Comments

Well, you asked for it. Here’s our front door. The picture is gloriously out-of-date, taken at the turn of the millenium. It shows Alistair and Rachel Miles of Beijing, as well as the door – Rachel is the one who is about to make her First Holy Communion in the recently-knitted veil. In this picture, she’s wearing a hat I knitted for her.

The door can also be seen --but rather less of it -- in that signature photograph of my back.

Knittingkate, I cannot begin, cannot begin, to tell you how touched I was to learn from your website that mine is one of the four you visit daily. And that is interesting about your not having known what snowdrops looked like. I don’t suppose I did, either, until I grew up and came to Britain, but I don’t remember my first encounter with them. As you see, they’re desperately sweet, and they herald the coming year undeterred by hard weather.

Valerie, yes, the Princess continues. Thanks for asking. Currently, border row 32. I advance by such minute increments that progress is almost indetectable, but it’s happening.

That is a funny story about Russ Abbot, Mandella. I am sure even the rich and famous are not surprised by the sight of an overflowing laundry basket, but I can well imagine your mother’s distress.

Knitting

I devoted a certain amount of thought yesterday to the question of what to knit next in Kirkmichael, since the striped Koigu for big Rachel has only a day or two to go. (I’ll bring it back and do the boring finishing bit here.) Generally speaking, I want something easy there, but at the moment I very much incline towards attempting a fisherman’s gansey for Alexander. There is a good British source for the yarn, which helps. Claret? Olive? I think I rather fancy Herring Girls Pink. I’ll see what he thinks.

And if the gansey proved too difficult – a proper one should be knit very tight on small needles, and it might turn out to involve more discomfort than I’m willing to undertake -- I could use the yarn to knit a sweater roughly in the shape of the store-boughten one James was wearing at the Games last year. (Alexander is wearing a KF of my manufacture, and nephew Theo, in the background, has on his Koigu.)

I’ve just had an email from James in Beijing, asking me to send some tea-bags. Next I suppose it’ll be granddaughter Hellie at Newcastle University, requesting a load of coal.