We lost. It was horrible.

A fortnight ago England could scarcely cope with Italy. (Italy are not terribly good, and almost always lose.) Today they ran rings around us from the beginning. I think I heard the man say that never in the long history of the Calcutta Cup has either side scored as many points as England did today. It was a bad-tempered match as well.

So now I must pull myself together and think about the future, after adding yesterday’s purchases to my already-over-lengthy queue. I have finished the jigsaw puzzle of constructing the top of the half-brioche sweater, and have embarked on the long, straight seams of the sides and the underarm. I was constantly afraid of some egregious mistake, like the time I sewed the Sous Sous together with one piece upside down, but I think I’m all right.

During the match I swatched for the plain-vanilla v-necked sweater in madtosh DK “Tannehill”which I’ve been meaning to knit for my husband. I’ve got lots of madtosh DK swatches, but they lack reference to any particular needle size. I won’t want to start for a week or so, when I have finally and for real finished the half-brioche, so I think I will take careful note of the present gauge (and needle size) and then wash it (by machine, since it is meant to be superwash) and try again.

Hazel Tindall’s class

We were meant to knit mug haps – little cosies to put around our mugs of tea. I don’t think anyone finished. I certainly didn’t, although I intend to. It didn’t prevent the class from being delightful and of great use and interest.

Hazel provided us with a table-ful of little yarn butterflies from which to choose our colours, and spoke most interestingly on the subject of colour. I still don’t think I grasp the point about colour values, and why it is useful to photograph our yarn choices in black and white. Helen is taking a class at the Leith School of Art on Painting and Drawing (for the sake of designing mosaics) and says that the teacher has recommended that procedure. Mucklestone recommended it, too.

The mug hap, above the initial ribbing, consists of two repeats of a very simple 10-stitch 9-row Fair Isle pattern. I was distressed at how often I lost hold and had to rip back and try again. I was pleased with the result of my first repeat of the pattern, however, and decided to do the second with the same four colours, differently arranged. I don’t think I’m going to like it nearly as well. I’ll show you soon, I hope.

There were moments, despite my mental clumsiness, when I had the old feeling of exhilaration – why do I ever do any other sort of knitting, when I could be knitting Fair Isle?

I hope, after all this thought, that I’ll go ahead and knit a swatch-scarf, as recommended by the Feral Knitter.

I might add that Hazel doesn’t like circular needles – too much time is wasted coaxing the stitches over the join. She uses a knitting belt even for socks and mug haps.