So I guess I’d better write about blogging, Janet. (I’m a Barbara Pym fan, I might mention.)

Why do we do it, standing in the garden like this talking to the birds? I went back just now and read some of my early entries – written in 2004, crikey! It sounds as it does today, with no comments. I used to get all excited, then, when a comment came in. I still do. I love them, and I can share your pain, Shandy, at not getting many.

I like best blogs like yours, where little bits of life peep out around the edges of the knitting. I’m not so keen on the Big Shots like the Yarn Harlot and Crazy Aunt Purl. The exceptions are Annie Modesitt and Franklin, both very big shots indeed. And The Curmudgeon and Joe, who are pretty big shots. I think I usually abandon a blog at about the point where its author gets a book contract, but in Franklin’s case, I’m looking forward to sending him a copy to autograph.

And I’m not keen on blogs where the writer’s life doesn’t appear to have a central interest, so that the writer can write about that and only incidentally about him/herself. I’ve entirely given up on Dooce. This is a contrarian view. Not only does she write well, she makes a living at it.

In my early blogging days, I see that I was still a member of the Knitlist. Indeed, a Listmom. Thank goodness that’s over. I think one needs some internet-knitting-input in one's life, to balance the outflow. Blog-reading, Ravelry, whatever. I think you might be cheered by embedding a hit-counter: I use Google Analytics. I would have been delighted when I first did that, to find that I had 50 readers. It turned out there were more than 100. There are about 300 of us these days.

Another thing you might think of is joining a blog like Zimmermania (since you’ve recently knit the Baby Surprise). There you can blog away to your heart’s content, or not, and not feel judged.

A foodie magazine I read said yesterday, in a little piece on How to be a Food Blogger, that you’ve got to post regularly. I feel that, and conscientiously do so, but the people I really want to read – listed above – can post as rarely as they like, and find me camped on the doorstep when they get back.

Well, that didn’t amount to much. Bits of advice, not much philosophy. But I hope you’ll take it up again, Shandy.

It’s a dull morning here, weather-wise, but I’ll take a gansey-picture anyway in a moment. I did the neck last night, and it will clearly have to be revisited. 45% or not, it’s too big. Severe-er decreasing, and more depth, if there’s yarn left at that point.

I like the finish, though: Brown-Reinsel says it comes from Gladys Thompson’s seminal work. A round of knit, two rounds of purl (ugh), another round of knit, cast off in knit. It looks nicely ethnic and nautical.

Angel, I like Brown-Reinsel’s “Knitting Ganseys” a lot, and would highly recommend it. The only caveat, perhaps, is that she doesn’t have quite enough to say to make a whole book, and the effort she has put into stretching it out sometimes makes it hard to find what you’re looking for. But she’ll teach you how to design a gansey, and make it fun – I can guarantee that.

And your blog reminds me – I don’t read foodie blogs, but I love it when knitting bloggers embed recipes.