Fortunately your comment, Knitlass, came in before we set forth yesterday. Our expedition would have been impossible without taxis both ways, and at least we didn’t waste any time arguing about it. [Please publish the recipe for the scrap hat soon!]

It’s a good show – Bellany at the Royal Academy. Much more varied than I expected. My husband, however, began to find himself short of oxygen before we finished. He often grumbles about this at exhibitions, but I don’t remember previously having to stagger away before the job was done. While we were waiting for the return taxi in that room at the back door of the Royal Academy building, I noticed a couple of wheelchairs against the wall. The next time we attempt art, I’ll ring up in advance and see if one is available.

Bellany would have been a good exhibition for wheelchair viewing, since everything is so large.

Knitting

Here, at last, the Gardening Sweater, with the first sleeve finished. The ribbing of the second is nearly so. I think I will be much more comfortable with a longer circular at that interesting stage where the sleeves have just been attached, and I always like an excuse to buy another KnitPic.

Flash photography in the early-morning gloom has darkened it somewhat, but you get the idea. 

The Calcutta Cup is coming up pretty soon – on Groundhog Day, I believe. That’s the annual rugby match between Scotland and England. The papers are full of bellicose statements from players and coaches about how we’re going to whup ‘em. I had thought that Scotland hadn’t won in London (where the match is played in odd-numbered years) since the war, but it turns out we had a victory in the ‘80’s, and a draw that same decade.

So I’m thinking about the sweaters I’m going to knit. I have promised sweaters for the Little Boys at Loch Fyne, but it occurred to me that Archie might like one too, involved as he is with so rugby-loving a school. If it were a pale colour, I could represent the Cup and the date unobtrusively with purl stitches, like initials on a gansey.

Or something more like Ketki’s sweater from ’08, with the details in a Fair Isle band around the bottom or perhaps around a sleeve. Scotland won in ’00, ’06 and ’08, with a draw in what must have been ’10. I have knit for each occasion – ’10 was a hat for James-the-Younger, showing half the Cup.

It is pleasant to speculate, the more so because it won’t happen.

I’ve also been thinking about my Koigu resolution, and looking through various appropriate books. I have pretty well decided on another basic-shape sweater with Koigu in stripes, like this one, knit for Rachel in 2006.