I am enormously grateful for everybody’s help on the Jade Sapphire front. Sean turns out to stock only the 4-ply, not the lace weight, in Harvard Square, so that avenue is temporarily closed. Helen rang up yesterday morning – that’s not my daughter, or sister, or granddaughter, or Helen S. who left a helpful comment yesterday, but someone else; there is the potential for confusion here – with the URL for Jade Sapphire itself: the range both of qualities and of colours is breath-taking. Why couldn’t Google have told me so the day before?

The selection of URLs which Lorna offers in her comment yesterday spreads a feast at my feet – although I think I may wind up getting Ruby Slippers from the Yarn Barn, like Maureen (URL in her comment of yesterday). Maureen, how does the cashmere and silk feel on the hand? Have you attempted a swatch? I had a sport-weight cashmere-and-silk from Cherry Tree Hill once and although it was Really Pretty Good, and I actually used it (a shrug which my sister has, and a chemo cap for a dear neighbour in Strathardle who didn’t live very long after receiving it) -- the experience of knitting with it wasn’t quite…. I think because silk, like cotton, doesn’t have much give.

Whereas I knit with pure cashmere once, too – Mountain Colors, I think it was – a shawl that Ketki has, and that was an experience beyond compare. Like knitting the cat.

The Knitting Zone – one of Lorna’s links – has Ruby Slippers lace-weight in pure cashmere. It will do fine as a colourway, despite the lack of gold.

So, we shall see. But I’d really be glad to hear from you, Maureen, about your opinion of how cashmere-and-silk will feel on the hand.

Knitting

Here is a picture I took yesterday of the current state of my sister’s shawl – not to show progress, that will wait for a few more rows, but to grumble that I don’t seem to be making much progress with that 50-gram ball of yarn. I knit pretty well every day for an hour or more. I haven’t finished a ball of yarn for more than a month. Not a single one.






My new books

We’ll start with Sally Melville’s “Color”. I agree, it isn’t as inspiring as the first two books in the series. It’s good, and sound, and I may learn something about colour theory, and there are some interesting patterns. I weary of Xenakis photography.

There’s an interesting page called “Meditation” – page 163. Not in the index. With Sally’s Top 10 Lessons About Time. One of them is, “Action Precedes Motivation”. I think that means, get on with it; don’t wait until you feel like doing it. That’s probably good advice.

Comment

Vivienne, I am a bit depressed to hear that you’ve had the new “Knitting” for a whole week. We had a mail delivery yesterday, which I didn’t expect, and mine still didn’t turn up. And don’t you think that since Messalina’s frequenting of brothels is established by ancient sources, Robert Graves would have felt free to invent the perfectly plausible contest? (We’re talking about Franklin's latest competition.)