A good night’s sleep, and what a difference it makes! I hope you had one too, Foggy Knitter.

The great thing about laying off cider is that, like any other diet, it produces instant results for the first few days. (I think I’ve already reached the first plateau.) Maybe next time I could try living on Weston’s Vintage Cider and giving up everything else.

Knitting

All continues to progress well. I like this tripartite knitting life – one Difficult, one Fiddly, one Blissful. Three is too many – once the Silly Christmas Project is done, however, I might go on with two.

I should reach the mid-way point in the Rams & Yowes pattern today. I knit the 7^th piece of the Silly Christmas Project last night, although it still needs to be folded along the purled hem line and sewn in place before I go on to the Really Tricky Bit. I have 3/4s decided not to decorate the back at all. If I can get the front right, that’ll be enough.

I did a bit of googling on embroidery stitches last night. I have, in my day, done back stitch. Perhaps I can just stick with that. Will it be possible to make faint marks on the knitting to guide my needle? Embroidery is bad enough – but free-hand?

And I have divided the Milano/Relax3 and am now knitting the rest of the back. The stripes will count my rows for me, so getting front and back precisely equal won’t involve the slightest effort.

I found this little shawl on Zite this morning, by our old friend Cotton and Cloud.. The blogger who knit it (a) wishes it were bigger and had wings she could wrap around herself and (b) knit it with madelinetosh pashmina! Size-wise, I like it as it is. But would it stay on? Would one’s chest get cold? As often, too many of the Ravelry knitters show it spread out on the floor. I want to see people-wearing. Someone wears it with a shawl pin, but I don’t think that entirely works.

I might try to get hold of that copy of Knitscene.

Reading

I have, for the second time, suddenly abandoned the Cazalets. I did that in Volume Two, couldn’t stand any more English middle class sensibility. When I went back, months later, I was surprised to see how well I remembered the rather complicated family relationships.

I’m now in early Volume Four. The war is over. I saw the other day that Elizabeth Jane Howard, now 90, has just published Volume Five.

I’ve actually been reading Reginald Hill, inspired by that list of the Ten Greatest Thrillers. I’m rather impressed. The one that made the list – a short title with the word “Beulah” in it – isn’t available in Kindle, alas. With Hill, some are and some aren’t. I read The Woodcutter, and enjoyed it, and have now embarked on Midnight Fugue, a Daziel & Pascoe. It starts extremely well. I think I had D&P mixed up somehow with Cagney & Lacey.