"A woman has been told she won’t have to go to jail for a road rage attack if she can prove she can knit."

British court "pins" a sentence.

Rankings: Education and Economies

A Study.

Shetland Wool Week

Shetland Wool Week just ended. Check out these photos of children knitting at Jamieson & Smith.

Knitting Note: Foula Wool

I knit primarily with Shetland wool because that fiber is perfectly suited for finger-weight, fair-isle knitting. I presently am working a sweater for a man that’s done almost entirely in natural, undyed shades. I've worked in these shades before, and I favor them. I recently learned about a breed of sheep—Foula sheep—whose wool really does produce an extraordinary palette of shades.
 
Foula wool is a DK, not fingering, weight, so it's a bit thicker than the yarn I usually use. I'm pretty motivated to try it—especially after seeing the cardigan swatches Tom of Holland knitted.

Let's look at some Foula sheep:

Scarves aren't just for beginners.

British prisoner claims authorities confiscated the 452-foot long scarf he'd been knitting because "they feared he would use to escape."

Stitchy

British grannies who knit a village as a gift to a children's hospital feel snubbed when the a hospice rejects the items because the wool cannot be sterilized.

It doesn't take a village to figure out that unsterile items are unsafe for children being treated for cancer or for children who otherwise have weakened immune systems.

"Migrant Workers: Cheap Labour Value Pack"

A cartoonist at The Independent addressed the availability of cheap, migrant labor in England by modifying the Tesco grocery store's slogan, "Every little helps," to read "Every Lithuanian helps."

Here is the Lithuanian ambassador's response.

 

(For more on the perception of Lithuanians in Great Britain, click on the "migrant workers" label below, or see here and here.)

UPDATE: "[T]he deputy editor of The Independent has expressed that the cartoon was absolutely not criticism of Lithuania, of Lithuanians or of economic migrants."

Baby Giraffe

Aww.

Do you keep an old ensemble thinking you might wear it again one day?

I do. And I am not the only one.

(The oldies I have are dresses and suits my Mom knitted for me in the 1970s and 1980s.)

This is an excuse to post another Levickis clip.

I was thinking about that interview with the British expat who spoke about "Lithuanian identity." That got me to wondering about what circumstances prompted him to move to Lithuania—isn't that the reverse of the present trend? Many young Lithuanians are emigrating to Great Britain, and the Brits seem to have some trouble digesting Lithuanian identity.

 

That led me to this story—in a British paper—about Martynas Levickis. Levickis moved to London to study at the Royal Academy.

 

In the article, Levickis says this about immigration to Great Britain: "Lithuania used to be a closed country in the Soviet Union so it's important to open up. The other people come here for work and a better life because they struggle a lot back home. I wonder if they achieve that better life. They have to work really hard here."

 

Watch Levickis work hard to create some Vivaldi magic (go to 0:55):

 

 

Oh rats. Levickis was in Madison three summers ago, and I missed the performance.

"Not-so-royal treatment: Britions lucky to get out of some hospitals alive, report reveals."

Great Britain's NHS explores treatment and care in its hospitals.

It's no surprise that many British employers offer private health insurance as part of their benefits packages.

(There's more about Great Britain's quality of health care here and here.)

A Diversity Dustup

Some British parents circulated a petition calling for an end to an elementary school's multi-culturalism exercise. The school had planned a concert during which pupils would sing a song in the native tongue of an immigrant population: Lithuanian. "Parents insist their complaints are not racist, more, they simply cannot understand why children are being forced to take time out of their usual time tabled lessons to learn a song that they have no idea of its meaning."
                                                                                 
Perhaps the school should use this method to teach the song's meaning:

A Repatriation Trend

Migrants are returning home to Lithuania.

(I wrote about the emigration problem here.)

Ovarian Cancer in the News

Two stories this week focus on the disease:

(1) Women diagnosed with ovarian cancer should seek providers who specialize in the treatment of the disease. (Video here.)

(2) Consider also the situation in Great Britain, where "[s]urvival rates for most cancers are worse than in other European countries including France, Germany and the United States. A report released this month said Britain ranked 16th out of 19 Western countries for ovarian cancer death rates."

Skin Deep

"Lithuania’s Embassy in London has said the use of Lithuania’s name at a beauty pageant Miss USSR in the United Kingdom and invitation of Lithuanian girls to take part in it shows disrespect for Lithuania’s independence."

An Emigration Problem

Since attaining independence in 1991, Lithuania has struggled with an emigration problem. The issue partly stems from economic pressures.

Recall also the problems faced by migrant workers in Sweden.

The Guardian recently featured a piece about Lithuanians living in Great Britain. The article highlights some points for its British readers:

From beer to babies: a guide to Lithuanians in Britain

Do not confuse Lithuanians with Poles Many hate that. Not least because the Poles have fought a number of wars with Lithuania, most recently seizing Vilnius in 1919.

They are not Slavs, but Balts The Lithuanian language is nothing like Polish. The former has 32 letters, including cool ones like ą (that squiggle is an ogonek) and ų (that's a macron).

Do not confuse the Lithuanians with Russians either and assume they all like vodka (they prefer beer). The Soviets occupied Lithuania until 1990 and the wounds have yet to heal.

British life has started to influence Lithuanian culture A few years ago a song called Londone Lietus – London Rain – was a hit for Pikaso. It told the story of a lonely man watching rain run off the roof of his London flat as he dreamed about his beloved back home.

Don't believe the bad press Lithuanians are not especially prone to criminality compared to other nationalities. Statistics from the Lithuanian embassy in London show that between January and October last year, 181 Lithuanians were arrested and prosecuted for a crime in the UK. The year before, the number was 277.

Lithuanians are not yet contributing much to the UK's rising birth rate Embassy statistics show 516 Lithuanian babies were born last year up until October. In 2010, there were 509; in 2011, 434.

UPDATE: More British perception.

"Women in the UK are dying unnecessarily of ovarian cancer because of a lack of access to the best treatment."

Newish study reported by the BBC. Compare this older story from 2010.

"The knock came at 06:00 on the dark, snowy morning of 10 February 1940."

A moving story of survival during World War II.

Two of my favorite things, joined in one place.

Knitting and dogs.

I'm dying to knit.

But I'm not sure I am ready for a "sustainable coffin."