Eyes

Today is the day I have an appointment with an Eye Man. (He is named Pofessor Dillon, but spells it with an "h" -- which looks to me like an affectation.) What one gets when one Goes Private, apart from unusual spellings, is promptitude for elective surgery, or so I have always understood. I will be very disappointed if I come back today without a fixed date for my eye replacement, and that in the near future.

Princess Shawl

I'm doing the 9th edging repeat. When I've done 10, I'll photograph it again, and also do some serious calculations concerning size. I would judge from the picture that the shape is essentially a right-angled triangle. I have the data to calculate the eventual length of the equal sides a) if I knit the shawl as written and b), the currently favoured option, if I reduce it in order the achieve the original size with the thicker yarn I am using. And from there I can work out the length of the third size, putting Archimedes to practical use for, I think, the first time in my life. I have forgotton how to calculate square roots -- it involves a certain amount of hit-and-miss, I seem to remember, like long division. But I see that the calculator provided with this computer has a sqrt button.

I am making some mistakes. I think my main difficulty is not being able to anticipate which side of a decrease the YO is going to appear on. I will have plenty of time to give this matter serious thought, if I persevere. Much less peering at the chart will be necessary once I can get my mind around it.

Tammy

I've started the crown decreases. Not far to go now. I think the single most useful thing anyone has ever told me about knitting, came from Margaret Stove herself: namely, the first stitch a needle enters for any decrease, will be the stitch that winds up on top. I don't think I've ever seen that in print. Knowing it, has saved me hours scrabbling through the books reminding myself which decrease I want for a particular effect. For the tammy, we're using what Starmore calls a "vertical double decrease" -- thus making slightly heavy weather of the fact that the centre stitch of three winds up on top.