Thanksgiving Progress

A great weekend, from a knitting, family, and activity point of view! We had four beautiful days in Bear Valley. I finished the dk blue hood on Wednesday (did not run out of yarn!), thus completing the stockinette side of the Blue Cardy, and got about 12 cm into the Lt blue moss st side during the rest of the weekend. Would have been further, but I made a mistake while simulataneously knitting and playing Scrabble, and had to tink a few rows. Moss st requires a bit more focus than St st.

CNITU was as adorable as ever, and stood relatively still so I could try the safety-pinned pieces of the cardy on him. The sleeves are a bit short -- those French bebes are not as long-limbed as my little American nephew. I think I can fix that with blocking.

Skied Friday and Saturday while my sweetie snowboarded. There were many heated games of Sorry, Scrabble, and Backgammon in the evenings.

When I came back, there was a package from KnitWhits waiting for me! I will not mention what was inside since the intended recipients sometimes frequent this blog. But I will say that Tina Whitmore puts together a nice little package. I would mention, however, that at least on my browser, the colors are much brighter in person. Very nice colors, mind you, but a touch more vivid that I thought I was getting.

IF my luck holds out and I manage to escape jury duty this week, I will hopefully be learning to decrease in moss st at the Meet-up on Wednesday night!

Blessings

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. A holiday entirely devoted to eating good food and spending time with family and friends, that's so much less commercial than Christmas, and without the pressure to buy, buy, buy.

I am counting so many blessings this year! Here are a few:

A wonderful future husband
An extended family of in-laws
A job! (Stressful though it sometimes is)
Many wonderful friends
A safe, beautiful apartment
Good health (although that may not last the weekend, I'm getting a cold!)
So much more money than most of the world
A car that runs
A new hobby! Knitting! And all the great new friends I get to share it with.

Looking forward to eating turkey (my twice-yearly meat-eating), cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes! Yum!

Needing sleep and painkillers

Crazy weekend -- Saturday was a highly productive day during which we managed to choose the bridesmaids' dresses, look at invitation papers, and cater a five-course meal for some theatre supporters in Napa, all in one day. Sunday, however, was a bit of a disaster. Long story short, I spent 13 hours finishing the program layout for Napa Rep's next show, finally finishing at 1:15 am. When I finally stood up from our creaky old Mac G3, my right shoulder and neck were burning with pain. I don't think it's set up very ergonomically, but after that many hours at the computer, I think anyone would be hurting.

Add to that only five hours of sleep, and I was pretty much a zombie yesterday. I knit about 12 rows in the afternoon while watching the San Jose after-school Shakespeare kids do their run-throughs, but that hurt my shoulder. I am trying to do as much as possible with my left hand right now, but I'm so NOT ambidextrous. Time to learn Continental! I definitely think that will be a New Year's project. Assuming that I can still move my right arm by then.

Another month, another meet-up

We had a great Santa Clara Meet-up last night! Mel amazed the crowd by TEACHING HERSELF TO GRAFT after making a mistake on her very first project. (Lesson learned: don't drink and knit.) Apparently she just took it apart at a join and figured out how to put it back together from the live needles. Fantastic! Did I mention she did this after midnight as well?

C is working on a dog sweater on teeny needles, which make your back stiff, a problem I can definitely relate to. ESPECIALLY after Tuesday night, when I made major progress on the blue cardy hood only to realize I'd cast on the wrong number of stitches in the first place. Read the pattern wrong. RIIIIIIIP! I'm now well back into it, but it was frustrating.

J and I discovered that Blue Rock Shoot makes a damn good coffee cake. And they'll heat it up for you. Yummy!

The sock goddesses were all in fine form as usual, putting us all to shame with their genius.

I have a slight fear of running out of blue yarn before I finish the hood. I THINK I'm okay, but it's down to the last 3/4 ball.

