Tvåändsstickning

Which is to say, the Swedish way of knitting from two ends of the same yarn, making a think double stitch and solid fabric on which it is possible to construct raised designs with clever positioning of the two strands.

Bit like burning the candle at both ends, though in theory you get something at the end of it (unless you have to rip it apart, no longer able to deny to yourself that if you were to continue to knit these gloves, they’d be three sizes too large).

It’s all a bit like my life, really.

I have many holiday cards left unwritten, unsent — forgive me if you’re one of the recipients, at this point it may make it as a new year’s card; the stacks of things to do around here don’t seem to diminish on their own. And tomorrow I leave to see a dear internet-free friend for a few days, leaving the cats in the capable hands of Numenius, who looks set to do a scary amount of radio.

But a wonderful surprise, today: picking up a copy of George Johnson’s sumptuously designed new book, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, I found four illustrations of mine I’d done for him, last year, following my trip to the Santa Fe Science Writers Workshop. I know. It wasn’t writing, but it’s science…

Jennifer: I think this is pronounced tvo-end-stickning?