Gardening in the rain

This blog is supposed to be about gardening as well as knitting, but I haven't been writing much about my garden this year. Mostly because it has been an abysmal year for gardening - altogether too wet, cold and dark to spend time outdoors. In previous years we visited the garden at least five times a week during the spring and summer. This year, we went down once a week, if that.

We had a few successes, though not unmitigated - only half the pink fir apple potatoes I planted came up, but the ones that survived were very tasty. We only managed to grow a couple of pumpkins, but one was enormous and made a perfect Halloween jack-o'-lantern. And the cabbage escaped the dreaded cabbage flies (but not, alas, a slug infestation).

The cabbage are the only things that are still producing right now, but I don't know how long they will survive the latest weather onslaught - floods!

Allotment under water

Neighbors under water

Allotment on the corner has merged with the stream

And it is not just the allotments - lots of houses and roads in South Oxford are under threat of flooding as well (or already inundated with water).

Abingdon Road on Tuesday morning

It hasn't even been raining much in the past few days, but the water keeps rising. Oxford is bounded on both sides by rivers - the Isis (Thames) to the west and the Cherwell to the east, and all the waterways are full to overflowing.

Cherwell covering University Parks

I suppose I should be grateful that the flooding held off this long - at least most of the garden was already put to bed. Otherwise I might have been tempted to give up on gardening permanently!

Knitting vintage

A couple of weeks ago I attended a wonderful presentation by Susan Crawford at our local fibre craft store, Darn-it-and-Stitch.

Susan Crawford has done a great service to knitting, by publishing two books of vintage patterns taken from 1920s-1950s knitting magazines.

Vintage knitting patterns were printed in one size - usually an extra small in today's sizes. Of course not everyone back then was that small, they were just expected to know enough about knitting to be able to modify patterns for their own dimensions. Susan Crawford and her assistants have done all the hard work of modifying the patterns for a range of sizes, to fit us larger and less technically adept modern knitters.

Susan Crawford gave a fascinating talk, first narrating how she came to develop the first and second volumes of her vintage knitting books, and then introducing us to the features of vintage styles. Finally, she talked us through following a vintage pattern, explaining how to adjust vintage patterns to ensure a perfect fit.

And naturally there was an opportunity to buy books and yarn, and naturally I could not resist. I got the first volume and will probably request the second for Christmas.

A Stitch in Time Vintage Knitting & Crochet Patterns Vol:1	A Stitch in Time  Vintage Knitting Patterns Vol:2

I managed to resist the yarn, because I couldn't immediately decide which pattern to do first. But I definitely plan to stock up on the new yarn line that Susan has introduced: Excelana, a 100% British wool yarn in a range of perfectly vintage colours.

The talk was particularly well timed, because I was planning to knit an angora bolero to wear to Christmas parties this year. The pattern I had in mind was 'For a Winter Party' from a November 1957 Stitchcraft booklet I picked up at Woolfest this summer. Fortunately it is a simple pattern and should not require too many adjustments, especially since boleros are supposed to be cropped anyway.

 

Debbie Bliss shrug/bolero

After some research I determined that I needed an aran weight angora. I tried swatching with Orkney angora, but decided that a 50/50 angora/wool blend did not create the extreme degree of fuzziness I required. I know exactly the yarn that will work - Anny Blatt 70/30 angora/wool blend - but I can't get it in the UK. So the winter party bolero will have to wait until my next trip to Paris. In the meanwhile I found a similar bolero pattern on Ravelry and bought some Debbie Bliss Andes in a slightly less fuzzy but equally soft royal alpaca/silk blend.

As it happens, I already have a vintage 1950s angora cardigan I inherited from my mother. It is 50/50 angora/wool, and still pleasingly fuzzy. Unfortunately it is black, a colour I don't wear a lot. I'll have to knit myself a new one in one of Orkney angora's jewel shades.

The label says: Minnesota Woolen® Duluth, Minnesota
The clothing store at your door

Tea or coffee?

I've lived in the UK for almost ten years now, but I have not yet become a tea drinker. Or more precisely, I have not become a British tea drinker.

Being American, my brew of choice is coffee. Instant coffee is more common in the UK (Americans are more likely to have coffee machines), so I got into the habit of drinking it when I first moved here, but lately, like British coffee drinkers in recent years, I have moved away from convenience to a cafetière (or French Press in American English).

I drink tea occasionally as well. I learned to drink tea in Taiwan, and still enjoy sipping a fragrant brew of Oolong or jasmine tea, steeped from loose tea leaves in a traditional teacup with no handle. I buy my tea from Mariages Freres in Paris, and usually pick up a new floral melange each time I visit.

But I have not embraced British tea. The most commonly drunk tea is from tea bags which contain inferior quality tea, consisting of the dust that is left over from higher grades. This creates a quick, harsh brew. So, like instant coffee, this tea is convenient but not particularly tasty.

Many people have bemoaned the taste of American tea to me. Presumably they are referring to Lipton, a British product which is not widely available in the UK, but relatively common in the US and Europe. Personally, I doubt there is much of a difference in flavour, unless it is between bad and marginally worse. I only ever used Lipton tea for iced sun tea, something we don't have the weather for here.

However, I might just have to change my ways, now that I have procured a proper teapot. It's from le Creuset (as always, there has to be a French connection), but it is a proper British-style teapot all the same.

Teapot (and new cosy Rowan felted tweed pullover)

And I'm going to knit myself a proper British-style teapot cosy to go with it. It will have to be Kate Davies' Sheep Carousel, knit from proper Shetland wool.

But I don't think I'm going to put British tea in it. Rather, I'll stock up on a tea-bag tea I like, from my favourite American tea company, Celestial Seasonings.

Appropriately for an American, Morning Thunder contains mate, the South American caffeinated drink of choice. A nice compromise between tea and coffee.