LindyB

midge and sausage

2011-10-14T22:51:00.000+01:00

Pooling disaster

2010-10-16T20:35:00.000+01:00

In July, I cast on Summit for my mum because (a) I'd seen the pattern in Knitty earlier this year and decided that I wanted to knit it and (b) I'd just got a job lot of lovely sock yarn in her colours (she's a summer). I haven't picked it up since mid-August and have knitted various other things in the meantime. You see, I'd put a lot of effort into this scarf and had come to realise that I pretty much hated the way it looked with the yarn I'd chosen. Tonight, I'm biting the bullet and frogging it. Am going to use the yarn for the Coquille shawl instead; from the pattern, it looks like it's designed for a variegated yarn.

over a year??

2010-10-10T21:38:00.004+01:00

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while but it's a surprise that it's been over a year. What's happened in that year? quite a few knitting projects including some for the Winter Ravelympics 2010. I've also submitted my phd dissertation and continued to spend most of my time being the devoted servant of Prince Benji. He's been poorly recently ... which has caused me a lot of anxiety but has obviously been worse for him as he's had to have several IVs, an operation and lots of medication.

Currently on the needles is... a jumper for Prince Benji. Obviously.

In other news, I'm incredibly overexcited about the new series of Strictly Come Dancing. Having started ballroom lessons in February, I now feel, probably erroneously, that I have a greater understanding of how the judging works.

10 rows to go!

2009-08-13T22:59:00.001+01:00

Photo 162
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

will I stay awake long enough to complete it tonight?

Knit a poem

2009-08-13T10:44:00.002+01:00

P8080016
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

The Poetry Society is celebrating its centenary with a knitted poem and I was one of many knitters who responded to a call for participants. My letter is a W and is well underway. We've got an active group over on Ravelry and the whole thing is proving to be very enjoyable...

... apart, that is, from my letter. I don't do intarsia. I don't like having all the dangling bits of yarn behind the work; I seem to spend more time detangling the yarn than actually knitting. Plus I managed to decide I'd misread the chart, frog several rows and redo it backwards, realise I was right the first time and have to do it all over again. Then just in case enough things hadn't already happened to this project, my new Knitpicks needle snapped. The lovely customer service person at Getknitted is going to send me a new needle when they have 3.5mm tips back in stock. Meanwhile, I've been carrying on with the letter using the remaining half of the Knitpicks needle with one 3.25mm straight needle and one 4 mm circular. Hopefully this means that the gauge will work out.

But goodness me, this W has been a saga! considering the number of years I've been knitting, I'd have imagined that I could have managed a 12 inch square without this much drama.

For more information about the project, including photos of completed letters from knitters with less numpty-ish tendencies than me, visit the poetry society website.

Hoodie

2009-06-26T10:13:00.001+01:00

P6240002
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

It's so nearly finished.... but there seem to be about a zillion yarn ends to weave in and I HATE weaving in yarn ends.

Baby hoodie

2009-06-13T09:03:00.001+01:00

P6120075
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I haven't posted for months. But I have been knitting. A friend had a baby at the beginning of May so I made him a baby Yoda cardigan and am now on the hood part of the striped hooded top from Debbie Bliss's Baby Cashmerino book. I'm using ordinary DK baby yarns (i.e. ones I can afford rather than the cashmerino) and it seems to be working out really nicely.

Fingers crossed xx

Another doggy jumper

2009-01-23T10:11:00.001Z

Photo 44
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

The arrival of Benji B. Barack has curtailed my knitting activities, as has the new university term and all sorts of other things.
But I'm persevering with a stripy jumper for Ben; I'm on the very last stage now but the instructions on how to finish off are incredibly confusing: picking up 91 stitches from around the sides of the back piece and knitting several rows of rib; doing something similar with the front piece; then knitting across the two sets of stitches left on stitch holders (front and back pieces) to make a little polo collar.

Hmmmmm. If I ever work out how to do it, I'll post a pic.

Off topic but a crucial blogging plea

2009-01-11T21:05:00.002Z

I'm publicizing one of the candidates for Best UK Blog in the Weblog Awards, partly because the blog is doing an excellent service for creative types in Birmingham, partly because it's run by a friend of a friend, and partly because the main competitor in this category is a woman whose views (as aired on Radio 4's Moral Maze and in her journalism for papers including the Daily Mail and the Spectator) are anathema to me. All support would be welcome before voting closes on Tuesday.

Your help is needed! Created in Birmingham has been nominated for Best UK Blog 2008 in the 2008 Weblog Awards (http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-uk-blog/). Your support would mean that a truly worthy blog gets the recognition it deserves for its work to promote the fantastic creative talent and related activities in Birmingham.

Voting takes just a couple of seconds – visithttp://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-uk-blog/and vote for Created in Birmingham. You can vote once every 24 hours per computer. Voting closes at 10pm GMT on Tuesday 13th January.

Please forward this email to any friends, colleagues or contacts! Thank you - your support is very much appreciated.

dog sweater

2009-01-01T19:10:00.001Z

P1010038
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

With the help of Ravelry, I've found an easy dog sweater pattern and cast on, but using very large needles, double strands of aran and adapting the pattern accordingly. Ben is coming to live with me soon and he's a little thing, so will need to be kept warm.

