Ossianknits

Once upon a time in Scotlandshire...

Dear all,

Apologies for having neglected you these last two months. I'm not sure what happened - life got in the way? First there was teaching and marking, then a conference. I've been working, and socialising, and not really crafting very much. I've been enjoying the sunshine and good ales (esp. in mini glasses):

The Central, my local (if there is such a thing as a local here - all the pubs are within a 5 minute walk, and these days I find myself mostly at the Central or the Whey Pat. I miss old Droughty's with its leather sofas, and Aikman's comfortable grottyness), had an ale promotion - three mini pints for the price of a full one. Rather adorable, I thought.

There have been a number of BBQs due to the surprisingly good weather we've had these last two months.

I particularly enjoyed the impromptu ones at Jake and Chris' - wholly their idea of course (read: I invited myself over). Good food, good company, much sillyness:

I'm very fortunate to have friends like you (and a few others not pictured here of course). I love spending time with you. You make the thesis bearable, and the drama managable. Love you guys.

We all find ourselves at the end of something great, and the beginning of something new. With most of us finishing our theses in the next year or so parting - such sweet sorrow! - is immanent. But like the balloon that tried to get away but didn't none of us are ever quite going to leave St Andrews and thesisising behind. It's a sad time but also an exciting one - what will become of us? If I had to hazard a guess JT will end up in France, eternal bachelor or married to an heiress. Jake will be a university chaplain, continuing his academic interests while doing what he is so good at - pastoral and ministery stuff. Chris will look after a score of charming and happy kids - while trying to get up the courage to finally ask McEwan out for dinner. Rose will continue with her crazy and busy social life - and with academia. Laura will get an academic museum job, perhaps in London, perhaps in Edinburgh. And as for Peter and myself? Who knows. But it's going to be exciting.

To friends - you make it all worthwhile.

Camera straps

I've decided to start selling camera straps over in my etsy shop. I've made a few, all out of the Alexandra fabric. The listing is here if you're interested.

The straps are pretty neat. I'm using one of them on my Canon right now. I love that the wide part is two inches wide - I always thought the Canon one was too narrow. I still really like the stripey one I have, but it was time for a change. Plus, this one matches my new skirt!

Go on - you know you want one!

I will be making more of them once my chapter is done. I bought five different fabrics at Ikea on Friday, and I think there'll be enough leftover from skirt projects to make at least two straps from each. Our trip to Edinburgh was great, as was Easter. More about that soon!

Alexandra Skirt

I'm rather fond of my new skirt. (It was, of course, camera straps and a skirt I posted about yesterday). I've named it 'Alexandra', after the fabric. The fabric came from Ikea sometime last year (it's from the 2007-2008 collection), and it's 100% cotton that feels a lot like linen (it's rather stiff and creases easily). I really like the colours in it - they're wonderfully spring-like, aren't they?

The front of the skirt. It is A shaped, but wider than it appears. The sides are pleated.

The back of the skirt (slightly creased, I'm afraid; it's been worn all day). Notice that the front is turquoise with green bits, and the back is green with turquoise bits!

The skirt being worn indoors.

The skirt being worn outdoors!

   
The skirt blowing in the wind. It was a rather windy and cold day, and I was freezing all the way through this shoot.

I'm very pleased to have made this skirt entirely from scratch - without a pattern! I learned how to make buttonholes on my sewing machine - a useful sort of skill that will come in handy in future no doubt (I much prefer buttons to zips). And did you notice the adorable golf buttons in my last post? Kerstin sent them to me from the fatherland quite some time ago, and I thought they were perfect for this (shame it's not Sunday, I might have taken pictures on the golf course otherwise. Maybe if the weather is nice on Easter Sunday?) I'm also rather excited about the pocket on the friend. I'm always annoyed when skirts come without pockets (and let's face it, most do) - where does one put ones change, keys, phone when one goes out without a coat?

Oh, and did you notice the scarf? I have two of these - one with regular stripes (the one I'm wearing), and one with irregular stripes that is kind of a girlie-spring-like Dr Who scarf. My granny made them - they are crocheted - and sent them to me in the post. This one came in the Easter package last week. I love them both, and have been wearing them out a lot. They are *very* long - the one in the picture is wrapped four times around my neck! Excellent, though, don't you think?

Alexandra

Guess what I got up to today?

St Salvator's Chapel

As we were sitting in the Quad after our long walk on the beach, I saw someone come out of the chapel - I didn't know it was open during the day. I attend (and usher at) St Salvator's pretty much every Sunday during term-time (and take sherry afterwards), but I had never bothered to go in as a regular visitor before. I like the chapel - its colours, the way the coloured glass is reflected on the floor when the sun is out, its organ, the archbishop's tomb.

View from the altar towards the back of the chapel. I usually sit on the right, at the end of the first set of pews, in the second row.

The lights above the right-hand side.

The lectern where the Bible lives on Sundays.

The academic seats, front right.

