I wrote this on Thursday evening, meaning to post it yesterday. But the first carer came early, and one thing led straight on to another. So here it is, already a trifle out of date and leaving much that I want to say but haven’t got time to write just now. I’ll have to think out a new system…

A better day. We are reconnected with social services, indeed with one of the dear people who have been looking after us in recent months. The other has gone off on maternity leave. They even apologized for the mix-up.

Deb, that is exciting news, that you were one of the knitters puzzling out old lace patterns for the exhibition currently at the Shetland Museum in Lerwick. I hope we can find out more about it, and see something of it.

I think I’ve got an old pattern myself, and having said that I’ll now have to look it out. Especially as I think the result may be something like a hap shawl, knit in a way no Shetlander would ever have done. More to follow on this.

My own knitting: I’m progressing well through the final band of the Tokyo shawl. Loose ends will take a while. The whole shawl is knit with two relatively fragile yarns held together. There have been some breakages, especially towards the end as the yarns have got wound around the increasingly bulky shawl. And, Perdita has helped. And, one colour has been dropped and another introduced at the beginning of every band, even with no allowance for breakage.

No hospital visiting means not much in the way of sock-knitting. My current thought is – not to start the second Knitcircus sock from the inside of the second ball, but to carry on with the first ball. There won’t be much left. And only when it is finished, start the second from the inside. We’ll see.

Sad news by email from Loop: the yarn I saw and fondled that happy day recently, and chose for a sweater for my husband, madtosh “Tannehill” by name, has been discontinued. Someone in NJ called Chelsea Yarns – I’ve never dealt with them – seems to have DK Tannehill in sufficient quantity, but I have struggled in vain with their website, and can’t even make “Contact Us” work. I hope I haven’t paid for it yet, but am not even sure about that. Another problem to return to.