2008-12-30T16:42:00.003Z

I don't have much knitting information to blog about, since I'm in the middle of a multi-work-in-progress slough. So, instead, here is a photo taken by Tekla that she has kindly allowed me to share with you because it's so gorgeous :-)

Finally an FO

2008-12-19T21:48:00.001Z

Photo 145
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

This is the first thing I've finished in a while, partly because it's taken me a long time to knit. It's looooooooooooong.
It took up a whole 500g skein of aran.
Now I'm trying to make an angel for my great aunt for next Thursday. Wish me luck.

ribbed shrug

2008-12-14T22:55:00.001Z

ribbed shrug
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I've been knitting Erika Knight's Ribbed Shrug for what seems like ages. However, the end is in sight. It's nearly reached the point where I'll change to the different ribbing for the second cuff.
It's quite a fun knit and requires no mental energy!

baby shrug

2008-11-19T20:24:00.001Z

baby shrug
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

The baby shrug is finished at last. It doesn't really fit Pudsey bear but that's irrelevant because he won't be the one who has to wear it! The shrug will shortly be united with its new owner, a baby named Georgina.

wrist warmers gone wrong

2008-11-10T23:06:00.001Z

wrist warmers gone wrong
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I'd based this pattern on one from the new Vogue Holiday knits for 2008. My tension/gauge was correct. But I think these fingerless gloves were designed for people with bigger bones than me. I think I'll have to frog back. again. sigh.

Wol

2008-10-30T19:13:00.001Z

Photo 124
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

This funny looking Owl (whose name, of course, is Wol) was my second attempt at a crocheted animal/bird, and a bit of a disaster. However, MummyB was very happy to receive it yesterday when she called in on the way to Norwich.

Finished!

2008-10-22T23:12:00.001+01:00

Photo 122
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I've even worn it twice as a shrug. The ribbon version is beyond me at the moment. I need some brain power first.

Blocking versatility

2008-10-18T23:03:00.001+01:00

PA180037
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

As a fully paid-up member of the lazy knitters club, I'm a stranger to blocking. For some reason I decided that I should have a go with my versatility: the effort spent on those cables needed to be rewarded with some extra care. The trouble is... that the versatility is taller than me, and I don't have a piece of towel long enough to pin it onto, and nor do I have sufficient pins to get it properly rectangular. It also made my house smell of wet wool. Ughety ugh.

I hope that the result in the morning will be worth all this effort!

In the meantime, I've started a baby shrug for a family friend's new arrival.

Versatility again!

2008-10-14T22:51:00.001+01:00

Photo 107
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

all it needs now is the buttons and ribbons but having spent several weeks on this, I must admit to being simultaneously delighted with the finished project and with the prospect of casting on a new, different pattern!

Two and a half repeats in

2008-09-23T10:02:00.001+01:00

Two and a half repeats in
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

and I think it's still looking nice :-)

LeTonBeau (the Ravelry name of the pattern's designer) has invited me to join the Versatility KAL on Rav. There are about 4 shared projects on there, including one which is not only complete but completed in crochet!

blobs

2008-09-19T22:58:00.004+01:00

Versatility
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Versatility update: I had to pull a few rows back because the original pattern omitted the bobbles in the written instructions for row 23. But I've redone it and completed row 10 of the repeat.
My worries about this pattern being too complicated for my concentration span have been mostly unfounded; I'm enjoying it.

versatility

2008-09-16T22:42:00.001+01:00

P9160038
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

It's growing. And I've even been ploughing on with the cable section. So far, no disasters.
fingers crossed....

Proving my versatility?

2008-09-14T21:39:00.001+01:00

P9130037
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Someone on Ravelry posted to say that the new Knitty has been launched for "fall 2008". Unable to resist the lure of free patterns but very conscious of my limited budget, I decided to see if there was something I could knit using existing stash. MummyB recently bought me some huge skeins (400g) of Aran and even though the pattern 'versatility' calls for 'bulky' (the equivalent of chunky in English), my tension square worked out perfectly with aran and 7mm needles.

It's not a tricky pattern in terms of technique but it does require concentration because each line is different. I'm using the written instructions rather than the chart because writing makes far more sense to me than diagrams.

Who knows whether I'll have the perseverance to keep going when I reach the cable stage?

Crocheting

2008-09-10T19:26:00.001+01:00

Photo 56
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

My first crochet animal is nearly finished (all done apart from one or two loose threads that need to be tucked away). I used Monica Rodriguez' Small Bob pattern but with different yarn, different eyes, and many many attempts at the sewing up because it took a long time before I was happy with him. He looked like an Alsatian to start with, then a Jack Russell and only now do I think that he is starting to resemble a Boston :-)

Bit of post-Ravelympics silliness

2008-08-26T22:36:00.001+01:00

post-felting
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I improvised a bag in crochet... quite cool for me to do because a) I don't crochet and b) I don't improvise!

Well my Junie B project also involved some impro so maybe my horizons are expanding :-)
With the scrap of the Anchor Filz It wool, I made a little felted headband for Junie B. It's in a nice floppy bow on her head now.

Junie B having a sleep

2008-08-25T22:50:00.001+01:00

Junie B having a sleep
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Junie B definitely needed a nap after the exertions to get the blanket finished for the Ravelympic deadline of the Beijing closing ceremony. We managed it (actually, I managed it; she sat nearby, looking helpful).

The blanket really pushed me to the edge of my knitting tolerance because there was such a lot of it. And it seemed to go on forever and ever.

Today, as a complete change, I've been freeform creating a crochet bag, which I hope to felt eventually.

Hmmm. I'm going to have to post Junie B off to her new Mommy soon. Or I'll be too attached to say goodbye!

Junie B Jones...

2008-08-21T10:00:00.003+01:00

P8200031_2
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

... needs a beauty shop guy. I think that before I post her to her new Mommy, I'll have to get the scissors out to try to curb the wild excesses of her mane. I'm fairly pleased with the way she looks overall and am glad that I had a go at experimenting with creating her clothes to be taken on and off.

