Culture
698: Chs 7-8 — Mr. Harrison's Confessions
In Episode 698 of Craft Lit, Heather Ordover discusses Chapters 7-8 of 'Mr. Harrison's Confessions' while sharing personal anecdotes about her family's cherished belongings, includ...
698: Chs 7-8 — Mr. Harrison's Confessions
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Interactive Transcript
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Episode 698.
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Booktok begins at 16 minutes and 51 seconds.
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Welcome to Craft Lit.
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The podcast for crafters who love books.
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My name is Heather Ordover and I'm podcasting from where the Delaware River meets the Old
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York Road, New Hook, and Sultana.
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Episode 698.
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Suspended.
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This episode of Craft Lit is brought to you by our lovely patrons at patreon.com slash
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craft lit, our channel members on YouTube, and our premium members at craftlit.com slash
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premium.
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This week we would like to thank Barbara Hutchinson, Melissa Weaver Denning, Kathleen Rogers,
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Terry, and Renee Rico.
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Thank you so much for your support for the show.
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We could not do this without you.
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Well, hello, how are you?
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I'm pretty he dayky.
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Since last time we spoke, our raffle has ended.
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This is the raffle for Andrew's book.
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I am recording this before the end of the month, so I haven't selected the new winner,
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but I will.
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This month, October 20, 25, there will be no raffle because I don't know how much recording
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I'm going to be able to do during the month of October.
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Why you ask?
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Let me tell you.
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I think I mentioned before during Cranford that my car exploded when I was just outside
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of Baltimore, which is not very close to home.
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So it exploded and died utterly.
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It is still dead.
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We're donating it to the local vocAD school so that they can use it for their program so
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that the young people who are learning how to fix cars can look at it and go dear God
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almighty.
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What happened here?
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What wrath of God moment happened inside this Subaru Outback?
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My mom, however, just bought a new car a couple months ago and she said, oh, timing.
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We'll just drive my car back to you this fall and then it can be your car.
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Great.
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It's 13 years old.
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I don't care.
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It runs great.
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My mom has really, really nicely maintained it.
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And this means we will be able to drive back our family's typewriter that I used when
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I was a kid.
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And I think I wrote fanfic of Star Wars after, must have been after Empire Strikes Back.
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One summer, I just got it into my head that what I really needed to do was write a script.
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I was 14, 15 maybe, maybe, maybe 14.
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Yeah, I have vivid memories of sitting in front of the office, the study window at a TV
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tray with the typewriter on it typing out a many page script.
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I don't think it exists anymore.
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I'm sure whatever box that was in got lost to the ethers on one of our moves.
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But I have fond memories of this typewriter.
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It is an electric.
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It's not a manual, but it has very satisfying clickety clacking as well.
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So we're going to be driving that back.
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We're going to be driving back my great-grandmother's singer featherweight.
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I did not know it was a featherweight when I was learning how to sew, but that is the
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machine I learned how to sew on.
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It has the stitch length lever that you has a little nut on it so that you could wind
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it in and decrease the stitch length and wind it out and increase the stitch length.
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But also that was the forward and reverse.
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So if you threw the switch all the way up, I think it went in reverse.
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If you pulled it back down to wherever it's supposed to or maybe it's, yeah, no, that's
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it.
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And then if you pull it back down to whatever length you have selected, that will go
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forward at that point.
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It has the little flip up bed, which is awesome.
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And it has its own carrying case cover.
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And I did not realize this was a thing.
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Certainly when I was learning how to sew until I got the trellis singer and found out
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that these featherweight machines, these electric machines are really sought after.
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And I do understand why it's, I think I've said before, it's a solid enough structure,
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even though it is truly a portable machine.
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It's solidly enough made that my mom and I took a stretch and sew class when I was in
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high school at the local fabric store place.
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I made myself a swimsuit, which if you think about this, that's a straight stitch machine.
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The women there were like, you're going to try to do this without a zigzag.
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I don't have a zigzag machine.
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So yeah.
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And I believe one of them said that's not possible.
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And the other one said, actually, you just have to have the right needle and you have
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to really pull, like have a have a hand behind the needle and a hand in front of it and
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be pulling on that to stretch it to the maximum in order to be able to put the thing on.
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So it worked.
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I made a swimming suit.
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So that was great.
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But yeah, fun memories of this featherweight, my great grandma's machine.
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So that's coming back here with me.
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And then some of my grandmother's China is coming back not to me, but to my cousin who
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lives up in New York.
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We will also stop off and take a look at what Aiden has been doing at Pratt, a sophomore
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at college.
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So all these things are very exciting.
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But what that means is from the 15th on, I will largely be in a car into son and
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or in a car.
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So I've been trying to do extra recordings every week so that I would have a backlog of
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recordings available for posting that has not happened.
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Recording days are really hard.
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And then I wind up taking almost a week to recover from them.
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And then I have to record just the next week's episode.
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So I don't know what the recording schedule is going to be like.
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Luckily we're not in any kind of big cliffhanger part of either book right now.
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We're not in a cliffhanger part of Moabytic.
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We're also not in a cliffhanger part of Mr. Harrison's Confessions.
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So I apologize if I skip a couple of weeks, you will now know where I am.
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Should that happen.
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But that's also why there isn't a raffle.
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I just don't know where I'll be or how much brain I'll have to monitor these things.
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And it's just better not.
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But maybe I'll be able to fix up something on the road that I can raffle off in November.
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We'll see.
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Crafty things.
