The Staffordshire Hoard

"This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England… as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries. Absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells." - Leslie Webster, Former Keeper, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum

The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered buried beneath a field in Staffordshire by an amateur metal detector enthusiast. The Staffordshire Hoard comprises of more than 1,500 individual items and most objects appear to date around the 7th century. You can read the entire press statement here.

I am incredibly excited by this hoard. One of the items which really intrigues is a strip of gold bearing a Biblical inscription. I'm excited because we don't often see examples of handwriting from this age as most writing would have been done on (easily perishable) wax tablets. The Lindisfarne Gospels date from around the same period, of course, but seeing writing employed outside a manuscript page is just really, really fantastic - particularly as you are seeing a religious inscription on an arguably secular item.

You can see beautifully detailed photos of the hoard on Flickr and while the Staffordshire Hoard website is currently struggling to cope with the number of visitors, I encourage you to seek it out.

Here We Go Again..

I've dug out two skeins of Drops Alpaca in order to make a third Ishbel shawl. I have given the other two versions away and thought a third one would a) be an easy knit which is perfect for knitting group and b) I'd like one to keep my neck warm this autumn. I'm still not sold on the pattern - there is something about the lace repeats that doesn't give me that lace-knitting buzz - but it is a quick knit and it looks pretty. Most of my knitting pleasure is derived from the yarn and its gorgeous heathered orange colour. Drops Alpaca is, of course, one of my desert island yarns. It comes in an amazing range of colours, has excellent yardage, knits up beautifully whether you choose to treat it as a fingering weight or as a light DK (!), is eminently affordable, and is deliciously warm and snuggly. I can't think of a single bad thing to say about it.

It's funny. I am very, very fond of so-called "rustic" yarns: yarns that feel like they've just leapt off the sheep and into your hands with very little work gone into them. I love that connection to nature - and yet if I were to select three yarns to bring with me on a long, lonely journey (or desert island), none of them would be particularly rustic. I'd select Drops Alpaca, Noro Cashmere Island and Malabrigo - all soft, commercial yarns with a high degree of processing gone into them. Go figure.

Also on the needles:

• My Pine cardigan is still with me and I have one sleeve, the yoke and the buttonbands to go. I can't consider it an unfinished object because I still want to finish it and wear it. I'm just dreading the yoke bit because the instructions leave a lot to be desired. Also still worried about my yarn amount.
• I have one fair-isle glove finished and should really get around to knitting the other. I was ready to give up on the gloves but was persuaded otherwise by my knitting group who thought they were lovely and Other Half who thought they looked "quite 1940s". I'm a sucker. I'm going to knit the second one. Soon.

I also tried casting on for Rosamund's Cardigan out of the recent IK, but the designated yarn did not work. I suppose that tells me that I should just get back to working on Pine..

Along the Canal

Alexander Trocchi's novel, Young Adam, is an interesting little piece of Scottish beat literature, if rather uneven. It tells the story of Joe, a young disaffected man working and living on a barge boat travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The film adaptation, which stars Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Peter Mullan, is excellent and well-worth your time (if you like your films grim and existential). Nowadays I live a very short walk away from the Forth and Clyde canal where Young Adam is set - I still halfway expect to see Ewan McGregor in a fetching fisherman's sweater every time we walk along the canal. Today we walked down to the annual Big Man event which seeks to get the local community involved in the area surrounding the Forth and Clyde canal. Local artist Andy Scott is hoping to erect a 30m steel sculpture-cum-footbridge (the Big Man) across one of the canal junctions - in Scott's own words: "the footbridge will be representational of the historic ironworks, boat-building and other industries that were found in the (..) area. I hope he becomes a symbol of the area's proud history and a beacon of hope for the future".

Anyway.

I've now embarked on the bane of my life: the Christmas wish list. Usually I get asked for it in August but this year my family managed to wait until end of September because we are going across to Denmark and so they do not need to post the presents. I'm wondering if it would be okay to ask for yarn seeing as I'm yet to knit up all the yarn I got last year.. Any good Danish knitting books just published? Any new Scandinavian yarns? Any good shawl pin vendors in Denmark?

Now to write the UK version..

Recharging Our Batteries

We went on a mini-break to the North-East coast of Scotland. I love visiting this particular part of Scotland - it reminds me of the landscape where I grew up (agricultural, close to the sea, small villages, cows) and yet this place is so startlingly different and dramatic (dangerous cliffs! fishing huts! waterfalls! lobsters!). We were really lucky with the weather this time, but this little place is just as beautiful in the depth of winter. Now back to normality. I hope this little mini-break recharged my batteries because I have a feeling things are going to get hectic in the next few weeks..

Calendar Confusion

This is another week where I'm going "How can it only be Tuesday? It must be Friday! Thursday, late Thursday, then!" and then my Filofax pulls me aside and gently points out it is only Tuesday. Oh my. Send me energy, adrenaline shots, copious amounts of coffee and a great deal of fortitude.

PS. Students are back. I can't stand students (therefore I must be a grown-up, I guess). I have a serious problem with students telling me I'm a freak for being very tired after a very long day. Ah, your youth will end too, dear student, and it will end sooner rather than later.

Weekend