Getting up a bit earlier and keeping one's eye on the ball doesn't, it turns out, produce much forwardness with the Problems of Life. It just ensures that a bit more housework gets done. No bad thing, I suppose, but I need to get on with the Income Tax.

Knitting

Above is a picture which arrived in the mail yesterday -- what is the use of giving someone a digital camera for her birthday? -- of Rachel in her kitchen wearing Gladys Amedro's "Cobweb Lace Wrap". I knit it for her 40th birthday. It was a great leap forward for me at the time, although now the excellent pattern seems almost banal in its simplicity.

I've virtually finished Thomas-the-Younger's sweater. A couple more ends to tidy away, and the wretched buttons to sew on. The end took me by surprise, for some reason. I hastily fired up my Sweater Wizard program last nightand "designed" a basic Fergus-sized sweater which I will knit in the same yarn as the first one -- some orange Rowan 4-ply Soft which I bought in the Liberty sale last summer. I'll put on a Wallaby pouch again. The Wallaby pattern itself is written for worsted-weight yarn, and thus is no use except for general principles.

I was still on speaking terms with the Knitlist when I knit Fergus his first Wallaby, last winter. Someone gave me some good advice about how to attach the pouch in a straight line. I wish I could remember what it was -- my notes don't say. I think what I did was put in a row of purl bumps at the relevant point.

I'm half-way through repeat #45 of the Princess Shawl edging. The next big landmark will be finishing #46 -- after that, the number of repeats still-to-do will be numbered only in the 30's. I must get back to work on the problem of securing a suitable long needle for the next stage. Someone recommended Boye, and I got as far as locating a source.

Literature

There was an interesting obituary in the paper this week of Bridget Grant, who was Evelyn Waugh's wife's sister and said to be the model for Barbara Sothill in "Put Out More Flags":

"Freddy [her husband] telephoned to Barbara. 'Good news,' he said; 'we're coming home.'

'Freddy, how splendid,' said Barbara, her spirits falling a little."

She was a beautiful woman, clearly. The penultimate sentence of the long obituary reads: "A champion smoker, she had no interest in clothes beyond insisting on long cardigans with big pockets."

That's what I want. I will now start some serious exploratory work on patterns and yarns.

Non-Knit

I made an appointment with the oculist -- so I suppose I did make some progress with Life yesterday -- for the moment my new eye finishes its probationary six weeks. I hope he can make a lens for it, leaving the old lens for the now-inferior eye, so that I can drive. Then in September, when the other eye finally gets done, maybe we can have clear glass for it for a while, so that I can go on driving. We'll see.

And I'll get my hair cut this morning. I wore it in a bun all my life, as in the picture, until I fell and broke my arm two and a half years ago. I like it short, but having to get hair cuts is a nuisance.