The Secret of Life may be to panic a day in advance. I got a fair amount done yesterday, the tasks, of course, multiplying hydra-headed as soon as each one was ticked off. The same thing will happen today. But I'm feeling more confident.

Our friend G., who reads this blog every morning to see if there is something she can do to make life easier for us, came round and put the iPad right. I had made considerable progress with turning it off and on again, to no avail. She turned the wi-fi router off and on (or whatever you call that gadget that extends the signal) and that did the trick.

So here is the picture of the Sous Sous which had got stuck in the system. I lightened it somewhat with the iPad's picture-editing tools, in order to show you the pattern. The effect is to downplay the wonderfulness of the yarn. I could go on knitting Whiskey Barrel forever and must, indeed, make my husband a pair of socks in it.

I got well on with the sixth repeat last night, and may advance to the beginning of the sixth cable crossing today. The cabling all comes towards the end of the 16-row repeat.

There's a new Twist Collective out. Nothing for me, knitting-wise, I don't think – the sweaters too fitted, the shawls too big. But there's a seriously interesting article about provisional cast-ons, worth stowing in Evernote, and an ad from Catherine Lowe that I must pursue, another simple, loose-fitting sweater in the Relax stable.

Clicking on the ad doesn't help, though. Ravelry doesn't advance things much.

Non-knit

Rachel and Ed should be here tonight, and tomorrow we will set off towards Strathardle as soon as we can get my husband up and booted and spurred (=roughly, midday). I should be back here on Tuesday, insh'Allah. My sister should arrive later that day. She says she has got a step-measuring gadget and is trying to do 10000 steps a day. I have spent enough time on that particular game to know that that will require her to be in almost constant motion.

Except for the hoped-for appearance on Tuesday, there won't be any blogging next week either.

SamKD, I was touched by your comment yesterday about Ruth Rendell. I am currently reading her “House of Stairs”, under the name of Barbara Vine. Not her best, but that's a comment which might be made here and there of Raphael. When the iPad was out of touch with the world for two days, I found that that was the thing which worried me most – I won't be able to get another book for my Kindle app.

Does anyone know how she is? She = Ruth Rendell. She had a massive stroke early this year. Googling reveals a number of newspaper reports, “serious but stable”, from January. Then, silence.