I got some beautiful pictures from Greece yesterday, grandchildren and scenery, sometimes combined. This one (above) was the only one with knitting in it, so I'll start here -- Mungo in his striped Koigu, with his brother Fergus. The sleeves look slightly long, otherwise pretty good. It's pure EPS.

The Opinionated Knitter

Which brings me to the second book in the splendid boxful which awaited me when we got back from the country last week -- the posthumous collection of EZ's writing. It's simply wonderful. I don't think there's anything in it that could quite be called a whole new pattern -- but one sees some of the greats, the EPS and the Baby Surprise, for instance, evolving under one's eyes. And one "hears" that inimitable voice again. It's full of tips, from both EZ and Meg (including, ironically, for me in my present situation, two-colour brioche stitch), and wonderful old photographs, and beautiful new ones -- Meg turns out to be a genius photographer, as well as so much else.

No EZ fan will want to be without this one -- I guess that means, no knitter.

I was also excited to note that one of the EZ videos is being re-mastered (is that the right word?) on DVD. I have never been able to see the videos, because British and American video tapes travel at different speeds. But I can buy a DVD, I think, and play it on my computer.

Barbara Vinishnick

I read on Marian Poller's blog yesterday (http://Marianknits.blogspot.com) that Barbara Vinishnick, the knitwear designer, had died suddenly, in her 50's. Google has yielded nothing -- just page after page of references to her designs. I've written to Marian for more news, if there is any. Barbara V. has long been a great favourite of mine -- there's no book that I know of, just lots of patterns in VK and elsewhere. I met her very briefly in the Stitches Market at Stitches East in 2002 and told her I was a t'riffic fan.

Apology

Yesterday's silence wasn't Blogger's fault, for once -- a friend stayed overnight, which meant I lost the early-morning computer session which I devote to banking and blogging. The picture, of course, shows the scarf-in-progress stretched out next to my shape-it.