On-going

I’m still not well, and getting rather tired of it. I spent some of yesterday back in bed, this time with the knitting magazines.

Yesterday’s washing machine experiment went better – there was a bit of back-up into the bath when the final rinse water was expelled, but it soon drained away. Whereas the day before, the bath had been about one-third full, and it didn’t drain. I think I may venture on one more bottle of Mr Muscle.

I fear you may be right about hair, Tamar. Dreadful stuff. Our granddaughter Rachel-the-Younger washes her hair every day (in the bath). We have a little sieve thing to fit over the drain, an obsession of my husband’s, but I’m not at all sure it was in use. Hair has a dreadful permanence.

No luck with knitting. I can’t remember being in such a state before. Your suggestion is perfect, Shandy – the Eleanor cowl. The trouble is, I haven’t done anything in all this time about replacing the printer which I have rendered unusable by breaking off a Little Plastic Piece. I really must. Why not today, Jean?

The cowl is so perfect, I might even try to copy out the first part of the chart for the lace. Those frost patterns are such fun to knit.

Last night I went back through my little collection of ideas for swing jackets, and cast on one designed for sock yarn. Trouble is, it was designed for heavy sock yarn. As always, when you need one, there was no schematic. I knit enough to figure out how it worked; probably enough to re-size for finer yarn, but I’m not much inspired to go on.

In fact, I think I’ll probably go back to Round-the-Bend, at least long enough to see whether I like it better once I get started on the garter st parts. They will be solider and more jacket-like.

Joan, thank you for your very kind comment. I reflected, as I walked about basking in it, that my husband has a justifiably low opinion of me in almost every aspect of life, but he defers absolutely on English usage. I learned most of it from my mother, who taught me to distinguish “who” and “whom”, for instance, in such phrases as “The man who I knew was in charge…” as distinct from “The man whom I suspected to be in charge….” Quite educated writers in this country often get that one wrong – putting “whom” for “who” in the first example. I’ve even seen it wrong in the Economist.

I’m good on relationships, too, and can spot a second cousin once removed without difficulty.