A good day. The x-ray appt went off smoothly. One thing to be said for Covid: hospital appts are now kept on time and it’s just as well, because the piles of 18-month-old copies of Woman’s Own have all been swept away and there is nothing to do while you wait except stare into space. Unless you brought your knitting. If I’ve got it right, the x-rays will now go to a Great Man or Woman, who will relay his or her conclusions to the GP and I should hear in about a week.

 

I’ve finished the sleeve increases on the second sleeve of the Lilias Day sweater, and am now knitting the straight bit at the top of the sleeve. If I can keep up the pace, I should have arrived at the fun part, the patterned yoke, by the weekend.

 

Arne and Carlos have alerted me to something called Knit Stars – it sounds a bit like a virtual Stitches or Vogue Knitting Live, with a dash of Craftsy in that you can watch the workshops as often as you like, forever. I don’t think I’ve heard of it, although this is said to be Season 3. They are coy about the cost which must mean it is expensive. I have put down my name to learn more. A&C are going to be among the stars in the forthcoming issue.

 

Wordle: it took me five today. The Mileses – Alexander and Ketki and Thomas – each needed four, and friend Mark pulled it off in three. I must concentrate on my third line, if I ever want to improve. I use two starters – TRAIN and HOUSE. They always produce something. Then I need to put in a third line which could possibly be right – using all the information I’ve got and not re-using any eliminated letters. I can almost never think of such a word so I put in an imperfect one (which often yields useful information anyway).

Here is a picture of our picture, the lost one that was found:

I'm sorry about the streaks of sunshine, but you get the idea. It must have been done at some point during the summer Millais and the Ruskins spent in Scotland, much plagued by midges and rain, while Millais worked on a portrait of Ruskin (now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford). That's Millais hunched over his easel, in our picture, with Mrs Ruskin on the left and Millais' brother William fishing in the background. That's Ruskin on the right in a separate study.