Wick (George Bremner): Week 7 – 29 August

Back when I was little, I can’t remember how I imagined I’d be spending my time in my sixties: watching attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, perhaps, or travelling the American Midwest teaching bullying cowboys the error of their ways by preaching non-violence, and, when that didn’t work, breaking their arms with kung fu. Not making urgent trips to the bathroom at inconvenient moments and trying to remember if I’ve already taken today’s medication. And yet here we are.

I wonder this about vampires, sometimes; does their biology stop when they get bitten? I mean, if Dracula’s hundreds of years old, think of the state of his prostate. (And his opinions: “The children of the night, what music they make. Not like modern so-called ‘popular music’, ha, I mean, call that music, there’s not even a bloody tune.”) I can barely crawl out of bed in the morning, never mind go creeping down castle walls face-down. I don’t suppose they have to worry about blood pressure, but do vampires’ teeth ever fall out? And what happens if someone knocks out a canine? Are there vampire dentists? Or do very elderly vampires go searching for prey armed with a very sharp straw?

Wildflowers by the path

Meanwhile, back in the real world I have a couple of parish notices. First of all, Judit’s been busy again, this time with a gansey in lovely grey-green Finnish yarn (Novita 7 Veljestä, or 7 Brothers), not unlike the Frangipani Cordova shade. The pattern is the classic double-line zigzag, also known as marriage lines, as described in Rae Compton’s book, pp.82-83 (with associations all along the east coast, though here I’m claiming it for Scotland!). Congratulations again to Judit, and many thanks as ever to her for sharing it with us.

In other news, Margaret and I will be making a rare public appearance at the Highland Meet the Makers event on the morning of Thursday 8 September at Blairbeg Hall in Drumnadrochit, south of Inverness near the shores of Loch Ness. The event is organised by Loch Ness Knitting, and is primarily a showcase for Highland yarn suppliers and craftspeople. We’re delighted to be invited, and will be taking along a selection of ganseys for people to look at and hopefully chat about. If it’s quiet we may even slip out for a spot of Nessie-watching.

Abstract hawthorn

And if growing old hasn’t turned out quite the way I’d expected, to be fair few things have. Take joy. I used to imagine the summit of human pleasure came through falling in love, the passion of physical embrace, the symphonies of Bruckner, or religious ecstasy. But no: turns out bliss really lies in finally scratching that itch in the small of your back that’s been driving you mad, or finding a space in a hospital car park, or discovering you can still reach your little toe with the toenail clippers. If only I’d known this earlier, how much simpler life would have been…

==========================

TECHNICAL STUFF

I’ve finished Side A and am well embarked on Side B. (Because this gansey doesn’t have a shaped neckline there technically isn’t a front and a back, as such.)

Now, either this batch of yarn is knitting up a bit thicker than some others, or (more likely) I just got the maths slightly wrong, because I ran out of room at the top of the yoke (i.e., I still had some rows to go when the armhole reached 8 inches from the gusset). I only had 3 rows still to knit, but 3 rows per side equals 6 rows in total, or half an inch, and that would make the armhole just a wee bit deeper than I wanted.

Flower of Scotland

So what I did was simply divide the row into three, a third each for the two shoulders and another third for the neck. (As my row has 180 stitches, each third has 60 stitches.) I put the neck stitches in the middle on a holder—and yes, the chevron ends 3 rows early here, but I’m hoping no one will really notice once it’s finished. And after all, the original (which is knit on finer needles and so has more rows than mine) has a truncated chevron band at the top, so obviously the knitter was fine with being pragmatic too.

I then knit the 3 extra rows to complete the chevron on each shoulder. Now, my shoulder straps are usually 12 rows, so I knit another plain row after the chevron and then made up the remaining 8 rows with 2 ridge and furrows (of 4 rows of p-p-k-k each).  More on this next week.

I should finish Side B this week, then it’s on to the collar and—sigh—picking up stitches for the sleeve.