brown things

For several months now, I’ve been going into the bathroom and discovering sights like this:

And strange things like this have been appearing in the kitchen:

These objects are signs that our flat has now fully realised its second function as a brewery. At first this transformation caused me some concern. For example, when Tom said he was bringing home a mash tun, I envisaged an enormous vat in which I would be forced to spend evenings of unbearable heat and grueling physical toil, relentlessly treading malt grain. Then he turned up with an innocuous vessel that resembled a picnic basket and all was well.

In any case, I am completely reconciled to the year-round supplies of (very) tasty beer and my drone-like role in the process. For my lowly task is to apply the bottle caps. Here are the fruits of yesterday’s labours:

A delicious red ale using Irish yeast.

As well as the beer in its nice brown bottles I have another brown thing to show. A while ago now, I started making Tom a vest for the cross country season. He runs for a club whose ethos embraces the idiosyncratic and handmade. Their colour is brown and in my vest he fits right in. I finally finished off the neck and armhole edging yesterday, and am very pleased with the results. Here he is obligingly modelling said vest this morning, together with the number of a race he ran a couple of weeks ago:

And here is the vest from the back. (Yes, I have become completely obsessed with duotone)

I think it has a hokey, yet dashing Chariots of Fire air about it. But only a knitter would appreciate the ludicrous contradictions of this vest — being, as it is, a utility garment fashioned from a rather luxe yarn. For it is made of Rowan Calmer and has a satisfying spring and cashmere-like softness. I knitted it in the round to the armholes, then divided for front and back, and kind of made up the racer style armholes as I went along. The curve could have been a bit less severe across the back but I quite like the airy effect the edging has produced. He’s off trying it out this morning at Jedburgh.