For Not Getting Much Knitting Done Since My Last Post.
5. My mom was here for a week while my dad and niece went deer hunting on Manitoulin Island. (They didn't get a deer but had a good time anyway seeing family.) This isn't a really good reason for not knitting, since my mom is not someone I have to fuss over or entertain. She knits too and was working on this beautiful baby blanket while she was here. It's the Fan Pattern Afghan from the booklet Lacy Baby Afghans by Jeanette Crews Designs.
I temporarily set aside my sister's scarf and did some mindless knitting instead. I'm making the mitten scarf from Pints and Purls. I think it's such a cool idea. You don't really need a specific pattern for it; in fact, I changed the edging on the ribbed scarf and used a four-needle adaptation of my old faithful Patons pattern for the mitts. The yarn is Patons Classic Wool variegated doing some neat pooling on the first half. I hope I can get the second piece to come out somewhat the same. The two halves will be grafted together.
4. Having mom here involved driving to Sudbury two weekends in a row. This is a good reason for not knitting on the first trip: I drove by myself, since my DH was busy making pasta for our annual Italian club fundraiser. But on the second trip, he drove and I was able to work on my dad's Christmas socks. The ribbed pattern calls for 80 stitches, quite a few more than I usually use, and the legs are longer and the heels deeper than my usual pattern too. This is the first time I've had to buy more than 100 grams of yarn to complete a pair of socks. Since I'm knitting both at once and was afraid I'd get all tangled up using both ends of the same ball, I bought two more balls of yarn, doubling the cost of these socks, even though they're a man's size small.
3. Too much shopping takes away from knitting time. Mom and I went out a couple of days, shopping and lunching uptown. I bought a comfy pair of Clarks shoes to show off my handknitted socks. I haven't owned Mary Janes for thirty years. When I told my daughter my reason for choosing that style, she said, "You're such a geek." Yup, an unashamed knitting geek, right here.
Also, we stayed the weekend in Sudbury on the second trip and got some Christmas shopping done. Probably for the first time ever, I did not buy even one knitting book at Chapters. (Reason will follow.)
2. I was sick for two days with a horrible sore throat. I thought for sure it was going to develop into a bad case of strep just when I had to go to Sudbury for the weekend. I was taking Advil Cold and Sinus for it, when my husband suggested I try a shot of a super-strong Italian liqueur made only in his home province of Abruzzi. It's called Centerba, meaning 100 herbs, which should have some medicinal qualities, but its real strength is that it's 70% alcohol. That would be 140 proof on the American scale! We usually use it as a digestif. It has a wonderful burn on the way down, and it must have killed every germ as it went, making my throat feel 140% better within a few hours. I swear it's a miracle cure! Too bad the LCBO doesn't import it; you have to know someone going to Italy to bring it back here.
1. I've got a piano! A friend of a friend was willing to give it away to anyone who would pay to have it moved, so now it's in my living room. I'm so excited! I took lessons up to grade 8 but haven't had a piano since I left home after university. I bought a Maran Illustrated Piano book at Chapters as a refresher course and a new songbook Acoustic Rock, since all my sheet music is over thirty years old. This will cut into my knitting time in the new year, but being such a knitting geek, I'd like to make a runner for the top of it.


