Monday, April 24, 2017

I’m sorry for last night’s gap – sometimes I feel I am sinking beneath the surface or life, not waving but drowning. But essentially, everything is all right and here I am.

I am shaping that final sleeve cap, but I should be further forward with it by now. Tomorrow, surely, will see it done.

Here, at least, is the long-promised pic of the swatch-scarf, not showing up quite as well as I would have hoped. The two rows of lozenges at the top are the ones I am ready to pass off as OK. The two third and fourth up from the bottom, are the calmer ones Alexander prefers.




Shandy, yes, I saw Jen’s comment here and was very grateful for it. I seem to be having trouble getting into Evernote – I mustn’t let that one get away. I think your problem about the bisected lozenges can be resolved by the fact that they are offset in every other row. But thinking about things like that makes my mind hurt.

I am enjoying thinking about the future, even as I toil ever so slowly on with that sleeve cap and contemplate the seaming to come. I incline rather a lot towards KD’s “Miss Rachel’s Yoke”, which I’ve got. Call it the Veenstra syndrome – I don’t terribly want to wear it, it would get dirty too quickly, I do better in washable rugby shirts; off-hand I don’t know who else might want to wear it. I want to knit it.

Non-knit

Archie came to see us for a while on Sunday morning. The conversation turned to Ozymandias, King of Kings. It was my husband who brought him up. I wondered who had written the line. Archie said, without (metaphorically) looking up from his knitting, “Shelley”. My husband said, with some emphasis – and some plausibility, I thought – “Coleridge”. So we looked it up.


Archie must be learning something. Much of his classroom time at Lancaster is spent in Autonomous Learning Groups, a phrase which passed immediately and derisively into our family vocabulary. It means what we used to call “seminars”, but without the presence of a grown-up. Helen is indignant that universities charge more money than good private boarding schools and offer substantially less tuition.

6 comments:

  1. Glad to hear all is well - the scarf looks marvellous! As for university fees - well yes, it's an expensive business, mind you the library and campus, and computer labs and sports centre etc etc have to be accounted for, along with the staff. Sounds like Archie is settling in just fine...

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  2. Anonymous11:13 PM

    I suspect there will be more 'hands on' teaching in years 2 and 3. Even then, I understand that much of the teaching is done by postgraduate students allowing the academic staff to get on with their research.

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  3. Autonomous learning is a serious problem here too. The staff say they "don't have time" to teach and do research - and their jobs depend on getting research papers published. Is it any wonder that the standard has dropped and what now counts for a pass would not have been accepted at "A" level thirty years ago?

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  4. That scarf looks so rich. The color choices are wonderful - all of them. I expect you got a little smile from Archie being right on the poet.

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  5. Your scarf-swatch is wonderful.
    Your comment , 'I want to knit it,' is the root cause of my extensive list of WIPs. (I refuse to call them UFOs) I always want to start, to see how it works, see what it really looks like it. Then I want to try the next new way of knitting something. This is why I do both socks at the same time, ditto both sleeves. I start with the boring parts to get to the shiny new technique or pretty new cable. Who knows if it will fit anyone or if anyone 'else might want to wear it.'
    Thanks again for your blog and its musings about life.

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  6. I love the zip of red through the lozenges!

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