Favorite knits, 2010

Damson by Isolda Teague in Malabrigo sock

Squirrel Sampler mittens by Hello Yarn in Harrisville Shetland

Swirl shawl, Jojoland Melody

Edith the Hat in Louet Gems Merino

In the Land of Oz Shawl by Adrienne Fong knit in grey/blue Ball and Skein Supersock.

                                                                           

Naughty or Nice

    No knitting content here.  If that's what you are looking for, try tomorrow.  If you did not read yesterday's blog this will make very little sense, but read away.  Nonsense makes good reading.

     We celebrated Christmas yesterday.  As a non-Christian I am perfectly comfortable celebrating Christmas any old day.  July 4th would be fine with me.  But it was December 29.  Close enough.  My daughter and her boyfriend met my son and I half-way for each of us, in a smallish city in central New Hampshire.  We had a lovely lunch then decided to go somewhere to exchange gifts and chat.  Starbucks sounded nice.  We drove up there.  It wasn't particularly crowded, but....there were no free tables.  If you have ever been to a Starbucks you know what I mean.  Every double table was occupied by a single person with a computer, maybe a cup of coffee.  There were 2 tables for 4.  Each was occupied by a single person.  Well, one of those single people, quite honestly was large.  The nice me says he was large, the old Susan would say he was freakin' huge; as big as the 4 of us put together.  No s**t.  This guy was super-sized.  He needed a table for 4.  He also had a super-sized triple, caramel, mocha, grande macciato with about 3" of whipped cream.  The thing must have been 1200 calories.  The second table for 4 was occupied by a kid.  A college age boy who undoubtedly had been sitting there the entire winter break.  He was there because: a) he didn't want to be home with his family.  b) he thinks he might run into some friends from high school or c) he got stood up by someone he met on match.com.  He didn't even have a cup of coffee.  In fact he had a deck of cards, but he wasn't playing solitaire.  His only saving grace.
   The new Susan glowered at both of them with fiercely Mother/Librarian eyes.  I can think of a number of un-nice things I might have said, but my daughter, who is NOT a shrinking Violet said, quite loudly, " lets go somewhere else".  We went to the food court at the Mall.  Kinda like having Christmas dinner in the Junior High Cafeteria.  It smelled like food, and not in a good way.  There was no lovely coffee.  But we had a wonderful time, great gifts, and lots of free tables.
     My conundrum is this.  Nice people leave Starbucks, say nothing, and feel like crap because they had their family celebration in the Food Court at Steeplegate Mall.  Naughty people tell fat guys they should ditch the 1200 calorie Mocha, get a water bottle and go for a walk, maybe with the lonely kid.  And the naughty person feels like crap as well. Rightly so because she has caused the poor chubby guy to drop dead of a heart attack.   Who wins?  Just askin'

10 Intentions for the New Year

     Many bloggers do a "10 on Tuesday"... following a script of 10 things; beach reads, favorite movies, best knits, etc.  I have never bothered with this because I couldn't imagine having 10 of anything; favorite books, about 90, favorite movies, 1 or two and they change pretty often.  I am just not too good at lists.  New Year's resolutions... I don't bother.  Last year I believe I said I would read more books from the library, and I did, too.  Had way more overdue fines as a consequence, but I really need to support my local library, so it all worked out.  This week's 10 on Tuesday is "10 intentions for the New Year"  Well, offhand I can't think of 10, but I may just come up with a few.

1.  Hang my laundry on the line.  I hang clothes outside all summer, but not usually in the winter.  I have a great clothesline in the cellar, left from my mother's days in this house, and I'm gonna use it, by golly.
2. Read from my shelves.  I could read from my shelves 'til the day I die and never read all the books in this house, so I better get started.
3. Knit my handspun.  I have started collecting patterns that I think are suitable for handspun, and it is time to get hoppin' on this project.  I have a handspun sweater half knit.  I'm going to frog it and make a different sweater.  I found a pattern that I think will be more flattering to the yarn and to me.
4. Be nicer.  I have developed a tendency to just not be bothered with being nice to people who really annoy me.  I find it hard to be phony.  In fact I think it is particularly unbecoming to humans to  fake niceness, but I am going to give it a try.  Might be really hard.
5. Make a bucket list.  I am over 60, on the downhill slide of life.  My sister died last year; many of my friends are sick or have passed away in recent years.  There are a few things that I would really like to do before I die.  Better get crackin'.  Last year I reconnected with my 3 freshman college roommates.  3 of us, but not the 4th, have had some really good times in the past year.  We arrived at college 43 years ago as fairly unlike 17 year olds, but as we have aged we are not so very different after all, though our lives have certainly followed diverse paths.  That sounds snarky.  Number 4 got married last year.  She was just not interested in the rest of us, but that's okay.  We wish her the best!
6. Eat locally.  In 2010 we made a concerted effort to eat as much as possible from the local area.  We are lucky to live where it is possible to shop at co-ops and farmer's markets.  Agriculture is important in Vermont.  We have great dairy products, produce much of the year, local meat and poultry and grains are now being grown in Vermont, and of course we have great beer.  As a consequence of local,  especially local organic food, being more expensive, we eat less, but we eat better.
7. Enough.  This is giving me a headache.

I'm BBAACCKKKK!!

Okay, a bit cheesy, but here I am, at Harrisville Designs for 3 days in November with you-know-who.  It was a great 3 days and since then I am a total Brooklyn Tweed convert.  Everyone got Koolhaas hats for the holidays and I have a Girasole almost, tediously,nearly  completed.  Honestly, it is made with Green Mountain Spinnery yarn, but it is still gorgeous.  And doesn't my Kauni Cardigan look just fab against the Harrisville wall of color?