That's my first Ravelympics project completed (for Team Cambridge). The blanket for Team Bob is going OK but I had to admit to finding it rather dull because it's a lot of the same, round and round, just making it big enough to be blanket shaped.

the end is nigh

2008-08-07T16:55:00.001+01:00

Photo 32
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I've finally reached the decrease section. Am now hoping that a) I have enough yarn to complete without needing to buy a 5th (£7.95) skein and b) that I can cast off before the Ravelympics start tomorrow at 1pm BST!

another skein

2008-08-05T13:51:00.001+01:00

clapotis
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I decided that to make this worth knitting, I wanted it to be as long as my favourite pashmina and my lovely Eritrean scarf. So I went to Sew Creative yesterday for a fourth skein of the Noro. Afterwards, as I was knitting and then winding my new skein onto the existing ball, a fellow twenty-something stopped by my table in Borders to find out where I'd bought the yarn. I felt rather chuffed to be an advert for my favourite LYS !!

The dropped stitch part of this pattern is rather addictive; I love reaching each row 8 of the 12 row repeat just so I can pull some more stitches out and add to the wavey texture.

getting longer

2008-08-02T11:09:00.001+01:00

clapotis
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

look it's still growing. I must admit that having to repeat the same pattern over and over is testing my limited attention span. It's a very easy knit and possibly not challenging enough to keep me as interested in it as I was when I started.

love at first knit

2008-07-28T06:50:00.001+01:00

clapotis day 3
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I <3 Noro. I <3 clapotis.

In fact, perhaps in future, I'll only ever knit clapotises in Noro ;-)

Clapotis day 2

2008-07-27T11:39:00.001+01:00

Clapotis day 2
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

OK. I see now why everyone loves Noro !

This is silk garden lite and I have to decide whether I'm going to need another skein to complete this clapotis. I've tried applying the 'rule of 5' but still feel unsure.

at LAST

2008-07-21T22:19:00.001+01:00

P7210023
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

considering how much fun the actual circle part of this was to knit, the arms have taken me a disproportionate amount of time to complete. I'm blaming it partly on the fact I've actually got some work done in the past week or two, partly on attempting to be sociable while having visitors to stay and partly to being under the weather and not feeling more in the mood for a nap than a knit.
But I do love it. The yarn is so soft (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and Rowan Aran) that the whole cardi seems almost shiny with cuddliness.

Pinwheel sleeve number one

2008-07-11T08:12:00.001+01:00

Pinwheel and big wool
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Picking up the stitches to knit the sleeve was remarkably easy. I have cheated a bit though because the instructions for the icord cast off unravelled my brain. if I'm feeling brave when the sleeves are done, I *may* unpick the existing cast off and have a go at the icord.

bloggety blog

2008-07-08T08:35:00.003+01:00

A friend of mine set up a blog yesterday. You can find it at mirror of fools

She's planning a serious nerdy blog. So when she asked about putting me on her blogroll, I pointed out that this is a very dull knitting blog which isn't going to add any intellectual interest to her readers ;-)

On the knitting front, pinwheel is coming along nicely but I didn't get a chance to knit for over 24 hours yesterday because of a trip to Leeds for the Medieval Congress. I gave my paper, my powerpoint worked properly and got to speak to some of the historians from Cambridge. Quite why we only ever have chance to chat when we're in Leeds is one of those perennial questions, probably doomed never to be answered.

Pinwheel

2008-07-03T17:14:00.001+01:00

Pinwheel
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Yesterday I started a Pinwheel sweater in aran. It's a chance to try out my new Knit Picks Harmony needles. I'm using 3x5mm circular needles for this ; I don't own any DPNs but happen to have three 5mm circs so it made sense to use all three. I love the pattern so far; it's like instant gratification because it looks pretty so quickly!!

BSJ

2008-06-15T11:22:00.001+01:00

with buttons
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I participated in a BSJ knit-along this month with the lovely lady from socktopus.co.uk and various members of Ravelry. This is my finished BSJ made in Cherry Tree Hill supersock merino. The colourway is Country Garden and I picked some buttons at Sew Creative yesterday (while there for the World Wide Knitting in Public day!) that hopefully bring out the turquoise hints in the yarn. I've enjoyed this so much that I've now begun another in DK :-)

nearly finished

2008-05-25T22:47:00.001+01:00

knitting
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Joyce's tea pot is smaller than the one that's modelling the cosy in this picture so it should fit a bit more convincingly.
I'm now back on the preemie knits until my BSJ pattern and wool arrive (or do I have to wait for 1st June to begin that because of the knit-along? I've not participated in a KAL before so I don't know how it works)...

meme from Rosie

2008-05-25T09:38:00.002+01:00

The Rules

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

Having a year out before university. It was a little longer than a year in the end (two hospital admissions and some time working for the British Society for Human Genetics) but I did get there eventually.

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
To do: mark the practice essay that I've been sent; go shopping with my mother (coming for a visit); sew up the tea cosy; read through my 12000 words of primary material for the shepherds; go on Newton to find catalogue references for the books/articles I gleaned from an MLA search yesterday.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Pass

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:
buy a flat; secure my parents' retirement; buy my brother a house; buy him a new car; go back to Eritrea and secure the future of the libraries in Agordat plus sort out the water.

5. Places I have lived:
Eccles, Patchway (Bristol), Harpenden (Herts), Solihull and Great Cambourne

Well, that was the easy bit. Now I've got to think of people to tag but I don't have any readers for this blog so I'll just leave it open!!

tea cosy

2008-05-24T20:50:00.001+01:00

tea cosy
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I haven't posted in ages and ages. The past month's knitting has mostly been premature baby clothes. I have a bag full and decided I needed a change so went to Sew Creative in hope of inspiration. I bought a ball of Twilley's Freedom Spirit, browsed Ravelry for patterns and decided to make a tea cosy for my great aunt's birthday. She taught me to knit when I was small so she likes seeing my finished work. This knits up incredibly quickly. I cast on last night and have already nearly finished.

Oh and I've ordered wool and a pattern to make my first Baby Surprise Jacket with the BSJ knit-along...

