Fo: Foinavon

My mother always thought gambling to be appalling and she would castigate those who disappeared behind the racing papers and into the betting shop. All the same, she has been known to have a flutter. When Betting Shops were newly legal in the UK, my mother’s sister persuaded her to put a bob each way on a horse. Mum picked a nag by the name of Hill Royal. I remember the name but I don’t recall whether it won or was placed. I do know that port and lemons were consumed in celebration.

In later years, Dad would sometimes run down to the bookies to lay aÂ bet on the Grand National, the only time when he was to be seen throwing his hard-earned Yorkshire cash about! Mum would be persuaded to have her little flutter – always a shilling each way, never mind the ravages of inflation. She always picked her horses for some reason to do withÂ its name appealing to her – Hill Royal because our family name was Hill – and this one particular year she picked a horse with a pretty name and handed over her florin. Dad scoffed. A hundred to one! It would be money down the drain. He backed the favourite.

I have no idea what Mum did with her fiver, it would have bought more than a few port and lemons in 1967 I think.

Anyway, that’s why I named my Flutter Scarf project Foinavon, after mum’s little flutter and the Grand National Surprise.

Cast on Date: Jan 25, 2010

Cast on: provisional

Pattern: Flutter Scarf by Miriam L Felton (Mimknits)

Pattern Price: $5.50

Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr

Quality: 2ply wool/silk 2/18

Weight: Laceweight

Length: not sure – about 400 yards (tbc)

Amount: part of a 2oz ball

Cost: gift from Ravelry user pmcblonde

Colour: Mahogany

Needles: 3.25mm Signature stilleto point straights

Stitches: As written

Pattern Repeats: As written

Size: As written

Cast Off: As written

Cast Off Date: Feb 10, 2010

Ravelry Project: Foinavon

This was a truly enjoyable knit. I loved everything about it. The yarn was a RAK gift and I was so pleased to be able to see and handle this yarn. I would love to knit more. One caveat, though: my ball lacked a ball band and I discovered too late, when all the dye bled on the blocking table, that the yarn is actually dry clean only. It lost some body as well as colour, I’m afraid.

Most of the scarf was knit on ferry trips to and from Kirkwall. The pattern is a very simple 4 row repeat, easily memorised. The rhythm of the repeats, and the shortness of them, makes this one high on the “just one more” scale, and it is therefore very quickly finished. Just enough pattern to keep me alert, but simple enough to allow a social context. The ruffled ends required slightly more concentration, so I knit those at home.

Highly recommended.