Chancery Lane

To London, to have lunch with my younger sister at Brasserie Blanc, in Chancery Lane. Or, in my husband's case, memory lane, as this was the area where he spent a year reading for the Bar, more years ago than he cares to recall.

We filled in some time by going off Fleet Street to visit the Temple Church, first established in the twelfth century.  This is an area of London in which time appears to have stood still - ancient quadrangles and courts, free of traffic.  Of course, this is an illusion as there was bomb damage during World War 2, but the buildings were restored.

This is the monument to William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.  We came across him not only in Pembroke Castle where you might expect, but also in Cartmel Priory in south Cumbria, at the other end of the country.

A current exhibition focuses on the stories of the very many members of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple who were killed in the First World War.  It's very moving.

After a delicious lunch, we strolled back up Chancery Lane to Lincoln's Inn Fields where we visited the Sir John Soane Museum.  This was given to the nation in 1824 and is a group of three houses adapted to accommodate the collections of Sir John Soane who was the leading architect of his day.  It is certainly unique.  His Picture Room contains works by Hogarth and Turner with paintings hung on a system allowing them to be shown in rotation.  It is a collection which inspires amazement, more than anything else.

And this is a Little Owl, basking in the sunshine.   We have seen him there many times, but this is the first time he has been caught on camera.

Evergreen

Not hard to see where the name of my new waistcoat comes from.  you will notice a difference from the early sample below.  Off-setting the little trees but keeping the rows distinct led to a rather bitty design which was not doing it for me.  Curiously, tessellating the pattern gives it the movement it lacked and makes an all-over fabric, instead of rows.  I like this much better.

Now, I am not happy with the first pattern section above the rib.  this is the rib colour used as pattern on the main background colour and the level of contrast is not sharp enough.  I will cut one strand at the top of the section and unpick it before reknitting the rib.

At my knitting group a lady arrived with a large carrier bag containing the pieces of a heavy knitted cardigan which she had set aside in despair some five years before.  When she was trying to sew it up she realised that one front had one repeat too many before the armhole shaping, so was two inches longer than the other one.  Personally, I would have just pulled it back and reknit it, but someone suggested that it could be cut and grafted.  I was the one nearest, so I showed her what to do.  The following week I showed her how to graft the two sets of live stitches together, a sequence which does require some concentration if you have never done it before.  In the general conversation of the group it was quite difficult.  But she did manage to complete the garment, so I suppose it was a success.

At my new job at the local nature reserve we serve a mix of older couples out for lunch, carers with their charges and dedicated birdwatchers.  These are easy to spot because they always carry lots of kit: tripods, cameras, binoculars, telescopes.  And they dress differently.  But also, they are exclusively male, sometimes single and often in little groups of two or three.  They are not fussy eaters: bacon rolls, baked potatoes and cups of tea are all they need.

However, there is another type of customer altogether.  These are female and have selective dietary requirements.  We had already established that one was "Non-dairy".  She and her friend approached the counter again, eyeing up the cakes.  

"Is that one really sweet?" said the friend, pointing to  flapjack with caramel icing and covered in nuts and seeds.  The fact that it was actually labelled "Caramel Heaven" was apparently not a big enough clue.  She chose a large slice of Victoria sponge instead.

So, to meet the needs of these two, food need to be non-dairy, non-gluten, low calorie and look like a slice of Victoria sponge with buttercream through the middle.  Not a big ask then.

  

Midwinter spring?

Almost a month without posting - what have I been doing?  Not huge amounts of knitting, that's for sure.

I have been doing a good deal of head-scratching related to the green waistcoat.  The trouble is that I am likely to be influenced by the last thing that has caught my eye.  In this case, there's a dose of Marie Wallin in the mix, specifically using a combination of multi-coloured peerie stripes and a block of a monochrome pattern.  Not that I have any of her designs, of course, but just the concept.

I felt that the swatch, rendered as a full garment would look a bit stripy from across a room, as the colours are so different.  I also think this version will look like conifer woodlands in their serried ranks.  There's a touch of Alice Starmore's Oregon here, although that is multi-coloured.

So - a walk in our local arboretum, and we find catkins fully out and waving in the January sun. A bit premature, I feel.

Geese grazing near the walled garden.

And Hamamelis , but curiously, no scent.