Yesterday was a better day, nursing-wise, but none of them are easy.

I did finish the first ball of yarn employed in the centre of the Hansel hap, and attached the second. I doubt if I’ve knit more than a fifth of it yet. I have nine balls of MC altogether. But once the centre is finished, the main colour has no more to do until edging-time. And there's plenty more in Lerwick, I'm sure.

I’ve now got more than 100 stitches on the needle, and the rows are pleasantly endless. I’m loving this. I feel as if I were helping God to knit the baby.

I thought I might as well watch Gudrun’s Craftsy hap-class again, although I have half-a-dozen unfinished Craftsy classes. Here I am actually doing what the class is about, instead of feeling guilty all the time about not doing my homework, as with the others. And I learned that the trick of knitting into the back loop of the last stitch of every row, is only for the increase rows. Once the centre passes the halfway point, and starts declining, you’re meant to knit into the front of those stitches. It’s something to do with keeping the dear little edging loops as uniform as possible.

KD has posted an interesting tutorial by her husband Tom, about how to make a hap-stretcher. I’ll never do it, or even commission one, but it’s nice to know that the detailed instructions are available. The photographs include her Moder Dy pattern from the new book, knit in J&S jumper-weight instead of Buachaille. It looks to me as if the centre is knit straight – i.e., not on the diagonal. Only two more days and we will KNOW. I suspect the jumper-weight hap is a more useful size. It's thoroughly beautiful.

Susan Crawford has published another update about the progress of the Vintage Shetland Project. Everybody is hard at work on page layout, she says. What an interesting career it could be, these days, being a Graphic Artist who works on self-published books!

I am slightly worried when Crawford says: “I have worked very, very hard to try and ensure that the complexities in these unique pieces from the Shetland Museum are not obvious to the knitter.” I don’t quite know what I expect of this book any more, if anything – but I didn’t expect to have complexities concealed from me. Complexities are the whole fun.