Judith in Ottawa, I saw your message too late! I got to the end of the prescribed centre section of the Paisley Long Shawl last night, and rushed straight on into the end bits. Maybe I’ll have to fringe it after all. I’m sure, essentially, that you’re right: this sort of thing has got to be long enough. At least when I finish this, I’ll have a much better idea of what the right length is.

I’m currently thinking Christmas-present-for-sister-in-law for its ultimate destination.
I want everybody to wear something I knit, to my funeral. I knit her a sweater once a long time ago, but I’ve never seen her wear it and I suspect it wasn’t a success. The Paisley Long Shawl will be just the ticket.

(A friend of Alexander’s once said he would be happy to come along, if I’d knit him a pair of socks. I may well do so one day, but the dress requirement applies only to family members.)

I spent happy hours yesterday with the what-to-do-with-the-Jade-Sapphire question simmering on a back burner in my head. I’ve decided on a Long Shawl – “Langsjol” as we say in Icelandic, but that’s probably plural. The Faux Russian Stole from Gathering of Lace is a contender, as is the Carter Sampler Stole you mention, Judith, except that that’s probably too complicated for present purposes; and the thing on the cover of the current Knitter’s. Would that be too boring? The pleasure in this one is going to be the feel of the yarn on one’s hands, but one doesn’t want to be utterly stoned out of one’s mind with boredom.

What yarn did you use for your Carter Sampler?

I’ll post a picture of the Jade Sapphire soon, but photography won’t let you feel it. For today, the usual post-Strathardle-weekend garden pictures, which got rather squeezed out this week.

Horticulture

The poppy is a proper papaver somniferum as grown in Afghanistan. They miraculously turn up on empty, cultivated land, just as pussy cats do. I always leave a few, when I’m weeding, but I suspect some would make it through every year even if I didn’t. The magazines say that the British climate isn’t warm enough for them to hit their stride on opium-producing, but I wonder if they’re just saying that, and I occasionally try chewing a seed pod.

They are bitter, and have no discernable effect.