I knit very industriously this morning, and am within a cat’s whisker of the crown shaping of that hat – two or three more rounds. Meanwhile Helen and I have started worrying about when/whether Daniela is coming back. Edinburgh schools start up tomorrow. Her elder son surely needs to be here? Her younger one is likely to lose his nursery place? She is at home in Romania to help with the care of her mother-in-law. Clearly, when she left, she would rather have stayed here looking after me. The mother-in-law has lots of other relatives. We can but wait and worry.

 

What I forgot to mention yesterday is that the winter VK, despite its deficiencies, sent me off in pursuit of Patty Lyons’ new book, “Knitting Bag of Tricks” – illustrated by Franklin Habit, no less. It sounds as if it embodies EZ’s maxim: Look at your knitting. But when I got to Amazon, and started with the one-star recommendations as Archie has taught me to do, I discovered that it is pretty well unreadable because of the wrong type-face on shiny paper. It wasn’t just the one-star reviewers, either. This complaint went right up the chart. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such unanimity. So I didn’t order it. I’d be glad to hear of the experience of any of you who have tried it.

 

Wordle: not without interest, today. We were three’s and four’s again, and again, I was a four. The three’s were Thomas, Mark, and big Rachel. But what I belatedly discovered today is that it’s not much use entering a name. Wordle will accept it (as it will a plural) – but it won’t be right. My starters gave me three browns and a green this morning. Had I persevered, I might have got it in three.