My Goodly Piano

Does that old rhyme about seeing a penny and picking it up and all day long you'll have good luck apply to coins other than pennies? It should, because we don't have pennies here; our smallest denomination is a five cent piece. And there was a slightly battered one on the ground right by my foot when I got out of the car this morning and I picked it up. I suppose I'll see at the end of the day whether I've had good luck.

I have had an attack of the glooms recently, which I am trying to shake off. I think it's working. I have been knitting a baby jacket, which got put aside when the glooms hit, and I picked it up for the first time in ages last night. I am making it like a harlequin, sort of, with different colours for each part. Which will look delightful when complete, I'm sure, but all I have left to do are the front bands for the buttons and they are causing me trouble. Because, you see, if you are a stupid person, it is so easy to knit up stitches for the band, do the rows and cast off before realising that you started in the wrong direction and that the band is on backwards. And if you are a particularly stupid person, it is even easier to rip it out, do it again in the exact same way, rip it out again and do it correctly, before finally realising that all this time you've been knitting a front band onto one of the back halves. That was when I gave up for the night.

Flipping through the pattern book I came across a word I always enjoy that I don't hear very often: placket. I suppose there's not a lot of call for it.

Also: thong monkey! I love this. Imagine the lovely rubbery smell.