Progress.

Alexander came over from the west yesterday to talk to a man who is in charge of a private care provider. We've taken them on for three hours a day. It sounds as if everything has been dealt with except perhaps engaging someone to do the knitting. I don't understand how food is going to work – I can't just hand these people my wallet and send them off to the corner shop.

No doubt it will all (or largely) become clear as we go along. Solvitur ambulando. I will give some thought to food today, looking out soup recipes, planning a menu for the weekend. I've got a brochure somewhere – and it's all right, I know where – from someone who provides boring-sounding hospital-type meals to your door at quite a reasonable price. There's also Cook, who are pretty good. I've cleared space in the freezer.

I told my husband some of this, and he wasn't terribly pleased. He doesn't want his house full of strange people, he said, or indeed any people at all. I'm afraid it's the price to be paid for staying in it ourselves.

I think I heard the radio say that the crunch match between Scotland and South Africa will be played tomorrow. That'll make a fine last-day-of-the-old-life, for Alexander as well as for me.

Knitting

A bit of a struggle, last night. The crunch point, the pons asinorum, in the Dunfallandy blankie pattern are the rows at half-way where the second horizontal cable is worked. Mercifully, the eight triangles will stop after the first one.

There are infelicities in my knitting at that point in all three squares, and they are worst in the current, third one. I think I just scrape by under the galloping horse rule. The rich, dark colour of the yarn helps. I looked at Dr de Roulet's (the designer's) tutorial last night, a bit belatedly, and I think I may have learned a thing or two which will help with the fourth square.

Last night I suddenly found my stitch count seriously wrong. For the first square, everything went perfectly in that respect. There is a marker at the mid-point which is very useful for providing assurance that everything is all right so far, up to the "sm" (="slip marker"), and a stitch count is provided for every row.

On the second square there were two instances when I had a stitch too many, or perhaps it was one too few. The mistakes were easily fudged.

Last night, I suddenly had three extra stitches on one side. I don't see how this could possibly have happened, but it did. I have, again, fudged them away but I remain puzzled and chagrined. I am now sailing happily forward through the decrease rows towards the end. I hope to finish today, and to cast on the fourth square.

Several Ravellers have grumbled at the absence of a chart. Dr de Roulet has now provided one, pointing out that there is no convention for charting a horizontal cable (a technique which she has unvented). I've printed the chart for myself as a useful overview. I won't try to use it row-by-row.

Non-knit, technical

I've done some iPad research on smart television, as well as on Dunfallandy blankies, and I think I see how to approach our new set. I'll do some experiments today. I must also try to load a picture into Blogger soon, to see if Google Chrome makes any difference. I'll take a picture of the cat for you today, and try to post it tomorrow. She is a great source of comfort and strength.