Dear Sir Tom......

Stoppard, I mean. So very, very kind of the love to have his new play put on during my birthday summer. With, apparently, the sort of music attached that you would expect with the title "Rock and Roll". Along with his own inimitable pyrotechnical prose, and a spiffy cast including, be still my heart, Rufus Sewell.

And the DSM, living up to his name with a vengeance, has tickets for us to see it in September! It means a day trip to the Big city, of course, but worth it, oh so worth it. Wow.

I went to a marvellous party last night. A DSM work-related thing. I wore an amazing black dress, somehow constructed to be, as well as fetchingly low-cut, flattering to the curves without clinging. There were a bazillion people there, some few of whom I did know, but far more that I did not. I lost sight of the DSM the moment we arrived, and would normally have felt very precarious indeed, but somehow, no doubt gin-inspired, managed to stay afloat. Throughout the course of the evening, I was fortunate to have no less than three encounters with extremely interesting men, satisfyingly lengthy discussions on real issues, during which they seemed to enjoy the debate and my views as much as I theirs. There was the merest touch of a sexual frisson, but mostly just an intriguing intellectual respect. Such nice men - one of them bore a distinct resemblance to Rufus Sewell.......

The astute amongst you will have realised long since that this could only be a dream. I woke up from it this morning, still extraordinarily vivid in my mind, it is so strange how some dreams do that. I was quite regretful about this one ending, I was having such a good time, and the best thing about it was that somehow I was being able to be exactly myself, no moderation or restraint, just me....and Rufus, of course. Ah, well.

I have some progress, but no photographs. Soon, I promise. I have done more dyeing, there is improvement, but I remain slightly dissatisfied. Is it me, the weather (now more or less normal for the time of year), the fibre or the dyes? I have used natural dye extracts before, but I am somehow, it is true, less than happy with them - the colours you get are not what you would expect with the actual plant dyestuff, and strangely flat. But I will persevere. Haven't yet got to the indigo, that may well come on Sunday now.

I stitched up the shoulder seams of the grey Falkland jacket, intending to pick up and knit the sleeves flat, the way I would put in sleeves if dressmaking. Draping the thing over my shoulders, it seemed, odd, so I decided to stitch the side seams, too. Well, what a difference! It is beginning to look like a real garment, mirabile dictu. I still haven't solved the problem of what to do with the front band, but this is progress, and I will get there in the end. One day I will learn not to design on the fly....maybe.

I realised last night that I really should produce something especially for the tutors' display at Summer School next year, and that it should be spindle spun. So I took a favourite spindle (a Forrester, if anyone is interested) and some white Falkland top to coven last night and started. Even I ought to be able to spindle spin, dye and knit enough yarn for a simple shawl in just over a year. Definitely. The rest of the coven came up with some very useful suggestions for what else I could use, though, including suggesting that I did an entire themed bag thing. That's not a bad idea - I might photograph all or some of them and post them here, see what others think.

And then there will be more photographs than you can shake a stick at.