The beans survived another couple of hours on the doorstep yesterday. I think I will leave them out there a while longer today, as long as it’s not windy. We have decided to go north on Thursday – the forecast for the weekend promises a slight improvement, warmth-wise.

I finished the first sock, and got ten rounds into the dread ribbing of the second. My husband tried it on – the toe is a bit too long; easily fixed. I used my usual formula for the toe shaping, and thought as I did it that, with 72 stitches instead of my usual 64, it was going to come out long. A 64-stitch sock has 22 rounds in the toe; I’ve done 25 (I think).

The Future

Jenny, thank you for the pointer to the Baby Sachiko Kimono sweater (Ravelry link). I had already seen it in my search of Ravelry, and put it on a mental short list, without grasping the important point you make, namely that it is written for worsted so that I can probably downsize it for a preemie by using a finer yarn. Perhaps some of the sock yarn, I’m afraid there’s lots, left over from last year’s ASJ? Anyway, I’ve downloaded it, and it’s the one -- my 2010 Games entry.

I thought a lot yesterday about that Bavarian Twisted Stitch jacket. Current yarn choice is Rowan Extra-Fine Merino DK. The next time I’m in John Lewis – and there is a prescription from Boots to be picked up this very day – I’ll try to have a look at it. The Rowan website mentions stitch definition specifically. The colour range is very good. “Blood”, I think. Maybe “red wine”.

The pattern – in Meg’s book “Knitting” – has a good paragraph about the importance of swatching and blocking. Bavarian travelling stitch is essentially ribbing writ large, and she points out that you can stretch it out and block it flattish, or not. Unless I've missed something, however, she doesn’t say that the swatch has got to be circular.

Bavarian travelling stitch is hard enough by itself; it’s next to impossible on the flat, because there is action in every row. Maybe this point is covered in the DVD.

I’ve still got my circular swatch from the Grandson Sweater, waiting to be turned into a hat.

Politics

This is a most extraordinary situation. Seeing the three party leaders at the Cenotaph the other day, I was reminded of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Gondoliers”. One of them is king – but which?

Emily, my son Alexander has been arguing your very point with me – that there are more Labour voters in England than you might think just to look at all that blue on an electoral map. I believe it is true, however, that if you remove Scotland from the equation and just count the number of constituencies won by each party, England will be found to have chosen a Conservative government, not just this time but in most post-war elections. But I’m not going to do the arithmetic.

David Blunkett was extremely sensible on the radio this morning on the absurdity of the idea of a “progressive alliance” with a Labour Prime Minister, in the present situation. David Blunkett.