Not all that much progress yesterday, although the sleeve seams are done. We went up to the NG in the afternoon to look at the Titians, the announcement having been made the day before that "Diana and Actaeon" has been bought for the nation. Getting another £50 million together for "Diana and Callisto" isn’t going to be easy. It’s not quite as attractive a picture, either.

Then we did some mild shopping, including the sweater buttons, and came home in an unprovoked state of utter exhaustion, both of us.

I wondered if Actaeon had done anything to deserve his unpleasant fate. It was so easy to get on the wrong side of the gods, in those days. But apparently not. I looked up the locus classicus, the passage in Ovid Metamorphoses bk 3 – which Titian will have known – and find that Ovid himself poses the question, and concludes that there was no crimen on Actaeon’s part, just error. “Error” in Latin means both what it means in English, and a more literal “wandering from the path”.

That’s by-the-way. I should finish the tidying and the button-sewing on the Calcutta Cup sweater today, and that’s it, except for blocking. I tried it on myself – Ketki and I are roughly the same build, although I’m rather more ample. I liked the way it fit, and felt. It’s going to be fine on her.

I figured out the dot problem, too (see yesterday). I am capable of thinking, after all. On the sleeves, I had to knit up stitches from both the sleeve and the sleeve-hole. I did it with pink yarn, right side facing, so the dots are on the inside.

But for the shoulders, I had live stitches. I plunged straight in, knitting them together with pink and then binding off on the next row. So of course there are dots on the reverse side. At least I had the wit to do the row joining the shoulders from the front, on both sides, so both sets of dots are on the back. I should have knit a pink row to start with on each edge, with the right side facing, before joining them.

So, maybe, Princess tomorrow. I’m just a tad worried that my Eye Crisis (Retinal Vein Occlusion in the left eye) is going to make lace knitting harder than it was. I don’t think so. I think I’ll be fine. But I’ll be happier when I’ve done a couple of rows.

VKB

Shandy, thank you for your most generous offer, but no, I don’t need it. When/if No 16 arrives by Special Delivery today, I’ll have all of the original British series of the Vogue Knitting Book. All! I tell you. There are 62 of them.

And Gretchen, thank you very much indeed for that valuable history of the new Vogue Knitting International. I’m surprised that the non-publication gap was a long as it was, all through the seventies and into the eighties. I’ve had a look at my collection and find that it starts with Spring, ’83 – so that should mean I have them all, except for Fall/Winter ’82. I’ll start looking for it on eBay.