It turned out to be the dentist, rather than the hygienist, due to a mix-up which for once wasn’t at all my fault. He removed a broken and useless tooth in the back which has been scheduled for the chop for more than a year, and was beginning to give trouble.

He wouldn’t let me leave until the bleeding had completely stopped – and I had no knitting. Let that be a lesson to me.

I hadn’t cast on a new pair of socks since I finished Joe’s 21st birthday pair, although the yarn for the next ones was in the knitting bag which of course I took with me. But there turned out not to be any needles in there, for some unimaginable reason. I was condemned to an hour of Hello magazine (always nice to catch up) and Scottish Field.

Angel, I’m afraid what you need, dentist-wise, is Mr. van Schaik of Dublin St. He would never have put you through such an ordeal.

He lives in the country, near Perth, and commutes to Edinburgh – I have spoken of him before. He grows vegetables, and I am sure grows them with the meticulous attention to detail which be brings to dentistry. I was comforted to learn that his vegetables, too – although not assailed by rabbits or frost – are standing around doing nothing, for lack of warmth, just like mine.

Knitting

I re-assessed the Aran sleeve, despite feeling yesterday rather as if I had been kicked by a mule, and found an elementary mistake in arithmetic which emboldened me to rip it out and start again with a more gentle incline. I have already made a mistake in the plaited cables – an over where it should go under. I won’t know until later whether I’ve done the arithmetic right this time, and the sleeve will be wide enough when it’s long enough.

There should be enough for a photograph soon. I am doing the underarms EZ’s way this time – a four-stitch st st “seam” in the middle with purl stitches on either side. Instead of sand stitch which was rather heavy going. I have just reached the place where I have enough new stitches that I must decide whether or not to add (unconventionally) a new pattern. I did that on the first draft, and it looked rather odd.