A certain amount of forward movement, yesterday.

Comments

Annie, I did the things you said (comment yesterday) and got as far as being offered “Comment Form Message” which I have Added. Nothing about Placement, or “embedded below post”. We’ll see what happens, if anything.

Tulip cardigan

I ordered the kit from Coldwater. They have already sent the pattern, including the variation with buttonholes, as an email attachment. I think I want buttons – the basic pattern is tied at the neck with i-cord and looks very sweet, but I feel an Edinburgh baby needs at least the option of cosiness across the chest.

I was very touched by your offers yesterday to pick up the kit from Coldwater and mail it to me – more than a little bother and fuss. You guys are the best. I had already done the PayPal bit and set everything in motion. I remain grateful.

Actual knitting

The computer is being capricious again this morning, so I’m not going to look at your Roman Stripe scarf just now, Donice, although I hope to see it later on today. (I have taken the first shaky step towards a new computer, and may pursue that matter today.) I didn’t get on very well with the pattern.

To begin with, I snatched the top oddball from the sock bag, and it wasn’t a good choice. I needed a solid colour. Secondly, I didn’t like knitting with a 5.5mm needle. I’m going to go down one size. And thirdly, I didn’t trust myself to keep hold of the pattern. It consists of 7 rows, so that alternate repeats face in opposite directions. And only 2 of those 7 rows repeat anything done before. Even after I’d done it twice, I wasn’t able to relax and remember where I was, and wasn’t at all sure that I could keep it up for an entire snood.

So I went on to swatch the Small Leaf Pattern, p. 57 of Heirloom Knitting, and that’s the one I’m going with. Easy, memorable, no purling.

Is this the spirit that won the Glenisla Shield with Sam the Ram only five years ago? No, I’m afraid not. But it’ll get the job done.

Gibson-Roberts heel

I got to the point last night where the heel needed to be turned, on the one hand, and the swatching was done and decisions made, on the other. There was nothing for it but to go forward, if I didn’t want to sit there idle.

And I’m getting on fine. It works, if you take it line by line. There is a YO at the beginning of every heel row – both the ones that are going to be short, and the subsequent ones where you are moving outwards again. That’s a bit fiddly. And what might be called the recovery rows are even fiddlier, including a repeated P3togTBL. But it works. Don’t miss Sarah JS’ comment yesterday about the history of short-row heels.