Originally published January 22, 2006 January 25 is Robbie Burns (1759-1793) Day. It will be the 247 celebration of his birthday! This is the day we serve Haggis – or a more palatable substitute (read sausage and mash with neeps – turnip.) We read: To A Mouse, To A Louse (has nothing to do with […]

Originally published January 20 2006 My daughter went camping last weekend. It was the 20th of a somewhat mild January but still the forcast was for -5 degrees C. She slept outside – under canvas with snow in the forecast. There are other ways to wait for Spring, then knitting. One could, simply, wear the

Originally published January 18, 2006 Dylan Thomas is one of my favourite poets. He is another icon of male decadence, also Welsh – hmmm, must be something in the water – “shaken not stirred.” If I were to pick a knitting pattern that exemplifies this creative “force” – call it Spring in the seasons, call

Originally published January 16, 2006 There are things that those who live in the North do to make believe that Spring is just a snow drift away. We plant Spring flowers – indoors, of course. We plant paperwhites in January. We marvel at the speed at which their roots appear and their green shoots sprout.

Originally published January 17, 2006 I know that the title of the film is Tea and Sympathy. It is one of the few films that I have seen. I have a weakness for films about schools. “Goodbye Mr. Chips” is one of my favourites. Actually one of my regrets in life (along with never having

Originally published January 17, 2006 I just visited Wikipedia to-day. I know I should have done it ages ago and in deed I have been meaning to ever since I read about it in a business article. The article was actually a comparison between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. For those of you who aren’t familiar

Originally published January 14, 2006 Robyn Gallimore of Red Bird Knits sent me an e-mail with this picture. It is one of her sock of the month patterns – Scarborough Fair – with the comment, “Since you like fold(folk) songs, here’s one for you!” I replied, saying that she had been knitting and spinning too

Originally published January 13, 2006 Somehow I felt that the coracle posting needed a poem. I googled up “knitting poetry” and came across Jean Moss’ site http://www.jeanmoss.com I think that the muse may be very close at hand here. Take a look, if you have a minute. I also found this poem, which is old

Originally published January 12, 2006 I have just sent an e-mail to Debbie New via Philosopher’s Wool. Over the years and several hard drive failures I have lost her e-mail address. I have talked about the strawberry hat and Debbie’s knitted teacups as a way of beginning or at least as how I began in

Originally published January 11, 2006 To everyone who e-mailed me that the link didn’t work, may I say, that, if stupidity were an asset, I wouldn’t have to work for a living! You may not really want to know what actually happened – but follow this “blog” as an example of what not to do,