I feel as if I'm holding on to the edge of life by my fingernails, but still, here I am. I had a very happy half-hour at Kathy's Knits yesterday and finished (without mishap) another pattern repeat on the hat. At home, I polished off the fifth Dunfallandy triangle, also without mishap. Today, perhaps, the v-neck vest.

Mailing the Dunfallandy picture to myself from the iPad doesn't seem to be working this morning.

I hope to have a serious look at Woolly Wormhead's KAL hat today, too. It will have to be the Dunfallandy yarn, I probably have too much, I usually do, and if not, it came from Loop and isn't dye-lot-conscious, so it can be replaced.

Here's a linguistic titbit for you. Kathy is being helped for a few days by a delightful young German woman, here in Edinburgh to improve her English which seems fine to me, and doing “work experience” in the shop. She was looking at a book in a quiet moment and was surprised to discover “knit” as the past tense of “knit”.

Kathy agreed that “knitted” was commoner. But there was an American customer in the shop at the time -- she and I agreed that we would be more likely to say “I knit that hat last year”.

I'll try Webster's International and the shorter OED today.

Mary Lou, I didn't mean to imply that culling the Shetland yarn would mean giving up Fair Isle knitting. Au contraire. It means more room for Jamieson & Smith's Shetland Heritage yarns. Gosia will be coming tomorrow. We've got to get the spare room ready for people who are coming the following weekend for my husband's birthday. It's a tip at the moment – “Archie's room” plus everything there isn't a place for elsewhere.

But she and I ought to have time to make a start on the stash cupboard.