I'm fine. The sonographer – I think that is probably the word – said so, as soon as the scan was over. It was being done because of weight loss, as I suspected, and that is entirely due to my cider-free regime.

My INR blood count (yesterday) is still under-target (=blood too thick). The rat poison dose has been increased slightly and I am to be tested again next week. According to the literature with which I have been supplied, alcohol increases the effect of Warfarin. So why can't I have a smaller dose along with some cider? I could guarantee to take the same amount every day, if that would make them happy.

I don't dare suggest it.

Miscellaneous

Two benefits of my current way of life: 1) I am usually fairly deeply depressed by the darkness, this time of year. This time I have scarcely noticed it, and it doesn't bother me at all. 2) I can send for anything without the slightest anxiety -- there is always re44478|somebody here to answer the doorbell.

Knitting

Thank you for your help with the problem of how many stitches to pick up for the border of the Dunfallandy blankie. I will certainly have a very close look at the examples on Ravelry.

Tamar, I had had your thought – that the oddly-high pick-up number was the result of a mistake in a single digit, 174 instead of 104. It is a particularly tempting idea because 104 would be exactly right, given that there are 52 stitches in the final row of each triangle. The mistake (if mistake it is) is compounded by the fact that the pattern says “696 sts” at the end of the instructions for picking up the border stitches. 696 is 174 x 4 – but that could have been added after the original mistake.

Meanwhile I am sewing the pieces together. It is slow work – or, at least, I am doing it slowly. I have joined the triangles, two by two, to make the four corners, and am now working on making one central piece of the four squares. It's looking good.

In odd moments, in hospitals and dr's offices and at the end of a weary day, I have also done a bit more of the Awesome hat. I have finished the turn-up, done the fold-line, and have started on the real hat. I put in an invisible red stripe using the yarn with which I did invisible red facings for Archie's sweater.

The stash is all bagged up and waiting to be removed. I already regret that bag of KF oddballs, but otherwise I am happy at what I have done. If we get any substantial daylight today, I'll take a picture for you of what remains.

One problem was a miscellaneous collection made for Franklin's Craftsy class on colour. The contents are all the sort of thing that would have been first in the firing line if they hadn't been set aside for that purpose. Everything there is in hiatus because I couldn't face Franklin – even with a computer screen between us – if I hadn't done my homework, and I haven't done it. In fact, I can't remember exactly what it is. Perhaps I could allow myself to watch Lesson Two again to find out. Those oddballs can have a further stay of execution.

I like the idea of donating Green Granite Blocks to Medecins sans Frontiers via p/hop. I'll refresh my memory of how that is done when life calms down a bit after Christmas.

An unexpected bonus of the stash clear-out has been the rediscovery of quite a few circular needles. Several had swatches and UFO's appended. Others are still in their original packages, on the shelf that used to bulge with sock wool. I tend to order two or three when I need to buy one needle – either the same size in a different length, or adjacent sizes. There turned out to be a surprising number of those, and all will be useful.

But Green Granite Blocks has been allowed to retain its needle.