Polling Day

...and it's bliss. The early-morning BBC radio programme claimed not to be allowed to discuss candidates or issues, so we had a lovely mixture of salamanders and dinosaurs and violence in Baghdad and lay-offs at IBM just the way it used to be. The campaign has been intensely boring from the beginning. The only interest tomorrow will be the question of how well the Liberal Democrats have done.

The Auction

...went as I expected. There was "interest" in the Gents' Seats, the auctioneer announced, before starting the bidding above our upper limit, and way above his own upper estimate, and it went on up from there, so I didn't have to intervene at all.

My husband had feared that libraries around the world would want Cook & Wedderburn's Ruskin (only 2000 were printed) but no. There seemed to be no external or telephone bids, it was only me and someone on the other side of the room whom I never saw. We had a brisk ding-dong, starting from quite a low point, and then the other bidder suddenly stopped when I still had at least three bids left in my quiver, so that was nice. It's an absolutely pristine set, uncut. We looked it up in Abebooks the night before the sale, and found only one -- one book, that is, not a set. It was pricey.

I haven't often bid in person at an auction. Usually we leave bids if we want anything. It's pretty stressful but knitting helps a lot -- I had never tried that before. I was at an ideal point on Thomas-the-elder's sock, just past the heel, so I could knit on and on without having to think.

Knitting

The picture shows the new order of Koigu I got this week. The off-white is to be the background for a "Jamie" for Thomas-the-Younger's birthday in November. At the last moment, because I had heard that supplies are getting harder to come by, I asked Mary (www.foxyknits.com) to add six variegated colours to the package, her choice.. There aren't many yarns you could do that with, even with a good friend picking.

Soon I will knit the Cranberry Squares hat from Knitters' Winter '04 as my Games entry for this year. (The knitting classes are "A poncho" -- that would be against my religion -- and "best use of 100 grams of yarn" -- I could do a pair of socks, but the judges probably want something sillier. But in the Handicraft section they ask for "A Hat -- any craft", and that's what I'm going for.)

Janis Witkins who designed Cranberry Squares is a friend. She told me in her Christmas card that it was designed for Koigu, but the magazine wanted a different yarn, so I hope I can just knit it in Koigu without adjustment. I will use the black which forms the background for Rachel's "Jamie", seen yesterday, as the main colour, and I have been trying one after another of Mary's choices as the contrast, and like each one better than the last.

I bought the buttons for the Fair Isle jacket yesterday, but that's all. The Clapotis proceeds -- soon I get to start dropping stitches and making ladders.