All Good Wishes for Christmas and the New Year

I have been very remiss this year and not posted anything like as often as I should have - I will try to be a better girl next year. But we will be very busy [not in the Chalet School sense!] planning TMOH's 'Big Birthday' celebration for next August, so I don't know whether this will get fitted in. I have been busy knitting - according to the gadget on Ravelry, nearly 7 miles of yarn have gone through my fingers this year. 

You've seen the cardigan, jumper and cats already, but two blankets and most of the squares for another one have also been completed, and a goldfish called Solon [you can see some of the squares for the current blanket behind him].


All good wishes to everyone for Christmas 2014 and New Year 2015

The Rout[er] of the Problem

I know, I know, I should have updated this long ago! But it isn’t all my fault – although some of it is … our router was playing up – or so we thought, and I went into our local computer specialist – who has just moved from a top floor above the local St John’s Ambulance to an ancient outhouse behind an old pub. The gist of what I said to them was, “You sold us a router x years ago, and I’m not sure it’s doing what it should, can you sort it out?” and the gist of what they said – very fairly I thought – was “See if your ISP will check it/change your deal, as that often includes a new router.”

So I looked on line at the offers our ISP were making now, and discovered that I could get more speed and fewer usage restrictions for less money, so I contacted them and organised the switch. And sat back to wait for a new router. Which didn’t come. And still didn’t come until, after several phone calls, just before we went to Switzerland.

So it wasn’t until after we’d got back that we could assess the new router. And the old one was better! The new one didn’t have the oomph to reach TMOH’s computer downstairs, whereas the old one did, and we still had, and continue to have, problems with the line dropping out. But it’s better than it was, so although it isn’t yet a perfect system, I have no excuse for not posting on the blog.

I’m not going to put everything that I’ve been doing up now, but as both bits of the family for whom I have knitted toys have safely produced their baby boys (about 7 weeks apart) I will just show the twin striped cats I made for them.

The rest of what I’ve been up to must wait for another day … 

Knitting placeholder

I really mustn't leave a Christmas /New Year message up beyond the end of January, so this is just to show you what I've one since last summer. Not as much, as I might have wished. I had about 3 months where I couldn't knit! Frustration doesn't begin to describe my feelings...I had a funny lesion on the side of my right middle finger, and could't knit at all, couldn't type properly, and even buttons and tying shoelaces became a real problem. There was a dressing of some sort on the finger from July until early November, first my own attempt of an ordinary plaster when it first came up and kept bleeding messily on anything and everything, then a professional sausage-like finger-covering that the nurses kept renewing for what seemed like weeks after the GP excised the excrescence itself. Eventually it needed cauterising too, and I was able to finish the jumper I had started in June:

Dark Grey cable jumper

I really was glad to get the cable jumper finished! TMOH had chosen the yarn, and it was pure wool, and good to handle ... but such a dark colour that it was very wearing on the eyes, so in the dark autumn and winter evenings, I was only able to attack it in short bursts. During November, just after my dressing had finally come off the finger and I had restarted work on the jumper, I met some friends in Salisbury. After lunch we landed in the wool shop - as you do! And I rather fell for Sirdar's new yarn, Gisellle. So I bought a book of patterns specifically for it - it's aran weight - and sufficient yarn to make any of them I fancied, once I was free of the grey cables. 

Beginnings of cardigan in Giselle 131

Every so often I would go and look at my bag of soft purply-pink, blue and cream yarn, and tell myself that I could start on it as soon as the grey cables were finished. 

Finally, just after the New Year, the jumper was done, and I could make a start on something for myself. I decided on a cardigan, and this photo is from when I was 50 rows up both body and sleeves. It's a raglan pattern, so I'm doing the tops of both body and sleeves all together, with a couple of purl stitches to denote the 'seam' line and save having to sew in the sleeves afterwards. I'm more than twice as far on as this now, but I haven't taken another photo yet.  

Finished cardigan - and scarf, that I had enough yarn for as well 

Season's Greetings

Wishing everyone a 

Very Merry Christmas 

and a 

Healthy and Prosperous 

New Year 2014

But we didn't see the elephant ...

‘Why are you going to Nantes?’ Everyone asked us...

Well, first of all, it’s in France, and we like to get over there at least once a year on a short break, whether we’ve arranged our main holiday there or not.

Second, it’s on a fast train route, so wimps like me who won’t go on a boat can get there via Eurostar.

