All went really quite well today. Perhaps the secret is to pay but little attention to Christmas.

I finished-finished the second stripey hat, although both it and its predecessor could do with a brief pass of the steam iron because the three rounds of ribbing at the beginning tend to flip upwards.

Then I wound a skein of “Tannehill” – goodness, it’s nice; why on earth discontinued? And then returned to Mrs Hunter’s edging. I’ve now done 10 scallops on the third side – 16 will be halfway. I continue to be surprised and pleased at how attractive this very simple edging looks. But by now “very simple” = “boring” and it’s going to need seriously gritted teeth to get the rest of the way around. Tomorrow’s target is that halfway point.

I thought I had a lot more to say. We watched a television program this evening about Balmoral, from its construction by Victoria and Albert to the present day. Some are horrified by the décor and bored by the regime – someone was quoted, as an example of the latter, as saying that the Queen spent the evening knitting. I think (given the point in the program at which the remark occurred) that that would have to be Mrs George V, the formidable Queen Mary of my youth, grandmother of the present Queen.

The solstice, I gather, will occur between 10:30 and 11 tomorrow morning – if they remember.