The income tax is done, ready to file on-line. So that's this morning's job, followed by half an hour lying down in a darkened room, as EZ recommends after taking scissors to one's first steek. Then on with the things my husband keeps nagging me to do, and my own to-do list, a longer one which overlaps his at some points. I'll make a dr's appt for myself, feeling somewhat foolish since I am capable of walking in there. The nausea persists, however.

Our niece writes that she will be happy to come here on March 8 and watch the Calcutta Cup with my husband. I think I could just about leave him on his own for that amount of time, but I will be vastly happier knowing that she is here. The one thing needed to make the prospect perfect.

There is a cloud on the horizon, however: Ash Wednesday is March 5. I knew that Easter was very late, and had sort of hoped that Calcutta Cup Day would escape the net. When we won the Cup in 2000, having lost all our other matches that season and England having won all of theirs, the match was played on Laetare Sunday, the day-off in the middle of Lent. "Laetare" means "Rejoice!" That must have been scheduled from the beginning of the universe.

Knitting

Another good day with the edging, another percentage point. Today should see, at last, the end of the first ball of yarn. Peering again at the pattern, I see that Sharon thinks I will need nine balls, not seven as I claimed recently. If so, I have done only about 11% of the whole. Never mind – this isn't meant to be rocket science. I will continue to score ten edging points as one percentage point, for the purposes of the sidebar.

Weavinfool, I had been thinking along the lines you suggest: why don't I cast on the centre of the Unst Bridal Shawl, once I finish the edging, and knit the rest of it the way Sharon intended. I think your comment has tipped the balance. That will leave something like 1200 stitches to be attached at the end. But I can still pick up the edging stitches and perhaps even graft them to the body of the shawl – I love grafting. Or I could attach it some other way – I am a graduate of Franklin's Craftsy class on Heirloom Lace Edgings, after all. I can do anything.

Why am I knitting edging-inwards? The phone call with Rachel in which she mentioned that her daughter Hellie was feeling a bit sad at not being the first to wear the Princess, must have happened just before Christmas. I had this wonderful-seeming (and so it has proved) yarn I bought at Jamieson & Smith in September – I was itching for an excuse. I decided to take it along to Loch Fyne on Boxing Day and employ my leisure hours there (no meals to plan or cook) on getting started. I already owned Sharon's pattern.

But I hadn't knit lace for a couple of years – I thought edging-knitting would fit in rather better to a family party than casting on 165 stitches and plunging straight into the centre. Also, I learned what little I know from Amedro: she always knits edging-inwards. Which is, indeed, the traditional way. I'm glad I did it this way – the first few repeats were very clumsy and difficult, but I now feel I'm back in the saddle.

So that's the current plan.