I had a look on the internet for ‘today’s day’, but alas, nothing really caught my eye. Well, ‘National Cubicle Day’ made me pause, and ‘National Blueberry Pie Day’ slowed my scrolling a bit. But the rest seemed to be birthdays of famous people I’d never heard of.
As most weeks are, this last was fairly quiet, with several exceptions. The museum was busier than usual; a prearranged booking of a busload of German tourists was due to arrive at opening. They were there and ready to go when I arrived. Extra volunteers came in to help with the visitors. The tourists had a wander around the museum, bought a bit at the shop, and departed – they were in and out in under two hours. Interestingly, the group consisted mostly of the middle-aged or families with children. Usually tour groups consist of pensioners.
Bluebells
The next day, a friend got in touch suggesting lunch out at a nearby hotel. So the walk I’d had in mind was scrapped. As I walked to the venue, I was just as glad, because there of a stiff, cold breeze which would have made a walk unpleasant. My friend and I had a long natter, discussing current affairs, history, and words. Part of the time was spent looking through a vocal score of ‘The Messiah’ – we had both signed up for a ‘Sing or Play’ event with the community orchestra the next day.
Gorse
One of the words we chatted about was ‘meander’. I remembered being told once that it came from the name of a river in Anatolia, the Meander. Upon consulting the internet, this turned out to be true. Then it became a little more interesting. The word is a direct borrowing from classical Latin, and in turn it came from ancient Greek. The name of a winding river went through two other languages before appearing in English in the late 16th century.
Pussywillow
As you can see, the gansey has gone through a transformation. It’s had a ‘proof of concept’ test blocking. I pinned it out after a good misting of water on both sides. It will be slightly wider than calculated, but the basic measurements are correct. Except for the armhole depth, which was totally miscalculated. If I’d drawn a little diagram in the notebook, I might have avoided this – the gusset was started 2.5” too soon. My current plan is to extend it to the proper level. To do this, while the front is knitted, I’ll knit across the gusset, then knit into the edges of the back, just like doing a strap down the shoulder.
There will be another brief break in the blog – I’m off on my travels again for the next few weeks.
Spiral staircase
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