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So this week I called the episode suspended.
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And that is because I did find a better snooed pattern.
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And I will share a picture of this on screen on YouTube and in the show notes as well.
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So you can take a look at what this better snooed looks like.
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The pattern is a little bit more clearly written out.
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I don't know that it's significantly different for the basket tree part of the snooed,
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the like netting part of the snooed.
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But the headband part of the snooed is fabulous.
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You slip the last crocheted stitch off of the crochet hook and onto a knitting needle.
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And then you pick up stitches all the way around and knit those into one by one ribbing,
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which was great.
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Except I there was really no gauge to get.
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And I didn't have her size crochet hook.
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And I also she recommended cotton yarn.
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And I thought I don't want cotton yarn.
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It's going to be bulky and heavy and not be stretchy at all.
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And I kind of need the stretchy.
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She was very pro non stretchy snooze.
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I for some reason my brain re-billed and it's like no.
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So I had some old sock yarn that I could use.
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It's obviously wool.
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I did that.
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But whatever gauge she had is not the gauge that I had.
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And so when I switched to the knitting needles, I first used the needles that she recommended.
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And then realized that was not going to get this headband small enough to actually be useful.
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It was kind of hanging down not quite to my shoulder, but definitely below turtle neck edge.
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And I went down another to needle size.
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I think she went from a she didn't went from an eight US eight to a US six.
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And I did another two or three rows down on a US four.
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And that worked mostly, but I had also, because I didn't know how big the hair band part,
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the knitted hair band part was going to be.
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I had also added a row of crochet on.
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And she was increasing the number of stitches in the netting sections by one or two at that
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point every time she started a new round.
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So I followed in in kind.
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And that was a mistake because even rolled up into like a pseudo bun.
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My hair eventually started to slip through in like it just started to come through.
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So I've gone back and I've re-netted some of the sections on the bottom half of the
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snooze so that my hair will not fall through these holes.
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So yeah, I've modified it a lot, but like I said, it was clearer and easier to crochet.
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And I really like the way the knitted headband portion worked.
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I did wind up taking the crocheted a long thing and then I doubled it up and crocheted the two,
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basically two chains together to make a pretty sturdy, it's still stretchy, but it's not stretchy.
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I did that for the previous version of the snooze.
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I stole that and I put it through this snooze as well.
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And it was just enough snugginus for me to feel secure.
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And yeah, so I was very happy about this, but the real reason I was happy is because her pattern
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recommended something I had never heard of before.
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I am sure some craftlet listeners have done this.
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It was sure news to me, a suspended cast off.
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Now I did video myself doing this and if you watch the video, you will see my hands are pretty shaky.
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It was a pretty shaky hand day, but I tried to watch a video.
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It didn't work.
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I went to a blog.
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I found, you know, individual still pictures that I could follow.
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It made sense.
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I did a video of me doing it saying the things out loud that I wish somebody else had said
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when they were demonstrating it, both on the blog page where the written instructions appeared
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as well as the videos that I saw that explained it.
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So the important thing to know is if you are interested, I will link out to the blog post that I used.
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If you want to see my video of it, we're going to put that at the very end of today's episode.
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So you don't have to watch the whole episode on YouTube if you don't want to.
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You can just fast-wind to the end or we'll have a chapter marker that says,
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Heather Knitz, the suspended cast off or something will come up with something neat.
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And that way you can just come and take a look at what this looks like.
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It is the sprungiest, stretchiest, not stretch out of bowl cast off I have ever come across.
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And I had tried, I think, every stretchy cast off that I came across.
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Most of the time they came out being stretchy because they were kind of loose.
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This, it was the headband part was knit in a one by one rib.
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I bound off in a one by one rib, which nobody else demonstrated how to do.
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So I demonstrated that.
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And I was really, really happy both at the beginning and at the end.
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I show you just how springy stretchy this bind off is.
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Wow.
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So I'm going to be using that for hats, for socks, for anything that needs some stretch.
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I am very excited.
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This week I was able to get vertical for a little while.
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And so I took advantage of it and did some recording of crafty things that I was working on.
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One of those being the bind off.
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I did some painting as well.
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If you're watching on YouTube, you can see part of the pangolin behind me.
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I am still working on this beast.
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I have to, I have to be in the right frame of mind to work on it.
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And right now I'm starting to get panicky about Christmas.
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So I'm getting distracted.
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It's closing in on done.
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I'd better be done before I fly to Tucson to drive back with mom.
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I don't want to be working on that after.
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But I'm very happy with the way it's coming out.
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So don't forget you can send your crafty videos to us to show while we are listening to the book
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chapters on the YouTube channel.
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Don't also forget that it doesn't matter if you have audio.
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You could be yelling it an animal.
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It doesn't matter.
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We're not going to play your audio.
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But that is also why using the form that we have on the show notes is great because it gives
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you an opportunity to say, please make sure when you show this video that you show this is my
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guild or this is my favorite charity or whatever.
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So you can tell us what you're doing so that we can tell everybody else what you're doing with
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notes on screen.
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And yeah, if you have a guild that you want to publicize or a charity that you want to share
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or a site that you like to go to that has instructions on how to do what you're doing.
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Anything.
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Feel free.
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I love getting a chance to see what you're doing.
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And I think I've mentioned it before, but it's been a while.
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If you are doing some kind of artsy crafty thing, it doesn't have to be
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like professional grade.
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God knows my stuff is not professional level artsy crafty stuff.
