Good progress, again. The second sleeve is set in – the work as slow as the first, but a tad less agonizing; the straps attached; and the internal neatening well begun.

EZ, who got me into this mess, is less than helpful there. “Herringbone stitch”, she says, with no hint as to how to do it or what yarn to use. I am employing something from the bulging sock yarn oddball bag, much easier to manipulate than Aran yarn, and improvising the stitch with help from the Internet. The best that can be said for the result is that it looks tidier than the un-herringboned part. And feels secure.

So it is within the bounds of possibility that I might finish that, and the other tidying, and get the collar stitches back on the needles today. They are all still live – shall I just continue the patterns for an inch or so? The yarn is very robust; I think the result would be a stand-up collar which would indeed stand up. Might be fun.

Jared’s “Brownstone”

Thanks for help on this one.

Jenny, I followed the Ravelry link. It’s extraordinary how many people have knit the pattern already, and how many others are queueing it, given that it’s not all that old and really fairly basic. I think I don’t like the toggles. I notice that several people have left them out.

Thanks for the thumbs up on Cascade 220 – I’d never even heard of it; so much for me. I think Thomas-the-Elder can be trusted not to machine-wash, if told. He can Return to Sender for hand washing.



I’m very tempted just to order some Christmas Red right now from Loop, the recent suppliers of my madeleinetosh yarn. Thinking about all this, I have remembered how cheering it is to knit something red during the dark months of the year. However I deploy projects in the immediate future, I think I’ll work on the Brownstone here in Edinburgh from Nov. 1 – Feb 1. Which may be all the time it needs.

London

We have decided not to go in July. A disappointment on the knitting front, but the immediate feeling of relief suggests that it was the right decision. We’re going to aim for early September, not long after the Games. I am still not at all sure that my husband is up to it, but at least this way I will be fully there to help, and Rachel too, when not required by her job. The decider, for my husband, was when he fully grasped that we wouldn’t see Rachel at all, if we went in July.

There’ll be other Knit Nations, and Franklin will probably come back. He clearly loves London.