Not much progress, but a little. I’m 10 rows or so into the second stripey hat. I’m trying to keep the yarns in alphabetical order, because some of them appear a second time, and they can be difficult to find. That plan involves remembering the alphabet, which isn’t always easy. It’s too early to say whether the cable cast-on is going to prevent curl.

I haven’t done anything about blocking the first stripey hat.

Kate Davies has posted an interesting essay on her blog about “getting gauge”. I must say I prefer the modern approach, where you swatch to get the fabric you like, and then do the maths. But KD's take-off-point is her new "Heids" book, and maybe that doesn’t work so well for hats.

And it won’t work very well for “Foldlines” where the size of the individual squares determines the size of the whole. I’ve done one. It’s too big. I’ll try again with a smaller needle. But if that doesn’t work either, I’ll consider both as to which fabric I prefer, and then see what mathematics might achieve.

Ella Gordon has written about her newly-designed Yule Mitts, including a most interesting link to this article about how these dark days were observed in the Shetland of yore – the pivotal day was not Christmas, not the New Year, but the solstice itself. This coming Sunday is Tulya’s E’en, seven days before the solstice – that’s when we have to start watching out for Trows (=trolls??). And from then on until New Year’s Day, no work is to be done – and that includes knitting!

Recognition

SamKD, your story beats this one, but still – my parents divorced (painfully) after 20 years or so of marriage. My father has a bit part in Woody Allen’s “Zelig”, in which he plays himself, a retired newspaperman reminiscing about the 30’s, improvising his own lines. He appears only very briefly, but he does appear twice, and he is utterly himself. My mother saw the movie and didn’t recognise him.