I haven’t got the “I have just had a baby” excuse for not writing, or the “I’m almost going to have a baby” excuse for not writing. I saw a baby last week (actually had one in my house!) but that wasn’t much of a timesucker. Can’t blame it on housework, or yardwork (even though I dropped $300.00 at the plant nursery yesterday. Nothing useful or edible, just shrubs and flowers. I don’t even think I can make tea out of any of them.). What did I see on a t-shirt? Oh, yeah. “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” (Not to be confused with my brother-in-law the minister’s t-shirt “Paddle faster. I hear banjo music”. He is by far and away the coolest Anglican priest I have ever met.) (Colleen, if you’re reading this, don’t tell him I said so. We can’t have him getting a swelled head or anything. Dick, if you’re reading this, I’m not talking about you. It’s my other brother-in-law the priest.)
Anyways. The house is devoid of persons other than myself, the laundry is started, the dishwasher is running and in about three minutes I am going to go and make coffee. I like Sunday mornings.
My friend Ruth in Calgary sent me home a few weeks ago with a project. She had found a hat pattern she liked but couldn’t figure out (Amazing to me, since Ruth can knit a silk hat out a sow’s ear, and does some beautiful work!) so I said I would give it a try. ***coffee break*** So after purchasing a substitute fibre (because the one specified has, of course, been discontinued (Rowan Polar)) I raced back to Saskatoon sure that I could bring this pattern to its knees. After a while I thought “there’s something wrong with this pattern”.
Well, no, it turns out that the Wrap and Turn wasn’t supposed to be at the end of the rows; it’s for (trumpets please) Short Row Shaping. You know, decrease the bulk at the top of the hat and so forth. Now altogether: rip and frog and rip and frog…and from the beginning: read and knit and read and knit…
Much better. So it actually turns out to be:
which is a pretty cute hat. Now, before I discovered that Christine Bagwell actually knew what she is talking about when she designed the hat (and sent me a couple of very nice emails in response to my brain-dead queries), I decided that I was going to run out of wool. so, I phoned Gina Brown’s in Calgary and had them send me a third ball of Garn Eskimo. Since the shippng cost would be be the same, I had them throw in a ball of this:
Should I ever get off my ass and get back to socks, these will be nice and bright. Of course, once I figured out that the hat pattern was basically correct, it turned out that I didn’t need the extra ball of wool. Ms. Bagwell, my apologies.
Long story short, (right. As if.) the hat is done, it’s going back to Ruth, and I am going to get back to Knitting Other Stuff.
I started knitting a tree skirt for next Christmas last weekend, but it was airport knitting and not much got done. I have a few more trips planned between now and Christmas, so hopefully the thing will practically knit itself. No pictures yet.
Speaking of airports (nice subtle segue, eh?) Mike and I took a little trip this past weekend. Guess where? (Kyle, your guess doesn’t count.)
It was a business trip. Really!!! Las Vegas is an amazing place. Like Disneyland, only with more alcohol and gambling and if you can believe it, more expensive souvenirs. Mike was actually at a conference, so my challenge was to pump money into the local economy without gambling. Mission accomplished, and I didn’t even have to lie coming back through customs. I just had to re-allocate the purchases. (Of course, Mike got credit for two trips to Victoria’s Secret…) The trip was not without incident, as my first excitement was leaving my carryon in the taxi we took from the airport to the hotel. The driver actually returned it on his own, which appealed to my Canadian small-cityish Pollyanna belief that everyone does the right thing. I had never been to Vegas before, and Mike hadn’t been for 15 years, so he found that it was a whole different experience. When he was there before, he told me that the Strip was littered with flyers advertising ladies who would entertain you on an hourly basis, and apparently the powers that be didn’t like the mess. The compromise is what we referred to as “Hooker Trading Cards”, which are handed out by young male assistants (okay, pimps’ helpers) on the street. (but not in front of the nice hotels. Only in front of construction zones.). The friend we were with collected as many cards as she could to pass out at the office back home. Such a thoughtful keepsake, don’t you think? I’m really looking forward to going back in October with my high school friends.
Going back in the time machine, I did get my vest back from Custom Woollen Mills, where they kindly redyed it. Sadly, the colour it turned out was somewhat brighter than I would have liked, and I could still see the lines where the original wool changed colour. To lessen the blow, they included a couple of knickknacks:
A couple of cones, so hopefully the colour is the same at the end as at the beginning. I have no idea what is lurking in this wool waiting to come out. Time will tell. I also received:
4 sock stretchers! They are too big for socks for me, but they look cool on the shelf in my studio. They used them for many years at the mill, but the volume of socks they produce eliminates the practicality of stretching each pair. I thought it was a nice touch since the vest re-dye was somewhat less than successful. The vest fits my friend Hilda perfectly, and she loves the colour and is not disturbed by the ever-so-faint lines. It’s just one of those things; when I make an eensy teensy goof in something, it’s the only thing I see when I put it on. In this case, everyone is happy with the outcome.
Turns out I’m not the only one who finds Sunday mornings relaxing.
We don’t often find Wallace on his back, but sometimes it’s just too hard to stay upright…
Have a great Sunday!
Under Sask Skies 