Today's The Day!

10.20am British Museum.

I am quite possibly more excited than a child going off to DisneyLand. 

With Apologies To Oscar Hammerstein

The other evening I went to a concert [fundraiser for our village Parish Church] My friend sings in a local choir, and asked me to support the event. So I did. The Bach to Broadway programme included some well-sung well-known pieces. But I confess I was a little distracted in one song, and found myself rewriting the words of an old favourite from the musical 'Showboat'. 

Oh listen, sister, I love my mister man                 
And I can tell you why
Theres's many reasons for me to love that man     
It must be somethin' that the angels done plan

but... 
Sharks gotta swim, bats gotta fly
I gotta love one man till I die
But I can't help loathin' that beard he’s grown

Look at those bristles, thatch on his chin,
And when he kisses, it scratches my skin,
Can't help loathin' that beard he’s grown

With his beard so grey,
that's a rainy day
But when he shaves it off**
that day is fine
The sun will shine!

So he can come home
with a whiskery face
Cos home without him
ain't my happy place
Can't help lovin' that man of mine

[**as soon as he has been Santa for the Toddler Group at Chapel]

Setting Sail

27th September 1066 - On this day, 960 years ago, William set sail with his army, from Normandy, to come and fight the English.  His flagship The Mora had been a personal gift from his wife Matilda

Most of the fleet were smaller Viking longships. William's ships carried 7,000 or more men, and very importantly up to 2,000 horses for the knights. Horses don't like boats, and it must have been difficult to get them on and off--the Bayeux Tapestry shows them being made to jump over the sides of the ships. The ships also carried armour, weapons, shields and supplies, probably including salty bacon, cheese, hard-baked bread and certainly barrels of wine. William drank wine with his breakfast on the day of the landing. They sailed for about twelve hours under cover of darkness, arriving at Pevensey Bay on Thursday morning.
They came equipped for fighting a war.  

This week I am in London, to look at that ancient tapestry - and I think of those crossing the Channel today. In smaller boats - many fleeing war, looking for safety and sanctuary.
The boats are much more fragile, harder to steer, often overloaded, but their passengers are desperate. Today's travellers come in peace, and I pray for them, and for those who will help them safely to shore.

O God, whose power and mercy hold the seas, we lift up to you all those who travel today in small and vulnerable boats.

Protect those who face the cold winds, deep waters, and dark nights in search of safety and a new beginning. Be a quiet calm amid their fear, and guide them safely away from peril to a place of welcome, dignity, and peace.

Strengthen the hands of rescuers and keep watch over all who wander in distress upon the deep. Soften our hearts to show compassion, and lead the nations toward justice and understanding.

Amen.

Up And Under [Or Over?]

I know nothing about rugby* - or the differences between Rugby Union and Rugby League. But I do remember sports commentator Eddie Waring going on about "Up and Under" on TV [and Mike Yarwood impersonating his Yorkshire Accent]

My double-knit pattern this month is Block #157 "Up and Over", I presume because the vertical strips go up, and over, the horizontal stripes. The term Up-and-Over reminds me of the mechanism on garage doors!

This was an interesting one, I did it with cream as Yarn A, Blue as Yarn B on the 1st square, and then reversed the colourway for the second. My tension didn’t match the book – I only needed 13 repeats not 14 to get the 6” square. A very simple slipstitch pattern. Main colour 1 row K, 1 row purl, the contrast two rows with a k2, slip1 pattern. 

These are very similar to Kirsten’s squares from July, #24 Ridged Blocks, but they have a K2 slip2 row then a P2 slip2 row, making the vertical lines wider.  

I have chosen sea and sand colours because of the beautiful beaches in Cyprus! A lovely reminder of an unforgettable holiday.
Kirsten was concerned that it may take us four years if we decide to use our squares to make patchwork jumpers. I have suggested we might repeat patterns we like in different colourways for our own garments. If I do repeat any squares for the finished piece, this may well be one I choose to do again. This pattern produced an interesting square, quickly and easily. 

*I prefer knitting to playing rugby!

Eye Eye Kirsten!

Aye Aye Cap'n is an ancient phrase from the British Navy, meaning Yes, YES, Captain, we hear your orders! It is also part of the SpongeBob Song [my grandchildren understand this show. I cannot make head nor tail of it]
An AyeAye is a long-fingered lemur from Madagascar
An 'eyelet' in knitting is made by pairing an increase [usually yarn over] with a decrease [k2tog] so that the total number of stitches remains the same- but a small, neat hole is produced! This eyelet block arrived a couple of days ago.

