Speaker for the dead

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I finished re-reading Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” tonight. (It’s the Kniterati book for November.) I’d better not talk about it here or I won’t have anything left to say by the time the 27th comes around. However, I will say that I enjoyed it so much that I’ve just spent the entire evening re-reading its sequel “Speaker for the Dead”.

I love the idea of a Speaker for the Dead. The premise is that when someone dies, you call on a Speaker and they talk to all the people who knew the person who died and then Speak for that person. Speaking involves telling their life like it really was, not just the good bits, not just the bad bits but all of it; all the stuff they meant to do but didn’t ; how their life felt to them. For me that last one is the key, it’s about skipping past trying to explain yourself to people and just having them understand how it feels to be you. Of course, it would be even better if we could do this while we were alive and not have to rely on someone doing it for us once we were dead!

I attended a memorial service last month for a friend of mine who died unexpectedly earlier this year. As at most events, there were good speakers and not-so-good speakers but even the good speakers didn’t manage to convey what it was like to be her, just what she meant to them. It was enlightening for me, I knew what she meant to me and to my other friends and acquaintances who knew her, but I learnt so much about her that I didn’t know from what she meant to others. I still wish there had been a true Speaker though, in the sense that Orson Scott Card writes about. I would have liked to have known more about her life from her perspective.

Maybe that’s why I’ve enjoyed reading the Life of Dickens so much. (I finally finished it and when I’m done posting will upload it for it to be finished and it should be available from Project Gutenberg at some point in the not-too-distant future.) Since it’s based on letters and conversations that Dickens had with one of his closest friends over most of his life, it really does seem to give you a glimpse of what it was like to be him. I think Peter Ackroyd did a better job than John Forster of Speaking for Dickens in his biography but there’s an affection missing from it. Also, it’s not split up into manageable sections like the Forster biography and at 1,256 pages including index, bibliography, etc. is a little intimidating even to me!

The best laid schemes …

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… o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley, to quote the Bard.

And so it was with me last night. My big plan to take my Henry scarf to I Knit and get a large chunk of it done was scuppered by me not remembering that I needed to take another ball of yarn with me. To paraphrase another poet “Yarn, yarn all around and not a drop to knit”. Damn having to match dyelots! I think I managed about a quarter of a row with what was left in the ball I had.
There turned out to be a silver lining though; I very nearly got the second pair of bootees completely finished! I finished knitting the second and got it sewn up and got most of the way through sewing up the other. Just the buttons to add and the main seam to sew and it’ll be ready to send off. (One of the girls last night said I had to make sure to send them registered post as it would be awful if something that pretty went missing.)

I Knit as always was great, even if everyone was making me jealous talking about the UK Stitch ‘n’ Bitch show on Saturday that I can’t go to.

Homesick

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Well, I had such a good weekend that I didn’t want it to end! What could be better than an evening spent playing games and singing karaoke with old friends (and some new ones!) while drinking champagne? Not much as it turns out.

Getting on the plane back to London was very hard. “Why am I leaving my friends and family behind in a city that I love and miss?” Talking to Steven didn’t help either: “Wah! I’m so homesick!” The response? “Wah! Me too!”

It’s not that we don’t like London, we really do, it’ll just never be “home” the way that Glasgow is, especially given the number of our friends and family that are still there.

It doesn’t help that I really love my new job. If it hadn’t been for that, we’d both have been quite happy to pack up and move back to Scotland next year. I want to stay a bit longer now though and see how this works out. It’s been a long time since I actually enjoyed my work and was interested in what I was doing and I don’t want to throw that way just yet. I guess we’ll just need to try and get back to not thinking about how much we miss everyone and everything. Coming back to London after being home at Christmas is going to be a real challenge.

Trying to do the right thing

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In order to assuage my knitting withdrawal, I decided to take my knitting (more bootees!) with me over the weekend. Aware that there was no way I was going to be able to take 5 dpns on in my hand luggage, I attempted to check my bag in. (Note the use of the word attempted!)

Now, although I arrived at the airport in plenty of time for my flight, I didn’t check my bag in straightaway, since I wanted to work on my knitting while I was waiting. At the last minute (50 minutes before my flight as per the instructions on my boarding card) I took my bag to the fast bag drop. Because it was so close to the departure of my flight, the woman behind the desk had difficulty printing the label for my bag. Calling over her supervisor, he explains how to print the label but then looks at my bag and asks “Is that the bag you’re checking in?” You know when you suddenly get the feeling that things are about to go horribly wrong? When I confirmed that it was, he then explained that if I checked that bag in, it wouldn’t arrive in Glasgow that night. “Are you sure you couldn’t take it on as hand-luggage?” At which point I removed a knitting needle from the bag and explained that I would love to take the bag on as hand luggage but I had four more just like that in there, so if they could explain to the security staff why I had to take them onboard, I’d be more than happy to comply. I also mentioned the expensive, larger-than-100ml toiletries that I had with me that I was not willing to “throw away” (their suggestion). I had only taken them because I knew I was going to have to check my bag in anyway!

