Extreme Knitting Redhead: When bread imitates knitting

Thursday, February 7, 2013

When bread imitates knitting

Knitting on the Alex scarf continues apace and I'm finding it an excellent project for whilst watching TV now I've got the pattern firmly in my head.

I've learnt how to read the stitches so I don't lose my place, well not too often anyway!

The light side

I had a hospital appointment yesterday and decided to take my knitting with me in anticipation of a long wait. Could I find find my pretty little sheepy needle protectors? No, of course not! So I had to to improvise and stick corks on each end instead.

The safety pin is for when I have to do a 4 stitch decrease. I could use a cable needle to hang the middle stitch in front of the work but that was too awkward with just one stitch so at first I tried a stitch holder. Again, I found that a bit fiddly and so finally I've settled on the good old safety pin which makes slipping the stitch back on the needle a doddle.

As I'm using yarn from my stash I will be changing the dark colour soon as the purple is about to run out. After a bit of a rummage I found some Debbie Bliss tweed in a deep purple and a paler version. Now I've just got to decide which to use next. I think it will probably be the paler one so that the ends of the scarf are both dark.

Close-up of the dark side

I must have this stitch on the brain as when I was making a loaf the other day this is how I decorated it.

It's not brioche!

It's a traditional decorative finish for a farl, or oven-bottom loaf but it does rather echo the leaf pattern doesn't it?! Usually a farl would be made with just white flour but I made ours with 50% spelt flour, 50% white flour and I added lots of different seeds, chia, pumpkin & flax, to make it extra tasty.

I think I'd better make a brioche loaf soon............

2 comments:

Marloeskreatief said...: Super knitting,marloeskreatief; February 7, 2013 at 3:44:00 AM PST
Susie Hewer said...: Thanks Marloes!; February 7, 2013 at 4:14:00 AM PST

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

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