Only 11 ½” – not the Great Leap Forward I had expected. I may have as much as another inch left in this third skein – good news.

I failed to find the old VK pattern I mentioned, the one I have been thinking of for my madtosh stash. I’ll keep looking. The Kirigami, if it achieves nothing else, will provide me with an impeccable swatch.

Thank you for your help with the question of whether to buy the new version of Brown-Reinsel on ganseys.  Jenny – I feel this is an awfully ignorant question – how do I find reviews on Ravelry? She doesn’t even seem to have a group. One of the customer reviews on Amazon – I love that feature – said yes, buy this one even if you have the other one; but for the moment, at least, I’m taking your friend’s advice, Cat, and abstaining.

On the other hand, Beverley, I have ordered “Knitting in Antarctica”. The customer reviews are ecstatic. Thank you for that.

And tomorrow, I may finally close in on “Ziggurat”. I have been past “Kathy’s” a couple of times since one of you told me she had it, but both times I was heavily laden, and books are heavier still. Tomorrow I mean to walk up the hill to the bank and come back down carrying no more than a fillet of haddock at most.

Cookery

There is still not the slightest sign of activity in my jar of fermenting chillis. I tried a cautious taste yesterday, looking for the characteristic fizz – but the brine was so hot that I couldn’t taste anything else. There are a couple of Carolina Reapers in there, thanks to Tesco. I’ll go ahead and make sauce next week, whatever. (Jamie Oliver’s YouTube recipe, omitting the chillis, and adding my fermented mash at the end.)

Greek Helen and her family were in Kirkmichael over the weekend. She brought me back a few apples from the hitherto unproductive tree. She said they came off in her hand when given a gentle quarter-turn. That’s said to be the test. They taste unripe to me. This morning I made some spicy chutney (unfermented) with them. Unripe chutney is certainly preferable to apples that fall and rot in the grass.

I choked up too, listening to President Obama sing “Amazing Grace” yesterday.