It has been a busy and happy day. I have retrieved from the archives my record of the sweater I knit for Ketki ten years ago:

which includes the chart for the cup and the date. If it was ten years, of course I’ve already got an “eight”:

I find I have kept in the archives a picture cut out from the newspaper of our happy captain holding the cup. I’ll do that again – perhaps this one:

I have discovered to my horror, however, that the cup in that picture is a fake. The real Calcutta Cup is now deemed too fragile to be used for public displays of  joy. It resides -- at least, it has for the past decade -- in the Rugby Museum at Twickenham (English rugby headquarters). Presumably, now, it’ll move north.

I have also discovered that Scottish Rugby now offers tours of the premises – the dressing rooms, the television studio, and the fake (or real) Calcutta Cup. Once I’m sure I can see the real one, I’ll book myself in for that.

I started watching Meg’s “Fair Isle Vest” video. It’s good, and begins with calm, useful, Meg-like advice about charting one’s design. The OXO patterns I will be using are a full 36 stitches across, which makes it difficult to fine-tune the size. One could, of course, centre the design and have it start and stop at the imaginary side seams. I’d rather have a number of stitches perfectly divisible by 36. I won’t commit myself on that question until I have had a chance to run a tape measure around Alexander.

The Calcutta Cup chart, above, is exactly the same size. Providential! one thinks – and then remembers that a “1” will have to be substituted for “0” which will spoil the whole thing.  

I’ve also retrieved the yarns from stash. I’ll need more of some of them – I can stock up at the EYF. Jamieson & Smith are going to be there themselves this year, as well as Jamieson’s of Shetland.

As for actual knitting, I forged ahead with the Soutache. It continues to be peppered with small errors. I’ve got to get this right before I go to my class with Nancy Marchant.