I didn’t mean that I was going to attempt Argyle-type hose: way beyond my abilities. Not suitable for Archie’s purpose, anyway. That was just a random paragraph about kilt hose.

Roobeedoo, thank you for the pointer to Kate Davies’ Betty Mouat Cowl. Yes! I think I subscribed to her “Textisles” when the first issue came out – whether or no, I’ve got it somewhere and will certainly get this one tomorrow. I’m not going to use that pattern for the snood, though.

Whatever pattern I use for the stitch and the details (=Jared’s knit-on icord edging), I am going to stick with Knit Purl’s (=Shibui’s) system of knitting with three strands together and changing one at a time so that the colours merge into each other. This means they’ve got to merge back so that the end of the scarf matches its beginning, and that may create problems related to how much yarn one has got and how long the scarf is to be. If there’s one thing worse than another, it’s frogging mohair.

I’ve downloaded the pattern from Knit Purl. It specifies a change every 4”. I’ll just have to go for that and hope for the best. I see I’ve got to wind each skein into three equal balls muself – I had sort of hoped that chore would be done for me. Careful weighing needed.

That system (the three strands, changing one at a time) is the one my friend Candace Strick uses in her trademark Merging Colors. In looking her up just now for that link, I find that she has a sock book out. Fate!

Notice, by the way, that Kate Davies offers “snood” as a possible noun for the Betty Mouat Cowl. I’m sure I’m on the right track here.

I got back to the v-neck vest yesterday, made many calculations, started re-knitting the back. It’s going very briskly, on fewer stitches of course, and I begin to entertain hopes of finishing by Easter.

Here are Ketki’s socks with their Sweet Tomato heels. I always knit fraternal rather than identical twins, with self-patterning yarn. There is something very satisfying about socks: so pleasant to knit, so complete as objects, so useful, so quickly done.

I’ve written to the designer of the Saxon Kilravock kilt hose, Smurf by name, to ask how she got the Saxon braid pattern to come out even, although I think the only possible answer is that it won’t, necessarily, unless one is lucky. She says she has “OCD tendencies” which I think means she will have wanted it to.

Here is another family picture, completely irrelevant to anything that precedes. It shows Grandson Joe (Rachel's younger son), on the left, in Cambodia last week. He's the one who graduated last summer and now wonders what to do with the rest of his life.