Wednesday 8th April - Knitting Madness

 We had a long long morning, or so it seemed; traipsing round Curry's electrical superstore to look at ovens, mini ovens, built in ovens and hobs... then moving three stores along to look at new kitchens (Wren). Finally to another superstore to look for buttons! 

I would reckon BB was very relieved that I was near the end of my stamina, so we just went in, found the buttons, paid for them and came home, with barely more than 5 minutes of eyeing up the yarn in passing...

I was very pleased with myself for knitting a small swatch with a buttonhole in it. So much easier to tuck into my little bag than the cardigan! Here's the Completely Finished Cardigan;

Those are BB's hands holding it up. It is still too warm for me to put it on for a fashion shoot. You can see how the back is longer than the front.

Here's the photographs on Ithe pattern so you can see it's supposed to be there

I'm using up a ball of super chunky left over; I'd bought an extra one, thinking I was going to run out, but fortunately I didn't need it as I'd bought the wrong colourway! Here's it is;

Being a variegated yarn the cable panel doesn't really show, which is just as well because I'm not used to doing them at all. I'm using a 10mm crochet hook as a cable needle, to match the knitting needles and it's working very well.

Finally, I have embarked upon this cardigan

The pattern is a freebie from Lovecraft, and uses a paintbox super chunky yarn. Except that I'm knitting it on thinner, Sirdar Jewelspun yarn on smaller needles. It's knitted in vertical strips of different patterns, so I reckon as long as my strips are the same width and length I might be ok. I'm not thinking about shoulder and neck shaping yet. Inspiration will come in due course...

And now here's a sweet little story; apparently Borodin's daughter came and sat on his lap when he was at the piano, and played this well-known tune, and he improvised and then wrote down this duet part;

I used to base an entire music lesson, several, perhaps, on this piece. I'd give the children two chime bars, or boomwhackers each or whatever was to hand. I'd arrange them in groups of four; the first person would play the first line, then the second person the second line, etc. Slowly, slowly we would work away until everyone could play their line in time with the recording. 

I was going to say you could have heard a pin drop, they were concentrating so fiercely, but of course it was actually far too noisy!

Tuesday 7th April - one week behind

 Today I caught up with last week's daily Lent email course... 

and now I'm putting up this month's photograph of my tree, the little witch hazel in a pot, which I was planning to post on the first of the month.

BB took the picture for me on Sunday. Just look at all those leaves, all new and crinkly! Those are red tulips in the background. 

The peony that had apparently started flowering last week turned out to be red tulips buried among the vigorous tall late daffodils. That's a bit of a relief! 

I do love tulip season.

Monday 6th April - My Christmas Cardigan

 'It will be finished for Christmas New Year Epiphany Valentine's Day Easter Day Bank Holiday Monday...' and so it was.

I could look back and see when I started this - or I could not... too long ago. I finished knitting it (after many fits and starts and adjustments) several weeks ago, but stalled out at the sewing up stage. Partly because I didn't trust myself to do a decent job, and partly because I always lose confidence in the fit, even after obsessionally measuring everything at least half a dozen times, and holding it up against myself.

It's come out fine! Not exactly like the pattern - I hadn't intended to choose the cuff option for the sleeves, but it looks like I have, and the original pattern has a lower neck, which I wasn't keen on, so I'm quite happy that this has come out somehow with a high neck. I was also trying to alter the pattern because I didn't care for the way the back was intended to be longer than the front - some kind of design statement? - but what will be, will be. I won't be able to see 'the statement' when I'm wearing it...

I just have to source some 2 inch buttons. At the moment those are stitch markers dangling from where the buttons are to go.  

Sunday 5th April - Easter Sunday

 There must be a hundred versions of this hymn on the Internet,  but this is the best I've ever heard for celebrating Easter.

Saturday 4th April - an in-between day

The day between Good Friday (sad, solemn, subdued) and Easter Sunday (joyful, laughing, exuberant) seems neither one thing nor another.

So I've been doing a bit of this (sewing)  and that (reading) and the other (making a crockpot of soup, and a loaf of bread). In-between activities. 

And all the time eyeing up the one Lindt mini egg left from last weekend, which I decided to keep until Easter. It's 8pm, I only have to hold out for 4 more hours.

Yesterday I caught the last bit of The Sound of Music, from when the family sings 'Goodbye, Farewell' at the competition and then escape. I don't think I've watched it for at least 10 years. I remember we were taken to see it in London on a school trip when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I was at a convent prep school, and I think I realised even then that the nuns who lead the trip were buzzing with excitement. We had to wear our summer dresses, white ankle socks, blazers, straw hats and white gloves.

Today this little clip caught my eye;

They dance so beautifully.

Our family used to occasionally holiday in Austria with an Austrian family, friends of my parents. Their children were the same age as us and they all spoke very good English. The children, teenagers by now, all learned the traditional dances (waltz, landler, etc) at school, as they were expected to dance them at the school end of year prom, clearly a much more formal occasion than ours.

Friday 3rd April - Good Friday

 It's raining, somehow appropriate for the mood of today. 

Bernard Daddi (14th Century). Mary sits to one side, exhausted, John on the other, watching her. Jesus is no longer here; his body is just a grey husk. 

Thank heavens, thank God, for 'spoilers' as they are called; we know, as they do not, that this is not the end, but the gateway to the beginning. 

This is one of the pictures the Patrick Bringley discusses in 'All the Beauty in the World'.

Tenebrae singing 'Crucifixus' by Antonio Lotti (1687 - 1740) conducted by Nigel Short, in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis;

sub Pontio Pilato passus,

et sepultus est. 

He was also crucified for us;

under Pontius Pilate, he suffered

and was buried. 

From the Nicene Creed