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But if you're doing something with children and you can, you know, balance a camera
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or your phone above what you're doing.
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So we see your hands as long as we don't see the children's faces.
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If we just see their hands, that's safe.
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But don't send video of children where their faces are visible.
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That we won't be able to show because that's just crossing a line that I do not want to get into.
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Both kids have said at various times as adults that they really, really respect
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that I figured out at some point that, oh, I probably shouldn't say their names because
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the internet is suddenly big and people I don't know are listening to the podcast.
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And so they became thing one and thing two.
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And we went back and replaced their names.
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I think we caught it all.
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We think one and thing two instead of Aaron and Aiden now that they are adult people,
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we can say that.
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But they've showed me YouTube channels and TikTok channels of parents who are
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using their children as content.
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And it's really creepy.
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It's really creepy.
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So yeah, we don't want to, we don't want to go down that road.
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That's an unhappy road.
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Mr. Harrison's Confessions.
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Last week, we had our lovely, our lovely picnic as long as you weren't Mr. Harrison.
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If you were Mr. Harrison, it was not so lovely.
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It was a little frot.
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There were the, the women vying for his attention, the mothers or stepmothers or aunts
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who were pushing him to spend time with their charges.
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And you had Sophie and Walter who was really, they were really the only people that Mr. Harrison
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wanted to spend any time with and couldn't.
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There was a little bit of foreshadowing in there.
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And our first chapter today, chapter seven is going to deal with that foreshadowing.
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Chapter eight is going to be beginning of a new arc.
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So this, this whole thing made me think that in Cranford, we kind of had,
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I think, I think eventually I noticed it was three chapters per story arc.
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Some of this is because again, these stories were serialized.
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This one was serialized in the Ladies Companion and Monthly Magazine.
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And obviously took several issues.
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I'm pretty sure that she was posting these three chapter arcs as her
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submissions to, to the magazine, which makes sense lengthwise.
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But what it also means is, I started doing some research.
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I'm like, does this, is this technically a short story?
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Is this technically a novella?
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And what I learned is it comes down a lot to the number of words in a story.
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Like a short story is usually under 7,500 words.
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Some hit 10,000 words, but really it's usually under 7,500 words.
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And there is a single plot line.
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There are no A and B plots.
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There's no like.
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And this is what was happening to these other people while that was going on.
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The same way that you had the Harriet Smith subplot
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and what was going on with her and the man who loved her and all of that craziness.
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And you had the the Bateses and Jane and all of the things that were happening over there.
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Those are subplots to the main Emma storyline.
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You don't really get that here.
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It's not that other characters aren't involved, but it's not its own plot
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that is having information added to as a storyline.
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Like if you were acting, it would be a lot of work on your part to come up
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with your storyline for being any of the secondary characters in Mr. Harrison's confessions.
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But there used to be a thing called a novelette.
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And that was 7,500 to 20,000 words.
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And novella is usually 20,000 to 50,000 words.
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And then a novel is anything upwards of 50,000 words.
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Mr. Harrison's confessions is a long short story,
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but not long enough to make a two or three volume novel,
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which is why it falls into the novella side of things.
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It's about 3,500 to or 35,000 to 40,000 words for Mr. Harrison's confessions.
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And novella tends to be between 20,000 and 50,000 words total.
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And one of the reasons why I was looking that up was to try and determine
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if the number of arcs was counting as subplots and would affect the definition of this book.
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And the answer is really no.
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It's not going to.
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The arcs are self-contained.
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It's very episodic.
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Most books, most novels aren't so episodic, but several novellas are from this time period,
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from the late 1700s into the 1800s.
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So that's where that comes down.
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And thinking about books from this time period makes me remember,
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we are putting together the video of that Jane Austin exhibit.
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And right now the video images are getting compiled.
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I am then going to add narration, and then we will put that up.
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And that'll be available for you, which I am excited about.
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All right, I don't want to spoil anything that is coming for today's chapters.
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So I'm just going to let Noel Baydrian read to us from Elizabeth Gaskells.
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Mr. Harrison's confessions, chapters seven and eight.
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Here we go.
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Section four of Mr. Harrison's confessions by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Recording by Noel Baydrian.
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Chapter seven.
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I was roused from my sleep in the middle of the night by a messenger from the Vicarage.
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Little Walter had got the group, and Mr. Morgan had been sent for into the country.
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I dressed myself hastily and went through the quiet little street.
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There was a light burning upstairs at the Vicarage.
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It was in the nursery.
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The servant who opened the door, the instant I knocked, was crying sadly,
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and could hardly answer my inquiries as I went up the stairs two steps at a time to see my little favorite.
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The nursery was a great large room.
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At the father end it was lighted by a common candle, which left the other end,
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where the door was in shade.
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So I suppose the nurse did not see me come in,
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for she was speaking very crossly.
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Miss Sophie said she, I told you over and over again it was not fit for him to go,
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with the hoarseness that he had, and you would take him.
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It will break your papar's heart, I know, but it's none of my doing.
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Whatever Sophie felt, she did not speak in answer to this.
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She was on her knees by the warm bath, in which the little fellow was struggling to get his breath,
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with a look of terror on his face that I have often noticed in young children,
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when smitten by a sudden and violent illness.
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It seems as if they recognize something infinite and invisible at whose bidding the pain and the
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anguish come, from which no love can shield them.
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It is a very heart-rending look to observe, because it comes on the faces of those who are too
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young to receive comfort from the words of faith, or the promises of religion.
