You’re right, Joan – Kate Davies’ new hat book has been announced on schedule – on Instagram, which is not one of my usual haunts. Fortunately I am on Ella Gordon’s mailing list, and her design is the First Hat, so I got wind of it. I’ve ordered the book, and will watch for successive hats with pleasure. I got the sample kit of Milarrochy tweed when it came out -- I may well have enough for a hat.

And while I was clicking away in pursuit of all this, I discovered a tutorial of Kate’s on precisely the subject we were talking about yesterday: grafting a two-colour pattern using two separate needles-ful of yarn. It’s funny how life sometimes coalesces like that.

I forgot to mention: Meg said during the Patrons’ conversation with Andrew and Andrea, that she is working on a book. That’s good news.

As for the Calcutta Cup vest, I am well along with the last complete OXO and have discovered another reason why a final half-OXO might be a good idea: namely that the v-neck (being done with a steek) is so deep and wide that the patterns on either side of it, on the front, are X’s but not O’s. It might look better to finish off with a pattern band which made a bolder statement. The OXO’s are offset with each new appearance.

Non-knit

The national story has calmed down a bit today, but we’re not out of the woods.

Woolly Bits and Knitlass: my impression is that it is the European Commission which wields the power, meeting entirely behind closed doors and consisting of Commissioners appointed by the different governments. I think the European Parliament is largely for rubber-stamping, and I don’t know what the Council of Ministers does. I’ve never known anyone who took any interest in a European election. There is certainly no elected body comparable to the British parliament or the American Congress, at the heart of things.

This would be an entirely suitable arrangement if we were just talking about a common market. But it feels unwieldy (and undemocratic) to me as it creeps towards greater integration.