A doctor just phoned to say I’m fine. Not quite – she had a couple of niggles concerning my lungs, but there’s nothing “gross” in the gut. She did say that one can’t be quite as sure as if I had had a proper colonoscopy, but given that I have no symptoms, we’ll stop fussing. I didn’t expect to hear so soon, and now that the procedure itself is behind me, I was beginning to allow myself to worry a bit about the result. This is good news.

No FreeCell this evening. You can't have everything.

 

I have felt rather convalescent today. No walking. Not much knitting. Tomorrow a small party of us are going out to lunch to celebrate Helen’s 59^th birthday, last Monday – she only narrowly escaped, by half an hour as I remember, sharing her birthday with Robert Burns. Now we’ve got something else to celebrate as well.

 

I did proceed a bit with wee Hamish’s vest. The first armhole steek is cut, stitches picked up, ribbing nearly finished. I hope to do a bit more this evening. (How often I say that, and how often fail!) There’ll still be lots of tidying to do inside when the ribbing is done. I’ll see C. on Sunday – indeed, she will be part of the small party just mentioned; I’ll see her tomorrow – but I doubt if I will have it finished by then. It would be good, after all this struggle, to do a proper wet blocking. That always makes things look a bit better. But it looks as if someone will have to come here to pick it up at the last moment.

 

It occurs to me that if we win the Calcutta Cup again next Saturday, maybe Fergus should be knit for. (See yesterday’s blog.) Not many of us, including myself, would have recognised Stuart Hogg if we had found ourselves sitting next to him. J’s leg-warmers must come next, since they are half of a two-part celebration of the 2021 victory. “Must come next” in terms of Calcutta Cup knitting. I’m inclined to slot in something easy next, which inclines me towards the Evendoon (see yesterday, again).

 

I was very grateful for your comment yesterday, Ron – and you’re absolutely right. I’m lucky to have family who want things knit for them. The Calcutta Cup doesn’t really count – it is thrust upon them. Not entirely – the first thing Alexander and Ketki’s son Thomas said, after the final whistle in ’19 (a draw, in London) was: “What will the knitting be?” I made him a big scarf that year, with half of the cup shown.  

And I’m grateful for your support, Mary Lou. I’ve found the Evendoon pattern among my archives – but I have failed to record the basic information needed: which size did I knit? I might be able to deduce the answer from some numbers in the margin towards the end. It fit nicely, just enough positive ease, and Helen often wore it.

 

Tamar, thank you, too, for that website with suggestions about unfelting. I have forwarded them to Helen, but I am dubious.

 

Kirsten, I have things to say about “plastic bread” and sourdough, but that’s enough for today.