A Proper Study: Mending Karen

The Stranding

---

Are you sent from York Cottage? Chad Reaver by name, sent to take you to the Yorks. Chad Reaver looked to be about my age, early twenties, maybe a bit older.

He was clean-shaven, muscular, half a head taller than me, dressed in work garb, and if I had to describe him in one word, I would say solid. He put my box under the seat and helped me up to sit beside him. I was entranced by the slight burr to his voice. Just sit back now and look around. I tell you, this place has been so changed and improved over the years.

We feed and protect the birds for the family and their guests to shoot. Meanwhile, we keep a good eye out for poachers. Guns make such a bang that the thieves use snares attached to sticks or canes, but I know their shifty ways. So much to learn here. He pointed out to me the nearby village where he lived, West Newton by name. And ahead, at the end of this straight road, loomed a grand house and a smaller one.

Get A Copy

It has as many rooms as there are days in a year, pretty fancy ones. And this was called a country house? As we drew closer, I saw it was red brick with an imposing front and wide lawns and terraces. I looked away to study the house that was to be my new home, a fairy-tale place with gabled roof and lots of chimneys, not what I would call a cottage at all.

Keep It Shut: What to Say, How to Say It, and When to Say Nothing at All

Chad Reaver helped me down and put my trunk on his broad shoulder to escort me to a side door. She had a kind face but had a habit of standing so erect that her gray eyes seemed to be looking down her long nose.

Then my brother Ernest, three years younger than me, and last Edith, three years after Ernest. But they are presented to their parents at teatime each afternoon promptly at four when the duke and duchess are here.

She showed me how to use the back stairs when I fetched things from below. But one of the servants, who all seemed eager to catch a glimpse of me too, gave me a sweet smile as her eyes swept over me, hat to shoes. I found it hard to fathom that Dr. I learned there were two newfangled bathrooms in the house, but both were for the use of Their Graces. There are two of them to help, at least, though Mrs. I tried to keep track of all the new names.

Navigation menu

You and I shall talk after I tuck up the children tonight, about rules and regulations, timing, behaviors. Besides the nursery footman, Cranston, I have two nursemaids. Dugdale says you come recommended. The baby will need close watching byyou, while I tend my boys, especially the heir, a delicate, darling child.

How about you come down and have a spot of tea with me in my room to buck you up after your journey? Presented and then removed? I had been so certain that royal children would be well behaved and that the nurse who tended them would at least be welcoming.

Welcome back to The Reading Frenzy. Tell my readers about your new novel, The Royal Nanny. Two of these children became kings of England: Settings Tips on technique 3: Point of view Tips on technique 4: Dialogue Tips on technique 5: Plot Tips on technique 6: Tense Tips on technique 7: The Stranding Karen Viggers. He wants only to escape from the world, and thinks he's found the perfect place to do it, until the local community starts taking an interest in him. I love it when people share their visibly mended items on social media, and I would encourage everybody to do so, and use the hashtag visiblemending.

This way you can inspire others, and be inspired by others. Look at other visible mending examples. Apart from the obvious such as the tools needed to do the job: I have relatively few books with actual knitting patterns in them. A large stash of wool yarns and threads for making and mending!

Do you remember Miles Apart? January, for example, contains a letter from each of the friends; a few pages of scene-setting photos; recipes for buttermilk scones, a Good Luck Frittata and Warming Up Tea; musings on a winter home; a tutorial for making and using beeswax spoon oil; another for felted patches for mending socks; and a winter day trip from each of the Portlands. Whereas June contains the letters and photos, recipes for Summer Strawberry Pie and Raspberry Ripple Yogurt Pops, an essay about solstice in Maine and a tutorial for sun-printed napkins.

Perhaps the most valuable tutorial of all, though, will be the pinecones. I still get inquiries about how to make it, four years later. While the version in the book complete with templates is written for silk-backed wool with a ribbon instead of a lobster clasp, I feel like it could be easily adapted for leather and might have to give it a try. There have been a lot of very formulaic craft books lately — a series of project tutorials in a nearly identical presentation, some better than others.

This book is much more intimate: It is also a way to assert individuality in an increasingly homogenized world. Please raise your hand if it was you! But what about our obligation to those clothes we already own? Who was it that made the great point on IG about having more clothes to choose from meant each garment got worn less often and lasted longer. My week in the Craftlands. But in addition to being exhausted and wanting to hang out with my husband, my mind was just too full from the trip. I needed a minute. At this one, that was me and Norah Gaughan , who is as delightful as can be.

Mostly a learning-from-my-mistakes scenario! So for me, those few days were casual and relaxing yet thought-provoking and inspiring. I witnessed one of my favorite knitterly moments ever, too. She was striking poses and smiling radiantly and my heart fell out in a puddle as I watched from the balcony. And yes, Julie also submitted to the joint selfie. Everyone was just lovely, and if any of the attendees are reading this: I loved meeting you. Arriving late, I only got to take three classes: We talk a lot about how many fewer items of clothing people used to have in their closets in, say, the first half of the 20th century , but long before that people spun and wove and tatted and knitted and crocheted.

What we take for granted and amass thoughtlessly and toss off without a care, our ancestors placed incredible value on. In the Nordic survey class, the teacher, Susan Strawn, talked a lot about museum collections — how they are built and cataloged and viewed.

Ho Ho Ho Giveaways

What academics and researchers and curators long for are the everyday clothes that were worn and darned and have stories to tell. The teacher of my two Sami classes, Laura Ricketts , was talking about the braided cord that hangs from each Sami mitten, which is used to secure them to your waistband, your reindeer, whatever! We, the general public, do not know how to darn our socks or elbows, or re-knit our cuffs. I feel this more intensely all the time: It runs so much deeper than that. The things you learn! By the way, have you seen what Allison is up to these days? My official plan is to focus on making things wearable again.

So my first job will be to pull out the neck and redo it, picking up fewer stitches this time to cinch up the hole a bit, and either try again with the stockinette but less of it, or go straight to replacing it with a regular ribbed foldover crewneck. I bought this popover at Madewell about three years ago and loved the fabric and the fit except, as usual, it was too small for me in the shoulders. So I cut off the sleeves and wore it — a ton — under things. The linen got paper-thin pretty quickly, and there are significant holes at the corners of the pockets.

I may have to face the fact that I chose the wrong yarn and this will never hang on me the way I want it to, even with a modified neck.

River Bodies

They are, in fact, my favorite jeans to wear — the most easygoing — and I only own three pair of blue jeans to begin with. Crew jeans from their Made in L. You guys are endlessly amazing. Thank you, Katrina — I hope everyone is feeling inspired to get into fix-it mode!

Weekend Reads Share this: Three favorite tools for knitting or darning that you cannot live without? Thanks for all the incredible input this week, everyone — have a fantastic weekend! My week in the Craftlands Share this: I got a lot of knitting done.

• Piccola Anto (Italian Edition)
• Karate Madness
• Vendida como una Mercancía (Spanish Edition)
• Abduction REDUX
• A Simple Crossroads: A Lancaster Crossroads Novella
• The Interpreter: A Tale of the War
• The Blake Legacy (The Blake Boys Book 3)