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Walter had his arms tightly round Sophie's neck, as if she, hitherto his paradise angel,
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could save him from the dread shadow of death.
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Yes, of death.
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I knelt down by him on the other side and examined him.
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The very robustness of his little frame gave violence to the disease, which is always one of the most
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fearful by which children of his age can be attacked.
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Don't tremble what he said Sophie, in a soothing tone, it's Mr. Harrison darling,
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who let you ride on his horse.
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I could detect the quivering in the voice, which she tried to make so calm and soft,
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to quiet the little fellow's fears. We took him out of the bath and I went for leeches.
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While I was away, Mr. Morgan came. He loved the vicarage children as if he were their uncle,
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but he stood still and aghast at the sight of Walter, so lately bright and strong,
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and now harrying alone to the awful change, to the silent mysterious land,
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where, tender than cared for as he had been on earth, he must go alone.
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The little fellow, the darling.
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We applied the leeches to his throat. He resisted at first, but Sophie, God bless her,
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put the agony of her grief on one side and thought only of him, and began to sing the little songs he
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loved. We were all still. The gardener had gone to fetch the vicar, but he was twelve miles off,
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and we doubted if he would come in time. I don't know if they had any hope, but the first moment
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Mr. Morgan's eyes met mine, I saw that he, like me, had none. The ticking of the house clock sounded
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through the dark quiet house. Walter was sleeping now, with the black leeches yet hanging to his fair
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white throat. Still, Sophie went on singing little alibis, which she had sung under four different
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and happier circumstances. I remember one verse because it struck me at the time, as strangely
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applicable. Sleep, baby, sleep. Thy rest shall angels keep, while on the grass the lamb shall feed,
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and never suffer one or need. Sleep, baby, sleep. The tears were in Mr. Morgan's eyes. I do not think
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either he or I could have spoken in our natural tones, but the brave girl went on clear though low.
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She stopped at last and looked up. He is better, is he not Mr. Morgan?
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No, my dear, he is.
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He could not speak all at once. Then he said, my dear, he will be better soon.
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Think of your mama, my dear Miss Sophie. She will be very thankful to have one of her
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darling safe with her where she is. Still, she did not cry, but she bent her head down on the
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little face and kissed it long and tenderly. I will go for Helen and Izzy. They will be sorry not to
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see him again. She rose up and went for them. Poor girls, they came in their dressing gowns,
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with eyes dilated with sudden emotion, pale with terror, stealing softly along as if sound could
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disturb him. Sophie comforted them by gentle caresses. It was over soon.
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Mr. Morgan was fairly crying like a child, but he thought it necessary to apologize to me
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for what I honoured him for. I am a little overdone by yesterday's work, sir. I have had one or
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two bad nights and they rather upset me. When I was your age, I was as strong and manly as anyone,
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and would have scorned to shed tears. Sophie came up to where we stood. Mr. Morgan,
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I am so sorry for Papa, how shall I tell him? She was struggling against her own grief for her
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father's sake. Mr. Morgan offered to await his coming home, and she seemed thankful for the
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proposal. I, new friend, almost stranger, might stay no longer. The street was as quiet as ever,
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not a shadow was changed, for it was not yet four o'clock, but during the night a soul had departed.
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From all I could see and all I could learn, the wicker and his daughter strove which should comfort
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the other the most. Each thought of the other's grief, each prayed for the other rather than for
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themselves. We saw them walking out, country-wards, and we heard of them in the cottages of the poor,
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but it was some time before I happened to meet either of them again, and then I felt,
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from something indescribable in their manner towards me, that I was one of the peculiar people
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whom death had made dear. That one day at the old hall had done this. I was, perhaps, the last person
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who had given the little fellow any unusual pleasure. Poor Walter, I wish I could have done more to
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make his short life happy. Chapter 8 There was a little lull out of respect to the wicker's grief
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in the visiting. It gave time to Mrs. Rose to soften down the anguish of her weeds.
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At Christmas, Miss Tomkinson sent out invitations for a party. Miss Caroline had once or twice
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apologized to me because such an event had not taken place before, but as she said, the
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avocations of their daily life prevented there having such little reunions except in the vacations,
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and sure enough, as soon as the holidays began, came the civil little note. The Miss Tomkinson's
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request, the pleasure of Mrs. Rose's and Mr. Harrison's company at T, on the evening of Monday
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the 23rd inst. T. at five o'clock. Mrs. Rose's spirits roused like a warhorse at the sound of the
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pining disposition, but I do think she believed the party-giving population of Duncan had given
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up inviting her as soon as she had determined to relent and accept the invitations in compliance
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with the late Mr. Rose's wishes. Such snippings of white love ribbon as I found everywhere making
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the carpet untidy. One day, too, unluckily, a small box was brought to me by mistake.
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I did not look at the direction, for I never doubted it was some high oschymus, which I was expecting
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from London, so I tore it open, and saw inside a piece of paper with no more grey hair in large
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letters upon it. I folded it up in a hurry and sealed it a fresh, and gave it to Mrs. Rose.
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But I could not refrain from asking her soon after if she could recommend me anything to keep my
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hair from turning grey, adding that I thought prevention was better than cure. I think she made out
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the impression of my seal on the paper after that, for I learned that she had been crying,
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and that she talked about there being no sympathy left in the world for her since Mr. Rose's death,
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and that she counted the days until she could rejoin him in the better world.
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I think she counted the days to Miss Tomkinson's party, too, she talked so much about it.
