We have a haar this morning, which often means that the sun is shining brightly everywhere except in Edinburgh.

Yesterday was a busy day, not unproductive.

The car is booked in for its MOT tomorrow, so I won’t be here.

The contractor who is supposed to be knocking down the dining room ceiling says he hasn’t had authorisation from the insurance company yet. I phoned our broker who spent an energetic day trying to get some sense from the insurer – they said ChemDry had been trying to get in touch with me, quod absurdum est. ChemDry is in touch with me, and anyway made their report -- saying that the ceiling must come down -- weeks ago. I expect to hear more from the broker this morning.

A K*rkmichael postcard, showing the Main Street and not yet in our collection, is on offer on eBay. It was posted in 1902. The message begins “Games tomorrow if fine”. A  spineless attitude!

And I knit that heel.

In the end, I went for Fleegle’s Toe-Up, No Flap, No Hassle heel. It is very like the Strong heel (which was published first) but with some Fleegle-ish variations. It is meant for toe-up knitting -- reassuring for a Blind Follower like me.

Essentially, you divide the stitches in half as usual and then increase the heel-stitch-half every other round until you have all but doubled the number. Then you put in the usual heel-turn, which progressively decreases the stitch number until you are back down to your original count.

During the increase phase, you continue to knit around the entire sock, which feels like an awful lot of knitting.

When I finished, it was obvious that the sock was too long. And here I ran into a problem I should have anticipated.

Normally when a situation like this occurs late in the evening, I lay the work aside and knit a few rounds of the current sock to calm my nerves. What to do when the current project is the sock? And what about medical emergencies? Dentists’ waiting rooms? So I have decided to start a pair of socks for Alexander today – Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles, as a complement to his wife’s Restaurant de la Sirene socks. I’ll knit an inch or so of ribbing and then put them away in the knitting bag, ready for grabbing when needed.

And then return to Fleegle’s heel. I took the sock off the needles this morning and tried it on myself. It fits rather well – but my foot is an inch longer than my sister’s. I thought all that knitting might make the sock bunch at the ankle, but it doesn’t. And the turn is completely smooth and hole-less, as Fleegle promises.

I’ll take out yesterday’s work, and another inch, and pick up the stitches so that I am ready to roll, before I cast on for Alexander.