Here I am, after all. I woke up feeling odd this morning – a bit dizzy, unsteady on my feet, no appetite, coughing. I didn’t go to Kirkmichael. I spent the morning in bed (except for a bit of knitting at the end) and feel a bit better. I’ll have a proper meal soon.

While in bed, I watched Fruity Knitting 64 – Melinda, you’re right, that’s the lace one we want. Two Shetland sisters, both lace knitters; in their 60’s I would guess. We were right – no lace graphs when they were young. One of them has taken to it duck-to-water, incorporating patterns from Sharon Miller’s Heirloom Knitting into her work and using squared paper to plot out her own designs.

The other, embarking on a major design, knits a swatch – it must be 50 stitches or more – which is a cross-section of a trapezoidal border, edging to square centre. That lets her plan and see the design horizontally, and calculate how it will fit into the corners of the trapezoid.

One factor that I had not thought of, is that an experienced lace knitter can look at a shawl and knit from it, as we might from a chart. My innocent eye is not capable of that – the lace holes seem to pull the knitting out of line. All I’m looking for is k, k2tog, YF, k3tog – but I can’t tell who did what in which row.

I’ve finished row 42 of the Spring Shawl borders. After all that beddery this morning, I ought to be able to knock off a couple more later on.

And I need a plan. This stuff is addictive, as Sharon Miller says; and Elizabeth Johnston warned me not to switch projects mid-stream: that is, not to try to knit a larger-gauge project in the middle of fine lace knitting. But I must finish Thomas’ Calcutta cup scarf (=two weeks?) and Matt’s pocket square (=two evenings?) before Christmas.

Reading

I’m getting on fine with “The Spoils of Poynton”. It’s an easy one, as Henry James goes. Shandy, to my great embarrassment I can’t remember the end of “Portrait of a Lady” at all, although I’m sure I’ve read it. He doesn’t go in for happy endings.