I must be brief...

One of you brought me flowers yesterday. I was profoundly touched. She had been in town (from Nairn) for the Yarn Festival.

The Unst Bridal Shawl remains unblocked. Life rose up and overwhelmed me, as often, and things are likely to remain substantially unchanged throughout the week – and I'm allowing time to enjoy the eclipse on Friday. But the job has got to be done in time for the shawl to travel to London in the car with my husband at the end of next week.

So I have decided it has to be Saturday morning. I'll get the weekend shopping somehow done in advance, and skip blog-writing that day, and devote this first hour to blocking.

Otherwise, all went well. I've done the first five-over-five cable on the Sous Sous and am nearly finished with the whole first pattern repeat. There are eleven in all. I don't think I had entirely grasped in advance that the whole thing is, effectively, ribbed. It's a good thing the yarn is so utterly, addictively delicious.

So the thing to do is polish off the pattern repeat this evening, and then go back to the Tokyo for a couple of bands. Its utter st st simplicity makes it an excellent alternative. And vice versa.

Non-knit

I think I've found myself a good thriller – “After the Crash” by Michel Bussi. It's translated from the French and I try to avoid translations when I can – there aren't many as good as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This one has a few infelicities of language but the story powers one forward.

I'd better go...