Dear Readers
It’s been another busy month, as you’ll know if you tried to call me when we’d to make a quick trip to Scotland. (Is a round trip of over 1000 miles by car ever quick these days?) There wasn’t too much of a problem, just the family support we’re all pleased to have as we get older. Our garden fried in temperatures of 37C, whilst I shivered in 14C degrees with rain pounding down. I was glad of the extra layers I’d taken, along with a cardi or two and it brought back memories (with a wry smile!) of how we change over the years. The evening before we left there was a ‘prom bash’ at the hotel and fortunately the rain held off until all the selfies had been taken. Big party, huge dresses and stretched cars spilling out their squealing passengers. Hours had been spent perfecting hair, make-up, eyelashes and nails. Glasses were overflowing and they were (of course!) the first generation to strut their stuff as teenagers. I giggled, Lafferty fashion, as I watched them. Back then, I’m sure we could all hobble a bit better in our three inch stilettos, but perhaps not?! The next morning all traces of the party were whisked away, as the room was transformed for a wedding. With everyone frantically searching their phone for a positive weather app, we started our trek south.
Back safely at home, I’d two lovely books to read and both have been published by Crowood Press in their Knitting Techniques series. The first is Patchwork Knitting by Fiona Morris (ISBN 978-1-78500-979-2). Fiona guides us through the essential techniques of creating individual units of knitting and joining as you go. The second is Entrelac by Molly Brown (ISBN 978-1-78500-983-9). Molly explains how to produce intriguing knitted pieces with a woven look. Both books are for hand knitters, a handy size (172 x 242 mm) and affordable paperbacks at £9.99.
You might wonder why I’ve mentioned this and the reason is that it’s brought back memories of Beryl Jarvis, who died in August 2016. She wrote about knitting entrelac on a machine and set out to make her Info Sheets affordable information on lots of machine-knitting subjects. It seems the right time to make them available to you all. It was a quite different approach to her teaching series, so I’ll start working on them now. As Anne Croucher says in Dear Anne: “There are so many things we used to do ‘in the old days’ which seem to have been forgotten about, with some more complicated technique now used”. If there’s any topic you’d like explained in simple terms, do please ask and look out for this new series in the not-too-distant future. Until next month, knit happy!
NEXT ISSUE September 2022
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