Laetare Sunday

But there is no joy in Mudville. We lost. We didn’t entirely disgrace ourselves. There were flickers of hope, even in the second half. But that’s not the same thing as winning. Subsequently, Ireland beat Wales by two points in what must have been a thriller, and won the Grand Slam. But I was weary and sad, and didn’t watch.

I got my Adult Surprise swatch done during the match, and during the second half, as hope waned, I read and re-read the pattern as given in The Opinionated Knitter, and decided that it contained serious errors. This is a bold statement, Mrs Miles of Drummond Place vs. the Schoolhouse Press. EZ, the great enabler, the scorner of Blind Following, becomes positively Delphic when it comes to the Surprises. She delights, there, in baffling us, and demands blind following. Maybe I had it wrong?

Last night, knitting away at the Princess, I decided in one of those blinding flashes of the obvious, that the solution was not to take the Adult Surprise to London after all, but to revert to socks as usual and order a better version of the pattern. The Games are still four months away.

This morning, just now, I went to the Schoolhouse Press and did a search on Adult Surprise. And what to my – surprise! – should I find, but an erratum sheet which addresses the very points that puzzled me. So most of what I had intended to write this morning is now unnecessary, but I can take the Surprise with me after all. I don’t know what I’ll do.

Thinking about socks: maybe someone can advise. For a long time now, more than a decade, I have knit Plain Vanilla socks for all. For gents, I knit them with 64 stitches on 1’s, on the one-size-fits-all principle, and no one complained until recently, when my husband had such trouble getting into his latest pair that I passed them on to James. He wears with perfect comfort socks knitted in earlier years which have adjusted themselves to his feet, slightly swollen by diabetic narcolepsy or whatever it’s called.

But what should be my next move? 64 stitches on larger needles? 72 stitches? 72 stitches on larger needles? Socks represent a sufficient investment in time – especially gents’ socks – that I want to get it right first time. And whatever I do will render the result too big for anyone else. Please advise if you can.

I have embarked on row 29 of the 13th repeat of the Princess centre. I mean to finish with row 38 of the 14th repeat, so pretty soon I will be doing each row for the last time, an encouraging thought. I have laid two rows now of the garter stitch foundation for my signature box, so the Die is Cast. I may reach the foothills of the actual lettering today.

Laritza has recently finished the centre – she’s not the one who knits at faculty meetings – and is worried about the corner. I think she’ll be fine. I think people who worry about the Princess pattern – Ted, you used to be one – are making needless trouble for themselves. Sharon knows what she’s doing – and she knit the prototype in cotton, which is presumably a bit less accommodating in the blocking than wool. Relax.

I spread my Princess out yesterday, to cheer myself during the match. (That's the television, in the upper left-hand corner.) No wonder a row takes a long time.