The chapel was founded in 1450, and despite its turbulent history stands proudly inmidst the bustling town. Sally's tower can be seen from most of the surrounding countryside, and its bells regulate life in town (they are about 3 minutes fast now; before the clocks changed they were a couple of minutes slow). On regular Sundays the congregation consists of about 150 or so, with a small academic procession and 4-6 ushers. A fair few of the undergrads wear gowns, and 4 of the ushers are postgrads in with hoods ranging from MA to MLitt and PhD. There is a different (not necessarily protestant) preacher every week, which is something I particularly like. Sally's makes me feel warm and fuzzy - I don't know if its the look or the smell of the place, but it calms me down when I'm stressed, lifts my spirits when I'm down and cheers me on when I'm doing well. It's not just the fact that it's a church - it's this particular chapel that does it. I enjoy going to All Saints in the holidays, but it's not the same. I miss Sally's when it's not on.

Post-tartan-ness

I have very much enjoyed wearing the Tartan jumper out these past two days. There have been compliments, some obvious and some veiled ('I thought this was store-bought!), and some nice comments from the folks at ravelry. I want to knit another jumper, or a cardigan, and I've cast on with the iris for a stripy cardigan. Knitting = interefering with the chapter. I also want to sew up the ends I bought at Hinnigan's when we were down in the Borders - I think the heathery colour matches the heather in the jumper quite well. I like wearing Tweed skirts - I wear my inherited brownish one all the time. Spring break seems like a good time to engage with craft as well as academic projects. And reading. There has been a lack of reading lately. I want to finish Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind soon; I've been reading it for weeks now. I also want to read the two novels for the module I teach on - Northanger Abbey and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I've never read the first - I think I might have picked it up and never finished it when I went through a phases of Austenism in school - but the second is one of my favourites, and very suitable for finishing the course on.

Yesterday was the first warm and sunny day of the year (today it's foggy out; the haar has come early this year). I went for a walk and sat about in the sun, taking lots of pictures on the way. Enjoy this selection!

The Cathedral and St Rule's tower, from inside the grounds of the cathedral, with my back to North Street. I particularly like this shot.

The martyrs' obelisk overlooking the sea. The sea was almost as blue as the (unusually cloudless) sky.

St Andrew himself in the quad, over the door leading to the College Halls.

Shadows in the sand. I am, of course, the pretty one on the right.

 

The heads on the right-hand side of the quad.

No 1, North Street. One of the best doorways in St Andrews.

 

Tartan Jumper

I finally finished the tartan jumper.

It took me six weeks to finish this jumper. Not six weeks of continuous knitting - six weeks of working in libary 1, working in library 2, tutoring, thesising, and, most importantly, getting to know the boy better.

I'm rather pleased with this jumper. It is based on the shape of the Owls, but, like last time, I just Aran instead of chunky yarn (mainly because I had enough of it in my stash). The yarn is the New Lanark Heather Mixtures (aran weight), in (appropriately enough) tartan green, heather and iris. I loved the colours when I bought the yarn back in June last year and had envisioned a yoked fairisle jumper of some description.  The tartan pattern came naturally. I'm not entirely satisfied with the colourwork in the yoke - the heather is drawn a bit tight sometimes - but the overall effect works pretty well. I used two-coloured ribbing for the sleeves and bottom of the jumper, which sadly wouldn't come out when I tried to photograph it.

This, however, did:

 

The back of the yoke - in all its stranded goodness!

I washed the jumper on Monday, and by yesterday morning it was dry enough to wear. It's still somewhat scratchier than I anticipated (the orange hat I made out of the same yarn last year softened up significantly), but it's certainly wearable. More than that - it's pretty.

A trip to the Borders

The weekend brought yet another trip - this time to the Borders. I have been to Abbotsford twice before - once in 2005 (in the good old days when photography was still permitted inside) and then again last summer with Rose. PNL had never been, so we braved the rather long drive (200 miles roundtrip!), and were rewarded with a beautifully sunny warm spring day.

Abbotsford is the home of Sir Walter Scott, and even though he is slightly later than what I work on it still counts as a research day out - a field trip if you like. The house was completed in 1824, and while only a few rooms and the gardens are open to the public it is well worth a visit. And at £3.50 for the student rate it wasn't too expensive either. I love his little study and the library, and proudly showed PNL the copies of Macpherson's History of Britain and the Original Papers, which I spotted last time I was there. Still no sight of Ossian, though, which makes me think they're either kept in the study upstairs, on on the higher shelves in the library.

The view from the garden.

Inside the garden - the gates leads to the walled garden.

Looking into the walled garden, and the 'Gothic' (there was a sign) greenhouse.

The back of the house. The grass slopes gently down the river Tweed.

Much sillyness ensued. There was the Stalking of the Chair:

And the Pulling Down of the Hat:
   

We then went on to Melrose - just down the road - to have lunch and to look at the Abbey. We failed to find a chippy (yet again) and ended up in a tea shop (yet again) - however, this time the tea shop looked like a pub from the outside, and it served rather large portions of everything. We had mac and cheese - my day-trip / pub food favourite with chips - delicious, and big enough to share (not that we knew that). I'm not sure what the tea shop was called, but it's on the corner of the car park by the Abbey, but not on the Abbey end - on Buccleugh Street?

