Archie came, and got a lot done. But he’s now going back to university, and  my cleaner hasn’t returned from Rumania, and I’m going to need help of some sort. Helen will have to sort that out. I had a good session with my Personal Trainer, and tomorrow I have an Italian lesson at 7:30 a.m. 2020 has started in earnest. 

I continue to knit with vigour. Here’s the state of play:

It occurred to me yesterday that I could use blue – another of the colours of the South African flag – instead of Main Colour, to stripe with red here in the middle of the border. But I went back to an image of the flag and was reminded that it also contains white. (Does South Africa win the prize for the most colours in a national flag?) My biscuit-coloured Main Colour does reasonably well as white, so I left it.

But what about blue for the edging? It seems sort of a shame to leave it out, when I've got all the others. Or would that simply be too colourful? The pattern reverts to Main Colour for the edging, of course. Comments very welcome. The fun of knitting the edging is gradually to release the shawl from the awkward shape imposed by the circular needle.

As far as line numbers are concerned, I’m half-way through the border. But that is to take no account of the fact that eight stitches are added every other round. One great advantage of knitting such a shawl from the centre outwards – not my usual practice – is that you can increase at the mitred corners with a simple yo,k1,yo and make a pretty ladder of eyelets. Going in the opposite direction, decreasing at the corners, is much less decorative.

Reading

Thank you for your comments.

I have settled on a re-read of Trollope’s “The Three Clerks”. I think it was recommended in a New Yorker article about him a few years back. It’s good; full of energy. I will be interested to see if the last chapter has the effect I remember. I must be careful in what I say, so as not to spoil it. Unless you all read it, and then we could talk about it…