August. We got here.

I forged stoutly ahead with the GGB’s yesterday, and have reached the row where colours must be set for the tops of the blocks of the second rank, for the right front. Steady does it, eventually.

With all this heightened excitement and rushing about, I have begun to worry about whether Helen and I will ever have time to sit down here in Edinburgh with lace patterns and stash yarn to consider the future, so I have packed a selection to take to Strathardle.

I haven’t yet worked out a Scheme for the comings and goings this month, and it’s getting fairly urgent, as Knit Camp is next week. We must get back to Strathardle soon, to start bringing in the harvest; and then back again for the Games. And, in relation to that latter event, Helen and I need to sit down and start making LISTS. There will be something like 20 people to be fed for three days.

I found my thoughts about the yarn I currently intend to knit a travelling-stitch something in – found them easily, because I had taken the trouble to label the relevant blog post. I should do that more often. It’s Rowan extra-fine merino DK. Meg’s hat pattern in the new IK will make a perfect swatch.

Otherwise IK leaves me unstirred. Nothing to snuggle into. Maybe they’re saving that for the winter issue, but this is the time of year, with the days already visibly shorter and the occasional leaf drifting downwards, when one begins to contemplate snuggling, albeit from a pleasant distance. The new Rowan offers plenty of snuggle.

(What Rowan also has – this is churlish of me – is a not-uninteresting section in which three models of very varied ages wear the same straightforward garments interchangeably. What I am churlish about is that the oldest model – an attractive woman, distinctly old – wears her white hair loose over her shoulders in some of the pictures. I think that looks awful. Revolting.)

I found myself wondering, how would I know about books, if I forged ahead and gave up some of these ridiculous magazines? New and serious knitting books are certainly not to be found on the shelves at Waterstone’s. The answer is fairly easy: read blogs, and keep watching the Schoolhouse Press website. I am keenly looking forward to the new EZ.

Non-knit

No progress with the MP3. The Italian radio station (link yesterday), under “podcasts”, offers buttons saying “MP3” and when you click on one, no one asks where you want the file to be stored, but there is activity in that bar at the bottom of the screen which says it is being downloaded. I’ve done this two or three times, and have despaired of finding the file, if indeed it’s here.

I thought of going for BBC World Service Italian – but the BBC World Service doesn’t broadcast in Italian.

I think my next step is to go for something easy, maybe Neil MacGregor, and see if I can get him onto the MP3 player, and then return, fortified, to the Italians.