Just a short blog this week, as I’m afraid my cold has returned with a vengeance and I’m a little the worse for wear: my chest is so tight I might as well be wearing a corset (or, er, so I would imagine, *cough*), and I have a tendency to slump in my chair like a Stephen Hawking who’s really let himself go. Several times the neighbours have gone out to help jump-start a car which won’t start, only to find it was me coughing.
It will pass, but once again God has given me a glimpse of what it’s like to be ninety. My only consolation is, it’s not flu – as a doctor said on the radio when someone asked them how you could tell the difference between a bad cold and the flu: if someone leaves a sack containing a million pounds on your front doorstep, and you’re too sick to get out of bed and collect it – that’s flu.
Not that the weather has helped. On Wednesday we had 70-mph gusts and sub-zero temperatures, and I trudged to work through rain, sleet, snow and rain again – all in the space of a ten-minute walk. Seagulls on the harbour wall were being skittled like ninepins by the wind and seemed to be wondering why they’d never thought of migrating south in winter (as, by then, was I). When I got to work, the tracks the sleet made on the windows were horizontal, leaving traces like elementary particles in a particle accelerator. Then the library roof started to leak…
Notwithstanding all this, I’m making steady progress down the sleeve, and have finished the first panel and decreased the gusset out of existence. I’ve just started the herringbone panel, which is something of a relief as I was finding the top pattern a bit challenging in my addled state.
Special thanks to Yasmin at Island at the Edge for sending me a couple of samples of their gansey yarn to try. The more people out there supplying gansey materials the better, I feel, and I’m looking forward to giving this a go, especially the natural yarn.
Right. I’m afraid it’s back to bed for me while the blog pixies (aka ‘tech support’) take over from here. I look forward to rejoining the human race in a few days – see you then.
Take it easy.
Hope yours passes quickly. I like your description of the flu. That’s me. I have to crawl on my hands and knees just to get to my chair in the office, so the million at the front door just has to stay there. (Heading to the ER this morning. Enough is enough!)
Hello Gordon, I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. I hope in addition to the blog pixies you find some well-being tinkerbells.
Did this wool outfit send you enough wool to make an actual gansey or just 2 skeins?
Take care of yourself. I recommend as close to total coverage with wind-proof and water-proof materials as possible (I understand the need to see where you’re going).
Sending get-better thoughts your way, Gordon.
Does this gansey have ribbing around the sleeve or is that an optical illusion? Looks nice either way. Are you going to stop part way and leave the bottom of the sleeve blank? (You’ve probably already said, but my memory is goo tonight.)
Love the corset and flu comments. I’ve decided the stereotype about the Scots (or Dutch — and those with Scots or Dutch ancestry) must be true, because when I had pneumonia and my day consisted of brush teeth, take nap, get half-dressed, take nap,… I would have added, crawl to door and drag money inside, take nap, crawl back to sofa & get off freezing floor, take nap. š
I have begun a swatch for my gansey. I’m trying out a Flamborough pattern. So far, so good. Hope you are better G.
Hello All,
Just a note to say thanks for the comments & good wishes. I’ll respond in due course, but I’m afraid I’ve spent most of the last 5 days in, on or generally adjacent to my bed, as the blasted cough wont shift. On the plus side, I’ve developed a spectacular cough, which sounds like a very nervous donkey being tickled from behind when it wasn’t looking…
Gordon
Wrap up in something wooly and warm, hunker down, and get better soon. I’ve got this great homemade chicken stock recipe…
Free Newfoundland gansey pattern
http://www.canadianliving.com/crafts/knitting/newfoundland_pullover.php
Just a quick couple of things:
Brenda, no, it was just a taster of 2 skeins, which was a nice thought. (Though I’m happy to consider corporate sponsorship in any form…)
Veronica, it’s not so much ribbing round the sleeve as a ladder marking the border of the yoke. It just happens to be 2 rows of knit and 2 rows of purl! And the bottom of the sleeve will be left blank, probably about halfway down the forearm.
Nigel – good luck!
And Joanne, that’s a really nice looking pullover. (Though when I opened the link, foolishly, at work, for an instant it gave me an advert for a “Canadian Sex Survey” – not what you want to have on your computer screen in a public reading room…)
Gordon
Funny Canada Living magazine, you never know what your going to get? sorry