Well, here’s a how-de-do. Anxious emails washed ashore more or less simultaneously yesterday from Greek Helen’s husband, who works for the Black Sea Trade and Development bank in Thessaloniki; and my sister in DC, worried about her investments. And I am distressed by your distress, Knitlass.

But, although Archie&I voted Remain, I am not entirely sorry about the outcome. A favourite writer, AA Gill, defending Remain, asked in the Sunday Times recently whether we had actually noticed any diminution of sovereignty. My answer is yes, although my examples – you’ve heard about the bees – are all from the countryside. And I am afraid I am rather enjoying the sight of Mr Cameron getting his come-uppance – he knows he will be remembered in history as the Prime Minister who needlessly took GB out of the EU and thereby broke up the United Kingdom. The Lord North de nos jours.

I am sanguine about the loss of the EU. I don’t like its undemocratic secrecy, or its itch for a United States of Europe. But I will deeply regret the loss of the United Kingdom, which now seems inevitable. I don’t think Mrs Sturgeon will make Mr Salmond’s mistake of sailing into a referendum on independence without having thought out the question of currency. Will she offer us the Euro? Maybe there’s hope after all.

It is a very odd situation, unparalleled in my experience – having a parliament forced to act against its wishes. Normally, its will is sovereign – it has been called, with some justice,  an elected dictatorship. But now it will be forced to do something the majority of its members find repugnant.

Well, we shall see.

Knitting

I continue to move happily forward with the Hansel shawl. I have finished with Contrast Colour 3 and, sure enough, needed a very small contribution from a second ball of yarn. I have now moved on to CC2, for which I will presumably need a little bit more.

KayT, I know absolutely what you mean about rushing to deliver-in-person-rather-than-having-to-post-it. My sister will be here next week (she'll find it cheaper than she would have the week before) and I could almost have the shawl ready to give to her: her grandson being the baby involved. But I am a couple of weeks short of that being possible. The best I can hope for is that I will be knitting the edging by the time she gets here, and she can see the shawl gradually being released.

Aine, yes, and thank you – that’s the sweater I was admiring on Andy Murray last weekend. How well the sweater fits the man, as well as the cables fitting the sweater.