Another trying day on the deafness front, but at least Oxford won the Boat Race. I regard it as the world’s most tedious sporting event, but it’s the only one my husband has any interest in, and he supports Oxford.

Here’s the swatch scarf. The top four bands are the ones derived from the Museum Sweater. The narrower bands, the peeries, have a plain, unpatterned row above and below. The first time, I knit those rows in orange; the second time, in the gentle green which forms the background. I was completely astonished to see what a difference that made to the five patterned rows in between, which are identical in the two bands.

(Colours are a bit funny again -- I'll try again tomorrow in different light.)

I think the first one, with more orange, is the one I want. It makes a successful “pop” of colour, and goes very well with the four colours in the lozenge rows.

This leaves no room for red. The next time I lay Tannehill aside, I’ll try a line of red across the middle of the lozenges, but I don’t expect it to work. They seem to me splendid as they are. But the whole point of a Fair Isle swatch is to try things out, so I might as well have a go.

I know I am planning a Fair Isle vest and not a lesson in art history, but Mr Hopper has done remarkably well at choosing colours for me so far. Maybe red will be a success as well. I've also left out blue. Other reproductions make the sky appear much more gray, anyway.

Tamar (comment yesterday), thank you for the list of possible uses for the swatch. Brilliant, as always from you.

New topic

I cut a finger last night just before going to bed. It’s all right, I’m fine, but there was a certain amount of gore because of the blood-thinner I take. I found myself wondering if knitting would be affected – and then I realised that I didn’t know, in words, in my head, how to knit. The cut is on my right ring finger. How important in the process is that finger? I couldn’t say.

And this morning when I sat down to knit, there was an alarming moment when my hand couldn’t remember either. The cut was still painful. Is this the way I usually hold the yarn, or was I favouring the sore spot? The answer is that I tension the yarn with the middle finger of my right hand, and also use that one to throw the yarn.

I’d be a better knitter, I suspect, if I had learned to use the index finger from the beginning. In either case, the ring finger doesn’t have a terribly important role to play so all is well.