All well. Helen came this morning and we got as far as the corner shop for my weekly treat of the Weekend FT.

I have been knitting furiously away, and am puzzled. I have come to a passage in the MKAL classified, I think, as “textured”. The pattern is: YO, K2, pass the YO over the K2, K2. Four rows later, you do it all again, offset. All well and good, and after a lifetime of PSSO it didn’t sound difficult.

But I found it to be so, enormously. I can’t get hold of that YO to lift it over the two following stitches. My usual solution – I’ve done three such rows by now – is to go around the back and grab the YO from there. I’ve tried enlisting the help of a smaller-gauge DP. That sometimes helps. I’ve tried wrapping the yarn around the needle the other way, for the YO. That certainly helps – but the result looks different.

What puzzles me is that no one else seems to be having this problem. I’ve abandoned all caution and consulted the Ravelry groups. Admittedly I haven’t read every single entry (there are lots), but I’ve read quite a few, from the beginning and the end. Lots of people have finished the whole first clue already. There is much talk of colour choices, and a certain amount about the starting difficulties. (I don’t think I did my start brilliantly, but I think it sort of submerges itself in the totality.) Nothing about grabbing that YO.

With all of Barbara Walker at our disposal, couldn’t an easier little textured pattern have been found? In fact, I think if subsequent clues produce a similar passage – on more stitches, inevitably – I might consult Walker before proceeding. Meanwhile, I’ve got to struggle through two more 132-stitch rows. The rest of the way, from here to the end of the clue, is plain sailing. I might even finish tomorrow.

Life

We had some rain today. It’s a wonderful invention: water falls from the sky and nourishes one’s plants.

I’ve finished “Il Cavaliere e la Morte”. Very Sciascia, a bit heavy. Late? And embarked on Sibylle Bedford’s “Quicksands”.