I encountered a double-yolked egg yesterday – I can’t remember when I last saw one. Commercial eggs are candled, I believe, and the oddities normally removed. Wonderful that it should happen on February 29!

No news (is good news) from Archie. We get him back tomorrow. Here is a picture of him on the doorstep on Monday morning, about to experience British education. "Smart casual", they said. That's his anxious mother, behind.

Yesterday evening when I switched on the kitchen light, the bulb fell from the socket. It didn’t shatter, and for half an hour or so I felt happy about that. Then I began to wonder whether I will be able to get the metal bit out of the holder in order to replace it. I’ll postpone getting the steps out and going up to have a look, until I’ve had my porridge. Life is frot with problems.

Knitting

Yesterday I was looking at a knitting magazine in my bath, as is my wont, and had a Thot. What if I abandoned Effortless and Vitamin D alike, and used that madelinetosh yarn to knit Roberta Rosenfeld’s very simple and very clever sweater, No. 12 in the Winter 11-12 VK?

(If you go to Ravelry and search on “Roberta Rosenfeld” you won’t find it, but “drape-front sweater” will get it. It took me a while to work that out. You probably have the magazine anyway.)

I am worried about the gauge for the Effortless. It is written for madelinetosh DK, remember, but she wants me to use 5.5mm needles and get a gauge of 19 stitches to 4”. I’m knitting the v-neck vest on 4mm and getting 20-22 stitches to 4” as the ballband says. I don’t like knitting with big needles – will I be happy with 5.5? And I like the fabric I’m getting – do I want it looser?

Vitamin D is written for sport-weight yarn. Not an insuperable difficulty, of course.

But VK No. 12, written for alpaca, wants 5 stitches to the inch. I think I could achieve that. Try a swatch on 4.5 mm maybe. I think madelinetosh has a native droopiness which would go well in an alpaca pattern. The pattern sounds straightforward, and also sounds as if it could be tweaked if necessary to accommodate the gauge I was actually getting. The Ravelers who have knit it are very happy with it, and look nice wearing it. That is not always the case.

The v-neck vest got on well yesterday. Lying about, waiting to be picked up and worked on, it now looks like a sweater, and a rather nice one. I remember when Thomas-the-Elder’s Brownstone (madelinetosh scarlet, late last year) began to look like that.

Knit Now

Shandy, I am ashamed not to have thanked you. Three people sent me copies.  I was very touched, and am very grateful. It is an interesting idea for a magazine (small knits only). I don’t think I want to go on with it but I am glad to have seen it, and will have another very thorough look before committing myself on the snood front.