I’m feeling kinda low. I think the thing to do – bugger lobster – is to start some baked beans. If I put them on to soak today, we’ll be eating them on Tuesday, and by then it will be December when things usually seem a bit better. Except that this year I haven’t even made a start on the Christmas cards.

The trick with baked beans, I think, is the initial cooking (tomorrow’s job). Leave them a bit crunchy, and they’ll still be a bit crunchy after another eight hours in the oven with the seasonings. Overdo them, and you’ve got a soggy (but still tasty) mess for Tuesday. I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, a fair amount of mild excitement, on the knitting front.

Guy Amedro sent me the new edition of his mother’s book, “Shetland Lace”. It’s looking wonderful, with the designs re-knit (I presume) and certainly re-photographed. It’s like meeting an old friend newly in love.

The new IK turned up. There are good things there –I think maybe Eunny is hitting her stride. I decided against Sean’s hat, although I may come back to it. The slightest mental effort seems painful at the moment. But having thought “hat” I went on thinking “hat” on Friday morning (when I might have been better employed on the Christmas cards). I browsed Ravelry. I browsed Charlene Schurch’s “Hats On!”. (It was a blog reader who suggested that book to me – I have forgotten who you are, but if you’re still reading, thanks again.) I decided on a bog-standard watchcap.

In what? After a bit more tergiversation, I thought of my bag of Koigu. I’ve got a lot of Koigu, and am proceeding through this final phase of my knitting life, I realise, on the principle that I can ensure I will never run out, by never knitting with it. That’s silly. So I’m knitting a watchcap in Koigu. It was the right decision.

I took a running jump at the stitch count, measuring my own head, calculating by means of the gauge given on the label, scaling down a bit. I think it's about right -- certainly not too small. I’ve switched to dp’s because ribbing with a small-circumference circular seemed to be causing quite a bit of discomfort – nay, pain -- in my right arm where it was broken five years ago, or whenever. Today is, amongst other things, the anniversary of that slip in the dank grass at Kirkmichael.

If you follow the link to Sean’s blog, above, you will see another hat, designed by him for Knit.1 Magazine. My bedroom overflows with knitting magazines, but I’ve never seen that one, and I think it’s time I did.

And here's Ketki's sweater, in its newly subdued form (and much bleached by the flash, which is all we've got for light around here). I'll use the Calcutta Cup colour for the neck placket and collar, and I don't think it'll be too gloomy, in the end.



Living this day yet once more, I think of May. November is the price we pay for it, day by day. And I remember the little leap of joy I always feel, on discovering that May has 31 days – a free, bonus day as a reward for all this darkness.