Much excitement this morning, but first --

What I have to report is that I am half-way along the second edge of the Mourning Shawl, 10 ½ scallops. I am doing better – fewer tinks. I got into slight stitch-count trouble last night, trying to knit just before bedtime. I think I’ll get Joe’s socks out and keep them handy in case the urge for bedtime knitting strikes again.

I re-read Fleegle’s astonishing system for garter-stitch-in-the-round. It sounds so breathtakingly simple that I’m going to trust her and not swatch. All you do is knit around, turn the work, and knit around in the other direction using a separate ball of yarn. Repeat. It sounds as if it would leave an ugly column of holes, but there aren’t any on Fleegle’s swatch. I think I can dimly see that she is exploiting the fact that circular knitting actually produces a spiral, not a stack of rows.

I can hardly wait.

Now for the excitement:

Both Franklin and Joe have posted video blogs this morning. Don’t miss. Franklin has been re-visited by the Queen and Einstein; Joe offers a video diary in which we see him unraveling an unsatisfactory baby blanket, designing a superior one, and eating lunch. He’s really sweet. (That's a phrase of the highest praise, in our family lexicon.)

And KnitNation have posted the class schedule for the July beano in London!

If I took a full-day class from Franklin on the Saturday on the Tomten jacket and garter-stitch jacquard, and his Sunday morning one on Working Antique Patterns, would that count as stalking? (He’s not offering photography.) There’s a Sunday afternoon class on Travelling Stitches (Marjan Hamminck) which I might move on to if I was still on my feet and compos mentis.

Rachel – who will be in Toulouse that weekend, the most attentive of you will remember – assures me that her four children are all full of enthusiasm at the prospect of going to exhibitions with their grandfather. And all four of those children will be here tomorrow; we can talk specifics. It is strange how life sometimes fits together. It’s an ill wind….

Comments

Thank you, Woolly Bits and Mary in Cincinnati, for the advice on Knitter’s. I’ll do it! I’ll drop the subscription!

And thank you very much for the information on StevenBe. How I wish I could visit his shop! I am sure we have nothing like that in the UK. That’s a most impressive story, Gerri, about his advice on s-twist as distinct from z-twist yarns, or vice versa as the case might be.

Angel, all that your say about skiving students is relevant. I am happy to say that in this case, all has turned out well. Joe got his two-day extension, and will be here tomorrow for the funeral with the rest of his family. I can measure his feet which up until now I have unaccountably not done.