The ball in Beijing…

James says Mr Salmond was there, but left before the dancing.

It almost gives me hope that one day someone will get married, and I will see the Princess shawl in action.

We had a grand time at the Portrait Gallery yesterday, and I greatly look forward to going back soon and seeing some art. The impression is splendid. Our niece and I had coffee in the large & excellent café and then did some small but useful shopping in the equally excellent shop. And looked at only the tiniest corner of ground-floor art including a resident Vetriano (private collection on long-term loan) which may at last silence the critics who complain that he isn’t represented in any national collection.

But the main thing so far is that that wonderful first space, which we have loved and missed for so long, is even better than before, with an additional fresco’d gallery open above.

Knitting

The Little Brownstone ought to be finish-able in another two sessions, even allowing for underarm grafting and loose ends.

Thanks for the help with hats. Daisy, I’ve downloaded and printed “Strib”. It looks just what I’m after. I watched people’s heads yesterday in the Portrait Gallery, John Lewis, & the street – that is very much the favoured shape. Watchcaps can be too hot, even in quite cold weather, and the double layer of ribbing can roll down over the eyes if not secured.

Ruth and Hat, I will explore Knitspot & WoolleyWormhead. Now I’d like a couple of months for uninterrupted hat-knitting.

While we are recommending websites to each other – Zite came up with this one for me the other day, Yarnista’s “17 things I do not want to knit”. I do miss “You Knit That?”

Grannypurple, I thought that was an interesting remark of yours, that downloadable patterns may be affecting the quality of patterns in magazines. You can see why designers would prefer that path. Annie Modesitt often writes eloquently about magazines and copyright, with me not paying too much attention. But I think the gist is that when magazines re-sell patterns for download, as they often do, the designer doesn’t get much, if anything. Whereas when they sell themselves from their own websites, they get everything. We even pay for ink and printing!

In olden times, women’s magazines printed quantities of patterns every week or month, Woman, Woman’s Own, She, doubtless others. The indomitable Woman’s Weekly maintains the tradition. But in the 50’s and 60’s, I used to wonder whether the patterns were not often fed to the magazines from the spinners, and sometimes represented ideas which were slightly too adventurous to be produced as one of the spinner’s own leaflets.