In November 2010 there will be a special event in Assynt celebrating the life and work of Norman MacCaig. MacCaig was a teacher and a poet who loved this part of the world, and wrote numerous poems about Assynt.

Now I know many people who read this blog have connections to Assynt, and so I'm putting an appeal on here in the hope that it reaches some who may have known MacCaig or have memories of him.   If you have any old photographs, reel to reel tape recordings, film or video footage of MacCaig during one of his visits to Assynt, or if you have any personal memories of the man, could you get in touch with me?

Now .... to completely change the subject .... I fell in love with the new silk/merino yarn as soon as it arrived in my shed, and I couldn't wait to knit something up with it.  One of the first colours I dyed was Electric Blue - a stunning blue.  This is such an interesting colour to dye.  When I add the dye to the water in the pot it looks really weak.  Really .... it is just a pale, pale blue.  But as I gently heat it up it gets darker, and darker, and darker until the yarn takes on a fantastic intensity.   I needed a pattern that would knit up quickly, as it feels like ages since I actually finished something, so I thought I'd do an Ishbel.



When I first encountered the smaller "shawlettes" I wondered just how practical they would be.  But now I'm building up quite a collection, and they're ideal to tuck under coats in winter, or simply wrap over your shoulders on a chilly summer evening.  If you've never knitted lace before then there are two patterns I'd really recommend.  One is Ishbel, and the other is Brandywine, a pattern by Rosemary Hill.  Both patterns are a great introduction to lace knitting.

It turned out so well I just had to do the Ishbel beret to match:





Now, I'll let you into a little secret - I overestimated the size of my brain!  Or rather my head.  I remember when I was at school how my mother always had to buy me school hats in a size that always seemed to be much larger than everyone else's.  So I made this one in the size I thought would be suitable for my head, but it's a wee bit too big for me.  So, what I thought was if you all measure your heads, and if you come up with a size of  around 56cm then let me know.  Measure from the nape of your neck and around your forehead.   I'll put all the names into a hat and I'll get Stevan to pull out a name and the Ishbel beret is all yours.   So get measuring.