No trouble from the inplant. No pain-killers today.

And it was a good day’s knitting, too. I’ve finished the third skein of Tannehill, wound the fourth and attached it, knit an inch and a half or so with the new skein. I’m now well more than halfway from underarm to shoulder on the back.

I think that entitles me to pick up the swatch-scarf tomorrow. I’ve finished charting the Museum Sweater (using the lozenge pattern which is illustrated most clearly on Ravelry) and have had some trouble trying to colour it in with pencils. Something to do with the way colours change roles, from background to pattern.

I think I’ll plunge in and see if I can knit it anyway.

Tannehill is going so well that I found myself idly thinking Next Project today. I won’t do anything about it until Tannehill is finished, or very nearly so, but it’s fun to think. Mary Lou’s Polliwog Popover, from “Drop Dead Easy Knits”, is in the lead at the moment, what with all these babies about and it would be nice to do something quick and, well, drop-dead easy AND I bought the yarn for it at the EYF.

But I also contemplated this one, the crazy stripes tee, for which I’ve had the yarn rather a while.

What possessed me? I can’t imagine any of us wearing it – well, just possibly one of James’ and Cathy’s daughters. And I think I would prefer it with positive ease and shorter sleeves, so that it could be worn over a shirt. I felt a sudden rush of sympathy for Loes Veenstra, the Dutch woman who knit over 500 sweaters and put them all carefully away, unworn.

In this case I think I started with buying a set of gradient skeins from Kathy’s Knits, feeling I ought to buy something because I had been taking up space on her sofa day after day. And then one day going to visit the Ginger Twist Studio and feeling I ought to buy something, full stop, as I would feel in a small, independent book store.

But a whole sweater?

The gradient skeins and the Ginger Twist yarn are both very nice, and go beautifully together. But the gradient skeins don't add up to enough yardage to replace the contrast colour in the crazy stripes pattern, and the maker, easyknits.co.uk, isn’t offering them in my colours at the moment. I could go back to Kathy and see if she still has them. Probably not.

Veenstra knit with what she had, and what people gave her, and improvised her patterns.