This part of what the postie brought me today. On the left is Heartstrings Beanstalk top pattern, which looks challenging due to my problems with lace. It never seems to stop me from buying lace patterns, just knitting them. I started on the Katia top and remembered why I don't knit with cotton and now include cotton tape in that category: my hands hurt after too many k2tog and k1slpsso. On the right is Sarah James Slip Stitch flower top which can be knit in different weights of yarn. Both came from the Knitting Zone in super flash speed, along with some Katia Mississippi 3 which will be cotton sock yarn. I got black (can you imagine! No fair-isle faking bright colours! Black) and neon green. I read on Grumperina's site about her search for cotton sock yarn and she has the same requirements as I do: fine weight so you can wear normal shoes, not hiking boots, and that they stay up, thus eliminating Fortissima cotton which has no memory and just sags. I have been knitting cotton & wool blends for summer socks but a real cotton would be great. It was hard to find Mississippi 3 in anything but bright variegated colours, but I've got lots of bright colours so a solid is a novelty. It is a cotton acrylic blend and I cannot tell whether it will sag or not. I'll try ribbing. I am wearing the socks I just knit today.

I've knit two whole rows of the Katia jacket that requires about 5 repeats of the lace motif. I discovered it is designed to be shaped at the waist. I am not yet confident of my body shape to knit it with a distinct waist shape, and it's an open lace jacket any way. I'm not got to struggle to remember to decrease and then increase for something that is designed to be worn open over a T shirt or singlet (tank top).

The filthy fleece is being spun so I can see whether any of the stuff I didn't use as mulch yet is worth processing (combing and carding). It is very soft and quite lustrous when I hit a good patch, but there are lots of lumps and bumps and noils as well as VM. I'm going to try and ply it quite firmly to gain some control over its fly-away nature and see. I am spinning superwash on one of my spindles with very long colour changes. I might have to learn one of those special plying techniques to maintain the colours, or wing it and get mis-matched plies.

We had a morning tea and the Library this Monday to celebrate the completion of the conversion of all our manual serial check-in records to our online system so that users now can tell with better detail what we hold. I worked on the project when we did the Australian part of the file, but went off on other various projects when the overseas titles were attacked. I am still doing clean-up work on retrospective material but in monographs instead of serials. There is so much stuff to do in our collection and I am the only one doing clean-up. Currently this involves authority work (making sure name and subject headings are correct) and moving Australian material shelved in the overseas collection to its rightful place in the Australian collection. It quite often opens several cans of worms to do either so I am not afraid of running out of work. Lots of old Library friends (people who had retired) showed up for the tea and it was so nice to see some familiar faces. They all commented on my new shape; I am at the stage of saying when is enough? I'd still like another 5 kg minimum, and be able to maintain that, before I go out and buy new clothes.

The Bear is sentenced to be at home for the rest of the week and he is taking afternoon naps. He says antibiotics make him sleepy which not something I've ever encountered but everyone is different. My legs hurt a lot nearly all the time and I don't know any cure. I have my normal Bowen therapy this afternoon but weaving class is back tonight where we will be doing a lot of standing again.