Green Granite Blocks is proving obsessive, as KF patterns often do, and I’m awfully pleased with the way it’s looking. Much of last night’s knitting time was spent on establishing the next rank of blocks. I’m now using a mixture of butterflies and pull-through-the-tangle long ends. Time is needed for untangling as one proceeds along the row, but it’s probably less time than was previously devoted to attaching new yarns, and the smoother back is a big plus. I haven’t yet tried winding two colours together into a big butterfly – that might help. Having two butterflies flapping about for each colour area adds to the tangling, no doubt.

I checked the gauge at last – bang on. It’s not a matter I usually give any thought to, with Kaffe’s patterns, but James’s sweater (May 27) came out too big – a real tragedy.

I must wrench myself away and knit that preemie jacket before Games Day creeps up on me and pounces.

Pollphail

It is a dormitory complex – not exactly a village – built in the 70’s for workers at a near-by oil refinery. As things turned out, there never was a near-by oil refinery, and Pollphail was never occupied.

I am a great lover of romantic ruins, and I can assure you that this is not one of them. It is damp and squalid and muddy with sheep droppings, in a setting of astonishing natural beauty. It is remarkable, in this day and age, as we say, that Health and Safety has not bulldozed it – or at least, insisted on secure fencing – decades ago. Broken glass abounds, great shards of it, and open cellars in which to fall.

The only notice concerns the bats – we didn’t see any – which are a protected species and not to be disturbed.

At the end of last year, with the permission of the landowner, a team of graffiti artists moved in for a weekend. The idea was – as mentioned in the link I have provided above – that demolition would follow almost at once, but it hasn’t happened. The plan is to build holiday chalets – maybe the developer can’t get finance? Maybe the Bat Protection Society intervened? Anyway, it’s still there, and we went to see it on Saturday.

That last one is the little boys' favourite. They were eager to show us "the skeleton" -- I fully expected the decaying remains of a sheep.

By the way

A recent entry in Fleegle’s blog, ever interesting, has an account of a charting program called Intertwined Pattern Studio. She’s a designer, of course – would I find it useful in planning the Bavarian Twisted Stitch sweater-or-jacket which remains high on the Possibles list for the end of the yarn fast?

It’s very reasonably priced.

Or is that just silly?