I think I’ve mastered the sequence of turning-the-computer-on actions which allow me to load Freecell, but it’s difficult to be entirely sure. The difference between superstition and science is narrow. Anyway, it’s here this evening.

 

We had a jolly Helen’s-birthday-lunch today. Me and Helen, C., Archie, and a dear friend, at l’Escargot Bleu nearby. I had steak tartare, which I adore. Everybody else had nice things too, and all licked their plates clean. For pudding, there was only one left of the one everybody wanted: white chocolate mousse with rhubarb, so we had that one and enough spoons for everybody and passed it around. And what a treat it was, just to be together in a public indoor place.

 

Archie came here this morning. He seems to be getting on well with his course, and to be finding it interesting. I didn’t get much knitting done, but I have cut the final steek of wee Hamish’s Calcutta Cup vest and picked up the stitches for the final sleeve-hole and started the ribbing. I should be able to finish that tomorrow, and begin on the tidying and steek-securing within.

 

As I was getting out of bed this morning, it occurred to me that I am expecting a seventh great-grand-daughter in April and that that is perhaps the direction where knitting energies should next be directed. Baby surprise? Mary Lou’s Pollywog? A shawl? Great warmth isn’t needed in April, we would hope. I have spent much of the day, in the intervals of the social excitements just mentioned, thinking about this. A baby surprise is a lot of fun (and I think this baby’s sister had a Pollywog). But what about a Log Cabin blankie? It’s a pattern I have long admired and never knit.

 

The advantages would be: it’s an easy knit, and my soul cries out for that. It’s a sublime stash-buster. The disadvantages: there’s am awful lot of knitting involved.

 

Wandering through the Log Cabin patterns on Ravelry, what should I find but a Log Cabin Baby Surprise! The pattern is no longer available, but that might not matter. Knit a square until it seems about the right size. Knit another, either identical or harmonious, for the back. Join at sides. Knit strips from front to back for the shoulders, leaving one open to be joined with buttons.  Finish edges with i-cord where needed. Sleeves if desired. It’s a thought.