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The covers were taken off Miss Tomkinson's chairs and curtains and sofas, and a great jar full
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of artificial flowers was placed in the centre of the table, which, as Miss Caroline told me,
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was all her doing as she doted on the beautiful and artistic in life.
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Miss Tomkinson stood, erect as a grenadier close to the door, receiving her friends,
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and heartily shaking them by the hands as they entered. She said she was truly glad to see them,
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and so she really was. We had just finished tea, and Miss Caroline had brought out a little pack
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of conversation cards, sheaves of slips of cardboard with intellectual or sentimental questions on one
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set, and equally intellectual and sentimental answers on the other. And as the answers were fit
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to any and older questions, you may think they were a characterless and worrish set of things.
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I had just been asked by Miss Caroline, can you tell what those dearest to you think of you
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at this present time? And had answered, how can you expect me to reveal such a secret to the
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present company? When the servant announced that a gentleman, a friend of mine, wished to speak
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to me downstairs. Oh, show him up Martha, show him up, said Miss Tomkinson in her hospitality.
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Any friend of our friends is welcome, said Miss Caroline, in an insinuating tone.
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I jumped up, however, thinking it might be someone on business, but I was so penned in by the
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spider leg tables stuck out on every side that I could not make the haste I wished,
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and before I could prevent it, Martha had shown up Jack Marshland, who was on his road home for a day or two
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at Christmas. He came up in a hearty way, bowing to Miss Tomkinson, and explaining that he had found
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himself in my neighborhood, and had come over to pass a night with me, and that my servant had
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directed him where I was. His voice loud at all times sounded like stentors in that little room
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where we all spoke in a kind of purring way. He had no swell in his tones. They were forte from
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the beginning. At first it seemed like the days of my youth come back again, to hear full
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manly speaking. I felt proud of my friend, as he thanked Miss Tomkinson for her kindness in asking
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him to stay the evening. By and by he came up to me, and I dare say he thought he had lowered his
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voice for he looked as if speaking confidentially, while in fact the whole room might have heard him.
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Frank, my boy, when shall we have dinner at this good old ladies? I am dused hungry.
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Dinner? Why, we had had tea an hour ago. While he yet spoke, Martha came in with a little tray,
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on which was a single cup of coffee and three slices of wafer bread and butter. His
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dismay and his evident submission to the decrease of fate tickled me so much that I thought he should
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have a further taste of the life I led from month's end to month's end, and I gave up my plan of
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taking him home at once, and enjoyed the anticipation of the hearty laugh we should have together
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at the end of the evening. I was famously punished for my determination.
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Shall we continue our game, asked Miss Caroline, who had never relinquished her chief of questions?
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We went on questioning and answering, with little gain of information to either party.
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No such thing as heavy betting in this game may Frank ask Jack who had been watching us.
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You don't lose ten pounds at a sitting, I guess, as you used to do at shorts.
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Playing for love, I suppose, you call it?
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Miss Caroline simpered and looked down. Jack was not thinking of her. He was thinking of the days
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we had had at the moment. Suddenly he said, where were you this day last year, Frank?
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I don't remember, said I. Then I'll tell you. It's the 23rd. The day you were taken up for
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knocking down the fellow in Longacre, and that I had to bail you out ready for Christmas day.
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You are in more agreeable quarters tonight. He did not intend his reminiscence to be heard,
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but was not in the least put out when Miss Tomkinson, with a face of dire surprise, asked,
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Mr. Harrison, taken up, sir? Oh, yes, ma'am, and you see it was so common and a fair with him to
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be locked up that he can't remember the dates of his different imprisonments. He laughed heartily,
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and so should I, but that I saw the impression it made. The thing was, in fact, simple enough,
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and capable of easy explanation. I had been made angry by seeing a great hulking fellow out of
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mere wantoness break the crutch from under a cripple, and I struck the man more violently than I
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intended, and down he went, yelling out for the police, and I had to go before the magistrate to
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be released. I disdained giving this explanation at the time. It was no business of theirs what I
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had been doing a year ago, but still Jack might have held his tongue. However, that unruly member of his
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was set a going, and he told me afterwards he was resolved to let the old ladies into a little
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of life, and accordingly he remembered every practical joke we had ever had, and talked and laughed
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and roared again. I tried to converse with Miss Caroline, Mrs. Muntan, anyone, but Jack was the hero
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of the evening, and everyone was listening to him. Then he has never sent any hoaxing letters since
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he came here, has he? Good boy! He has turned over in you, leaf! He was the deepest dog that I
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ever met with. Such anonymous letters as he used to send. Do you remember that to Mrs. Walbrook,
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a. Frank? That was too bad. The wretch was laughing all the time. No, I won't tell about it,
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don't be afraid. Such a shameful hoax, laughing again.
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Pray, do tell, I called out, for he made it seem far worse than it was. Oh, no, no, you've
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established a better character. I would not for the world nip your budding efforts. We'll bury the
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past in oblivion. I tried to tell my neighbors the story to which he alluded, but they were
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attracted by the merriment of Jack's manner and did not care to hear the plain matter of fact.
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Then came a pause. Jack was talking almost quietly to Miss Horseman. Suddenly he called across the
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room. How many times have you been out with the hounds? The hedges were blind very late this year,
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but you must have had some good mild days since. I have never been out, said I shortly. Never?
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Phew, why, I thought that was the great attraction to Duncan.
