Thank you for all the advice and encouragement about going to the wedding, and especially for Barbara M’s stunning offer of help. Could you email me directly (miles dot jean at googlemail dot com)? I don’t think Blogger lets me reply to comments – if there is a way, I haven’t found it.

I could leave my husband in London with Rachel, and fly directly to Boston. (It’s no use my lingering in London for a day or two, Stash Haus – that would only drain strength rather than augmenting it.) Stay the first night in a modest but supremely comfortable little hotel – I’m sure there are lots in that pleasant city. Train next day (eve of wedding) to Old Saybrook, in time for a nap before the rehearsal. Then the wedding, then perhaps one more day to see my sister and her husband and their new (to me) house and cats. Then back to London.

That would give my husband five days in London but it would be over a weekend with Rachel’s family at home for some of the time, so not quite as lonely as it sounds. Low blood sugar can distort judgment: that’s the big worry. He’s perfectly compos mentis, just slow on his feet. He would not sit at home alone – he would trudge around London by himself looking at art.

Speaking of which, the radio said this morning that the Titian has been saved.

I’ll keep thinking about wedding plans. Also about a present. I had commissioned one some months ago. But the artist/craftsperson involved has had a dramatic change of circumstances and the commission is probably now impossible. I am not going to knit an afghan.

Now, knitting

I’ve been meaning to say that the Felicity Hat which Helen has been knitting in quantity, is what I keep seeing on peoples’ heads these days. Not watchcaps. There are still lots of beanies around, too.

I finished the front of Ketki’s sweater last night. An unexpected difficulty arose, in that the pattern failed to account for all the stitches in front. The back has 48 stitches across the middle, and 27 on each shoulder. The front is supposed to get rid of those 48 stitches (in the placket and the front-neck shaping) and have only the shoulders left at the end. But there were a whole 16 stitches left over. I did the sums again and again from different directions. So I had to undo the left front as far as the beginning of the neck shaping, which was not far. This is a Sweater Wizard pattern and it is an odd mistake for a computer to make. I’ve never had probs with the Sweater Wizard before.

But that’s done, how successfully we won’t know until the neck is finished, and I’ve done the ribbing for the first sleeve.