Progress, with the veil. In fact, there's not much more of the little headpiece to do, and I may reach the shoulder increases today. That will leave two more evenings, at the end of next week, after we get back from London, before James gets here: I should have something plausible-looking to show him. The knitting is very easy, to us Princess Shawl veterans, but being easy doesn't actually make it very easy to knit, if that's not too much of an oxymoron.

In London, and on the way, I might finish the first of the current pair of travel socks if I keep at it. It's a gent's sock, and I knit 'em long in the leg.

The Knitlist

I heard from my cyber-friend Marian in Israel yesterday. She had posted this to the Knitlist:

I finished the Allspice vest which is a kit from Anna
> Zilboorg and uses some great mohair/wool yarns from Liisu. I added
> pockets and plan on wearing it a lot this season. You can see it on
> my blog.
>> Marian Poller
>> http://Marianknits.blogspot.com
>> http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/m_poller/my_photos

The message was rejected by the now-heavily-moderated List, and Marian received this reply from the thought police:

Marian,
>
> Posting a message which says "look at this on my blog" IS NOT OK -
> unless it includes significant knitting content.

The Knitlist is fanatic (and rightly, I guess) about advertising -- but Marian's Blog is an innocent of that offence as my own. In the Good Old Days, posting proudly about an FO was standard stuff. Adding a link to a photograph would seem a rather good idea. I'm glad I'm out of that morass.

Non-Knit

My husband's birthday draws alarmingly near -- less than a fortnight, now. I realised yesterday that I've got to work out a seating plan. I had been drifting along thinking that once I had got everybody to the restaurant I could go home and have a nap, but it won't be like that. There are various factors to be considered. For instance, the balance of the sexes among our party of 22 is fairly even. Does one deem one half of a same-sex pair to be the opposite sex, when aiming for a boy-girl-boy-girl seating arrangement? Or not? Where should someone sensitive about status but not interested in art history, be placed? How to distribute Rachel's four children, all well-brought-up and with something to say for themselves? One doesn't want them clinging to each other in a miserable lump, but doesn't want to maroon any one of them among the art historians, either. It's all rather fun, like being God for a while.