Grannypurple, I’ve ordered the book. (“When They Are Up…”). I think even the youngest grandchild may be too old for it, but the combination of the Grand Old Duke (a family favourite), knitting, and possibly inspired silliness, is irresistible. I’ll say more when it arrives. Thanks.

Enid, thanks for the tip on the GOD’s idenity. If he was James II, he was a Scotsman, wasn’t he?

An irrelevance – I took this picture from the kitchen window yesterday. That is a fox, resting on a flat roof projecting from a neighbour’s garage. We had heard that there were urban foxes about, but hadn’t seen one in the 16 years we’ve lived here. We used to have them in the garden in Birmingham, and once in London, dining with Alexander and Ketki when they lived on Lavender Hill, I saw one walk across their kitchen. We were all in the adjacent dining room – I was the only one with a view of the kitchen. He walked back a moment or two later.


Knitting

I’ve finished 22 of 29 scallops for the edging of the Amedro shawl. Will I polish it off this weekend? Probably not. I’m also ready to do the heel flap of Matt’s 1st sock.


However, today’s topic is

Stash

I have been abstemious about yarn-buying for nine months now. Only a single ball of lace-weight for James’s jabot (knit) and two skeins of sock wool for Matt’s socks (being knit). I have knit virtually every day. I have given yarn away to charity knitters in Alyth. I have set my grandsons Fergus and Mungo up in life (as knitters).

The stash is totally unaffected.

That's not all, either. It's not as chaotic as it appears. I know which bag and which basket contains what, and can find what I want quickly.

I am beginning to grasp the outlines of the problem, and to re-think my strategy for November when the not-quite-fast is supposed to be over. I had planned to buy some KF sock yarn, and two sweater’s-worths of yarn – something from Posh to knit the Jali cardigan from the Summer 2010 IK, and some Rowan Extra-Fine Merino DK for a Bavarian travelling-stitch jacket.

That’s too much, in the circumstances.

The sock yarn, yes. It occurs to me that I’ve got a sweater’s-worth of yarn, in the form of that dusty-pink Araucania in Strathardle which I seem to keep finding excuses not to proceed with. I’m knitting a Sweater Wizard pattern with it, meant to come out something like Ketki’s sweater,

only without the Calcutta Cup. I think when we get back to Strathardle (next week, hoffentlich) I will try swatching it for the Jali. There may well be enough yarn for both – I certainly won’t frog for a while.

At the I-Knit Weekender, I saw people knitting as much as eight strands of yarn together on huge needles. Making carpets and things. The process looked awkward and the result fairly unpleasant, but it was a way of hoovering through the stash, all right. One of my big problems is that a lot of my stash is lace-weight. What about combining (say) three strands of that….?

I will have to return to this topic.