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Now was he not provoking, he would condole with me and fix the subject in the minds of everyone
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present. The supper-trades were brought in, and there was a shuffling of situations. He and I
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were close together again. I say, Frank, what will you lay me that I don't clear that
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tray before people are ready for their second helping? I'm as hungry as a hound.
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You shall have a round of beef and raw leg of mutton when we go home only do behave yourself here.
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Well, for your sake, but keep me away from those trays, or I'll not answer for myself.
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Hold me, or I'll fight, as the Irishman said. I'll go and talk to that little old lady in blue
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and sit with my back to those ghosts of eatables. He sat down by Miss Caroline, who would not have
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liked his description of her, and began an earnest, tolerably quiet conversation. I tried to be as
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agreeable as I could to do away with the impression he had given of me, but I found that everyone drew
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up a little stiffly at my approach, and did not encourage me to make many remarks.
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In the middle of my attempts I heard Miss Caroline beg Jack to take a glass of wine,
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and I saw him help himself to what appeared to be port, but in an instant he set it down from
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his lip-sync, claiming, vinegar by Joe. He made the most horribly rye face, and Miss Tomkinson came
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up in a severe hurry to investigate the affair. It turned out it was some black current wine,
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on which she particularly peaked herself. I drank two glasses of it to ingratiate myself with
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her, and contest if I to its sourness. I don't think she noticed my exertions. She was so much
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engrossed in listening to Jack's excuse for his mal-u-propore observation. He told her with the
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gravest face that he had been a tea-turtler so long that he had but a confused recollection of
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the distinction between wine and vinegar, particularly assuring the latter, because it had been
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twice fermented, and that he had imagined Miss Caroline had asked him to take toast and water,
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or he should never have touched the decanter. End of section 4
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So, Walter. First off, I would just like to say, what a horrible nurse. Holy cow, blaming
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blaming the sister of the little boy who just died is about the worst thing I can imagine
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happening to a girl that age. This is a girl who's already had to take on so much responsibility
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in the household. She is still a kid. And then to have this which with a capital B come off and say,
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it's your fault and it's going to really suck when you have to tell your dad that did not sit well
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with me at all. But the other thing, there were two other things that came to mind while I was
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listening to that part. One is it's a shame we don't read more books like this where young children
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die. Now when I heard him dying of a group, I thought really because I think Aaron had a group
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as a baby. Somebody correct me. That's when I took Aaron outside. It was wintertime. I took Aaron
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outside in my arms and sat on the front porch with him at night when it was cold. He's bundled up
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but he's breathing cold air. And I think that that was one of the things that helped stop the
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inflammation in his lungs. Does that sound right? Regardless, I did go look this up and yes,
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children at this time did die of a group. They're throat, they're lungs, they're respiratory system
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was inflamed and would swell and could conceivably swell shut which would be terrifying to what.
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And I think Elizabeth Gaskill did a pretty amazing job of describing what it looked like to watch
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a child go through this. And I know I've mentioned it before in the podcast when we've done Elizabeth
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Gaskill before. She lost several children at various ages. Some of them were well into personhood.
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Some of them were still I believe very small infants but she definitely had experienced this. So
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when it's very clear they know that they are not long for this world, I think that was pretty
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personal. She didn't belabor the point but that had to be hard to write. It had been a while since she
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had small children and lost her children. But I can't help reading these old books this and little
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women and there are diseases that kill children that are preventable now. Whether because we have
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modern medicine or because we have vaccines and I keep thinking, geez if only people read more of
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these books we would not be in the shape that we're in right now. And yeah it's a shame. We are
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very lucky to be living when we are and it's so easy to forget that for me. You might not have
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that happen to you but I do often. So that really bites. The other thing that popped into my head as I
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was listening to this particular chapter, chapter seven is that Sophie being pushed into this
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position where she really is assuming the adult female role. I don't get the vibe that she's
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like the housekeeper that she's the one with all the keys but with the other children and the
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raising of the younger children she is definitely the one who's running that show. And it reminded me
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very much of part of Mary Wolston crafts, vindication on the rights of women because one of the points
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she makes is it's really stupid not to educate women the same way that you educate men because if
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they are going to grow up and become a wife, if that is the only thing that they are going to be
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able to do as an adult person. And therefore their job is going to be running the household while
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the man is offsite doing his job. You gentlemen would probably want the most educated person
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you could find to run your household because there are there matters of economy but there's also
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matters of security and safety. There's running a staff. There's raising the children, the children
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are largely especially the girls but both genders at this point, all the genders, they are being
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educated at home at least up to a certain age and then it'll change. But the idea that you
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could see value in marrying a woman whose brain hadn't been excited by learning was Anathma to
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Mary Wolston craft. And I think Sophie is a good example of this. She hasn't gotten a lot of education
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but her father is the thicker and that means that she is a step of head in general. She is going to
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have, unless he's really restrictive and he doesn't seem to be, she will have had access to more
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reading and writing than other girls her age which is great but that also makes it hard to watch
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something like the way the nurse treats her or even the kind of default way that her father just
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expects that she is going to be doing these things knowing that she really is rather trapped
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in this environment. This is 50 almost 60 years after Mary Wolston craft rode of indication on
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the rights of women. So if things improved some, yes we bit but not as much as Mary Wolston craft
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would have liked. I also think that this is elucidates very clearly the problem that we are still
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suffering from in the country. I don't know if this is true in other countries but in the United
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States we tend to peg human value to income. I certainly don't do it by choice but I think it's
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just kind of the default. It's like how we measure the economy by the stock market when there
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are a lot of people who can't invest in the stock market that is not the best gauge of how well
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the economy is doing. The stock market was doing very well, is currently doing pretty well and
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cost of living is not okay. And when I was in Tucson there were empty shelves and we haven't had
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empty shelf problems here but I think that's because we're so close to the ports.
