Happy New Year to us all! This is going to be a good one,

And thank you for all your welcoming messages.

My new plan, while it lasts, is to try to write a bit in the late afternoon (as now, with Edinburgh in Hogmanay mode beginning to sizzle outside the window), and then tweak and post in the morning – saving morning time and energy, such as it is, for the tax papers.

Doing the income tax is not really all that bad. Like many things, the worst of it is the terrified anticipation. But it does take time, and suffers from interruptions.

A dear friend rang up yesterday morning and said, why don't we go to that LYS in Bruntsfield? Pure kindness on her part – she's not a knitter. So once my husband was settled with his carer, off we went. (I've made a good start on the tax, and it's not even January yet.)

This is the one called "Be Inspired". It's a wonderful place, full of wonderful yarns, cashmeres and glowing silks, with a friendly and knowledgeable owner. There didn't seem to be enough of anything to knit, say, a sweater, but that may have meant that the serious stock was all below stairs. Art Needleworks Industries in Oxford used to operate like that.

I bought some very long circulars for the Dunfallandy blankie, and they're working pretty well. There are trade-offs – some time has to be devoted to pushing stitches along. Stitches seem particularly reluctant to slide around corners. But on the whole, things are going more briskly and I feel more secure.

I've done about an inch of border, I suppose. That augurs well for finishing on time. The final bit of edging, as I've said, involves garter ridges. The instruction for the purl rounds is to wrap the yarn clockwise. Why? What difference will it make?

I tried googling. Wrapping that way half-twists the stitch, which then reverts to normal in the subsequent knit row. “Combination knitting” comes in here somewhere. But in this case a) we're going round and round; and b) the next round is also purl-with-the-yarn-wound clockwise. How clumsy is that going to be? I'd get the garter ridge if I just plain purled. What's the advantage in going around the other way?

I really ought to swatch.

Christmas pictures tomorrow, I very much hope.