I did it:

 

and it nearly did for me. It’s not well done; I think you can see that it’s not entirely straight. But it’s done. It’ll do. I doubt very much if I’ll ever block a shawl again.

 

The cats were keen to help. When Perdita and I were younger, and shawl-blocking was done by crawling about on the floor, she liked to help. She would pull out the pins, and I was always terrified that she would try to swallow one. (She was, and is, a most peculiar cat.) This morning, Rachel phoned while I was in mid-block. Both cats emerged from the spare room – they hadn’t really wanted to help, they just wanted to annoy me. They dashed past into the outer hall. I kicked the door shut and imprisoned them:

 

The old-style, land-line telephone is on the wall, just out of view. I was sitting on the backless chair.

 

Sometimes I wonder whether those cats really hate each other as much as they say they do.

 

2023 steps so far today – and I’m going straight to bed. No knitting. The weather continues very cold, the pavements (sidewalks) packed with snow.

 

Thank you, again, for your help with leg-warmers. Eileen, I sent off at once, on reading your comment, for the Shetland Wool Week annual 2020. It’s a good cause. I spent some time with Ravelry leg-warmers, but few are of use. Many are so sloppy that they look as if they’d fall off as soon as the wearer lifted a foot. I think I might start with a fold-over topping, kilt-hose-fashion, with which J. could wear a garter. I think what’s wanted here is something which will seriously keep a leg warm.

 

But wee Hamish first (after the Polliwog). I think I have decided on which of Ella Gordon’s colour combinations I want, but it’s not easy. The Duchess of Devonshire – nee Debo Mitford – says somewhere that a room needs a coup de rouge, and so, on the whole, does a Fair Isle ensemble of colours. Although I think one might substitute a shot of acid green, in knitting if not, perhaps, in home décor. I don’t have to decide for a while.

 

Shandy, one day there will be a world again in which we could sit down together and talk about “Sense and Sensibility”. I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m increasingly not impressed. Could it be that I’ve only read it once before? All I remembered was Mr. Willoughby, but there are a cacophany of other characters.