If you should find yourself having dental work, then you could do worse than take the advice which The Princess gave me: ignore the dentist entirely. I explained that I had been advised to do so, and then just read all the way through the procedure.

Once the Novocain wore off, however, I found myself somewhat surprised by the amount of pain involved. So along about 3:00, at The Empress’s urging, I followed the instructions the dentist had given me, to “take it easy.” The Empress assured me that she has never taken pain medication following dental work, but I was a wimp. I went home, took the stuff, and went to bed.

This is why it was particularly nice that when I got home I found in my mailbox the copy of Interweave Knits that Manda sent to me.

There are lots of nice sweaters and jackets in this issue, in a wide range of sizes. In fact, there is a good variety overall — different yarns, different levels of difficulty, classic and trendy. One project which I found particularly intriguing is a seamless cabled sweater with most of the shaping done by changing needle sizes. There were further cable projects in the shape of classic socks and a vest, a lovely ballet wrap sweater, and a men’s sweater with an intriguing new stitch pattern.

Not that I need any new projects right now. But if you are lying in bed, drugged, you need something pretty to look at.