Thank you for all your good wishes, here and elsewhere. It was a lovely birthday.

It began with the finding of a book, while I was looking for something to take my husband to read. It’s called “Ordeal by Hunger” and our copy used to belong to my husband’s father, who died young. My husband gave it to my sister to read when she was visiting us in Birmingham fully thirty years ago. For the last ten or fifteen years — since we moved to Edinburgh — he has accused her of not giving it back, of carrying it off to CT.

She was sure she wouldn’t have done that, that her worst offence might have been to leave it in her room rather than handing it back. My husband constantly harped on his loss, and became fairly unpleasant about it. Yesterday, looking for J.B. Priestly — my husband had said it was blue — I drew out a blue book whose faded spine I couldn’t read, and there it was in my hand: Ordeal by Hunger.

My husband wasn’t apologetic (“Never apologise, never explain”). My sister, when I phoned her, was pleased but not surprised.

Helen and the boys came back from Strathardle and we all went out to lunch with a friend, to a (wonderful, as it proved) Dim Sum place on Dalmeny Street called Stack. The friend had recommended it. I can add my voice to the many on-line who sing its praises.

And in the evening we had cake and cards — Helen had found one which said “K is for Kittens…and Knitting” — and presents.

And God, who had already found that book, chipped in with the new VK.

I’m not wildly enthusiastic, but I very much like the cover cowl. I could imagine its appearance as Christmas knitting. I would have to practice the stitch first — it sounds as if it might be tedious, and it happens constantly, with no peaceful rows in between. I also like Rosemary Drysdale’s open-front ribbed cardigan. One would have to achieve a very good fit on that one.

As for knitting, I ripped out the poor dog’s backwards head and am halfway with the new one. It is very hard to tell, even this far along, which way it is going to face. Assuming I’ve got it right this time, my mistake must derive from the instruction: “With RS facing knit 11 from spare needle of right side of body then knit 11 from spare needle of left side of body”.

At that point, I had just finished knitting the left side, and I suspect I just carried on from there without paying attention to the full implications of the instruction. We shall see.

The only other knitting news is that my husband seems to have lost a green madelinetosh DK sleeveless sweater which he has been wearing almost daily in hospital. The hospital is tremendously good at not walking off with things. I can only surmise that it got contaminated with diarrhoea and somehow didn’t get bundled with the other clothes sent home with me to wash. I can reproduce it. I should have my size-notes somewhere, and an excuse to knit with madelinetosh is always welcome. I may even have a note of the colour-name.