Fair Isle jumper with yoke

Jumper with Fair Isle yoke, (Debbie Bliss ‘Lulu’ design in baby cashmerino)

A simple Fair Isle design to try out this Debbie Bliss design for a yoked neck. Called Lulu it was only available as a downloadable pattern and unfortunately after much scrunching up and folding of the individual pages of the printed out pattern, I no longer have a picture good enough to put on the blog. I also failed to figure out how to block the jumper as it was knitted on circular needles and now I just hope it looks better on than it looks on the flat – oh and I also hope it fits comfortably which it looks like it might. Fingers crossed.

Jumper with Fair Isle yoke, (Debbie Bliss ‘Lulu’ design in baby cashmerino)

I’ve had a slightly frustrating week, though in terms of what’s happening to large chunks of the world you can read that irritation as a small insect bite on the rump of of something the size of a blue whale (not that whales have rumps nor, for that matter that they have mosquitoes or similar insect pests…but you know what I mean).  In fact, when I think about it that frustration was the result of luxury, for without acres of spare time I’d never have indulged in multiple cycles of having a go at something, rejecting it, unpicking it and starting all over again… and then again and then again … And, as I’m not talking about devising vaccines nor thinking through protocols for coming out of covid 19 lockdown, just the design for a small embroidered cushion, I shall keep a tight hold on that perspective.

Jumper with Fair Isle yoke, (Debbie Bliss ‘Lulu’ design in baby cashmerino)

As I am still much tied up with embroidery threads, I leave you with a few crumbs:

1. A snippet from Monday’s Times by Emma Duncan (13 April) “Some years ago, Prince Philip was asked by a German news agency what he would like to be reincarnated as. A lethal virus, he said to reduce the population of the planet. Has anybody seen him recently? “

2. Those missing the ambiance of the library can tune into Sounds of the Bodleian which provides a choice of 4 libraries and enjoy the creaks, rustles, coughs, sniffs, scrapping of chairs and distant traffic noises. I spent half and hour in Duke Humfrey’s and another half an hour in the Upper Reading Room of the Radcliffe Camera – 2 quite different experiences; 

https://www.ox.ac.uk/soundsofthebodleian/#radcam

3. A passage from Penelope Fitzgerald’s ‘Human Voices’ which 2. above reminded me of and which I hope makes you laugh (previously blogged about)

“It (the memo) was headed  Lest We Forget Our Englishry. Sam  had disappeared  for over two weeks in one of the Wolseleys, pretty infirm at that time, with an engineer and an elderly German refugee, Dr Vogel – Dr Vogel, cruelly bent, deaf in one ear, but known to be the greatest expert in Europe on recorded atmosphere.” 

The expedition to the English countryside arrived back with a very large number of discs. The engineer who had gone with them said nothing. He went straight away to have a drink. It was probably a misfortune that the Controllers were so interested in the project that they demanded a playback straight away. Usually there was a judicious interval before they expressed any opinion, but not this time.

‘What we have been listening to – patiently, always in the hope of something else coming up  – amounts to more than six hundred bands of creaking. To be accurate, some are a mixture of squeaking and creaking.’

‘They’re all from the parish church of Hither Lickington,’ Sam explained eagerly. ‘It was recommended to us by Religious Broadcasting as the top place in the Home Counties. What you’re hearing is the hinges of the door and the door itself opening and shutting as the old women come in one by one with the stuff for the Harvest Festival. The quality’s superb, particularly on the last fifty-three bands or so. Some of them have got more to carry, so the door has to open wider. That’s when you get the squeak.’

‘Hark, the vegetable marrow comes! cried Dr Vogel, his head on one side, well contented.” 

For anyone wanting to be reminded the slight chaos of village church Harvest festivals do read my blogpost http://www.addisonembroideryatthevicarage.co.uk/2015/10/09/harvest-festival-2015/

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8 Comments

  1. ceci
    Posted April 18, 2020 at 11:48 pm | Permalink

    I hope we get to see this on the recipient child, I always enjoy that part the most. Somehow the whole effect reminds me of a corduroy dress with a ric-rac collar that I had sometime in the 1950s; I recall it as being very special and fun to wear and it was just these colors. Laughing about the Prince Phillip quote as I have a genius for impulsive remarks that come back to haunt me when they appear much more tactless than I intended.

    ceci

    • Mary Addison
      Posted April 19, 2020 at 9:49 am | Permalink

      Yes, Ceci, I will post photos of the smallest person wearing the jumper. The post is not so quick as it was before.
      The original pattern has a couple of rows of bobbles – not as bad as I’m making it sound – but I just wanted to see if the pattern worked in principle before doing anything more ornate.
      You’re lucky not to be royal as all those impulsive remarks would come flying back to hit you over the head. Simon Jenkins once described readers of The Times as finger nail monitors for whom no detail was too fine to notice. Royal watchers are finger nail monitors with nobs on. Of course, you might have the rhino hide of Prince Philip and not care a fig about that and a good thing too!

  2. Posted April 19, 2020 at 11:48 am | Permalink

    When you consider that photo of Prince Philip as a kid in Germany, the only one not doing the Nazi salute, you can only come to the conclusion that he learnt very young that public opinion isn’t always right. He knows he was joking, or trying to make people think, and beyond that, he doesn’t seem to care.

    I like the look of the jumper. Simple, subtle, and charming.

    • Mary Addison
      Posted April 21, 2020 at 10:16 am | Permalink

      Prince Philip is a bit of a role model to us all in the age of social media – just keep buggering on – a propos of which after his rare statement to the public, we can now assume he hasn’t been reincarnated in another form. 98, 99 in June is quite something. And today the Queen is 94 which is pretty impressive too.

  3. Amara Bray
    Posted May 26, 2020 at 9:43 pm | Permalink

    Those little rash comments! Part of me always delights when someone famous is caught being human. I had an incident in church where I spoke before a group of ladies and said something flippant that resulted in tirades and anonymous letters in my mailbox. When we are being ourselves and not double checking everything people will take things wrong!

    • Mary Addison
      Posted May 28, 2020 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

      Oh dear Armara, it can be so easy to be misconstrued and there seem to be so many people ready to leap on our mistakes. It would be nice for people to be a bit more charitable and forgiving – there but for the grace of God any one of us could go.

      • Amara Bray
        Posted June 7, 2020 at 9:59 pm | Permalink

        So true. Very kind of you.

        • Mary Addison
          Posted June 9, 2020 at 6:42 pm | Permalink

          We are all fallible.

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