It’s the winter solstice, that ancient festival devised by our pagan ancestors to celebrate the fact that there’s only four more sleeps till Christmas. (Sunrise in Wick, 9.01; sunset 15.21.) Normally Margaret and I’d be heading south around now to spend the holidays with family in England; but this year, like everyone else, we’ll be hunkering down and having a quiet Christmas at home. I’m on leave until the New Year, with plans for a little reading, a little writing and a lot of knitting as I listen to all my Christmas CDs.
Captured Christmas Baubles
My navy gansey project ended just before the year did, and I must say adding cables to the yoke worked a treat. Next up—but that would be telling. We’ll just have to wait till next week.
In the meantime, we’d like to wish all our readers a very merry, very safe Christmas, and we’ll see you next week for the turning of the year.
Now it’s that time absolutely no one everyone’s been waiting for, the traditional Gansey Nation Christmas singalong. All together now…
We three kings at John o’Groats are
Wishing we hadn’t stopped for a jar,
Did too much drinking,
Now we are thinking,
Where did we park our car?
We tried to follow the star through the rain,
The sat nav packed up somewhere near Tain,
Now it’s increasingly clear,
Bethlehem’s nowhere near,
And Balthazar’s drunk the champagne.
Oh, star of wonder, star of light,
It’s far too cloudy to see you tonight,
So Caspar eats a
Takeaway pizza
While Melchior hopes for a bite.
We lost the frankincense and myrrh,
And spent the gold on some hookers* at Bower,
Moving at speed,
We stocked up on weed,
Now everything’s just a blur.
The evening quickly got in full swing,
Ended up in a mass Highland fling,
We got too merry
And missed the ferry,
Now we’re stuck here till spring.
Oh, star of wonder, star of light,
Star that’s always just out of sight,
Oh we of little faith,
Here in the Ness of Caith,
Grant us our wish tonight…
- Look, we signed up a couple of chaps to play in the number 2 position in the Nazareth and Judea Combined Rugby Union Team, all right…?
Oh that was a good laugh for today much needed, thank you. And the gansey looks great!
Hello Sharon, happy Christmas!
Fame at last! You can read my wee article in support of the Knitting the Herring project here – https://scottishgansey.org.uk/2020/12/21/marriage-lines-and-heapies-a-life-in-ganseys/
Love the lyrics, ha ha – and the gansey looks great, too. Merry Christmas Gordon and Margaret from this side of the pond.
Hi Lynne, and a very happy Christmas to you!
As always funny funny funny! Best wishes for a merry Christmas and a very happy NEW Year. Thank you so much for the blog! It is a delight and inspirational!
Thank you Joan, and happy Christmas !
Very funny, very welcome. Have a great holiday
Cheers Nigel, the very best you for a happy Christmas.
Good timing, finishing the dark gansey by the longest night.
And a good laugh, too.
Happy Solstice and New Year to come!
Hi Tamar, just to mix things up, frohe Weihnachten to you!
Just what I needed at this dark time of the year – a good laugh! Best wishes for Christmas and a brighter year for all. Keep the needles warm!
Hi Lois – or in Welsh, Nadolig llawen!
Hello from Downunder. My paternal great-grandparents came from Caithness (Auckingill and Wick.) As children we all had ganseys made by my paternal grandmother – who had been taught by her MIL. Each time they lasted through her six grandchildren!
Hi Cat, great to hear from you! And thanks for sharing. (My line manager remembers being knitted ganseys by his grandmother when he was a child, only in his case “I hated them”! You can’t please everyone…)
Happy New Year!
Gordon