Wednesday is my weekly osteoporosis-pill day. The instruction is to take it first thing in the morning with a glass of water, and then sit (or stand) upright for half-an-hour, consuming nothing else. It’s a bit of a nuisance, because one reaches bleary-eyed for the kettle first thing on the other six days, and as a consequence I regard that half-hour as peculiarly mine.

Today I spent it working with paper, pen, tape-measure, swatch, and Brown-Reinsel on Theo’s gansey, going for a standard XL size since we forgot to get the tape measure out when he was briefly and happily with us for the Games. And when, the half-hour elapsed, I sat down at the computer – there was a message from Theo with the measurements, taken from a favourite sweater, which is the best way.

They’re a bit less than the XL ones I was using. It won’t be hard to shave something off the edges. The great thing is to have started.

Here’s the current state of the Shawlette. The first skein of cashmere Koigu is finished. There’s not all that much more to do – finish the current eyelet panel, do another six rows of garter stitch. I begin to wonder (since I started with three skeins) whether I’ll have enough left over for a hat.

It’s hard to say. The shawl increases by three stitches every row, so the final panel will consume a lot. But I had a happy hour in Ravelry yesterday looking around – the pattern section really is brilliant – and think I rather fancy this one by Grumperina. We’ll see. I may be a bit disappointed with the colour qualities of cashmere Koigu, but a skein of it is not to be cast lightly aside.

Today’s the day when I’m going to hit the buffers in LibraryThing – I’ll pass the 200 mark, and have to pay. The choice – both seem very modest – is between $5 a year or $25 for life. Not much to choose, in my case, but I think I’ll go for life.