But the main reason for picking Nantes itself was because of the Great Elephant.

Those of you paying attention at the time of Liverpool’s year as European City of Culture might have heard of La Princesse, the Enormous Spider that patrolled the streets there in 2008. She was made by a company in Nantes that specialises in such automata, Les Machines de L’Île. Le Grand Éléphant is another of their creations, and I wanted to see it.

We arrived in the early afternoon at the beginning of the really hot weather - mid-July. After an 8.15 am Eurostar from Ebbsfleet, and an uneventful connection from Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse on the Metro we had travelled westwards on a TGV line that we hadn’t been over before, and set out for the hotel. We reached the Tourist Office first, who pinpointed the street on a free map of the town, so we were easily able to find the hotel and book in. Despite it only being about 3 pm, after our early start - 4 am alarm - and the heat, we just couldn’t summon enough energy to go looking for elephants that afternoon, so we rested and then had a stroll round the immediate area, which was full of pavement restaurants, and found a splendid crêpérie for our evening meal.

Castle Bailey - still wet!

Thus fortified, we explored a little further and found Le Cigalle - a restaurant recommended to us - and booked for the next evening.

Thunder and heavy rain in the early morning didn’t daunt us, and after learning of the birth of Prince George of Wales - though his name was still unknown - via the French television news in the breakfast room, we set out for the castle as somewhere undercover for the morning.

L'Oubliette in the sunshine 

By the time we were finished from a fascinating tour, the rain had stopped, and it was lunchtime, so we ate in the open-air L’Oubliette in the castle bailey, and after walking round the walls and crossing the moat, went up to the cathedral forecourt to catch the tourist train. For whatever reason, the 2.30 train was not running, so we spent time in the cathedral itself and then caught the 3 pm one, which took us all around the city, and past Le Cigalle, as well as the ‘Île des Machines.’

The Tourist Train

We could see the Marine Carousel and the beginnings of the Heron Tree … but no sign of the Elephant.

We completed our tour of the cathedral and its crypt, and bought a few goodies in La Trinitaine - a shop specialising in Breton delicacies - before returning to the hotel to change ready for Le Cigalle. We walked there through the newly restored Passage Pomméry, a nineteenth-century shopping arcade set into the side of the hill.

Le Cigalle

The ‘Place’ where the restaurant is situated was under repair, so the outside of the building is not currently at its best, and the outside tables had been moved round the corner from where they were the previous evening, according to the changing area of the work being done. But we had booked, so an inside table was reserved for us … in the most riotous Art Nouveau suite of rooms you could wish to see.

Inside Le Cigalle

The food lived up to the surroundings, so we felt our second day had been a success.

...fell from the sky?

The next morning saw us finding ‘the wall that fell from the sky’ and then taking the tram to the Talensac market. 

Talensac Market -
southern outer arcade

Apparently it is so well-thought-of that it is on the American tourist route, and certainly it is well up with other ‘halles’ we have seen. 

Japanese Gardens

From there it was a short walk beside a tributary of the Loire to L’Île de Versailles - another former industrial area that was made into a Japanese garden in the 1980s.

Looking towards New York!

Another short tram hop [all included in the city pass we’d bought, which got us into the castle and on the tourist train without extra payment, too] and we were at La Tour de Bretagne - self-styled 'the only skyscraper between Paris and New York,' taking a lift up the 32 storeys to Le Nid. The covered balcony all the way round gave us wonderful views across the city; we were able to pick out where we had been - though we couldn’t manage to discern either Paris or New York on the east or western horizons! 

Stork's head ...

...and his body - and the eggs!

Our city passes also came up trumps for a free drink at the bar inside, where we could sit on the neck of a giant stork - the bar was his body - and look over the parapet to the views. 

Our table, and the individual chairs, were like hard boiled eggs.

Duchess Anne of Britanny

Another open-air lunch, though nothing special - our antennae let us down this time , and we returned to the hotel to cool off. We had planned to go back to ‘L’Île des Machines’ in the afternoon to see all the automata and perhaps even get a ride on the Elephant himself … but it was just too hot, and we couldn’t manage to get ourselves out again until the evening cool, when we strolled round the corner to find a Moroccan restaurant. Wonderful briques, couscous, Boulaouane rosé wine, and mint tea - oh yes, and an Île flottant between us for pud.

The final morning was just a quick march for the train before the day heated up. Then another hot metro crossing of Paris and Eurostar home. We had a lovely time - we must go back some time …

Someone else called their baby George!!

