On we go, and I continue grateful for all your advice. Maybe I'll wind up doing the border as written.

I'm not entirely enjoying the knitting, although I thoroughly like the look of the result (except that the most recent rank of yowes is half-submerged in mooskit). I should have gone up a needle size or two, as often with colour knitting which tends to be very tight in my hands. Too late now. The yarn is firm and the knitting needs pushing and it's not much fun. The result is only very slightly tighter than the specified gauge – blocking may cure even that. A good texture for a blankie, I suppose, but tough going.

I have a half-feeling that when I last worked on it, I set myself to do two or three rounds an evening and then switched to something else. But when was that? Not this year, which has been Unst Bridal Shawl from the beginning. I've just been back to my blog for December, 2013. It's all about Christmas knitting and the Milano – not a Ram or Yowe in sight. Although I feel that the Milano might well have been the “something else” when the system was operative.

But I thought that such an approach might help, anyway. Three rounds, and then I'm free to knit some more shawl edging if I want to. That would see the centre of Rs&Ys done in about a fortnight. I assume that the border, however I do it, will be faster and pleasanter.

I'm inclining, after all, to the idea of knitting the edging as given. Although a double edging of stockinette still appeals. And much as I hate sewing in all its forms, you may well be right, Mary Lou, that the best thing at the end will be to bind off and sew the hem down.

For those of you who have done it: why do we need to bind off when the centre is finished? Why not slide the stitches along and cut the steek? It seems a waste to dispense with them, when they are required again immediately.

Reading

We are making a strenuous effort to get caught up with the New Yorker. We used to read it in Strathardle, where we have no television and no newspaper. Lately, of course, we only go there with other people, and once there, we tend to talk to them, so New Yorkers pile up.

My husband cheats, I feel, by flipping through them quickly. I am finding lots of interesting things to read in depth.

The other day in Talk of the Town I found mention of Jane Gardam, of whom I had only vaguely heard. I whistled her “Old Filth” down from the ether and am hugely enjoying it. It is about an elderly retired QC and judge who shares with me the misfortune of living in the country cheek-by-jowl with his worst enemy. The title is not inviting – the author says in the introduction that the publisher didn't like it. She explains that “filth” is a well known acronym in English legal circles for Failed in London Try Hong Kong.

That sounds a bit Rumpole-of-the-Bailey-ish, but it's not. It's darker, although there are light moments. The novel ranges widely in time and geographical space without, so far, confusing me for a moment. Recommended.