A more interesting day than might have been expected, yesterday, on the knitting front.

In that I ran into a next-door neighbour, an energetic solicitor of Polish extraction whom I may have mentioned before. She's the one who spends Christmas Eve celebrating in true Polish fashion – there's something about setting a place for each of the 12 apostles – and then spends Christmas Day serving lunch to the homeless.

My fame as a knitter had spread all the way next door – she told me that she visits a women's prison, and they want yarn. The request couldn't have come at a better time, just when Gosia and I had made a start on the stash cupboard. Later in the day I told her in an email roughly what I've got (sock yarn, and lots and lots of jumper weight including a lot of Shetland). My neighbour is going to the prison today and will find out more.

As for actual knitting, I went on with the Sous Sous and will surely finish that skein of yarn today, about half-way through the second repeat.

Skeindalous, it was you, surely, who told me to increase the circumference of the Greystone hat, an invaluable tip. I will take your advice on length as well, and put in an extra cable repeat. I, too, want slouchy.

Mosaics

Helen sent these additional pictures of the mosaic at Delphi in which that cat appears, with her rat or her kitten as may be. It seems to be all about animals, rather than Christian symbolism. I don't know that it gets us any further forward – but what a wonderful thing! How did they know, in Delphi, in early Christian times, what a camel looks like? Helen says there's a zebra there somewhere, too.

The picture of the squid is included because some of its tentacles are missing, omitted so that it will fill the space. The cat can be seen in context in the middle one.