Kristie and I made contact, and we got the picture. A good day.

Kristie and I and her cousin plan to meet at K1Yarns at noon. I'll report tomorrow.

The picture cost us £400, plunging my husband at once into gloom – that’s a lot for a bad picture. I don’t know what it might fetch if cleaned up and the hole repaired and authenticated as a ???????. More than £400, certainly. But he would never sell it, so that thought doesn’t cheer him up.

It is a portrait of the artist’s brother James, a unique image of him whether genuine or only purported. He is shewn as a young man, early 20’s, in the uniform of the militia, with grey hair. Powder? (This is the early 19^th century.) Or premature greyness? My husband can enjoy himself working on that question.

Knitting -- Comments, yesterday

Thank you for finding that pattern, Gretchen. As you will have noticed, it’s not a boat neck at all but the very opposite, a high turtle neck. The sweater is slightly shaped at the waist, which I don’t think quite suits as one approaches 80. That leaves the basic idea, of alternating two shades of KF’s hand-dye effect sock yarn in four-row stripes. And that remains tempting.

And, Beverly, thank you for the link to the KF dolman sweater of the year before, which I have also noted. Goodness, the man is clever. When he started working for Rowan they let him do a whole range of light-weight yarns in KF-type colours from which he confected the things in his early books. Then they pulled the plug on that, and now no Rowan quality has more than a dozen shades, if that. But the master seems to be able to go on pulling rabbits out of hats, indefatigably.

Back here at the ranch, I’m about half-way up the second Brownstone sleeve. Finish at the weekend, maybe?

Stash

I swept in to the cupboard yesterday and did half-an-hour’s energetic tidying. Two bags of odd-balls for the charity knitters in Alyth next time we’re over there:

And some of what remains. Sock yarn is stashed elsewhere.

There are six bins in the background, full of yarn: three of Shetland jumper-weight, one lace, one various bulkies, one Koigu. The plastic bags in the foreground also contain yarn. A long way to go. I feel a bit more cheerful, however briefly, for having faced the problem.

And speaking of Koigu, I have heard from Amazon that the British release of “Knit, Swirl” has been again delayed. First it was to have been late August, then late September, now it has been postponed sine die. Looks like carelessness, as Lady Bracknell might say. I can’t imagine what the problem could be, since it’s been available in the US for months.