We’re all off to Strathardle today. The weather has even improved itself slightly. Back sometime next week, but probably not for long. I'm taking Sam north to get used to country life.

I mastered Simpsonization in the end. In my first attempt I was offering pictures of too low resolution, and the second time I put the camera all the way up to maximum-pixel and that was rejected too. On the third attempt, Goldilocks-fashion, I got it right. Here’s Archie, before and after. The background has been Springfieldized – an optional extra.

Not terribly impressive, but he's delighted. I've done his brothers, too.

Knitting

I’m somewhere in row 15 of the Princess shawl insertion, so relieved that my messing about, a few rows back, hasn’t ruined it altogether, that even an endless row of YO, k2tog seems pleasant.

Ann, welcome aboard. VKB is “Vogue Knitting Book” – I’m sorry to have seemed mysterious. It’s the original series I’m after. It was a British magazine – it began publishing in the early 30’s and carried on right through the war, until the late 60’s. A parallel American publication started sometime in the 40’s, with considerable pattern overlap.

Then there were a few empty years, I think – one day, I must get all this straight – before the current, thoroughly American, Vogue Knitting International rose from the ashes.

Since discovering eBay over a year ago, I’ve been able to expand my original collection, bought from the newsstands in my early married years, to the point where I now have all but 10 of them. Not long ago, my “killer bid” was about £55. There was a sudden spate of them on offer earlier this year, when I upped the killer bid to £80-something.

The most I’ve ever actually paid was £63.87 and £63.89 for issues no. 5 and 7. Even £80 is less than the prices fetched in America this month for no. 8 and no. 3. But I decided yesterday to tighten the belt and go on. They’re likely to hold most of their value. I can always flog ‘em.