...and Joshua is no longer Joshua! Baby has been registered as Joseph - I haven't heard yet the reason for the change of heart/mind, but there it is.

And best wishes, too, to our new Prince George ... do you think he'd like a monkey?

Monkey Business

Another baby due in the family – I was told at Christmas that I should get my needles out again for the summer, and asked whether a garment or a toy would be preferred. A toy is an heirloom, said the father-to-be. That’s that, then, thought I and began to wonder what to make.

A crochet pattern for Raymond Briggs’s Snowman attracted me to start with, and I sent off for it. 

DMC Snowman pattern - 'not a toy'!

But on reflection I decided a snowman for a summer baby wasn't particularly appropriate … and a white toy, for what we now knew was going to be a boy, might not last very long – or at least not remain white for very long. And there was a scarf, which would have needed to be sewn on very strongly … and when I read the pattern it said, very sternly,
‘This is not a toy’!

Not a snowman, then.

Then I saw a pattern for a dog. The family like dogs; this one looked a bit like the baby’s grandfather’s dog – to start with. I turned the page … and it had a sort of frill round the bottom of the body, and didn't look like anything much at all.

Not a dog, then.

Perhaps a teddy-bear? You can’t go wrong with a teddy bear, surely. I sifted through dozens, perhaps hundreds, of patterns on Ravelry. I didn't find a teddy bear I liked the look of.

So not a teddy bear.

In the meantime I had bought some aran cotton mix in a sale from an internet yarn dealer. 

Cardigan & hat made for one-year-old

It looked a really nice heathery colour on my screen, and when it arrived on a dull grey February day, when we had the lights on in the living room, it still looked a good heathery colour. I started knitting a cardigan for myself – the pattern is a scaled-up version of the one I'd made for another cousin’s child for her first birthday in January, which starts with the sleeves. I took it to the February Folk Dance weekend in Worthing. 

On the Saturday morning the sun shone. I looked at my knitting – hard, sharp purple – and knew I would never wear it.

My two dilemmas seemed to sort each other out. This bright purple would be great for a toy – maybe a purple teddy? I looked through the teddy patterns again, but still was not inspired. I changed my Ravelry search to ‘free’ ‘toy’ and left the knit or crochet undifferentiated. There was a monkey! I downloaded the pattern and made a start. It wasn't a particularly straightforward pattern, having been translated – probably by a robot – and I put it aside thinking ‘end of June, early July’ was a very long way ahead.

One day I had a few minutes between having my feet done and seeing the optician. So I looked round the yarn/haberdashery section of our local department store – as you do – and there was a stand of pattern books. Staring at me was a very engaging monkey. He was brown and fawn, but I thought he would work in my purple. I began to knit. To start with, I thought I’d make him entirely purple, but later decided that at least the face would need more definition, so I found some cream aran yarn, and made the face pieces in that. I decided that the tail was better purple, and swiss-darned cream for the inside of his ears. Face, hands and feet would be cream, instead of the pattern’s fawn, and all the pieces originally brown, plus ears and tail, were knitted in purple.

Then came the question of what to call him. I like to give my creatures names, sometimes before they have faces, as it can make quite a difference to how the face goes. I did give this chap a face, though, because the line of the mouth was very evident as soon as his face-piece and muzzle were attached; the right places for the nose and eyes were immediately obvious thereafter, so I had him complete. So, what name should he have? I put a picture of him on Facebook, to see if anyone could inspire me, and in the doing of that, and a bit of exchange of views on there, was able to sort my thoughts out.

Clooney

Many of you know that I am quite interested in medieval monastic orders, in particular the Cistercians. so I thought about calling him Bernard, after their founder. [Monks and Monk-eys have to be associated, don’t they? Think of capuchins – and Friends!] 

But this monkey had a definite resemblance – apart from his colour – to Curious George. H L Rey’s endearing little monkey, called Zozo in some parts of the world, has a face very like my little chap. But I didn't want to call him George, in case the soon-to-be parents wanted to call the baby George! And then I thought of another well-known George, whose surname rhymes with another monastic order … and Clooney was born.

Just to add that Joshua [not George!] arrived safely on Thursday 6 June ...

Since then I have been persuaded to make another monkey – after all, I have plenty of purple wool! – for the raffle at the forthcoming Cleeve Gathering of the EJO Society. So the second one will be Cluny!