So much knitting excitement yesterday that one could scarcely contain oneself.

The Schoolhouse Press package arrived at the crack of dawn, as you already know. Mid-morning brought Shirley Paden’s design workbook from Amazon – I’m afraid I didn’t tell you I had ordered that – and when the post itself arrived, it included both the DMC crochet cotton and the Heirloom merino lace.

I cast on my current jabot idea in cotton and have progressed rather briskly. That is about the only good thing I can say about it. I tried to take a picture just now, but was not sorry to discover that the camera battery is flat, sparing embarrassment. Those cotton stitches are slippery and each escape has been less successfully retrieved than the one preceding it. The whole thing is something of a mess by now.

The only thing to do is to go on and finish and block and see what we’ve got. It won’t take all that much longer. It looks, at the moment, as if the result will be somewhat smaller than my target size. It also looks surprisingly ethereal. Surprisingly, for cotton. All this is useful information. Regard it as a test square.

Joannie Newsome knit her second tier to come all the way up to the top of the first tier. They are joined by a three-needle bind-off. The top part of the second tier, where it doesn’t show, is plain garter stitch. The third tier reaches about half-way up the second one. Extra overlap may prove useful, to add substance.

The Mystery Project is within an evening, or at worst two, of completion, and is looking good. At least reasonably so. I could retreat to that for comfort, but I think I’d better press on with cotton and humiliation.

I love “Knitting in Art”. Sundbo is the one who studies scraps of old knitting – she actually owned a shoddy factory. (“Shoddy” is a technical term in that sentence, not a comment.) She has written about this resource before, in “Treasures from a Rag Pile” and other books.

This one is a worthy successor. At the back, there are some patterns, very elliptical and Vibeke-Lind. I am particularly taken with a shrug, which in Norwegian is known endearingly as a “soul warmer”. This particular one has full sleeves gathered in to the wrist, and is decorated with lice. The edging and cuffs must be st st, folded over.

The instructions are about as terse as you can get: “The garment is knitted in one piece and is the same width across the body as for the sleeves. The length of the soul warmer is the sleeve length + ½ the body width x 2. At the cuffs, decrease the stitch count so that the cuff fits the wrist and then knit an edging or a ribbed cuff.”

Now you know.

I was thrown for a while by that bit about decreasing for the wrist – on the first sleeve you’ll be increasing from the wrist. I am painfully literal. And re-reading what I have just typed, the formula for the overall length looks far too big. Since it’s got lice all over, one would want to keep knitting in the round, but steeking shouldn’t be impossible for the centre bit.

Judith, thank you for the pointer to the Ravelry KnitCamp group. It doesn’t entirely dispel my unease, but I feel somewhat more cheerful. Perhaps I should face up to following the story on Twitter, as the organisers suggest