The Holiday Ambush

As usual, I was completely unprepared for the holiday onslaught this week. No sooner did I crawl back into the world from my post-election doldrums, but horrid Xmas musack came blaring at me from the walkway outside the movie theatre last Saturday. (Went to see The Incredibles - you must go! Very fun.)

I went from feeling quite confident about finishing Blue Cardy for Xmas to feeling a bit panicky. I am nearly done with the sleeves now (I expect I'll finish those tonight), and then the hood is all that remains of the darker blue side of the cardy.

HOWEVER, then I've got to do the whole thing again in Moss st in the light blue! So typical of me, to get this ambitious. And not a chance that I'll get to make gifts for anyone else. Maybe I can draw little sketches of the scarves, ponchos, etc. I want to make for everyone and give myself the year of 2005 to get those done.

Stitches West!

Many thanks to Christina for spreading the news about Stitches West in February in Santa Clara! I am signed up for classes on grafting, pattern making, crochet, and combining knitting with fabric. Come one and come all!

A very productive wedding weekend -- you can visit our new website at ennalsandwisnewski.weddings.com.

*sigh*

...I guess today is the first day of the rest of our lives, or whatever it is they say. Despite a depressing indication that yes, America is just as lame as the rest of the world thinks we are, we must keep fighting the good fight. After all, how will we ever become less lame if all the cool people move to Canada?

I finished up most of the left front of blue cardy while watching election returns, bound it off in the doctor's office the nest morning while listening to the final verdict on the radio, and did the pocket last night while my sig other and I vented our frustrations, which made me feel less despondent. Seemed appropriate that it was the LEFT side of the cardigan. The side with the cute buttons, while the right side has the holes.

Then, symbolically as 'twere, I cast on both the right and left sleeve on the same set of circulars to knit them side by side. After all, the people have spoken, and though I disagree with a slight majority of them, we must carry on.

My friend Stephanie McCanles wrote this poem, and I think it's rather brilliant:

Farewell John Kerry
brave whiffle bat
partisan prince
droopy dog
the best thing we had
a man who actually had
fired a gun
seen death
and knew what war smelled like.

Good night.
May you sleep the soft sleep
of someone who did the best they could
as opposed to the waking sleep
of the grieving
the heartsick
the hopeless and confused.

In other words,
better than us.

The real work starts tomorrow
and it is unattractive
without buttons or bumper stickers
demands permanent vigilance
and a willingness to expect too much
and be disappointed.

All else has failed.
We will have to be citizens of this country.
Because if we won't claim it,
we know who will.

We are only as good as our best actions.
We are only blameless in our constant effort.
We have no choice but to fight for what we know is true

Because we started the work
and cannot give it up.
Because if it was ever worth fighting for
(in the first place)
it was worth fighting for
(in the first place)

Here is to
Our once
and Future Country.

Get off yer duff and VOTE!

Okay, that's pretty much the political ranting for this posting, since after all this is a knitting blog and not one of those crazed extremist political blogs I occasionally come across. Only a short line at my polling place, fortunately, so it was shocking to go on the internet and see all the images of 400 people lining up in Ohio before dawn. If nothing else, it's nice to see Americans getting off their collective rears and caring enough to get out there.

In the knitting world, we had the first theatre folk Stitch 'n' Bitch in Oakland yesterday. Wonderful homemade pizza. Just five of us -- three knitters and two newbies, both bravely attacking the yarn and forging ahead on their very first attempts. Since I believe in spreading the love, I lent my SnB book to one of them. Best of luck to her!

Excellent progress is being made on the left front of the blue cardy; might even be finished by the time Jon Stewart finishes his "Indecision 2004" report tonight. To my mind, it's the only election report worth watching!

Just look at the little Ghosty with his Mom the witch! My sister was thrilled with the costume, left multiple joyful messages on Friday, and sent over cute photos on Friday evening. A friend of hers apparently sells hand-made goods on the web and would love to sell my children's clothes -- I told Sis I'd have to get a little faster at this before I can keep up with demand! The hood fits JUST PERFECTLY and stays on his head. Hooray for Sally Melville!