I forgot to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving yesterday. I was happy to be spared it.

Jenny, thank you. I am sure – especially after looking at my forgotten previous hap – that a gentle overall shade is needed, and what better than a beige to suggest parched landscape. Gudrun’s pattern then requires four contrast colours. I’ll go for the three of the old ANC flag – gold, green, and black – and top them off with red, which is in the modern flag and which is the Hindu colour of joy. That leaves out white and blue – enough is enough.

Meanwhile the Dathan hap has crept past the 500 stitch count, I think. I’ll carry on with it tomorrow, the darkest of days; then knit the pocket square; then return to the Dathan for what remains of December, while acquiring the materials I need for Gudrun’s hap. I might even start it during the Back End – those odd days between Christmas and the New Year.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for tomorrow.

Non-knit

I’ve been watching The Crown a bit. I’m up through the episode about Mountbatten. I find the whole thing completely unbelievable, in a way that I don’t think disturbed me about the first two series. I also find that I have the same objection to Olivia Colman – of whom I am a passionate fan – as I did to Helen Mirren in that famous film about the Queen for which, I think, she won an Oscar.

Namely, that both make me feel that they are trying hard to be Queenly every moment of the time. Whereas I feel pretty sure that the Queen herself has got used to it, and is comfortable in her own skin.

However, The Crown makes excellent moving wallpaper as a background for garter stitch knitting.

This is a very rare week in which both Italian and personal training have been dispatched before the weekend. I am looking forward to tomorrow, but must use it wisely.