Miscellaneous non-knit

Our great Olympic athlete Sir Mo Farah is apparently in much the same place as Ketki -- born in a country of which Mr Trump disapproves, now a British subject, with family in the US which he would like to go on visiting from time to time if he could be sure of not being turned back and humiliated at the airport. Our Foreign Secretary says he has had assurances that Sir Mo and Ketki will be all right. He seems to have missed the point that this is preposterous.

Pussy cats’ bed times: I have a clipping from the Scotsman, no source given, which says that Charles Dickens’ cat used to snuff out his candle with delicate paw when it was time to stop all this scribbling and go to bed.

Perdita is fine, thank you, Amelia. Greek Helen, who has been bearing the burden of all this for me, rang the vet and said that she didn’t need to come in, but was persuaded to bring her in anyway. The poor cat was upset that evening, but has recovered her equilibrium since. Everybody is eagerly watching for signs that she is becoming a Better Person, but they are not manifest.

Knitting

I have made a good start on the centre of Mrs Hunter’s shawl – finished the first of 14 repeats of the simple pattern. I don’t know whether it actually goes faster, or simply breeds a case of just-one-more-row syndrome. Picture soon.

Here is my remaining stash from EYF 2016. I haven’t posted the picture to the Ravelry group yet, but hope I will. The reddish Whistlebare yarn, mohair and Wensleydale, is for a capelet by Carol Feller from IK; and the green, “Nature’s Luxury”, wool, silk and camel, for Mia Rinde’s “Cameo Flower” shawl from Knitty.

I also bought yarn that day for two shawls of Mary Lou’s One of them I actually knit as planned. I used the yarn bought for the other, for the Uncia, for which it served very well.

Hat, I remember knitting a baby thing with graduated yarn, but I don’t think it came from the EYF. Perhaps from Loop, which I visited a year ago this very month? I did buy a graduated pack at the EYF (more Whistlebare) and you can see it in the photograph above, untouched.

I think I must start keeping an accurate record of yarn-in and yarn-out. It might even be interesting.

There is a very interesting thread in the Ravelry EYF Group in which exhibitors tell us what they’re bringing. Carol Feller will be there with her new book about how to use graduated yarns. I took a class from her last year on that very subject, and she told us that the book was on its way. That is one that I would very much like to have a look at before committing myself, so that’s good news.