Today's delay was Blogger's fault.

I've finished the scarf, blocked it, and picked up stitches around the armhole for the second sleeve of the Fair Isle jacket -- it feels good to be back in the saddle. The scarf is only the second thing I've finished this year -- the other being the ribwarmer. Not much to show for a year already 25% gone.

I used never to block. My first serious adventure in that field was nine years ago when I knit a lace-weight shawl for daughter Helen's second baby (who turned out to be Archie). I was pulling out all the stops on that one, as her first child had died at 6 1/2 weeks the year before. And of course it turns out that blocking is great fun, and that it entirely transforms lace.

I think it's in "Knitting" that Meg describes the process for sweaters, and adds, "I love this stage". If she had added, instead, a stern warning about how important it was always to block, I'd have paid no attention. But now I always do it, and I love it too.

Brioche stitch

One evening recently, bored of the scarf and humiliated by my previous failure with two-colour brioche stitch, I got some waste yarn out, and retrieved IK. And I did it. See above. But it's not entirely easy.