Andrew & Andrea turned up today, as hoped. Their interviewee, Louise Harding, isn’t to my taste, designer-wise, but she had a good many interesting things to say, including a distaste for cardigans which button over the bosom. She prefers a single button at the top.

She set me thinking – a good deal of what follows is probably absurd – about the two great 20^th century trends in knitting which are now more or less coming together: traditional/peasant knitting, and “couture”. EZ can be credited, along with much else, with bringing much of traditional knitting (e.g., knitting in the round) into the mainstream. Harding is firmly in the “couture” camp, believing – as does Andrea, and many others – that knitting needs firm seams.

The fascinating thing about Susan Crawford’s Vintage Knitting Project is seeing how traditional knitters, there on the edge of the world, were influenced by fashionable designs.

Kate Davies, I would say, straddles these two strands brilliantly. As does Jared Flood and his team – meticulous designs; not too many seams.

Harding said that it was Rowan who first put designers’ names on designs. We take it for granted. I have, as really devoted readers will remember, a complete collection of the British Vogue Knitting Book from its inception in 1932 until it faded away in whenever-it-was. In the first decades photographers are credited – and there are some still-famous names among them – but designers, never. Kaffe was one of the first designers whom I was aware of by name -- and he worked for Rowan, of course.

Here at home, I am grateful for your comments about the Drama Channel. I think I have been missing out there. When my husband was alive, he spent an industrious half-hour daily combing the newspaper for anything we might want to watch – and he found some good ones. I do it in 5-8 minutes, confining myself to Channels One-Five plus BBC Four. I’m going to add Drama.

Next week promises well, even without: Jamie’s new Italian series (my husband would never let us watch cookery programs); Sylvia Plath (myself, had things turned out differently and had I been a genius); and a new episode of Fake or Fortune.

Internet problems seem to be obstructing the sock pictures I have ready for you. Tomorrow.