The Abbey from the street side. Gorgeous, and very reddish, much like the stone in Dumfriesshire.

Looking out towards the Border hills. You can see why Scott liked it here.

PNL climbed the tower, but I wasn't brave enough. Neither of us spotted the bagpipe-playing pig, though I managed to acquire a postcard of it.
We ended our trip at Selkirk - or rather, at Lochcarron near Selkirk so I could pick up some Hinnigan's fabric. The staff at Lochcarron were quite rude and somewhat incompetent, but the gorgeousness of the fabric made up for it:

The light blue tartan tweed is going to be a maud, and the waste-length heathery purple tweed is going to be a skirt.

And there was even some knitting - in the car on the way there and back. I really must finish the green tartan jumper before it gets too warm to wear it!

A lovely day out

It's essay time here in ossianknitstland:

This week is wholly dedicated to marking, with hopefully a bit of thesisising thrown in for good measure. But mainly marking. I have 20 essays, one of them on Oroonoko, and the rest divided equally between The Rape of the Lock and Gulliver's Travels. The ones I've read so far were either good, or very good, and I've actually been enjoying the marking process. I'm hoping to finish at least half of them by Thursday morning, and the rest by Monday. That'd be nice. Next week's tutorial is on Frankenstein which, while enjoyable, also takes more time to read than, say, some of the poetry on the course.

Knitting, I'm afraid, has once again been relegated to that elusive thing we call 'spare time'. Leisure, it appears, is both weirdly compatible and terribly incompatible with PhDing. Procrastination takes over, but actual free time is rarely to be found - you always feel guilty when you're not thinking about the PhD, or working on the PhD.

Last Saturday I had the day off work, so a field trip seemed in order. The kingdom of Fife has a lot on offer, and the two places we visited, both quite close to St Andrews, were well worth a visit: Crawford Priory and Falkland. The Priory is a private mansion belonging to Lord Cochrane; it is now sadly in ruins (which does, however, enhance its gothic(k)ness - think Jane Eyre).

The front of the building. Notice the lack of roofing, and the fallen-down timbers. And the turrets - oh the turrets!

The side of the building. The front is to our left. See the romanesque doorway?

 
The back of the building, facing out towards fields and hills. I particularly like the middle section, and its windows.

The side again. So pretty.

 

 
My favourite detail: an old lift (people or food?).

My travelling companion, who studies Gothic furniture, squealed at the sight of the window shutters and a ballustrade - the only wooden (?) interior furnishings left. The Priory was such an unexpectedly delightful find. We went off on a whim - PNL had spotted its chimney pots from the train and asked his landlady about it (she knows everyone, it seems), who correctly identified it as the Cochrane's old house. Lord Vere Cochrane that is. Because, you know, everyone is one first name terms with Lords and the royal family.

Falkland seemed the obvious second part of our journey. I had never been to the Palace (just to the village), and was looking forward to seeing both (again).

Falkland village, nestled in the hills, with the Palace behind us.

We had lunch at a wee tearoom (Kind Kyttock's Kitchen) in this street, which branches off to the left from the monument/foutain in the last picture. The tea room was lovely, with an open fire downstairs and local art on the wall. The food was home-made and good, though the portions were a little small. We shared a scone with cream and jam, which was most delicious and enormously big, with lots and lots of sometimes food (what is it with the Scots and their lack of clotted cream? Oh how I miss proper Cream Tea).

The tea room is, I think, the fifth door on the left - the last but one of the white houses.

By the church, next to the monument fountain, is a fantabulous statue. Fantabulous not because of the craftsmenship involved in making it, or because of its location, but because the chap depited has the best name ever:

That's right, Onesiphorus! Onesiphorus, apparently, is from 2 Timothy, and the name means 'bringing profit'. Charles Edward Onesiphorus it is!

On to the Palace though.

Falkland was a royal hunting lodge, used by Mary Queen of Scots as well as later monarchs. It was partly destroyed by fire during the interregnum, but the extant parts are well worth visiting. It's a National Trust property (who, sadly, don't offer a yearly student rate, unlike Historic Scotland). It has two libraries - an Edwardian study and the 'proper' library downstairs, but sadly one cannot go inside. It has some interesting furniture (PNL says; I don't find furniture that thrilling but still liked a few pieces, particulary the dark wooden bed and the bookshelves). It has a Catholic chapel - unusual for a Scottish country house, and, even more exciting than that, Henry Darnley's crest in one of the chapel windows, with 'Henry King of Scots' written close by. I've never seen him referred to King of Scots (although, admittedly, this isn't my period). It also has a royal tennis court - still in use. And we came across this wee fellow in the garden:

An all around lovely day out. Sunny, hazy, warmish yet windy. And pretty. Most of all pretty.

There'll be knitting soon, I promise!

Unmentionables

The sewing streak continues here in Ossianknitsshire. What, you ask, am I making now? Well. I couldn't tell you. It'd be rude. Let's just say it's inspired by several... objects... over on Amy's blog.

I have a whole load of charity shoppable clothes that I no longer want, but instead of tossing them out I decided to... refurbish them.

Unmentionables. From boy-style shorts to pretty lacy things.