Here's the promised picture of the Tokyo Shawl. I hadn't realised until I laid it out, how deeply biased it is. Another challenge for Blocking Day.

I've just had a quick look at people's projects on Ravelry. Very few have attempted yarn substitution – I would regard the pattern and the yarn for this one as about as intimately connected as pattern and yarn can get. From those who aren't writing in Danish or Japanese, I got the idea of adding some extra stripes to use up the yarn. That knitter says she likes the extra length. And of substitution of m1r and m1l for the yo's. That's likely to be a good idea, too, but too late for me. The YO's will look better when they're blocked.

I'm working on the 11^th of 29 stripes. So, about 1/3^rd done, except for lengthening. I think when I finish this stripe I'll switch WIPs again.

Thank you for all the interesting comments about knitting binary and other languages. I had hoped to reproduce Alexander's binary chart for you, but I can't seem to do it. Words will have to make the attempt – and my binary vocabulary may well be lacking.

He uses a block of four stitches for each 1 or 0. Therefore, each binary eight-digit “word” – if that's the word – occupies 16 stitches in a row. He has put the first three “words” together – 48 stitches – and has then gone back and put the next three “words” underneath them, and so forth. The effect is interestingly runic.

He has only charted “Alistair” – three such rows of four-stitch blocks, with the final slot in the bottom row empty because there are only eight letters in “Alistair”. There would be a similar gap in “Miles” and, of course, it would occupy only four rows, instead of six.

I am very grateful for your comments. Liz, how did you do that hat? Was it a simple off-on, colour-or-background, one-stitch-at-a-time for the binary code, or something fancier like Alexander's idea? Beverly and Ellen, textured is an excellent idea, if we scale back down to socks. I'll have a look at Lavold and her runes today, I hope. I've got the book (if I can find it).

And I am grateful, too, for comments on the Californian climate. Madelinetosh in any form is a strong forward motive on this project. Choosing between the blissful DK of Archie's sweater and the Sous Sous, and the finer yarn I used for those two Relax's – my own, which you've recently seen in Athenian pictures, and the original too-small one that I gave to Hellie – will not be easy.

Non-knit

I tried to show you these pics the other day, but Blogger seemed to feel I had exceeded my ration for that day. Ted LeCompte, my great-nephew, Theo and   Jenni's son, was invited to roll Easter eggs on the White House lawn.

And since, as it happened, the new Mr and Mrs Ogden, Thomas and Lucy, were in DC at the time for something lawyerly, an invitation was secured for them as well.

Some interesting sweaters visible, including Ted's own.