I'm tottering on with the Communion veil. The pattern is the altar frontal (a reduced version of) from Marianne Kinzel's Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. I've done 51 rows of 183 but the final rows are short, where it forms points, so I'm really further on than that sounds.

It occurred to me only within the last half-hour that I might be able to copy and enlarge the chart, which would help a lot. I drew pencil lines through each row as I finished knitting it the first time, never thinking that I would pass this way again. For those of us accustomed to Sharon Miller's large, clear charts, it's tough, and the pencil lines make it worse.

When James was here, for my husband's birthday, I took this rather silly and sentimental picture after he had gone jet-lagged to bed. There's the veil, which I had got out to show him -- it's his daughter who will wear it. (I was actually knitting Swirly 1 at the time.) And there are his shoes.

Non-Knit

Today the last of the old London busses with an open platform at the back, will make its last journey. It is getting a certain amount of national (and probably international) attention. The route, 159, starts very near where Rachel lives in Streatham. We often take it when we are there. It goes past the Imperial War Museum (occasional interesting exhibitions there), over Westminster Bridge, always breath-taking, up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square (for the National Gallery) and on up Regent Street, where one can hop off to visit the Bond Street dealers, or walk on to the Royal Academy. For the Tate, we take the 159 only as far as Brixton and then the Victoria Line subway to Pimlico.

This from Rachel yesterday: Yesterday i decided to say goodbye to the 159 (its last journey is on Friday) and take a trip up to Oxford street. Nobody was there and i achieved a fair amount [of Christmas shopping]. Joe has a day off today for the feast of the Immaculate Conception (no longer a Holy Day here although you might have to go). In the past he has had to go to mass at the oratory but fifth formers get a day off for study so i thought we might go back to oxford Street as he wants to do some shopping and today they are running some of the very first Routemasters on the route with the fares going to charity. The garage has been seething with photographers all week and as i was coming back yesterday someone was making a film on the top deck, interviewing an old bus driver. it's all very sad.