Plumber here this morning, and we’re hoping to go to Strathardle, so it’s all rather frot.

My husband seems unworried by the age of the sitter in our picture. If it’s really a ???????, as he believes, it must be very early and James must be pretty young. My husband is interested in the hair, though. It doesn’t look like powder. He wants to learn more about premature greyness. Catdownunder's comment (today) is helpful in that respect.

Knitting

I’ve divided for the neck of the Brownstone sweater, and am adding some short rows to raise the back, on Jared’s instructions. The sleeves will be incorporated very soon. I’ve surprised myself by finishing the fourth of the original seven skeins. If my calculation of percentages in the sidebar is anywhere near right, I'm still on target for finishing the body before I need more yarn. The sidebar is allowing 16% for the shawl collar, and a few more points for the end game.


It would be time for a pic, if life were more straightforward this morning.

The package I have recently ransomed from Customs & Excise failed to appear in yesterday’s post, whether yarn or no. What did arrive was “Knitting Around the World” which promises, on a very hasty first look, to be excellent. It’s the usual trip from hither to yon but the author, Lela Nargi (unknown to me), has taken the trouble to dig out some less than usual photographs. And most of the traditions are enlivened by an account of a modern designer – the section on Shetland lace, for example, includes a substantial passage about Sharon Miller’s work.

I struggled, and in the end failed, to get knit.wear into my iPad. First I was told that my copy of iTunes wouldn’t do. I had to uninstall it and then install it again. I did that – neither process is quick or simple. iTunes will now load, but it doesn’t work like iTunes in the books. There is no section called “Devices” in the sidebar on the left, in which I could introduce the iPad.

Thomas-the-Elder will be here for a weekend visit soon. He’s got an iPad and will have to conduct a tutorial.

I made a little more progress with two-colour brioche. Marchant’s article in the current VK is an excellent introduction. Her book, I feel, is a bit strung-out. All the material is there, and well-presented, but it takes her so long to get through it that it’s hard to grasp the essence of the problem. Whereas in the magazine she’s got to get it all into four pages, plus one more for the hat pattern, and there it all is, with diagrams included.

I tried a cross, but failed at that.

If I were to attempt the VK hat, I would need to worry about gauge. “Aslan Trends Invernal” is a new yarn to me. Worsted weight, I discover, 4-5 stitches to the inch on 4-5mm needles. (How on earth did we manage, before the Internet?) Marchant uses a 3.5mm needle for her hat, and a whopping 96 stitches. On the other hand, my trial cylinder on 44 stitches is proving too small for much more than a baby hat. We’ll see.

Back here Tuesday, if all goes well. The weather promises not-too-bad, and I hope to make great progress with the Stout system, tidying up for the winter and spreading mulch everywhere.