Frogged!

2008-04-25T19:16:00.001+01:00

Photo 112
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

The calorimetry is finished, the size of a tea towel and therefore frogged.

Back to knitting for preemies I think ...

starting Calorimetry

2008-04-24T09:32:00.001+01:00

starting Calorimetry in WWMDfK T shirt
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I'm not a creative knitter... well that may not be 100% true. My many poodle creations ended up having very little to do with the original patterns, each one with varied colours and yarns making different textures and "fur"-length.
But for garments, I'm terrified of straying off pattern. I don't really understand gauge and stitch ratios, etc. So imagine my surprise to find myself choosing to use up the end of my Rowan Holiday yarn with a pattern that calls for a completely different kind of wool. I think I've worked out a ratio from the gauge (there are 5 stitches of the pattern wool per inch versus 3 for Holiday). And I've tried to scale down the pattern accordingly.

We shall see if it works...

wraparound cardi

2008-04-21T13:14:00.001+01:00

wraparound cardi
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

A weekend crash course in crochet (requiring lots of help from Ravelry fora) and the pieces of the cardi finally got sewn together with the edging around the top.

The knitting was by far the easiest part of this project. I nearly gave up after my third botched attempt at crochet, and again when I was struggling to set in the sleeves. I'm glad I persevered though.

crochet attempt

2008-04-17T23:09:00.001+01:00

crochet attempt
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

Hmmmm. I'm not one of nature's crochet-ers. but surely the fringe for Rosa shouldn't be quite this... well... big! I'm following the pattern and it's been keeping me out of mischief tonight but I'll reserve judgement on the frilly bit until I've gone all the way round.

bootees from Bliss website

2008-04-16T10:12:00.001+01:00

bootees from Bliss website
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

These are an incredibly quick knit. Just need to tuck in yarn ends and work out where I am supposed to send them. I've now started the hat from the Bliss pattern leaflet

teeny tiny vent hat

2008-04-12T20:48:00.001+01:00

april
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

it's finished apart from stray bits of yarn and apparently it needs a button somewhere.
I have no idea whether it looks right because I've never seen a vent bonnnet....

Vent bonnet in progress

2008-04-12T00:04:00.001+01:00

Vent bonnet in progress
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I do hate knitting with 4-ply but the pattern is so simple that i've no excuse for not completing this. You can see the little vent flap thing in the work in progress on this photo.

Premature baby knitting

2008-04-09T20:58:00.001+01:00

vent bonnet
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

I haven't quite sewn up the cardigan yet but my pattern leaflet from the bonnie babies special care baby appeal arrived today so I cast on the vent bonnet with some 4-ply I happened to have. I *hate* knitting with 4-ply so this will be an endurance test for me...

cardi....

2008-04-04T22:20:00.001+01:00

cardi
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

... is nearly finished. But despite five completed pieces, I haven't quite got around to sewing it together yet.

Present given

2008-02-15T20:53:00.001Z

and a positive response received!

I've completed the back of the wraparound cardigan. It's quite a short style: more like a bolero

one finished; another started.

2008-02-13T23:14:00.004Z

The birthday project was completed the other day.

I've now started a wraparound cardigan from Rowan's Tuscan Retreat book. It uses their now discontinued yarn: Holiday. This was in the sale bin at Sew Creative on Saturday when I went in to get the pale blue ribbon you can see in the photo of the completed jumper above.

I was afraid the lace pattern would prove too fiddly for me (I knit while reading so get frustrated if I actually have to concentrate on the knitting!) but it's remarkably simple.

This is what I have managed so far:

getting there

2008-01-16T16:12:00.001Z

back
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

the back is now complete and one sleeve is in progress. I had to visit John Lewis at the weekend because I was a bit worried that I was using more yarn than I'd anticipated. So their clearance bucket was emptied by me of pale blue Cashmerino Astrakhan.

Just to prove I can

2008-01-11T11:24:00.001Z

Ribbon twist
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

After yesterday's post, I thought I should actually try wearing the only cardigan I've knitted for myself! I made it at the end of 2004 and like it. Trouble is a) it's too bulky to wear under a coat and b) it doesn't fasten up. There's a cord that ties with pom poms but that doesn't keep the two sides together.
Still it's OK for wearing in the house.

knitting jumpers

2008-01-10T22:46:00.000Z

My current project. It seems, finally, to be working!

Considering the amount of time I've spent knitting, one would expect me to be on more than my second jumper. However, the awful result of an ill-conceived plan with Sirdar Wow! a few years ago completely put me off. The expense of buying so many balls of wool to produce an item more suitable for a weebly doll or a teletubby was a steep learning curve and encouraged me to stick to my favourite comfort knitting items: Jean Greenhowe toys, delicate baby knits and (of course) the poodles.
I knitted myself a cardigan in Rowan Ribbon Twist. I love it... but never wear it.

So maybe these experiences have contributed to the nightmare of beginning MummyB's birthday present. The pattern isn't difficult; it's well within my capabilities, but I've struggled with it ridiculously.
I think the worst is over now. The size looks about right. The lace pattern seems to look accurate and I'm on to a nice chunk of straight stocking stitch.

Present

2008-01-06T23:01:00.000Z

Making something for my mother's birthday seemed like a good idea when I was in John Lewis yesterday. The Debbie Bliss cashmerino astrakhan in the sale basket was in her colour (she's a summer) and half price. I found a Rowan pattern that looked like a style she might actually wear.

But the first 10-15 cm of knitting have been hard work. Thankfully I've progressed beyond the photo above and have now completed the rather tricksy edging and lace section at the bottom.

one down...

