When life gives you... quinces...

I was going to have a bit of a rant about the general crappiness of this week and particularly today, but things conspired against me tonight. A reminder of Tuesday's Mid-Term results in the US, for instance... all hail to Mark Morford (yet again). A conversation with a friend after work which made me remember that there are good things about living alone, an e-mail from another friend of long standing which puts us back in touch (you know who you are but I don't know whether I should link to your blog!) and news from another friend of what sounds like an excellent new job, and a perusal of my Bloglines feed to see that lots of people I read are having whinges with more justification, or are indeed just whingeing more amusingly, I'm feeling positively Pollyannaish. So I'm going to post this and then lie in the bath with a glass of wine.

I would say I'll be relishing the silence; but I succumbed to the allure of a special offer on Felix at the village shop, and The Maiden Aunts do not approve. Not at all. There's a deputation in the kitchen. If they were American cats, they'd be walking in a tiny circle with those placards. As it is they're just yelling the equivalent of "Scab!" from the sidelines. They'll eat it eventually.

Some knitting pics. Exhibit A: Caroline-at-work's small daughter was presented with a very nice Italian wool scarf. Seconds after leaving the givers' home, it was the victim of a Horrific Buggy Accident.


You can't really see in this photo - partly because I've made the damage rather worse by starting unravelling - but the edge is pretty much chewed to pieces for 10-12 rows... I'm thinking I need to unravel it at both sides of the damage and attempt to graft it (obviously, I like Caroline; a lot; or I wouldn't be uttering the g-word) . First, I need to understand which stitch it is and why it appears to be made using two strands and from both sides at once. I suspect this is some dastardly machine-knitting trick... I can see myself reknitting the damn thing from scratch, having destroyed it and being unable to re-graft...


Also, I got a huge donation of quinces a couple of weeks ago - despite leaving it a shamefully long time before doing anything with them, I made chutney last night, am about to make more this evening, and will make some jelly tomorrow. Quinces are amazing things. This year I'm going to freeze some so I can put them in stews... The thing surrounding the chutney is the beginnings of a Sherwood, for Fiona. You might see quite a lot of this before Christmas; the other people I'm knitting for seem to read this blog...