Here we still are. The original plan had been to go to Strathardle yesterday, but then we decided we needed to regroup, and then my husband’s new glasses turned out to be ready for collection today. The current plan is to go after Mass and lunch on Sunday and stay for most or all of next week.

Christmas in Strathardle was tough, and departure through the snowdrifts on January 4 was tougher. We both seem to have made one of those step-changes downwards towards decrepitude and the grave recently (maybe it’s just the time of year) and are both a little afraid that we’re not strong enough for country life any more. So it’s tempting to postpone, and it will be interesting to see how we get on.

More cheerfully, I moved nicely forward with the gansey sleeve yesterday. I think perhaps you’re right, Country Mouse, that left-sleeve-first is more appropriate. My mental calculations about how to centre the pattern proved to be spot-on. The gusset is nearly gone; I might even get as far as calculating the sleeve decreases today. And there should be enough for another photograph before we leave.

And on the subject of Obama-knitting (which the gansey mysteriously is), Helen in her comment yesterday offered this website, with a chart for his campaign symbol. She also mentioned Knitters for Obama, and I have added their button to my sidebar all by myself. It’s not a very interesting destination, and I won’t leave the button there forever, but I am very proud of having done it.

(Helen had previously sent me some boiler-plate HTML. All I have to do is substitute where appropriate the address of the button and the address of the destination to which I wish it to point.)

I have mentally promised Obama a donation if/when one of the five Vogue Knitting Books I lack turns up on eBay. My heart beat faster last night when they told me that No. 14 was on offer – but no, he’s out of luck. I’ve got that, although I’m still missing 16. Fourteen must be spring, 1939, if anybody’s interested.

I still have my finger on the credit-card, so to speak, ready to match any donation to the thermometer in the sidebar.

All this leaves a number of topics untouched: the new Yarn Yard sock club yarn, the Spring IK, “Knitting America” which I continue to read with close attention.

But I think I’ll just say that when I get to the next garter stitch band on the gansey sleeve, I’ll try the method you suggest, Tamar, for purling in the round. I think I may be too old to learn a new physical technique, but it’s worth trying.

And, Strimble, I think you must be right that the man on the BBC was referring to Mrs Clinton’s rally on Tuesday in El Paso rather than the one on Wednesday in San Antonio. I finally found this on YouTube, although I haven’t watched much of it. It seems to me boring rather than actually unhinged.

Tamar, I didn’t mean my Fibertarian sweatshirt to be snide, although I’m delighted that you think so. Just, appropriate for an event attended by so many sheep (at the agricultural show in the adjacent field).