2008-01-04T22:13:00.000Z

.... one to go. These Saartjes bootees are reminding me just how much I hate knitting with 4-ply. I think they are going to be a nice present for a newborn though. They barely take any time at all; and I learnt a new technique today having never before come across longtail cast-on.
Once my registration pieces have been submitted on Tuesday, I think I'll go over to John Lewis to find some buttons for these bootees and (I hope) some nice wool for a birthday present for MummyB. I've seen some possible patterns on Ravelry...

Exciting

2008-01-01T18:00:00.000Z

My photo on Ravelry of the Jean Greenhowe nativity is now the photo set for that pattern. I feel rather honoured by this, even though the photo is a bit rubbish: taken on the stairs of our old house, it's hard to see the detail of the figures.

Knitting

2008-01-01T14:01:00.000Z

Have decided to make this into a knitting blog since I don't really use it much for anything else and Ravelry has a space for linking to a blog.
2008 didn't get off to a good start knitting-wise: I'd nearly finished part of my current project (sleeping bag for a teddy that's knitting in one piece) when I realised a stitch had been knitted instead of slipped (or vice versa) about a third of the way in. So I had to unravel it all again!
Still onwards and upwards

Richard's blog in exile

2007-02-11T18:25:00.000Z

We went on the walk to Debre Bizen yesterday - it was truly amazing.
We left the hotel at 6.15 (after the alarm had not woken us - we were
supposed to meet the others at 6am - there was some panic when I woke
at 6.05).

After a breakfast of cake in a local bakery we hopped on a bus and
headed up to the checkpoint just outsiide Asmara on the Massawa road
and started walking. We walked up hill and down valley (i guess) for
about 7 hours, on the road and the railway (there are trains about
once every 3 weeks, if a group of tourists are willing to pay!!) The
scenery was amazing a round every corner another view. The five of us
all had our digital cameras and were snapping away! We got to the
village at the bottom of the mountain with the monastery on at 1.30pm
(time for an egg sandwich for lunch, then we headed up this mountain.
It only took two hours, and of course there were the ocassional
campfire songs - English country garden, Cow Kicked Nelly, Dum Dum,
Old Mac, Pirates and Ants...this did not last long as I soon became
aware that it was hard work, and that an oxygen tank would be helpful
- I live in the lowlands, so any altitude or exercise is unheard of!!

The monastery was fantastic, they gave us a little food, and we headed
back down. I found down more difficult than up - those of you who have
seen me play football will know that I am not very stable on my feet,
yesterday was no exception! I landed on my bum at least 5 times!!!

We got back ok though, and after a 12 hour sleep I woke up, able to
feel every muscle in my legs - I am finding walking up and down curbs
hard work today!

Anyway, we met the new volunteers today, they flew in yesterday, and
have been showing the sights - it is wierd though not being the
newbees any more, feeling as though you actually know things that you
can share with people!

Tomorrow is a free day, and on Tuesday we have a motorbike maintenance
course - A little late in the day if you ask me! Then a 3 day
methodologist workshop. - I can't wait to get out and back to
Agordat!!!!

Publishing again.

2006-12-13T18:04:00.000Z

http://www.marginalia.co.uk/journal/06cambridge/

I've got an article and a review in the latest Marginalia. It is the 2006 Cambridge year book so all the articles are MPhil essays recommended by faculty. Mine is the one I was working on a year ago to be handed in at the beginning of January.

Online journals have a funny status in academia. Some people say they wouldn't have them on their CV. But I'm quite happy to have published a few articles online. At this stage in my career (where I'm not sure I've got a 'c' let alone an 'areer') it's good to get things to a wider audience.

Anyway, click the link and it'll make the Marginalia website look *really* popular!!

LJ and blog

2006-12-11T19:26:00.000Z

Since I started LJing, this blog has ground to a resounding halt. I think LJ has won out because of the community aspect: I have friends on LJ who read and comment on my posts just as I read and comment on their post.

However, I needed my username for Blogger to be able to post on another site and realised I should update it, not least because the previous entry contains good news which is now out-of-date. The novel I was so positive about in February has recently been the cause of much wailing and gnashing of teeth. My redrafting has not achieved what the agent wanted and so I'm left wondering what to do next. I'm going to allow a few weeks of space between the email which broke this news to me and the impulse to tear into the manuscript and rewrite. I think I still believe in the novel... it's just not quite ready yet.

Things happen

2006-02-15T08:42:00.000Z

The past couple of weeks have been a blur of things happening. My novel found itself an agent, lovely Karolina at ICM. It all happened so quickly and easily that it was quite unbelievable; after all, we're constantly told how difficult it is to find an agent and to get the publishing process started. Karolina had some interesting ideas about developing the narrative, so I wrote another 15ooo words in 6 days last week and kept on waking up at 3.30 am with a thought about structure or an idea for the beginning.
It was quite hard to concentrate on the MPhil stuff. But I wasn't the only one with a wandering mind. My best friend (Ruth) has become affianced after her boyfriend proposed on 'pretend Valentine's day'!! She now has a platinum and diamond distraction weighing down her left hand...
But yesterday, we found out that we both got distinctions for our first coursework essays. Being slightly neurotic perfectionists, we were worried we hadn't done well enough, that our distinctions were only borderline. Then some of our other friends told us to get a life!
On the medical front, I've been having a few worries waiting for the tests to come through from the QE. I now have a date for the Echo and the possibility that the exercise test might be on the same day. The nadir of that worry was when the consultant's secretary told me that 'most of our patients are in and out of A & E while waiting' ... super. Something's rotten in the state of cardiology when there isn't enough money to get people seen before they clock up expensive visits to other parts of the NHS.

Voices

2006-02-04T10:52:00.000Z

A friend recently asked the question 'do you hear the voice of narration when you read?'

