Comments

Jean from Cornwall, I accidentally discovered how to achieve the coveted “This comment has been removed…” notice. The secret is, don’t tick the box that says “Remove forever?” Just click on “Remove comment”. I like it better this way, to let you all know how I suffer.

I think Blogger’s own software catches about half of the junk posted to current posts. (And if their algorithm included suspicion of any anonymous comment which ends in an URL, they’d do even better.) (Or do you pronounce it, “a U.R.L.?”) And every day there are at least two dozen more, attaching to old posts, automatically moderated, individually deleted.

And, Kristie, gosh! thanks. Sure enough, there I am in Zite, along with Helen’s Greek chilli plants. But it was so much better, hearing it from you first.

Dawn, I was grateful for the link to Craftivore, which I enjoyed very much. Beautiful knitting – and what a beautiful woman! But I didn’t see anything about knitting alphabets. What have I missed?

And, Marian, thank you for the link to Stray Cat socks. Although I could wish she included a couple of pics of how the yarn knits up.

If you follow the link provided with Marian’s name in the paragraph above, you’ll see a wonderful Stephen West shawl. Talk about karma…

Non-knit

Grandson Alistair turned 17 on Monday. That’s his mother looking distressed because her baby has grown up.

Rachel is our eldest child, and all four of her children are older than 17. They are all present in the photograph at the head of the blog. Alistair is the eldest surviving grandchild of what might be called the second tranche. Archie is next. The youngest two, James and Thomas of Cairndow, are also in the picture above. I want a shirt like Alistair's.

Knitting

I’ve watched all of Stephen West’s Craftsy class by now except for the final lesson on blocking. His youthful diffidence is very engaging. I’ve laid out some yarn to take to Strathardle tomorrow – tomorrow! – with the thought of improvising a West of my own. I’d better take the socks to knit as well, just in case.

With any luck, the book (see yesterday) from Loop will turn up today, and I’ve already got SW's Daybreak pattern. I won’t need to improvise if I don’t want to, but I am inspired.

The latter half of his Craftsy course fizzes with ideas, but is short on detail. For instance, he uses slipped stitches in a striped shawl to divide a stripe into boxes, by carrying up stitches from the stripe below. I think I could just about do that. But in one example, the vertical stripe of the slipped stitch shifts backwards and forwards like the stem of a vine. Because of M1’s, pushing it this way and that? Because the stitches are actually lifted over other stitches? I could post a question to Craftsy. I might do that.