I’m usually quite fond of tempting Fate – in small things, I mean, where it doesn’t really matter if Fate decides to teach me a jolly good lesson. I’ve learned that my rational self is little more than skin deep, and I’m actually rather superstitious: bad things do come in threes, I don’t walk under ladders if I can help it, and I touch wood for luck, even becoming mildly uneasy if there’s none to hand. Caithness fishermen wouldn’t wear anything green, it was bad luck, and by an amazing coincidence I don’t have a green gansey in my collection.
Flag Irises after the rain
So when I wrote last week about how dry it’s been, I thought I knew exactly what I was doing. And sure enough, Fate heard me, and on Wednesday it rained. On paper the plan worked. But you can’t really trick Fate, who decided to pay me back and dump an entire month’s rainfall on us in an hour. The light became crepuscular, as though God needed to put another shilling in the meter, and 58mm of water fell – that’s 2.25 inches in old money. Lord, but it was wet! Rain cascaded off the rooftops in torrents, potholes turned into lochs, and the centre of Wick actually flooded. Thunder boomed and rolled like an artillery barrage, with cracks of lightning loud enough to make you spill your coffee.
It all got a bit Biblical – at one point I noticed various sheep and crows in the field opposite lining up two by two, in case I decided to build an Ark – but then after an hour it stopped as suddenly as someone had flipped a switch, the point being made. The sun came out again. A couple of hours later the ground was back to bone dry. And now we really could do with some more rain. But I’m not going to be the one to say it, not this time: after all, I wouldn’t want to tempt Fate…
Boats decked out for RNLI Lifeboat Day
TECHNICAL STUFF
This week I’ve finished the front, joined the shoulders, knitted the collar and started the first sleeve. It sounds like a lot but really these are the quick wins, the reward for persevering with the long haul up the body, where things come together in a rush and the gansey starts to take its proper shape. The sleeves will be the exact same pattern as the body, but with a diamond panel at the centre (I’m going to continue the pattern all the way to the cuffs on this one, just because). My plan is to get the gansey finished by the end of July. We’ll see.
Good luck with that plan now you’ve given fate another temptation!
Hi Rita, once again Fate has outwitted me. Yes, it’s rained, but we’ve also had gales of forty-plus-mph and it’s been *cold*. I maybe need to be more specific when I tempt Fate next time…
Yes, show off those diamonds! You continue to amaze me with design and productivity. Rain-making may be a promising sideline or new career.
Thank you Tamar. As ever, I just recreate – someone had to create these patterns in the first place! I’m doing okay for rain-making. Now I just need to work on my howling gale prevention!