Generally I don't: I think I go too quickly for the words to be formed fully by a voice. But I have noticed that when reading the work of someone I know (whether from real life or from the radio!), I can hear their voice in the narrative. In fiction, this has been most profound when reading novels by Melvyn Bragg whose voice is so distinctive on radio 4, and by Caron Freeborn, whom I know well. Caron's narrative technique is particularly concerned with the recreation of idiom so perhaps consciousness of sound is not surprising when reading her work.

Today I'm reading some literary criticism by a man who used to be professor of Medieval and Renaissance lit here so I remember his voice from lectures. It feels as though he is talking about Gower to me himself!

PS I am aware of the bus effect with my blog: you wait a month for a post to arrive... then two come at once :-)

Tea leaves

2006-02-04T10:47:00.000Z

I just had a tea leaf incident: my special tea boule opened as I pulled it out of my mug... lapsang leaves every where. But I'm quite proud of myself: I managed a rescue effort involving another tea strainer, two more cups and a sink. Tea equilibrium was thus restored.

You can't please all of the people...

2006-01-04T10:06:00.000Z

so, rather stupidly, I asked two different professors for advice on my prototype PhD proposal. Unfortunately their comments are diametrically opposed ("concentrate on central texts" "choose something obscure rather than a central text which has been overdone" etc etc). Now I'm just confused, wondering perhaps whether my idea was any good in the first place. At least I now know that there is no point writing a proposal to aim to please a panel of people: there will never be unanimity.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T17:45:00.000Z

2006 has arrived. It came in quietly for me, at home revising some writing that I've been doing. With it has come the pressure of a couple of deadlines: the first (on 16th Jan) is for my PhD proposal; the second (the following day) is for my first coursework essay for the MPhil.

The essay seems to be going OK, but with the week I'll be spending in Michigan, I don't have much time to work on it before it is due in. So tomorrow I'll be in the UL checking a few words in the obscure dictionaries in the Reading Room. Top of the list are 'testamentum' and 'bereth' from the Medieval Latin and Hebrew dictionaries, which are apparently all on one wall to the left of the room, so I'll have to retreat there for most of the morning....

The proposal needs a different kind of work. I've got something written, which two of my supervisors have looked at, and criticised, and now... I need to reconcile what they have said with my ideas, and try to figure out what my ideas actually are. Ugh.

So it'll be a busy few days before I set off for Heathrow to visit Katie in Michigan.

One More Sleep!

2005-12-24T10:13:00.000Z

It's Christmas eve, so we've been for our annual horribly early trip to M&S to get turkey and 'things' for the meat eaters. This year the M&S 7.30 opening time in Solihull was trumped by the 6am start at Sainsbury's Marshall Lake. So we set off just after 6 to get such things as carrots and olives, came home to put those away, and then joined the madding crowd in Poplar Way.

Now the house is filled with church members who have come for coffee and mince pies. So I'm hiding in the study, retreating into the safety of my blog.

Even with my bleary eyes, and the prospect of a long day (singing solos at the crib service at Solihull at 3, and the Shirley midnight communion), I'm still over excited because it's just one more sleep!!!

Wow!

2005-12-23T10:41:00.000Z

I've actually figured out how to make a post on this blog at home. I'm at a bit of a loose end because of my 'cleaner in the house' guilt. At college, I always go out on the morning when the bedder does our rooms, because I hate that lazy feeling of having someone tidy up for you.

Yesterday I made over 60 mince pies for the 'open house' tomorrow. That's where I put on my domestic goddess apron. Because I make my own (suet free) mincemeat and my own pastry. I could be quite smug about it if I wanted to. But I won't. Honest.

There are other things that I'm not entitled to be smug about. I wrote most of my novel for NaNoWriMo in November, but haven't been disciplined enough to finish off the final few chapters yet this month. I progressed a bit further yesterday, but I keep on distracting myself with the whole present wrapping and festive cheerfulness thing.

I even went out carol singing on Weds, with a group from Solihull Methodist church. We had NCH carol sheets, new this year, which had not been proofread. This meant that the inhabitants of the quiet suburban streets we visited learnt, for example, that Christ was 'Born himself a woman'. Hmmm. Adds a whole new aspect to the dual nature of Christ...

I am a princess

2005-12-16T15:06:00.000Z

Well I had a princess moment in Borders this morning. I'd ordered a grande Earl Grey tea (with just one tea bag please: have you ever had two bags in a single cup bleurgh), and after paying, I asked for some soya milk to go in the tea. The girl behind the counter got it but proceeded to tell me that she would let me off from paying for it this time because she had already rung up the transaction.
Now I know that you don't have to pay for soya milk in tea; it only costs extra when it's the basis of the whole drink (as in a cappuccino or a latte). So I told her so. And she told me I was wrong. Which I wasn't. So I told her I wasn't. And it nearly turned into a contretemps.
It left me feeling a bit battered and bruised. I should know better than to enter into debate with shop assistants at this time of year: I've had Christmas jobs in shops and the last thing you want is for people to tell you that, actually, they know the rules of your organisation better than you do.
But I did know better and I can't bear being told that I'm wrong!

What is she trying to say?

2005-12-16T10:24:00.000Z

My Christmas present from Ruth...
(in case you can't read it, the words say 'I'm a princess')

Time passing

2005-12-16T10:15:00.000Z

I posted the other day about the strange necessity of summing up a year in a Christmas card: how can we convey the ways in which time has changed us?
This morning I've been rereading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and found the following line, which expresses just what I have been feeling:
'A yere yernes ful yerne, and yeldes never lyke;
The forme to the fynisment foldes ful selden.' (SGGK 498-99)
The Everyman edition translates it thus: 'A year passes very quickly, and never gives back the same; the beginning is very seldom like the end.'
I couldn't (and didn't) say it better myself!

Hooray!

