Here is the current state of my navy blue tank top. I’ve completed the front and, since taking the photo, I’ve got the ribbing finished for the back. Speaking of the ribbing, it’s so brief that it’s got an annoying tendency to flip up, thus my choice to anchor it down with pretties for the photo shoot. I don’t think it will be a problem once the garment is finished, but I’ll keep an eye on it. A part of me is considering the idea that I could have the entire top finished by this time next week, but the more cautious side of my nature insists that of course I won’t.

As I was taking a photo of my progress, I thought it would be the ideal time to think about how I might wear the finished garment. I came up with the above idea for incorporating it into my autumn/winter wardrobe – wear it with my perfect navy skirt and throw a patterned blouse loosly over the top rather than a cardigan. I know I am likely to combine these three items more traditionally – skirt with blouse tucked in and sleeveless sweater over the top – but it’s good to know there are other options. Then again, I’m inclined to think the loose blouse over the sleeveless sweater would be a good combination with trousers.

I find it quite helpful to visualise the item I’m knitting as a garment this early on in the process; it encourages me to work on it when I know how I will be using it once it’s completed.

You may have noticed that I skipped posting on Monday and that is down to a regretful state of torpor that I’ve been in lately; this being the evil cousin of languor. Where a languid day would involve dreamily drifting through the hot and sunny weather in a lovely white Victorian nightgown, a torpid day would be spent desperately trying to prevent oneself slipping into a coma in a steamy, sweaty jungle. Part of my desire to escape my corporeal state stems from my general belief that I should strive to be a tolerant person when the truth is that I am far from being such. Being tolerant might seem like a very laudable trait, and in many ways it is, but there are some negative aspects of toleration, too. For example, you might tolerate a high level of untidiness in your home or work life, or tolerate actions in other people which you would not allow yourself to indulge in. For me, one bugbear is that I tolerate the existence of items in my wardrobe which I know to be utterly out of step with the way that I want to dress. They may fit poorly, be of shoddy manufacture, or I simply may not like them. They may be very old, or brand new. I put up with them being there, I wear them despite disliking them, and all the while their presence irritates me. Another thing that I keep putting up with is the fact my wardrobe doors – those of the physical rather than metaphorical wardrobe – don’t fit well. Despite my intention to do ‘something’ about this, I instead put up with them sticking and grating on a daily basis. I need to channel the attitude of the War Doctor from the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, to join in with his rallying call “No More! No more!”

This week I am determined to stop tolerating these petty niggles and begin to remove such minute sources of stress from my life.

Do you have any petty things that you put up with because they seem almost too negligible to deal with, but which cause you a grating, low-level annoyance?