I’m sorry to say goodbye to Ought Six. It’s been a good one, despite the broken arm.

We got to Thessaloniki and back…

We “did” Christmas…

And we won the Calcutta Cup.



Best wishes for Ought Seven to everybody, but it doesn’t have quite the same ring.

This is what I’ve knit this year:

A First Holy Communion veil for granddaughter Rachel, in Beijing. Her sister Kirsty’s initials have been included as well.
A Nudibranch scarf, test-knitting Lorna's fun pattern.
A striped Koigu, rugby-shirt style, for daughter Rachel.
A 70th-birthday shawl for my sister Helen, Gladys Amedro’s “Cobweb Lace Wrap” for shape – an elongated triangle; patterns from Sharon Miller’s “Heirloom Knitting”.
A shrug of Debbie Bliss’ Pure Silk, and her pattern, as my entry in the Home Industries Tent at the Strathardle Highland Games in August. It was unplaced. The object was then bestowed on granddaughter Helen.
The “Paisley Long Shawl”, a Christmas present for my sister-in-law.
A “therapy scarf” – feather-and-fan of Debbie Bliss “Maya” – as I recovered from breaking my left arm in September. It wound up as a Christmas present for daughter-in-law Ketki.
A watchcap, rather small, in brioche stitch, same yarn; a Christmas present for granddaughter Rachel.
A vest for myself of green-y Malabrigo.
ONE pair of socks, for daughter-in-law Cathy.

On the needles:

A sweater celebrating Scotland’s victory in ’06 in the annual Calcutta Cup rugby match against England, for son Alexander; see above.
A gansey for his wife Ketki.
A pair of socks, for some gent.

If my records are accurate, I’ve dispatched – knit, or lost, or given away – 105 balls or skeins of yarn this year, and only welcomed home 85. That’s pretty good. There’s a chance that I may polish off an oddball of charcoal grey Shetland jumper weight this evening, too. That would bring the total to 106, which would be appropriate.

I used to send reports like this, in all their tedium, to the Knitlist. Last year, I didn’t write it down at all. The main usefulness of such an account for myself, is to keep a printout in the file where I also keep untidy and incomplete records of what I have knit, patterns, yarn samples, incomprehensible notes. So this year I’ll print this message. When I am looking back to find the record of a particular project – which happens surprisingly often – it helps to have a summary-of-the-year, now that there are so many years.