The weather is dull, cold and damp. Intensely disspiriting, although London, next week, will be more manageable this way than if it were still hot and sticky. Today -- on the tell-the-Blog-and-then-do-it idea -- I will get the Calcutta Cup shawl out, for use at the baptism; transfer the piles of income tax papers from the spare room floor to the dining room table, now that the work is finished in the dining room (repairing the damage done last winter by Mrs Carson's water from above, and having a picture rail put up); and perhaps wrap Thomas-the-Elder's birthday presents, to take to London.

Above is a first picture of the new Wallaby, looking remarkably like the old one. That is the ribbing finished. I should get to the Purl Bump row today, marking where the pouch will go.

And I am 3/4s of the way through repeat #48 of the Princess Shawl edging. I am likely to have reached 50 before we go to London on Tuesday (85 being the target). When we get back, August will be well started, and I hope to find the gossamer yarn I'm using on Sharon Miller's website at last. Things have been going very smoothly lately.

I read the instructions for the Aran Saddle-Shoulder Cardigan in Woolgathering #63 (see yesterday). It's an interesting complement to the instructions in Meg Swansen's "Knitting" -- esentially the same sweater. If I'm going to do this, it's clearly one of those things that has to be Faced Up To. Meg, who's a non-swatcher, says in both places that a substantial swatch is essential (she suggests a Swatch Cap). She says that arranging your Aran or Bavarian Crossed-Stitch patterns on a diagram, after swatching and before knitting, is fun. I remember telling rooms-full of my teen-aged children, 30 years ago, that some past or future project had been or would prove to be, "really fun", and I remember how they looked when I said it. I feel much the same. But I think I'll order the essential books (Maria Erlbacher's trilogy, "Uberlieferte Strickmuster")-- I've been meaning to for some time, anyway -- and at least think seriously about this. Bavarian Crossed-Stitch is seriously under-represented in English. Candace, we need you!

Non-Knit

Birmingham, where we used to live and where many friends remain, had a tornado on Thursday, of all things. A great deal of damage was done to property and some to people, although there were no fatalities. Alexander's life-long Best Friend lives in the twister's path. (Mark is on holiday somewhere and we don't know how his house got on.) Yesterday I had an email from Alexander: "Al Qaeda clearly has
friends in high places."