Nearly 11 inches. We’re aiming at 15.

I’m much more hopeful now that I may have enough Penny Loafer for the whole job. When I resumed work – last week, was it? – I had some ribbing and a bit beyond attached to a ball of yarn. I also found an already-wound ball in the bag. That second ball, now consumed, looked oddly small and I’m now sure it was so. Did I knit a substantial swatch? Stranger things have happened.

At any rate, this third skein has some mileage in it yet. I’ll certainly reach the armholes (15”) before the fourth skein is finished. (I had eight.) And if I run short, I think I have decided that Composition Book Grey is the right answer for the yoke.

Neil MacGregor continues well. There was a marvellous moment this morning when, in an episode about hymn-singing, he played a recording of the occasion when President Obama, preaching at the funeral of a black pastor who had been gunned down in a hate crime, flung aside his text and started singing “Amazing Grace”. Gosh.

Today is Andrew-and-Andrea-Tuesday. I can face them, now that I'm knitting again. While flailing about a bit last night, I watched the first few moments of a few knitting blogs. They were very weak, by comparison. “Professional” would be the wrong word for A&A. They represent the very best of what is meant by “amateur”. Today’s guest is an American shepherdess and spinner. Most interesting. I haven’t finished watching it yet.

But I was grateful again for the spinning class I did at the EYF this year. I was the class dunce, as I told you at the time (and as I had expected). But I learned a bit about what it was all about. And the teacher said something which has enabled me to remember the difference between “woollen” and “worsted”.

Looking at that delicious pile of madtosh DK’s, piled up on the chair to be photographed for you yesterday, I felt I really ought to do something with them. And I thought of something I might do – in an ancient VK. I’ll see if I can find it. It would need a certain amount of thinking – but Andrea’s demonstration today of how she knit a child’s cardigan as a pullover for Andrew inspired me to feel that thinking is not impossible.

Apart from the yarns you saw, I’ve also got “Tannehill” from the Sous Sous pattern. Devoted readers will remember – I finished front and back and sewed them together with one piece upside down.

A question for you: the new issue of IK says that Brown-Reinsel’s gansey book has been updated and re-issued. That’s one I actually use (as distinct from just admiring it on my shelf). Do I need the new one?