Cornflower

Rattling on

   It's tricky to photograph a short piece of work on a short circular needle, but nevertheless here's a progress shot on the scarf.

Capturing the colours accurately is just as frustratingly hard, but these pictures are reasonably true to life as I move on up the lion motifs with corncrake and the vivid red rattle.

 

If you have time you could stravaig over to Virtual Yarns for a wee minute and read all about the colours - it's fascinating!

Pulling the wool

 

     "I have always loved wool - I mean really and truly loved it, like Claude Monet loved his Giverny and Julia Child loved her butter. Discovering a new wool yarn, smelling it, touching it, dreaming of what I can do with it, knitting and washing a swatch and seeing how it transforms ... those things make me feel complete and fulfilled."

    That is Clara Parkes in the preface to her The Knitter's Book of Wool, and her love of her subject comes across very clearly! But what a fascinating book - I didn't know there was so much to know about wool, but many breeds of sheep are listed with all their various properties and suitabilities, there's a comprehensive section on how the raw fleece is processed to make yarn, and then you get to the patterns and there's a good selection from small items to large ones, simple to more complicated, all designed to properly exploit their chosen wool.

    If you've ever wondered about 'crimp' and 'staple length', puzzled over microns or the meaning of 'amphoteric', these arcane terms are all explained, and you'll look at that not so humble stuff on your knitting needles with new eyes!

Storm petrel, corncrake, fulmar, whin

     Santa Claus (on the instructions of the kind Mr. C.) stopped off on the hebridean island of Lewis to pick up this present for me: a large tissue-lined box of wool from Alice Starmore's Virtual Yarns and the pattern for the enormous and glowing Leo Scarf!

     This should keep me out of mischief for a while, but think - only six rounds a day for a mere 105 days and it'll be done!

 

   The colours themselves apart, I love their names: witch flower, spindrift, mountain hare....

Snow drops

 

 

    Valiantly flowering despite the extreme (for us) weather conditions, this viburnum has found a warmer home indoors.

Freeze frame

    That was our first ever white Christmas, and with snow lying deep and crisp, there was even a great icicle on the wreath early on Christmas Eve!

Deck the halls

... with boughs of pine, ivy, hebe, choisya, dogwood, rosemary, euonymous, vinca, and a rowan berry or two.

    A happy and peaceful Christmas to everyone who visits here!

On castle walls

      "The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story...."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Princess.

The building is the former ordnance storehouse of our magnificent Edinburgh Castle (seldom seen in snow!).

Christmas colours

 
     Just as well I went out with the secateurs yesterday when I had the chance.

Truglodyte

  

    It's snowing here, but I shall brave the elements to go and cut some greenery for the house.

   Meanwhile, the whip's being cracked by He-who-might-be-obeyed-if-I-feel-like-it for more productivity Christmas preparation-wise, i.e. less time spent on the blogs and reading.....

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou are not so unkind As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou are not seen, Although thy breath be rude.

Hey-ho! sing, hey-ho! unto the green holly,

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly;

Then hey-ho, the holly, This life is most jolly.

 

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot.

Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not.

Hey-ho, sing hey-ho, unto the green holly,

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly;

Then hey-ho, the holly, This life is most jolly.

                             *

Shakespeare, As You Like It, II.7.

(The middle picture is a disc of ice from the dogs' rainwater bowl!)

A gaelic blessing

   This piece was played (though not sung) at a carol service I was at the other day, and as we haven't had any music posts here for a while and this is lovely, I thought I'd put it up. It's not just a Christmas song of course, though it's for his Christmas music that the composer John Rutter is best known, and while you can read more about him in this profile, here's the passage I particularly wanted to quote:

"... carols are actually a very old art-form. They are the first form of vernacular choral literature that we have in this country, because back in the 15th century when Latin was used for everything else in church, English was permitted for carols. Obviously the medieval clergy, stern though they no doubt were, had a soft spot for Christmas.

"Carols are a form of miniature and I like miniatures. I thought they were a charming, limited little art-form that reached out to people. A lot of people who are not touched by choral music for the rest of the year often find that Christmas music touches their heart."

(For John Rutter in different mood, you might like to listen to his Gloria with its wonderful brass part).

Shepherds' delight

    Seeing as the last few posts have been a bit on the grey side, it's time for some colour -

all natural, not re-touched in any way, the afternoon sky and the view from the bathroom window!

Dalliance

    It started as a mild flirtation, nothing more. Then, in all innocence, I got the book. With that I entered dangerous waters, was swept away by the rip-tide of passion and before I could stop myself I had cast on,

and what you see here really is but a trifle, though it may resemble this hat, in which case you might conclude that I have started making the matching scarf, but I couldn't possibly comment except to say that I told you it could get serious ....

Edinburgh fog

    With dense fog here in Edinburgh on Friday and visibility in this part of town reduced to about fifty yards, a journey across the city was quite eerie as statues and buildings loomed out of the gloom. Above is George IV, next is the dome of the Bank of Scotland,

 

and also on The Mound, the Black Watch Memorial:

 

But Edinburgh fog is not just a meteorological condition pertaining to the Athens of the North, it is also a pudding!

The happy medium

    

     "Do you know 'happy medium' are two words which mean 'miserable mediocrity'? I say, go first class or third; marry a duchess or her kitchenmaid. The happy medium means respectability, and respectability means insipidness. Does it not, Mr. Pooter?"

Gosh! For more from The Diary of a Nobody, have a look here.