Last month I had a rush to finish the June chapter of my knitted history book. I was reading on the train and in the hotel on the last day of the month. The author was stretching her skills in each chapter and had spun fleece herself before knitting. I have never attempted spinning wool, nor have I tried the skill of this month's chapter, nålbinding, a craft before knitting, used by the Vikings. I keep meaning to try it. The author was finding it sore on her hands so it wasn't encouraging me. I had however brought a whole cardigan with me to Edinburgh and was close to finishing, having cast off the border and button band while on the boat. Now I only had to sew in ends, add the buttons and, most scarily, the buttonholes. The pattern, Funky Grandpa, had a page of pictures and instructions on "afterthought buttonholes" which involved using two needles to pick up stitches on either side of where the buttonhole would be, then, horror of horrors, cutting a stitch and unravelling the knitting in between before creating an edge with casting off the new live stitches and securing them and the cut ends. I focussed on putting on the buttons and weaving in all the loose ends first, before tackling the buttonhole tutorial.