Block #35 Eyelets - Kirsten says “They might not look it in the picture, but blocks are 6 inches square (ish). 

"I guess this pattern is a first step into knitting lace. 

"Looking back at blocks I made probably ten years ago, it seems I did several eyelet blocks of increasing complexity. I can see why it is will become important to remember to do ‘left-leaning’ and ‘right-leaning’ decreases when doing lots of eyelets close together… now, the question is, how brave am I? and how much patience and concentration can I muster? These weren’t too taxing, so perhaps I will persist with eyelets…”

K sent me the top, turquoise square, which goes well with my stack of existing squares. I think perhaps I should try an eyelet pattern next time - I have no experience of right and left leaning eyelets.
Kirsten included a cute little Rocking Robin kit [National Trust] as the flat gift. Quite apposite as at the moment I am rather caught up with Christmassy preparations for reasons I will not go into here!

Can you knit eyelets?
Do you understand SpongeBob? [does anyone over the age of 16?]

Is This Granny Square?

Back in 1885, in Prairie Farmer magazine, a lady called Annie Phelps released a crochet pattern for "A Crazy Afghan" [Afghan here meaning a blanket, not a hound, nor a person from that country near Iran]
It was so easy to do, it became really popular, and was revived in the 1930's. 

Over the years it came to be known as a Granny Square. [Because it was easy, even if you had failing eyesight, and thrifty Grannies like to use up odd bits of yarn] In 1967 I was 12, and the Beatles released "Magical Mystery Tour" - and Paul McCartney was wearing a Granny Square Waistcoat [or 'vest' as they say in the USA]

I did learn to crochet in Girl's Brigade, but never enjoyed it as much as knitting. Fifteen years ago, I visited Mags in Ireland, and the women at her library crochet group [Hookery in the Bookery] rekindled my interest.
This summer, Rosie has learned to hook, and is happily making friendship bracelets. She spent all summer in her charity crochet sunflower hat

I've just got this book from the library, by the exuberant and colourful Katie Jones. Not because I intend to crochet anything, but because her book is full of projects with Granny Squares. She turns them into vests, jumpers, hats, bags and more. This may help me decide what to do with all my knitted squares from the Double-Knit Collaboration

Katie loves mixing and matching her squares and her bright colours.

Maybe I could reinterpret one of her jumper patterns with my knitted squares [they tend to be sightly more muted colours, I am not really into dayglo greens, luminous lemons and eye-popping pinks!

The Merchants From Venice

Five hundred years ago, the beautiful island of Cyprus was under the control of the Venetians - it was a trading hub where ships from all round the Mediterranean docked to buy and sell goods. The island was rich in salt, copper, olives, wheat... and the wealthy Venetians increased their fortunes as they bought and sold all sorts of produce.
These Italians left their mark, particularly trough their cuisine. One important dish was stifado which is a corruption of the mediaeval Venetian word stufado meaning a slow cooked stew. These people introduced the idea of tightly covered pots on slow burning stoves, which produced a rich meaty stew. Usually made with beef, this dish can use lamb, pork, venison, rabbit or tripe! The onions can be shallots or small onions. The tomatoes, red wine, and spices give it a rich fragrance - and the recipe is so simple.
Wendy made us this recipe for us a few years ago, when they still lived in Norfolk. On holiday recently, I enjoyed it in one of their favourite dining spots. 

On Monday I made it myself.
I did mine in the slo-cooker, and it cooked itself whilst we were out at the Chapel. [We ended our Day Of Prayer with a brief service of worship and praise together.]  Recipe here on the BBC Good Food Site. It really tasted good, and I served it in a bowl with a slice of home made bread alongside [Bob had some more of the red wine to accompany his meal]
The recipe serves 6 - so I portioned it out to make 3 x two-person meals.

Thank you to all those who prayed for our little chapel on Monday - so lovely to think we were being remembered all round the world. 
For the first time in ages, Bob got out his guitar and he and Dan played, so we had live music for the songs. Twenty people were there which was great, so encouraging.

I am not sure what some of them thought about the ageing bearded rocker strumming away happily at the front in his ancient biker tee-shirt.