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Tucson has to get everything by either train or by trucker. I don't know is this happening to
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anybody else? Anywhere else that's like middle of the country are you seeing empty shelves too?
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I find this all very strange. But yeah it does feel like the more we set human value based on income
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or the amount of money that you have access to. The more we miss the importance of, yeah it actually
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really is crucial to have a home that is pleasant to go back to, a place to raise children if you
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have children, a place where you can nurture yourself, enjoy yourself while the world can be all
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dangerous and crazy and whatever. Having a nice home matters a lot and that's not something
spk_0
that has a fiscal value attached to it. I know we've talked over the years in the state starting
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with the equal rights amendment but back in the 70s about women having full-time jobs that were
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unpaid. And I think that that's often still true. I think anybody who is home with children or
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working with children are experiencing that to a large extent. I keep wondering there's got to be
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a way to help foster a mindset that recognizes the importance. Not so much the importance of
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women and what women are doing but things that don't make money. Like being an artist, most artists
spk_0
are not going to make a ton of money, doing handcrafts. Most of us are never going to make a living
spk_0
off of what we do with our hands. But the value of it is enormous. And yet people still go,
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you're doing the granny thing again with the sticks. I don't hear much of that anymore in my life
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but I see other people talking about it and I know my kids have seen people saying things like that.
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So I don't know. I feel like we're ambassadors for sanity in that we read these books and we have
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a little bit more generational perspective on the impacts of these things on our modern world.
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Speaking of that, Mrs. Rose and her hair dye. Okay, first off, I didn't realize you could get
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temporary or permanent hair dye at this point, which is awesome. But as I was working on this week's
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episode, Bernadette Banner posted a video where she goes back and makes a Victorian
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de-pilatory cream because hair removal of at least the arms and the face for women, hair
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removal was a big deal even during Victorian times. And not so much legs because of course,
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you're wearing those long dresses and who cares. But the de-pilatory thing was major. And so she
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goes to the I think it's the London School cosmetics. They have whatever it is I know I can't
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remember. Oh no, the London School of Fashion. They have a cosmetics lab there and she gets to work
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in the lab with an actual science person who goes through doing a modern de-pilatory recipe
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and also making the Victorian one. And it's fascinating because they work. And the Victorian one
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works better. But it also burns a little more. So if you want to see what's involved in that
spk_0
especially the really cool magnetic stirring plate, I don't know how I missed this. It's so cool.
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Just go in and watching that part of the video is worth the price of admission, which is free.
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But I loved it. So there was poor Mrs. Rose. And it's it's funny because the first time that I went
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through it when Mrs. Rose is saying, Oh, there's no there's no kindness left in the world because
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he had asked her if she had any solutions that he wanted to kind of preemptively keep his hair
spk_0
from going gray. At first, I was like, wow, she's pretty titchy, but no actually the more I thought
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about it the more I went, Oh, yeah, no. He really did say that just as a way to goose her.
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And the reason why I said that to myself coming through the chapter the second or third time
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was because of the way his friend Jack Martian talks about him being very joky and
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having a lot of fun as a younger man when they were in school together. It makes a little more sense.
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At the same time, Mr. Harrison, how did he wind up having to talk to the magistrate and getting
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arrested because he saw a guy knock the crutches out from someone and took a swing at him.
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So did he do something that did he cross the line? Did he do something was wrong? Yes, technically,
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yes, but the reasons why he did it at least can make us feel good about his impulses and his
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what he valued in life. And yeah, I, Jack, I get the sense that Elizabeth Gaskell knew somebody like
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this. I don't know who I don't know if it was a cousin or a brother-in-law or a bow of one of her
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daughters, but Jack Martian just seems a little more on the nose as a character than some other people
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in her books. He kills me. I would not want to be living in the same house as him, but having him come
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over once every six months to live in a party sounds like it would be fun and just about as much
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of him as I can handle. I also thought it was interesting that they had the paper game that Caroline
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has where everybody draws a question and everybody draws an answer and then they read them to each
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other and how boring they thought that. How boring, Mr. Harrison thought that game was. I think,
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depending on what was written on those slips of paper, it could have been two truths in a
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derit, it could have been a lot of fun, but it doesn't sound like it was set up that way. So,
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oh well, this is not the last time we will see Jack Martian, but it will take a little while before
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we see him again. So he's not a one-off, he'll be back. Let's see. By the time this episode airs,
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we will have had our second free movie night. I'm sorry, I didn't mention this last week,
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I totally forgot. The month was ending and this was happening. The first Thursday of it's right now,
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it's not every month, but it's at least for a few months in a row. I've been getting a hold of
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movies that I've talked about on the podcast before or that I just love and are fun. This all
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started because there were several people on the Thursday night Zoom who had not seen
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jaws, which we watched at the beginning of September, and Jurassic Park, which we are watching at
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the beginning of October. So it's the first October. This will be October 2nd. Jurassic Park,
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this October 2nd, which I know is yesterday if you're listening to this in time. The next one,
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of Old Black and White films, and especially kind of noir-y films, I really hope you can make
spk_0
it to watch this. It doesn't get shown very often. It is Steve Martin. He wrote it with Carl Reiner.
