Today should see the Clapotis off the needles.

Two people (two!) have wrriten to me to say that they can't read Judith's comment about the Clapotis. I can read it fine, but I can't copy-and-paste it. She says that the Clapotis pattern as printed doesn't provide enough drape or flow. She finds it works best if the two end triangles -- the increase rows at the beginning, and the decrease rows at the end -- are each 1/5 of the total amount of yarn used, and the middle section therefore 3/5ths. She divides her yarn by weight before starting. Judith, if that's a travesty of your system, write me an email (jean@jeanmile.demon.co.uk) which I will be able to copy and paste into the blog.

Ingrid wrote from Sweden -- I am read on two continents! -- to say that the Princess shawl pattern is available: http://www.heirloom-knitting.co.uk/projects11.html. I just hadn't explored the Heirloom Knitting website with enough vigour. I gave up when I didn't find it next to the Unst Bridal Shawl.

I did lift the Pioneer off the swift onto a chair, successfully. I haven't finished winding it yet, but it's going much better. I put the first Merging Color on the swift, and that's going well too. I sort of like winding yarn, up to a point. It puts me in touch with my ingredients.

Non-Knit

I mentioned an article in last Sunday's Independent about posting pictures to Blogger. When I went to cut it out on Monday, it was gone. Newspapers usually stay around this house for a fortnight, as we often go back to retrieve things, but my husband had for some reason bundled that one straight out the door into Monday's collection. Nor did Googling on "posting pictures to Blogger" help -- just endless references to Blogger's help pages, which I have been reading and re-reading for months, and equally endless citations from user forums, complaining about how difficult it is to get pictures into Blogger.

But yesterday morning, as I was drifting in and out of sleep and listening to the early-morning BBC -- my favourite non-knit time of the day, from 5:30 to 7 am, roughly -- the word I needed came to mind: Flickr. I hadn't even tried to remember it, when reading the article. But there it was. I've looked up the website, but haven't explored it yet.

It sounds as if we are going to have to do some battening down of hatches here in Edinburgh, for the G8 summit meeting. Why can't they do it by video link and save us all millions? Two thousand US marines are coming to defend GWB, we are told. Bush spent a summer or two in Glen Isla when he was a lad, staying with cattle-raising friends of his old man. The newspapers were speculating yesterday about whether he might go back for a visit, while he's here. Glen Isla is only a hill or two away from our glen. They'll close down Perthshire altogether if Bush is there. I like to wonder whether the youthful Bush was brought by his hosts to the Strathardle Highland Gathering -- "the Games" -- on the fourth Saturday in August. It could be, although I think Glen Isla have games of their own, so probably not. My next knitting, which I will surely be able to cast on this week, will be the hat which will be my Games entry this year.