My sister should be pretty close to DC by now. She left here at 6:30 this morning. It’s now nearly 5:30 this evening. KLM via Amsterdam.

 

We had a good time, much overshadowed by Covid. First she had to self-administer a test and photograph the result next to her passport and send that to the Scottish administration in some form. And then – almost at once – had to get a more severe and more expensive test so that the Americans would let her go home. She was terrified of being isolated here for a fortnight. That test had to be done within three days of departure and there was no guarantee that she would have the result in time. In the event, she was tested Monday morning and had the result Monday evening. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves yesterday, without anything to worry about.

 

I have advanced Machu Picchu a bit – It’s now about 7” in all. I’m knitting an EPS along the lines of a successful one finished recently. Soon – but there’s no hurry – I’ll measure the successful one to see how far I’ve got to go until the underarm. And I’ve found the pattern, in a sense – I’ve got the .pdf on my computer. I’ve lost a printed copy. It’s a comfort to know I can print it again. And I’ve found the main-colour yarn for the Coofle. If it had been a snake it would’uv…

 

However, the knitting news is elsewhere. Rachel’s daughter Hellie rang up to say that that she and Matt are expecting their third child in April. Will this be a 7^th little girl to add to the clutch of great-grandchildren I’ve already got? She’s had the first scan (on which sex can’t be clearly established) and the suspicion is yes, a girl.

 

However, male or female, something must be knit. I rushed out and bought Seasonal Slow Knitting, thinking that it would be full of peaceful, reflective essays which would show me not only what to knit but how to scrabble around in my extensive stash to find something to knit with. No such luck. The author lives in Tennessee, to begin with, where the too-hot-to-knit months take up half the year. There’s a pattern for a baby blanket but it doesn’t tempt and it isn’t assembled from stash.

 

So I’ve pulled out every shawl book I own. EZ’s pi-shawl is a real possibility.