Breathless
This is what the Provincial Waistcoat looks like right now, with the fronts and the back (almost) done:
It constricts my breath just to look at it - and not only because it is so pretty: it’s barely sixteen inches around at the waist! Am I actually knitting a corset?
And yet, periodic trying on through the knitting process indicates that it does indeed stretch like a hungry anaconda’s mouth and envelop snugly and elegantly my ample middle. Miracles may yet happen; I might yet finish and model this in a few days.
Anyone peer closely at the measuring ruler pictured above?
I got it as a gift, and it marks history in space (76 inches) and time (two millennia) - from Late Antiquity to Modern Times. It’s called "History: 2000 Years by the Meter." It’s a terrific, everyday example of the ubiquity European history as universal history, as simply the passage of all time. Interspersed into the broad, brightly coloured eras are smaller historical punctuations and movements. These begin with Ovid, and end with Globalisation - Modern Times includes Materialism, Revolutions, Historicism, Capitalism, Communism, and, hold your breath, Arts and Crafts. Interesting and packed times, these Modern Times! I should take it to class someday to illustrate what we mean by teleology.
Too bad they didn’t add a few more inches for Postmodern Angst. What little eddies might that little strip include, you think? Someday, if I get into woodwork, I’ll make a subversive measuring tape - Slavery, War, Serfdom, War, Enclosures, Labour Alienation, Empire, War, Conspicuous Consumption, Environmental Destruction, Decline of Unions, Postmodern Apathy, War. How’s that for a more accurate and inclusive global measurement.
But in case you’re wondering, this wooden ruler does work very well for gauge.