Five inches to go until the shoulder patterning on the Grandson Sweater. Endless. Maybe I'd better put in a pic tomorrow, just to brighten the page.

Yesterday didn’t quite work out as hoped – when has that ever happened before? – but I got at least to watch the Steek sections of “A Knitting Glossary” and they were – surprise! – good. I hope to see some more today. The passage on securing a steek by crochet was terrific, and I learned a technique I couldn’t have grasped in any other way, about how to crochet the centre stitch of a steek to the adjacent stitch first on one side, then on the other, and finally to cut the ladders in the middle of the stitch. I think maybe I can even do that for the Grandson, although my sleeve-holes don’t actually have a steek in them.

Is EZ going to contribute more to some of the other sections? or was this filmed in her decline?

Various, mostly knit-related

Kate Davies’ blog is so wonderful and professional-looking that it makes me feel sad. What’s the use? A brilliant post yesterday on knitting sticks.

In that radio programme I listened to yesterday – link provided by Jenny; there are still four days to go – there was a brief contribution from someone who started knitting and blogging when she was at university and one thing led to another and now, I think she said she lives by selling patterns. Who was she? Did anyone catch the name?

In the non-knit parts of the programme they were talking about making a list of objects to define the history of Scotland (tying in with Neil Macgregor’s current radio series from the British Museum) and someone emailed from Blairgowrie to nominate the Miegle stones and the presenter said with a merry laugh that she had never heard of them. It occurred to me that it is high time our grandchildren were taken on expeditions to see some of the more remarkable things within easy reach of Strathardle. The Dunfallandy Stone is equally near although in the other direction. Better than taking them to the movies in Perth on a wet August afternoon, although they might not like it as well.

Maybe one could even knit a sweater based on a Meigle stone, with the help of Elsebeth’s Lavold’s book and, of course, not until I am at liberty to buy yarn again.

On another matter, connected in thought by the absence from my stash of any sweater’s-worth of yarn in a single, sober colour, it has not proved easy after all to find a plain, heavyish v-neck sweater for my husband. The department stores are full of thin, thin sweaters for people in offices. Ask for heavy and you get zipper-necks and even sillier things which my husband would not dream of wearing. I retrieved a catalogue from the paper I was putting out for recycling yesterday, and despite his reluctance to buy anything sight-unseen (I do it all the time), we have gone for this.

I hope to spend some time with “Swing, Swagger, Drape” today, too. Inspired by your comment, Theresa, I don’t see why I shouldn’t start toying with the idea of knitting the Harlequin Coat itself in Koigu.