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.

Small World

I was enjoying a leisurely breakfast on Saturday when Bob said "There's a Yard Sale on Etling Green today, I passed a sign yesterday"  EG is 2½ miles south of Cornerstones. It was 9.30am. So I got out of my pjs and dressed quickly. And off we went. It was the farm next door to the house where my best friend used to live. The guy is moving house this week, selling off bits and bobs. He was very friendly, and remembered Chris and her family. "We moved here from Swanton Morley just before they left" he told us. 
We said we were from Swanton - it turns out he used to live in the Close, in the bungalow next-door-but-two! He asked after some of the neighbours and we had a good chat - mostly reminiscing about older residents of the Close no longer with us. He didn't have any tools for sale - and Bob resisted buying an old tractor and a beer fridge. I went through a biscuit tin of cottons and took out the four spools I felt were the best quality, and most useful. "How much?" I asked "Oh you can have them for nothing!" he said. 

We were home by 10.30. Fastest Yard Sale ever, I think. Definitely the cheapest. In the afternoon I was chatting to some neighbours who did remember him. "We saw he had a Yard Sale because he's moving out" they said "anything good?" They laughed about the old tractor. This couple sell regularly at Boot Fairs. I asked about the Boot Fair held weekly in another local village, which I keep meaning to visit. "Pensioners, with the same stuff every week" they told me. I decided these OAPs were probably selling the sort of stuff I downsized 5 years ago! I shan't bother to go and look after that helpful heads-up.

This is a surprisingly busy week, lots of different things happening. But I am getting increasingly excited about next Tuesday - the British Museum Visit. I must just "possess my soul in patience" for a few more days...

The Hand Prayer

Today is our Church Day of Prayer - from 7am to 7pm. people will be taking a 30 minute slot, and using that time to pray for our fellowship locally, and our wider world. My task was to prepare an informative leaflet. I included lots of information about our specific situation.

Sitting in Church yesterday, I thought of the Hand Prayer I was taught years ago. A good way of organising one's thoughts and prayers.

It is very easy, and useful when working with younger children. Look at your hand...

1 - the Thumb, this is closest to your heart. Pray for the people who are really precious to you, family and friends. Thank God for them

2- the Index Finger - pray for people who point the way for us, teachers, pastors, youth group leaders etc. Help them to be wise, and set a good example.

3- the Middle Finger - the biggest of all. Pray for the Big Important people in our world, Politicians, Presidents, Royalty. We may not know them personally, but they need God's help to rule justly and wisely.

4 - the Ring Finger. Fold all your other fingers into your palm, and try to make that one stand up proudly...it can't! So pray for all those people who cannot stand up for themselves, the sick, the sad, the homeless, refugees, slaves, the marginalized groups...

5 - Finally the Little Finger, the smallest Pray for the children. Jesus had a special place in his heart for children. Pray for ones you know, and others you may have heard about who need a special touch of God's love.

If you are a praying person, please remember our little chapel, Foulsham Baptist today. We are relatively small in number, but working to make an impact in our community and show God's love to the people in the village. Thank you

I Will Sing Of The Goodness Of God

This is Falkland Park, South Norwood. From 1923 till 2025 it was the home of Spurgeon's College - the training establishment established by  Charles Haddon Spurgeon in 1856.
Its closure last year was very sudden and very sad. But hundreds of us joined on Thursday to mark the significance of this place in our lives. From 1981 - 1986, Bob was a Spurgeon's Student - the first year on a college placement as a Student Minister in Gillingham, Kent, then 4 years of fulltime study in this lovely building.
Our daughters were born during that time [82 and 86] Initially I worked as Warden in an OAP Scheme just down the road, then we moved to Orpington and became a full time Mum. For some time I worked as a volunteer helping with the college book-keeping, and student spouses were allowed to attend evening classes with paying fees. I did courses in counselling and church history!
Thursday's event was one described as "Remembering, Lament, Thanksgiving and Hope" Despite the sadness and great sense of loss there was gratitude for the legacy, for all those men and women trained there, and a sense of hope because God continues to call people into serving him in ministry and there are still ways in which they can be trained and encouraged.
It was a bittersweet day, but there was a real sense of God's faithfulness down the years and the certainty that he will lead us in the days ahead. We began the service with Wesley's hymn "O for a thousand tongues to sing my Great Redeemers Praise" [sung at our wedding] and also joined with confidence in a hymn of faith and trust

I love You Lord
Oh Your mercy never fails me
All my days I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
I will sing of the goodness of God

All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God

I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In darkest nights you are close like no other
I’ve known You as a father
I’ve known You as a friend
I have lived in the goodness of God

[Bethel Music/Jenn Johnson]

The College may have gone, but our unchanging God is forever with us, and nothing can separate us from his love.