It has been a stressful day

for man and beast – why are we shut in the dining room?

But with a highly successful ending:

While it was all going on, I could only sit about feeling stressed. I spent the time doing the arithmetic for Alexander’s vest, so successfully that I all but cast on before remembering that I had to include the Calcutta Cup.

Then I decided that the best thing to do would be to add an OXO to the swatch-scarf (for which, see above) to get my hand and eye back in. I will go ahead, when I finish that, and add the Cup, and it will be a scarf for Ketki. I can take it along when I go to them for Easter, and she can decide whether she wants it straight, and/or fringed, or joined into a cowl, or twisted into a moebius.

I checked and re-checked the gauge, but thought, as often, of Evelyn Waugh’s Major Erskine (“Men at Arms”) who was “…strangely dishevelled in appearance. His uniform was correct and clean, but it never seemed to fit him, not through any fault of the tailor’s, but rather because the major seemed to change shape from time to time during the day.” I’ll thread it onto a lifeline at least once and try it on Alexander as we proceed.

I read about corrugated rib. I was delighted to find these two passages:

1.     The Feral Knitter: “If you hold one color in each hand, corrugated rib is a snap – just hold the purl color in your left hand – it is much easier than bringing the yarn forward from your right hand to purl.”

2.     Starmore: “Corrugated rib is much easier to work if the knit stitches are produced with the Continental method and the purl stitches with the English method. Remember to take the yarn to the back of the piece after working the purl stitches.”

In other words, whichever feels more comfortable. And the possibility of doing it in two passes remains.

Rugby tomorrow – Scotland play Ireland in Dublin. It’s going to be very tough. Ireland always win when they’re at home, and we always lose when we’re away from home. And after that, England play France in Paris. England will probably win, but you never know – and France will have home advantage.