10%. That's a harder target to hit than you might think if you also  want to say anything worthwhile, so it took a bit of writing and rewriting. In the end I didn't  think I had said very much although I had discovered that, books and lecture notes to the contrary notwithstanding, neither the Book of Kells nor the Lindisfarne Gospels contain any blues made from lapis lazuli, and I was quite chuffed to find that out and reference it. 

Otherwise the week was full of language study, reading, baking , knitting and walking - reports and pictures to come in due course. Not pictures of the baking as I didn't take any so I will just note that I made some lemon cupcakes with a home grown lemon and they were luverlee.

And now I must go and try and do some prep for tomorrow's class which is all about how early medieval artisans were pictured in contemporary literature. As far as I could gather this was mostly Welsh, but we'll see. Always assuming that my internet, which is currently 'out' comes back,  and that the IT people at UHI get the systems sorted. They were subject to a cyberattack at the end of last week and half the systems are either down for 'repair' or crippled apparently. Update due in half an hour at which point I will know if I am likely to be able to a) read the necessary material for tomorrow's class and b) the class will actually be taking place. 

Spring is Sprung! (or possibly springing)

So we've been out and about over the past few days and I've been looking for signs of spring. And here they are 

Catkins

and snowdrops

and primroses 

and crocuses

and nesting fulmars

like camels, fulmars spit! so we didn't go too close.