We enjoyed having Archie here – and even put him to work hanging a picture. He seems to be happy at school. Merchiston is sporty, and we had all been afraid that rugby would make his life a misery. But it sounds as if he may be enjoying it. He is in the Hopeless group, but of course he is not the only one. They turn out for training several afternoons a week without (apparently) any serious pressure, and it’s all rather fun.

Knitting not so good: the long rows to finish off the top of the Wingspan are taking longer than I calculated, and I made things a good deal worse last night by stepping on and breaking one of my beloved KnitPic circulars. I’ve done that sort of thing before. Will I never learn?

I’ve not yet finished recovering the stitches and transferring them to a metal needle. When that’s done, there will be some errant stitches to repair, always slow work in garter stitch. But surely I will finish today.

I’ve been thinking about books – I’ve got too many.

I have more knitting shelves in the bedroom, but there too the books have escaped and are piled on the floor. Could I do some pruning? I fear not: even the most useless -- "Knit Your Own Royal Wedding" -- are of sentimental or archival interest, and I not infrequently find myself searching for an long-unused one which has suddenly become relevant.

I could, on the other hand, fairly easily, I think, pick 20 to take with me into the Old Folks’ Home when the day comes. KwT, “Knitting Around”, “Knitting Workshop”, Sharon Miller’s “Heirloom Lace”, a cable book, a Fair Isle book, some Bavarian travelling stitches, Vibeke Lind’s “Knitting in the Nordic Tradition”, maybe Brown-Reinsel’s “Knitting Ganseys”, Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book, Debbie New's "Unexpected Knitting", a stitch dictionary? A sock book?

It might be amusing to firm up the list. It’s easier to leave books behind these days, when we can take the internet with us.

Here’s the picture we hung:

I don't understand why the photograph insists on remaining sideways. I easily rotated the one above, as usual. I rotated this one, too, several times, but Blogger goes on loading it like this. 

The hanging wasn’t entirely easy. You will notice that the steps are turned the wrong way around. When they were facing the right way, there wasn’t room for the picture between the top of the steps and the wall. So we had to turn them like this, and the picture-hanger had to stand on them backwards, facing outward.

My job was to measure and calculate the necessary length of string across the back of the picture so that it would be in the right position when the string went over the hook (which was already in place). I got it right, and am proud of myself. Geometry is not my forte. My husband actually secured the string – wire, in fact – to the picture and then went away and left me and Archie to wrestle it up the steps.

Archie took the snapshot with his telephone.(Does the rotation problem stem from that fact?) The sweater is Shaefer yarn, I’m pretty sure, now of some antiquity. I was glad to see, when I looked up that link just now, that they’re still naming yarns after famous women.