The supervisor explained that because my bag was a rucksack with loose straps it had to go on the out-size bag conveyor, which took 20 minutes longer than the ordinary conveyor which was why it wouldn’t make it onto the plane in time (bearing in mind that the flight wasn’t due to leave for another 50 minutes!) I would then have to collect my bag from Glasgow airport the next morning.

Fortunately, the look on my face was sufficient to convince him that this was not an acceptable scenario and he managed to come up with another suggestion, which was to tie the straps of my rucksack together in a complicated arrangement to prevent them getting caught in the conveyor. He very helpfully explained that this was the reason it had to go on the out-size baggage conveyor “because if it goes on the ordinary conveyor, the straps could get caught and then your bag wouldn’t get through and no other bags wouldn’t get through.” That’s all true but nowhere on my boarding card did it say that rucksacks had to be checked in 20 minutes before all other luggage! This done, the label was printed and my bag was allowed to go on the ordinary conveyor.

All the way up on the flight, I was composing complicated plans involving trips to 24-hour supermarkets to purchase enough clothing to get me through the weekend just in case my bag wasn’t there at the other end. Fortunately, I was able to abandon these plans and breathe a sigh of relief when my bag appeared on the conveyor at Glasgow airport.

Lessons I learned (or re-learned) from this experience:

  1. Take the train, it’s just better (and usually only marginally longer)
  2. If you must fly, do everything as early in the process as you possibly can
  3. Airlines are not run for the convenience of their passengers (see item above)
  4. The current security rules concerning liquids and knitting needles are stupid (further details on why they won’t prevent a terrorist attack available on request)
  5. It’s worth paying extra to fly with a decent airline as the staff will usually make the effort to help sort a problem out rather than forcing you to throw away expensive toiletries and half-done knitting projects

And just to prove I had learned my lesson, on the way back, I checked in in plenty of time and dropped my bag off straightaway with the straps already tied up neatly and it arrived at the other end with no hassle or discussion. Of course, I still haven’t finished the bootees!

Withdrawal

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In theory, I fly back to Glasgow tonight to spend a fun weekend with friends at a spa for a friend’s hen party. In reality I’m anxious at the thought of having to go an entire weekend without knitting or having any real access to DP. I realise that the idea is that I’ll be spending a fun weekend with friends and probably won’t have time to miss my current obsessions too much but that’s not a great comfort at this point in time!

So much so that I’ve decided to succumb to the current stupid airline security rules and, while taking my knitting with me to help pass the two hours that I’ll be spending in Gatwick airport, will check my bag in to avoid possibly having my knitting needles confiscated.

To help cope with the DP withdrawal, I’ve loaded the Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster, Volume II onto my Palm to finish smoothreading it. I’m way behind, since the deadline for finishing was actually today but hopefully I can get through it over the weekend and not be too late. I’ve really enjoyed working on these and can’t wait until they’re finished and available from PG so that I can read them again in the future. They’re a wonderful picture of one of my favourite authors by one of his best friends. True, this means that they’re not always as honest as they could be, skipping over a lot of the personal stuff but you really get a feel for the sheer vitality of the man.

And, finally, two days in and I’m still on track with NaBloPoMo! I might struggle over the weekend though!

Glutton for punishment

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So, having finished one pair of bootees what do I do? Yup, I cast on for the second pair. This time I’m doing green with yellow trim instead of yellow with green. I’m also going to do them in the slightly bigger size, just in case the small ones are too small already.

On a similar note, since there’s absolutely no way I have time to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, I’ve decided to take part in NaBloPoMo instead. This means I’m going to attempt to blog at least once a day for the whole month. Given that I’m not going to have easy internet access for the next three days, this might be quite a challenge!

Beautiful Bootees!

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And they’re done! One pair of Saartje’s bootees for Debs’ baby, Katherine Helen, completely finished. And by that I mean sewn up and buttons attached and everything.

I’ll post some pictures of the finished bootees later (or maybe not till the weekend when there’s actual daylight).

I might try and do another pair with the colours reversed, green trimmed with yellow, since they’re so quick to do but I have a study assignment to finish so I’d better do that first!

Of course, a certain someone told Debs that we needed her address so that we could send her a present for the baby that I had made so I shouldn’t take too long over them.

But when do I get to make something for me?

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So my gift knitting has been interrupted by even more gift knitting. The Henry scarf that I’m making for Christmas for my Dad has been put on hold until I knit a couple of pairs of bootees for a friend’s newborn. I don’t mind really since the bootees are absolutely the most adorable things in the world! After seeing someone at I Knit London making a pair of Saartje’s bootees, I had no choice! They’re really easy and quick to knit and only a little fiddly to sew up. I’ve even learned how to make button loops.

I’m just a little grumpy about it because Henry is taking so long. I thought I’d be able to whip it up quickly and get back to my Goddess but no such luck. At least I’ve managed to work out a method for keeping track of the pattern that means if I do make a mistake, I spot it quickly and not three rows down the line.

unfinished bootee