2005-12-15T18:40:00.000Z

I posted all my cards this morning, and two parcels to friends who live far away so I'm feeling extremely virtuous. Trouble is that all these Christmas preparations are making it hard to concentrate on Lee Paterson's "What Man Artow": Authorial Self-Definition in The Tale of Sir Thopas and The Tale of Melibee. I'd much rather plan out the presents I'm going to give to my family.

525600 minutes

2005-12-14T16:26:00.000Z

As the cast ask in Rent, how do you measure a year?
I haven't done one of those infamous round robin letters, but I am putting little notes in my cards as I write them. Most of the cards are quite small, forcing me to encapsulate an entire 12 months into a couple of sentences. Do I simply say what I'm doing now ("I've started an MPhil in Medieval Literature")? Should I mention my graduation? Or is it impossible that any such message could really convey the ups and downs of the past year: the friendships made and those that have slipped away; the anxieties and the excitements. There are highlights in books I've read, films I've watched and plays I have seen. In fact this Saturday's performance of Canterbury Tales will probably be something else that I'll remember as part of 2005.
I suppose it is inescapable that twelve months or 525600 seconds will change us, and that is something that can only be expressed in some form of contact more personal than a simple message in a Christmas card.

Christmas is coming

2005-12-14T11:40:00.000Z

I bought a couple of cheap Christmas CDs this morning so I can write my cards now! Actual work will have to wait...

My Mini Christmas

2005-12-13T19:35:00.000Z

Christmas is coming...

2005-12-13T17:56:00.000Z

So it's been months (again) since my last post. Now I'm sitting in a warm room in a very cold Cambridge, feeling vaguely Christmassy (due to the pile of Christmas cards next to me that I need to write) but not properly there yet. That's really because I'm still here, and still working. As an undergrad, I was able to go home at the very beginning of December, and get into the swing of yuletide merriment through little rituals like making my own mincemeat or listening to Christmas music.
I tried to write my cards last night. But couldn't. Not without a Christmas album on the CD player. And preferably the AES Tring/Royal Philharmonic Christmas album as well. I have no Christmas CDs here, and no DVDs to play while I write cards and wrap presents. So it just doesn't feel right.
Instead I'm filling my time with 'my' manuscript (SJC G.25), a coursework essay, a PhD proposal, a presentation on Melibee, a presentation on the Vernon manuscript and, as perfect procrastination, updating my website and writing this blog.
Oh. And I did do my laundry this morning as well...

about funding

2005-10-11T04:58:00.000+01:00

It's hard to become an academic in the UK. There are plenty of excellent postgraduate courses around. But for arts and humanities subjects, the question is not whether one has been accepted onto a course but whether one can get funding. The Arts and Humanities Research Council can fund only a quarter of the applications it receives. So for me, and for many of my friends, progression to the next stage of an academic career depends not upon ability but upon money.
Of course one could argue that the AHRC provide a filter for ability. However experience has shown me just how random the allocation can be. Students with firsts are turned down; others with 2.1s receive money.
I admit that my perspective on this is tinged with the bitterness of rejection. And I'm lucky because I've been able to get money together for my MPhil this year. But my dream of continuing to work at Cambridge for my PhD next year seems very distant when the pot of money is so limited.
In the USA, a place at graduate school is usually fully funded. So I've put in applications to some American colleges. The programmes are excellent there, but I admit that I would not have considered applying overseas were it not for the fact that I may find myself in the position of being unable to pay for a PhD in the UK.

borders

2005-10-05T05:12:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow the English Faculty holds its induction for new graduate students. So life as a grad. student will get under way. Thursday even promises actual classes!
In the midst of all this newness, it was refreshing to meet up with two friends today. I'd not seen either since before graduation. In their company, I began to feel more like me. It's odd really: self definition relies so much on other people. Alone, it's easy to lose grasp of what 'me-ness' essentially is.
In Borders, sitting once again with a Starbucks mug in my hand, laughing at an anecdote, the months since July began to dissolve away and I *belonged* again here.

Out of hibernation

2005-10-04T01:31:00.000+01:00

Exams took over... then plans for graduation... then I was at home and not using this computer. So my blog has been static for over 4 months.
But I'm back in Cam now, so there's no more excuse for silence. This week I'll start my MPhil in medieval lit. I suppose that makes me a grown up graduate student. Hmmm.

Roving eyes

2005-05-25T04:32:00.000+01:00

Gentleman. O, the noble conflict that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina. She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled. (Winter's Tale, 5.2)

Claudius. Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in wedding,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife. (Hamlet, 1.2)

Claudius's 'noble conflict 'twixt joy and sorrow' is not really noble; even in this early stage in the play, we suspect that his 'dropping eye' is not causing him too much bother. Paulina's conflict is, though, more troublesome. Her sadness pervades the ostensibly comic ending of the play, reminding us that some things are lost irrevocably: Hermione will never regain the chance to watch her daughter grow through childhood; Mamillius remains dead. Yet the Gentleman suggests more than simply an underlying sadness to the reunion of Perdita and Leontes. Rather, as one eye is elevated as the other declines, we must imagine an absolute co-existence of the two states of joy and sorrow. This paradox is enormous; even the image of roving eyes, used by both the Gentleman and Claudius, is an impossibility. Surely this image prompts us to ask whether the comic resolutions of marriage or reunion are possible or even desirable in the face of tragedy.
Edgar's narration of Gloucester's death suggests that the meeting of these two emotions is, indeed, unsustainable:

But his flawed heart,
Alack, too weak the conflict to support,
'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and sorrow,
Burst smilingly. (King Lear, 5.3)