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The end is ridiculous. It's Steve Martin and Carl Reiner. But the story itself, the mystery itself
spk_0
has been constructed by using clips from other old films. Alan Ladd films,
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Franklin Murray, Veronica Lake pops in there at one point. I think she has one line, but God,
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she's gorgeous. It's Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner. They're all in there. It's fabulous. Steve Martin's
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Black and White sections are intercut with these old movies, making it look like it's all one story
spk_0
happening at the same time. I think I've mentioned they've rebuilt the sets so that they line up
spk_0
perfectly. It's a genius piece of movie making. The costumeer Edith Head, who costumed, I believe
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all of the films that they selected. She costumed this movie as well. It was the last thing she did.
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So the movie is dedicated to her, which is pretty awesome. So if you want to see Edith Head taking on
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a modern noir movie shoot, Shot in Black and White, I believe it was 1980. I was in high school. So
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83, 84. When this came out, you can actually see her touch on the clothes that Rachel Ward wears.
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She is hilarious, by the way, as a femme fatale, love her. And if you've read the big sleep
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or any Grieman Chandler, her character fits in there very nicely as well, as does Steve Martin's.
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So that's November 6th. We will be watching that on the Discord server. We have a free movie
spk_0
watch party channel setup. If you haven't gotten onto the Discord server before,
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you can find out more about it on Patreon. You can find out more about it on thecraftflit.com
spk_0
website. You don't have to be a financial supporter to get on the Discord server. If you go to
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the show notes, I think we have a link in the show notes as well, just for the episode. So this
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scroll all the way down the list of channels and at the very bottom, you will see the movie watch
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party room that you go into. I get a chance to come. It was a lot of fun watching,
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Jaws. It was a lot of fun watching the last unicorn. The book was
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odd. The movie also, odd. But it's like proto studio, Ghibli. So I'd show it to kids. It seems to be
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one of those. If people saw it as a child, it seems to be one of those very beloved movies because
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it's different from a Disney film. It is not a Disney film. It's not a Ghibli film. It is Peter
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Beagle wrote his own very own kind of story. The movie was lovely. All right. Don't forget to send
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crafty videos. If you have them, the link is in the show notes. The book for this month's patron
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book reading party is random harvest. So November, end of November, the movie that we watch will also
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be random harvest. And I believe the date for the movie watch party for random harvest in November,
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we have to move it up one week. I think this happened last last year as well. The watch party will be
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on November 20th because the 27th is Thanksgiving. And I will be unavailable. So there's that.
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All right. You take care of yourself. Have a great one. If you're watching on YouTube, stick
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around and you'll be able to see my cast on video if you are not. Don't worry about it. But we will
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put a link in the show notes to link to the time code so that you can click through to watch just
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that part or you can just click on the video and there'll be chapter markers like they're always
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are. And you can get the suspended cast on video portion of this week's episode. All right.
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As before, take care. Have a great one. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
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So for the snooze that I'm making, I just learned an incredible bind off that is very, very
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stretchy and and really quite lovely too. I mean, it's a very, very pretty one. And this is in a
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one by one rib, which I think the bind offs on always look a little clunky. This one and not so much.
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So here's what you do. It's called a suspended bind off, which is a really weird name for a stitch
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until you see what the suspense, what the suspense is. So as with many bind offs, you start by
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taking the first stitch on your right needle, slipping it over the most recently knit stitch on your
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right needle. Keep both of those on the two needles. So right needle has the jumped over stitch,
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left needle has the jumper stitch. My next stitch is a purl stitch. So I'm going to bring the yarn
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to the front with everything still suspended. Go into the purl, wrap it off and off and all three
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stitches are still on there. Next stitch on the left needle is a knit stitch. Yarn is in back like normal.
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Take the first stitch on the right needle, jump over the second stitch on the right needle.
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Both stitches, the jumpy and the jumper are now on their needles.
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Next stitch on the left needle is a knit stitch. Knit into it while everything is still suspended.
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Knit into it like normal. Everything, all three live stitches on the needles are all
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accounted for. They've all been knit through or jumped over. So you just pull all three off.
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Two remain on the right hand needle. Everything is secure. Next stitch here is a purl. So once again,
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take the first stitch on the right needle, jump over the second stitch on the right needle.
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Those two are suspended because it's a purl stitch. Next, bring the yarn to the front.
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Go into the purl stitch, wrap around the purl stitch, push it back and off.
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Because right now it doesn't matter if you're twisting your stitches or not. Take everything off,
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yarn to the back to prepare for the next knit stitch. And that's that. Now I've been doing this
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with the yarn in my right hand as kind of a modified lever knitting thing. Now I'm going to do it
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continental so that you can see just how easy it is. So the first two or the last two stitches that
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I've dealt with are on the right hand needle, like usual. The next stitch on the left needle is a
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knit stitch. So yarn is in the back. I'm going to take the first stitch, slip it over the second
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stitch, suspend both of those stitches on the right and left needle respectively.
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Go into the next knit stitch on my left needle. Knit that as usual. Now I've got three live
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stitches on there. Pull everything off. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
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Next one's a purl. So we're going to slip over, suspend, bring the yarn to the front.
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Go into the purl stitch, wrap the purl stitch, push the purl stitch off.
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And everything has been knit. Yarn to the back, slip, knit, off, slip, suspend, yarn to the front,
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purl, off, perfect bind off.
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at least you can turn one on.