The State of Things

I am still knitting, though there is little sign of it here, as there isn't much progress visible, I'm afraid -- the "Camptown Races" cowl is still making a grandmother's-footsteps advance towards the finish line, five rows forward, one back, seven forward, two back -- the ski balaclava for David was far too big, ripped back to the beginning, slightly too big, ripped back to the neck, and is heading upwards yet again -- the "Rae" slipover for Julia got abandoned in summer heat and my utter dread of purling with two colors, but I have now decided to throw my period-knitting technique (partial technique, to be honest, as said dread already made me work the bottom half in the round ...), and after double-checking by blocking it still on the needles and making sure that it fits, I've decided to steek the armholes and neck opening.

And I have a post nearly ready to put up about my second 1:12 shop but am puzzled and confused by the sudden enormity of the images in my last post -- TypePad or me, I don't know.  Certainly I am still struggling with the new-to-me photo-editing program -- but I thought I had made them all the same size as previously.

(I did, by the way, realize that I mis-read the "Margaret Ann Klinedienst" chart, and I was supposed to interlace the satin stitches on the large diamonds along the basket, not butt them up against each other down the middle of each diamond as I'd tried to do earlier.  They are all actually the same thread, but those two that look dark are worked horizontally, while the others are vertical, and the light catches them very differently here!)

But, yes, I am still deep into my fascination with historical samplers and reproductions thereof, and I admit freely that they are absorbing much of my time, though I am also making an effort to read more, and am about halfway through my third re-read this year of the "Swallows and Amazons" series -- just closed the cover at the end of Coot Club this morning, with a great deal of satisfaction at how everything turns out!  (How did I never know of these?!)

More anon --

Comments

[ceci]

How exciting, another Swallows and Amazons fan! I tried to get my siblings interested in them when I started my first re-reading as an adult in '20 - brother who is a sailor opined learnedly on the various sailing techniques and their validity (almost all very solid according to him) and my sister was horrified at the lax parenting. So I didn't really find a fellow fan close to home!

Ceci

[juliet brown]

Ahhhhh Swallows and Amazons - set in the lovely Lake District near where I live (Carlisle UK), I think it is a combination of Windermere and Coniston, a very lovely part of the world :) As for the slow progress of things - I wonder if this is a collective thing, I feel like I am wading through syrup to achieve nothing much, I'm really not very impressed with myself. I cant seem to settle to any specific project and almost everything cast on gets cast off before Ive even managed a few rows.