I never did succeed in illustrating yesterday’s entry. Here – I hope – are those fish. Nope -- still nothing.

I got the VKB’s. I’ll write more about them when they are actually on the premises. The price I paid, I think, is about what a dealer would have offered them for on Abebooks, if a dealer had had VKB’s no. 31 and 32 to sell. Now that I have experienced eBay and lived to tell the tale, I suspect that my sister is right and the best thing to do is to think out one’s maximum bid, enter it, and go to bed. eBay can be trusted to keep the figure to itself, and dole out one’s bids according to the behaviour of the opposition.

Yesterday evening, of course, I was sitting there refreshing the screen every 10 seconds.

Many thanks to the Helens, sister and not-sister, for advice, comfort and support.

Knitting

Granddaughter Helen – another one – came to see us a week ago, the night before we went to London. Here she is with the beginnings of the shrug. She professed to like the look of the pattern, but may have just been being polite. [No picture, of course. One day.]

I’m a bit further on than that by now, and will attempt a serious picture of it for tomorrow. The pattern is very easy, parallel panels of a simple rib and an even simpler eyelet pattern. The scrap Helen is holding is the back. I am gradually increasing outwards for the sleeves. It occurred to me as I lay in bed this morning that I’m going to have to worry somewhat about how the patterns end at the shoulder – the pattern-writer didn’t.

I don’t exactly hate it, but it’s not much fun. I forge ahead reminding myself with every stitch that this is all that stands between me and my beloved Princess.

Comments

I think I’ve got a bit to catch up with, here.

Jean-in-Edinburgh, I am very grateful for your comments on gansey-design. [The comment appears on Monday the 29th, referring to the entry of Sunday the 28th.] And I suspect you may be right, about the change-of-gauge when I switch to knitting back-and-forth after the armpits – which is what I mean to do; I share your reservations about steeking. I knit a big swatch for this one, back-and-forth, and have now knit enough of the gansey itself that I can compare them before the event.

I also think you are probably right, that the solution to the problem of length – not wanting to cut one of those trees in the middle – is to have a divider and a different pattern on top. A pretty simple one, maybe moss stitch or double moss stitch. I had ambitions for a fancy shoulder strap, but I may have to tone them down so as not to have too many patterns. There’s something about shoulder straps, and saddle shoulders, which I love more than any other device in knitting.

I also think I’m going to have to stop right now and plan all the rest of the body in detail, perhaps not actually graphing every stitch, but certainly making decisions which will have the effect of assigning each to its eventual position.

I hope we’ll get back to Strathardle and the gansey and my dear vegetables this week. First I’ll have to get through the foot-high pile of mail from our week away.