I eschewed both the Scylla of the Earth Stripe Stole and the Charybdis of Ketki’s gansey last night (after checking the spelling of those words) and knit peacefully on with the Shawlette. I should finish the second eyelet panel today (of three), if I persevere. I had thought to take it north as country knitting, replacing the gansey, but I think I’ve already done so much of it that there’s not much point.

I decided that there was nothing to do but bite the bullet and order some more Kidsilk Haze from Colourway. I’ve done it. We’re about to have a postal strike, which will at least postpone the moment when I have to cast it on again, and in the meantime keep it off my conscience.

Comments

Shan, your Wellness Blanket is wonderful. I hope it will wrap your friend in wellness.

Gretchen, courgettes are zucchini all right. Last night we had them in a carbonara recipe from Jamie Oliver’s new book, in which they pretty well disappeared. Helen and David have given me a wonderful Greek cookery book – that produced a good potato-and-courgette bake last week, but the book lives in the country. Antonio Carluccio has an interesting-sounding recipe in which courgettes and potatoes are mashed together. I might try that today. The broad beans I steam with sweet corn cut from the cob, and pretend it’s succotash.

We subscribe to the New Yorker and to Kitchen Garden magazine (among others), but read them only in Strathardle, where life is quieter. As it happened, last week, I read articles in each of those magazines about the revolution in food on both sides of the Atlantic as a result of Columbus’ voyages. He carried seeds and plants in both directions, I learn.