Home again; very tired. It’s funny how cumulative tiredness works. We did fine in London; I can scarcely breathe this morning.

Knitting-wise, when we left I was just starting the heel flap on the first of the gent’s-size KF sock pair. Now I am four or five inches down the leg of the second – not too bad. Picture soon. I don’t suffer from second-sock-syndrome, but I don’t like doing sock ribbing, and I do like plenty of rib for a gent’s sock, and those 50 rounds are harder to get through on the second than on the first. I gritted my teeth and got them done on Monday and Tuesday so that I could sail forward with the leg on the train journey home yesterday.

The sad thing, knitting-wise, was that I FORGOT to bid for the Alice-in-Wonderland Vogue Knit on Sunday morning. I have corresponded in Ravelry with the designer of the Poet’s Coat (see last post) – it’s not a tail coat, let alone a swallowtail. I’m sort of afraid that if I started messing around with it, I’d wind up with something that wouldn’t even be useful as a little-boy’s dressing gown. Which would be shame since the original is so wonderful.

I think I need to search images in Google and get a firm grip of what a swallowtail coat actually is. More on this subject to follow.

Kate, did I answer your question? Memory suggests that 16” is a really-small baby size; 18” more practical; and 20” more practical yet. They grow fast, as Franklin recently discovered on re-visiting his niece. I think your 21.5” is fine – press on.

Politics

South Carolina was a big boost, and so was the Kennedy endorsement, and Edwards’ resignation, even without an endorsement, will be of more use to us than to Hillary, I think. So, a whole 10 days between South Carolina and next Tuesday, of feeling cheerful and hopeful. I still think in my bones that she’ll get the nomination.

Here is my thought. (Woollywoman, you’ve already said it more succinctly, in a comment on my last.)

History has produced a number of strong, intelligent, capable women who have proved to be highly successful leaders of their nations. They come in two categories:

…the ones who got to the top at least partly because of whose daughters or wives they were: Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Indira Ghandi, Benezir Bhutto.

…and the post-World-War-II ones who did it on their own: Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Mary Robinson, Angela Merkel (not to mention Madeleine Albright and Condi Rice).

If Hillary wins, she goes into Category I. And I feel that America, of all nations, deserves a first-woman-president in Category II.