Echoes

2005-05-05T23:26:00.000+01:00

This morning I finished Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. It's taken me a long time to read (although I *have* been reading one or two other things in the meantime) but I certainly enjoyed it. I read The Name of the Rose after reading Eco's brilliant book on translation Mouse or Rat. However, the person who recommended Mouse or Rat to me, did so with the caveat that 'it's fabulous... not like his novels'.
With Pendulum, I feel now as though I'd like to read the whole novel again, to try to understand Eco's exploration of 'the Plan' more fully. Because what he does is simultaneously show the arbitrariness of theories imposed on the past (Dan Brown would have learned a lot from Eco, but probably would then have sold far fewer novels) and to create a real tension about the fulfillment of the ideas that his protagonists have either created or exposed. Can we be sure where or whether fact exists?
This ambiguity is at the centre of the novel and perhaps explains my desire to reread: after all, the reason that conspiracy theories emerge is (in part) humanity's deep need to 'explain' everything. If, like practically every other person in the country, you have read The Da Vinci Code, reading Pendulum will show you the echoes of Eco in Dan Brown [even though these echoes are, no doubt, unwitting - I'm not implying any sort of plagiarism, just thematic similarity]. Eco's work explores many of the ideas that emerge in Brown's narrative - the very ideas which lead people to say 'I know it's badly written, but don't you think it's interesting that...?' - but more profoundly, and more challengingly.

but I shall see

2005-05-03T08:37:00.000+01:00

Rereading King Lear last night (no, I didn't feel moved, as Keats did, to write a sonnet), I started to think about the blinding of Gloucester. For me, this has always been the key to the tragedy. I saw a production of the play in 2002 at the Almeida. It was a play I had not read (going back to my childhood prejudice against Shakespeare: "Why doesn't he write happy endings?"), and, deliberately, I chose not to read it before the performance.
So the blinding of Gloucester was profoundly shocking to me. It remains a scene that I physically find difficult to read. Like the impulse to pull my arm away from a blood test, I pull my eyes away from the page.
Last night, I think I reached a more clear idea as to why this is at the centre of the play. It's not just the eye/sight imagery which builds from the very first scene or, as I decided and wrote two years ago for the Shakespeare paper, that sight is unmediated humanity and is thus opposed to the artificiality of speech, i.e. Lear needs to learn to trust his basic senses, to trust that he is loved and can love, rather than requiring proof through speech. The emotional truth (as represented in the play by sight) and speech's shifty potential reach a symbiosis in Edgar's closing words: Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
But now I've got another idea!!! And it relates to the 'comedy = tragedy + time' equation. The primary/immediate motive for Gloucester's blinding is his defiant line to Cornwall: 'but I shall see/ The winged vengeance overtake such children'. By blinding him, Cornwall symbolically denies this future to him. He stops time from being able to turn the tragedy of the present into a comic future since Gloucester will be unable to look back. Somehow, we need (or I need) the possibility of the future in order to make the tragedy bearable. Cornwall's actions make Lear unbearable not because Gloucester is denied future through death, but because he has to go on living, to enter a bleak future in which his scarred and bloody eyes deny him (and us) hope.

Sunshine, sunshine, happy day

2005-04-30T05:41:00.000+01:00

Revising is so much more fun when the sun is out, and I can sit on the balcony in a straw hat and sunglasses.

Two of my papers collided today in Helen Cooper's inaugural lecture: she discussed the ways in which the Chaucerian concept of tragedy (as articulated by the monk) remains at the heart of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy. The _Mirror for Magistrates_ retrod the path of Lydgate's _Fall of Princes_, and was incredibly popular right through the sixteenth century.

Helen also pointed to Shakespeare's relationship with Chaucer and other Medieval poets including Gower, which became more clear in his maturity [cf prologues to _Two Noble Kinsmen_ and to _Pericles_]. The continuity from Mystery Cycles to Elizabethan and Jacobean drama was a theme of the talk that particularly interested me: it implicitly supports my view that it is important to study the verbal texture of the cycle plays. The relationship that Helen plots between cycle and Shakespeare suggests that we cannot draw a line which says that plays written before this year are not worth reading for their language, and those which come after are a rich stock which helped make English the language it is today.

All this writing about language is partly a transference exercise: my 'essix retainers' arrived from the orthodontist today. I have to wear them full time for 2 weeks and it's not terribly easy to talk with them in...

Tragedy

2005-04-28T09:48:00.000+01:00

This week I'm writing on time and tragedy. My starting point will be _The Winter's Tale_: the sixteen year interlude enforces a comedic ending on what has been (so far) a wholly tragic play. This then raises the question of whether verb tenses can make tragedy comedy...
I have various hospital anecdotes which are guaranteed to make people laugh: picture the man picking invisible flowers from the air in the hospital chapel, with one leg raised in an inverted arabesque. Or the girl, furtively looking round, checking the agency nurse is not watching, then slipping a slice of peanut butter on toast down her knickers so she doesn't have to eat it. In the present tense, in the room with those people, my acute awareness of the desperation of the man and girls' respective mental states make these experiences anything but funny. Several years away from the situation, I can tell these anecdotes as funny stories. So could Paulina tell the story of Leontes' irrational jealousy as a funny tale because time has passed and it is no longer threatening and frightening? There are obvious caveats: the little boy who dies and will not be 'resurrected' as Hermione is; Paulina's own lost husband. Although as anecdotes go, 'exit, pursued by a bear' sounds quite funny to me.
I don't know whether any of these thoughts will make it into my essay. I'll probably stick to comparisons with King Lear, and look at the difference in Oedipus from Tyrannus to Colonnus.

Procrastination

2005-04-27T23:47:00.000+01:00

Blogging seems fun. So I'm going to write one. You might think this is an elaborate procrastination exercise: my finals are just four weeks' away. I couldn't possibly comment.

It's the first day of term. Actually, since this is Cambridge, that statement isn't fully accurate. Yesterday was the first day of full term; lectures start tomorrow. I had a supervision today so it feels like term to me.

My dissertations were handed in yesterday, so I get to spend the next four weeks in a fug of Chaucer, Tragedy and Practical Criticism. Excellent :-)