Not much to report. The hat progresses. I think it’s going to be good. My sister and I ordered the yarn for her shawl from Heirloom Knitting. The alfalfa is sprouting nicely. The onion seeds have made some progress but on the other hand, there are ominous signs of mould in that tray.

Thanks (but no thanks) to everyone who put me in touch with the Knitting Olympics. I read about them in detail on the Yarn Harlot’s site. I hate knitting to deadlines, and would never impose one on myself. Although Ffrankllyn's membership of Team Wales, “The Jamaican Bobsledders of the Knitting World”, would inspire me if anything could.

Joy, thank you for the link to Janis' blog for the Knitting Special Olympics. I thought it was her.

Swapna, Carla, here is a picture of our animal, unobstructed by yarn or knitting. It’s Arabic, and it really is time I knew more about it. It’s applique. I assume the lettering is also the name of the animal. It was the gift of our daughter Helen. She and David met and married in Cairo and both have a great interest in the Arabic world. They lived in Bahrain for a while, after Cairo. Helen worked hard on the Arabic language and has made herself pretty competent in it. But life has now cast them ashore in Thessaloniki and she has had to learn Greek, so there has been less time for Arabic lately.

Mama Lu, have a wonderful time in Beijing. I’m sure you will. I tried via Google to get a line on some Chinese LYS’s before we went, without success. I just kept finding myself in blogs like this one, with no specific addresses. But the Chinese are knitters, and it is much easier in Beijing than in (say) Edinburgh, to find yarn by just keeping your eyes open.