Kate Davies is coming for coffee tomorrow.

That’s my sensational Shetland news. Kristieinbc is in her Ravelry group. She wrote asking for tips for our trip. She got a prompt and helpful reply by which we were all delighted. But then Kate wrote to me (she lives nearby) and proposed herself for a visit. We need to know what to do besides the obvious, and who to get in touch with (whom, that should be) to open doors and get lace shawls out of museum cupboards perhaps.

There used to be a place called the Shetland Textile Working Museum at Weisdale Mill not far from Lerwick, but it seems to have closed and its collection merged with the Museum in Lerwick, which might mean a smaller proportion of things actually on display.

Kristieinbc and her cousin Kath are serious walkers, as is Kate, so we hope for tips on that, too. I hope I will have the strength to tag along, although I think I am ebbing. I want to see sheep and ponies and wouldn’t object to a puffin or two. It was bird-watching that drew Gladys Amedro and her husband to settle on Shetland. I nearly went there years ago with an American bird-watching and knitting friend, but that turned out to be the year of foot-and-mouth and she and her husband were afraid that walking would be restricted. 

We are all simply overwhelmed by Kate’s kindness and generosity. I doubt if I will have the chutzpah to ask for a picture, but I might have her sign the book.

Otherwise, little to report. I have started to turn the heel of that sock. I hope to practise mattress stitch on my little sampler today. I’d like to have another look at Franklin doing it, but my desktop computer can’t cope with that lesson at all (it’s over an hour) and even on the new laptop I’m not sure I’d be able to ask Franklin to go back over the topic. So I’ll make do with the handout, and then go on to watch Franklin do herringbone stitch which is where I actually stopped the lesson.

And today is Chilli Feeding Day! I have re-potted the three little Apaches in some potting compost stuff which says on the packet that things won’t need feeding for six weeks. Everybody seems very happy, the Apaches and Big Nameless from Waitrose, despite being on a north-facing window with no direct sunlight. The kitchen is nice and warm. I think they like that. I have ordered another chilli book, hoping for more taxonomy.

Cat, you’re right about that Rowan sock yarn: swatch it and wash it and see. I wouldn’t even have to do a boring square swatch, either. I could knit a swatch-heel.

Silence from Cardinal O’Brien. We still don't know whether it's true that the Vatican has told him to leave the country, nor, if so, what he intends to do. The weekend papers confected stories by asking prominent Catholics what they thought.