New readers start here -- when we get back from Kirkmichael, the next day's Blog begins with a picture of my vegetable garden. There it is, boring as ever. I didn't get much forrader at tidying it up for the winter, as my time and energies were devoted to giving the grass its last cut for '05. I didn't get that finished either, although nearly, before the rains came on Thursday.

The other picture is of our brand new garden shed. The apple is called, I think, Keswick Codlin. We planted it recently, and we are very proud of it.

The reason I anticipate new readers is that when I sat down to the computer last night, stoned with weariness, to check my email and QueerJoe's blog (http://www.queerjoe.blogspot.com/) I found there a recommendation of this Blog. More than that: there are comments here, see below, from him and from the Curmudgeon (http://www.knittingcurmudgeon.com./) and from my new hero Franklin (http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/). Talk about cups running over.

Both Joe -- "Lively, articulate" -- and the Curmudgeon -- "A literate Blog by a well-informed knitter" -- are endorsed by no less an authority than the Victoria and Albert Museum (http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/knitting/weblogs/index.html). I think Franklin probably hadn't started writing when they composed the page.

The BBC did a series about Edward and Mrs Simpson many years ago. The theme tune for the programs, surely a genuine song of the period, sings itself forever in my head:

"I'm the happiest of females:

I danced with a man/who danced with a girl/who danced with the Prince of Wales." Well, this morning, that's me.

Time for Knitting

Tomorrow, the Kirkmichael striped Koigu. I made some progress.

The Princess Shawl, being at a stage which the most exhausted knitter could comprehend, moved forward last night. I finished the first row of plain knitting after picking up all those stitches, and found the count seriously short. I sprinkled extra stitches about in the second row, and I think we're now right: 12 right-hand edge stitches, 10 groups of 78 for the main section, and a left-hand edge of 73.

I worried somewhat: the random scattering of extra stitches may mean that the high point of repeat #43 -- half-way through the 85 repeats -- may not fall precisely at the centre. I don't think that will matter. The final triangle has to be centered precisely on the midway stitch of the rectangle I am about to start knitting. I think if I get that right -- and I've got to -- all will be well.

Then I began to entertain a more recondite worry: was the stitch count out because I had not, in fact, knit 85 repeats? I pinned it out on the floor and counted, you may remember, and the count confirmed what the Peg-It board was telling me. It will be almost impossible to count again, now that it's all bunched up on the needle, but I may have to try,to set my mind at rest.