A magic day.

All well here. 

We took Archie to school on Monday, he anxious but bravely determined to make the best of it. We have heard nothing since, not even a text message, and take that as a good sign. We have been warned on all sides that the big drawback to this particular school is that it is famously sporty. Archie has, I believe, never been exposed to the slightest physical activity in the course of his Greek education, and is not a particularly sporty type by nature. But he was willing on Monday to have a go even at rugby.

But we were surprised as well as pleased to learn that Monday afternoon’s activity was not to be Games but Cookery. Archie didn’t know anything about that, either.

We are having what probably qualifies as a heat wave – the last time such temperatures were recorded in Scotland at this time of year was in the late 19^th century, before greenhouse gasses really got going. That should at least make Archie’s introduction to rugby less agonising than it might otherwise have been.

Whereas Greece is enveloped in unprecedented snow. Helen’s husband David took days off work, perforce, and spent them on Mt Pelion with the other two boys. She kept getting text messages from him about the snow, and when her plane landed in Athens yesterday the surrounding hills were snow-capped.

Knitting

All well there, too.

I allowed myself some pleasant sock-knitting while I watched the match on Sunday, to make up for not having any cider. That was Ketki’s Van Gogh sock, of course, and I love the way it’s coming out. Opal self-patterning sock yarn, colorway Restaurant de la Sirene. That link is to a page with eight colorways, presumably the whole range – I’m down at the bottom.

(They told us about the streaker, Knitlass, but primly didn’t show him. I don’t think they mentioned that he was wrapped in the tricolour.)

It would be nice to finish and be able give her the socks at Easter. It would be nice to have the v-neck vest finished by then, as well. Lent is awfully long; both goals may be possible.

The vest is progressing well, too. I knit the extra length and am now racing up the back, on fewer than half the number of stitches I was dealing with a moment ago, because of the armhole indentation. It seems to be going like the wind.

One of the unknit skeins looked distinctly different from the remaining two, so I have adopted the practice you suggested, Theresa, of alternating skeins as I knit. It’s working. If you know what you’re looking for, you can detect the two-row stripes, but it needs an expert eye. I had read of this technique, but never used it before.

I hope, when I finish the back, I’ll have enough of the darker yarn to do the fronts without alternation. The lighter skein could then come in to play again for the ribbing.