Back to business.

Here’s the Amedro shawl. I’m now occupied with the fifth pattern repeat, of ten. The rows are just beginning to feel a bit shorter. Another dropped stitch last night, not much damage. I’m really quite pleased with that centre pattern from the Love Darg book.

The decreases are about to start eating into the outer columns of roundels. That’s exciting.

And here are Matt’s socks. As hoped, I made great progress over the weekend. I finished Sock #1 on Friday, on the outward journey, and cast on for #2. I then gritted my teeth and got that ribbing done over Saturday and Sunday. I’m now more than halfway from ribbing to heel flap – it does itself, once one gets past that hurdle.

I found myself wondering again why some people knit socks from the toe up? Is it just because they can, like climbing Everest because it’s there? There seem to me three serious drawbacks:

1) You’ve got to start with a six- or eight-stitch cast-on, like a bloody doiley.
2) The horrible ribbing comes last.
3) You’ve lost the chance to adjust the foot length, if you should get it slightly wrong. I particularly welcome that feature this time, knitting for unfamiliar feet.

Who knows?

It almost looks as if the original 100-gram skein is going to be enough for both socks. Usually, buying sock yarn in 50-gram balls, I find a gent needs some extra at least for the toe shaping. I no longer buy the third ball, but improvise something from the odd-ball bag.

But I didn’t feel I knew Matt well enough for zany toes. Maybe next time.

The extra skein is no loss, even in my current austere mood. I plan to knit the Round the Bend jacket fairly soon, in a kaleidoscope of Koigu and sock yarn. Dark solids and near-solids will be wanted to pull it together.

Or maybe the new EZ book will come out before I get there, and I will be swept away by something in it.

Heard on the radio

I listen off and on through the night, like many old folks. Both of the items which follow could be based on a semi-conscious misunderstanding.

a) I think I heard them say on the World Service that the great Joan Sutherland was a knitter.

b) This morning, on the Today programme, they were talking about a trust fund owned/administered by the Shetland Island Council, with money from oil. That’s running out, but is soon to be replaced by money from natural gas. The suggestion was that this fund was sometimes put to rather odd uses, and that the accounting is a bit opaque. My thought was, so they could have afforded to keep knitting as a compulsory subject in primary schools after all. It has recently been abolished and the knitting teachers sacked, for an annual saving of a fairly trivial sum, as annual savings go in Council circles.