Bit low, this morning. Skies are grey, air is chill. I must write a note of sympathy to a neighbour about the death of her husband, and it’s going to involve a lot of end-of-pen-chewing on a morning when there’s lots else to do. I didn’t know him, except to nod and smile when our paths crossed in the morning on the way to or from the paper shop. More nodding than smiling. He was pretty depressive.

Nor do I have a bedsock photograph, as I hoped. My husband, whose attention to detail is usually infinite, is not proving much help on this one, either. He constantly complains about the socks he has to wear, but refuses to address the design problems involved in improving them.

However, the bedsock goes on easily, is comfortable, stays on (an important characteristic in a bedsock). So, just knit the same, only more so, for a day-time sock? Hmmm.

Here is the current state of the lettering box in the Princess centre. I’m knitting row 20. I have been allowing my mind to wander to life-after-the-Princess, more than a bit prematurely. Ravelry is wonderful for looking at what people are knitting, and how patterns look on real people. The Internet is wonderful for allowing one to browse glorious yarns.


But any such considerations are a long way off, for me. I discover that there are 11 more rows to knit when the centre patterning is finished. (11? not 12? My lettering box means that the work now has a definite right side/wrong side.) They are easy rows, mostly garter stitch, but they won’t be instantaneous over that many stitches.

And then it will be very interesting a) to get some impression, as the task unfolds, of how long the top edging is and b) to discover how much I have retained of the edging pattern. It was tough to learn. I knit it four years ago. The current ball of yarn is much depleted, and I will join in the 10th and last of the original purchase soon. It would be nice to think that that’s all I’ll need, but I bought more when I bought the Queen Ring pattern recently, and I’m glad to have it. I’ll use the new yarn to start the top edging, so we may never know when 10 balls was enough.

Vegetables

I planted three courgette seeds in a pot yesterday, and hope to go on today with more courgettes and various beans. Spring seems slow and reluctant this morning, but it’s on its way.