Sunday, August 12, 2018

While Miz Kittling Knits: The Doctor Blake Mysteries


You might be under the impression that no knitting is being done in Casa Kittling this summer. Just because I haven't mentioned it doesn't mean it's not being done.

It's just now occurred to me that one of the reasons why so many generations of women in my family spent hours on the needle arts might have been to keep arthritis and rheumatism away. I well remember my great-grandmother's hands turned into almost useless claws by rheumatoid arthritis-- but she still managed to do her embroidery! I have a couple of finger joints that are a bit misshapen, and I've found knitting (more than needlepoint) to be very good for keeping my fingers limber. If more than a couple of days go by without me picking up my needles, I can feel it in my fingers. So... no matter the time of year, you'll find me knitting almost every evening. Knitting and watching something mysterious on the telly.

I put away the afghan I've been making for a friend. It's made in one humungous piece and will be eight feet long (the friend is six feet four) when finished. That monster is just too hot to work on during a desert summer! Instead, I've turned to smaller projects, most of which are for here in the house.

The lighting in the photo mutes the vibrancy of some of the colors I'm using, but I think it helps show the stitches on one project. On the bottom from left to right: a dishtowel for the kitchen, a hand towel for our bathroom, and a table runner for what I'm planning for Dia de los Muertos this year. The table runner, in particular, is bright red and orange and gold and purple, and the simple pattern ("Garter Stripes") I'm using makes it look like some handwoven cloth from Oaxaca, Mexico that I saw in a shop a few years ago.

The dishtowel (my third) is being made with the same Garter Stripes pattern, and all three are made with cotton yarn. The hand towel (my second) uses a pattern of knit, purl, and slip stitches.

That leaves the (actually) bright aqua scarf at the top. It's made from Caron Simply Soft 100% acrylic yarn, and I'm using a pattern called "Besotted." The cables form alternating columns of X's and O's which I hope you can see in the photo.

Now... what have I been watching while I've been knitting all these things? I decided to give a series a second chance, and I'm glad I did. I must not've been in the right mood for The Doctor Blake Mysteries when I watched the first episode a year or so ago, but now I'm wondering what was wrong with me. I'm really enjoying the series, although you're not going to see it in its entirety unless you have access to both Netflix and Britbox.

Dr. Lucien Blake left Australia as a young man and headed for Southeast Asia. In Singapore at the start of World War II, he spent three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Now he's back in Australia and has taken over his father's medical practice as well as his on-call role as police surgeon.

At the start of the series, Blake hasn't been back very long, and after what he's experienced, he finds it almost impossible to put up with those who (1) constantly watch him to see if he measures up to his father or (2) rich hypocrites who don't want their status quo disturbed or (3) those who want to cover up the truth. He shoots off his mouth before he has all the facts, and on occasion, I kept expecting those pompous jerks in Ballarat to run him out of town on a rail (with or without the tar and feathers).

But time wears away some of the sharp edges of his wartime experiences, and he settles down to doctoring and finding killers. Craig McLachlan is excellent as Blake, and he has a marvelous supporting cast. I was sad when I read that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation abruptly canceled the series. It seems that they're suffering from A&E Syndrome. Remember when A&E canceled Longmire, their highest-rated program because it didn't fit their demographics? Well, The Doctor Blake Mysteries is the ABC's highest-rated program. You have to wonder about these corporate executive types sometimes!



10 comments:

  1. Your knitting is beautiful, Cathy! And I have to say, I like The Dr. Blake Mysteries very much. There's a real sense of time and place to them, and I think McLachlan really is good in the title role.

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    1. He really is. I'm watching the last season's episodes right now, and I like him more and more.

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  2. That knitting is so beautiful! I love that table runner. I tried to learn to knit, but somehow my sense of over and under and up and down is a bit skewed. And it just made me more anxious. I used to do cross stitch, but it got a little bit hard to see to make the 'x' on the cloth I liked. I've thought about going back to it. One day maybe. I agree that movement is good for keeping various parts limber.

    Dr. Blake - I think we tried the first episode and somehow it didn't click. Maybe we'll try it again. Summer is our time to try various 'other' series that are not on regular TV. We don't watch as much as we used to.

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    1. My mother used to do counted cross stitch (and crewel embroidery and knitting), and the thread count was so high on the cloth that she liked to use that I wondered how on earth she could see to stitch it properly. I really wish I'd inherited her eyesight gene. *sigh*

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  3. I read somewhere that ABC cancelled the series because of Sexual harassment allegation against the star.

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    1. Thanks, Tom. Your comment made me do some reading of my own. Seems the series was put "on hold" while the allegations were investigated. They couldn't prove anything so charges were dropped, but then ABC decided to go ahead and cancel the show. Probably the old "there's no smoke without fire" philosophy. Now there's talk of another company picking up the show. Also-- according to another actor-- the set was a bit "Benny Hill" (which won't mean anything to young whippersnappers), and I can see that offending someone. Might be what led to the allegations in the first place.

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  4. I tried Dr. Blake here on PBS, but it didn't grab me. Was it too violent? I can't remember if that was the reason.

    I love that aqua scarf -- the color and the pattern. It looks like a real Irish person's sweater for cold weather.

    Knitting isn't my thing. Tried it years ago and when one arm was way longer than the other, I gave up.

    Now I just read my NY Times while watching TV mysteries or pay bills or clean the bedroom or clean neverending paper piles which self-reproduce.

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    1. You can always come over here when those fits of cleaning hit you. I have a nice huge TV, an excellent surround-sound system, and a never-ending supply of mysteries. *wink*

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  5. But you have Alexa everywhere!

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    1. So? Her main claim to fame is playing Lady Catherine de Burgh by insisting on her share of the conversation. She certainly doesn't clean!

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