Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Holiday Report

Dear Laura:

Well, I think I've decompressed from the wildness of the holiday weekend. All too quickly, food was prepared, consumed and cleaned up.....and of course, the shopping begun.

Years ago (20 to be exact) my 2 sils suggested that we have a girls-only-get-away-weekend starting the day after Thanksgiving. We went to Nashville Indiana to the artsy shops, and avoided the madness of the malls. This has been an enduring tradition. That first year, the oldest girl-children were 3 and therefore left with the father. Eventually age 13 was determined to be the "age of reason" and the next generation joined us.

Over the years, the participants have come and gone. (There was a divorce. The new wife has accepted the fact that we have 15 years of memories with the old wife. We love making new ones....but the first wife's name is gonna come up.) The two little girls who were 3 that first year are now mothers themselves. Sometimes it's a large group (10 if everyone had gone this year) other times it's smaller (this year was actually 5) but it's always lots of fun and laughing. There is an outlet mall nearby now, and also a regular mall, so we split our time in different venues. Also, for the second year.........A YARN STORE FOR ME!!!

Fortunately, I had a plan and I stuck to it. While money was spent and yarn acquired, there was no "random stash enhancement." Here is the booty:

I was happy to find a copy of Interweave Knits Holiday edition, since that was not part of my subscription. The three balls of Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille are for The Rebellious Pastor's Wife - I believe she's making blossom face cloths. There are 2 grey and 1 cream of Fortissima Sock yarn for the Tech guys socks on my "not Christmas knitting" list, and 2 balls of Cascade 220 behind the soap. That's a secret "experiment" thing. And finally, #3 dpns and #8 dpns. I could have sworn I had those sizes....but must have left them too near the Knitting Needle Black Hold of Death.

I am also happy to report that I finished the brown hat to warm my brother's head, and have made progress on the socks for his wife.

(I carried the yarn in my backpack, and knitted while shopping! A new personal best.....)

I managed to forget to take my glasses (don't ask) and so I had to buy sunglasses, since mine are clips that go on my regular glasses.

And finally, after my sage advice to you about projects to knit while riding in a car after dark....I forgot to plan for that, and so had nothing suitable with me. But I did make progress over the weekend!!

Keep knitting,
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

3 comments:

YarnThrower said...

I'm really enjoying the holiday edition of IK. I want to make the Teddy Bears in there when I get a chance... I'm very curious about the Cascade 220 "experiment"... Finally, regarding knitting in the car when it is dark outside, has anybody ever actually tried using one of those "itty bitty reading lights"? I'm wondering if they are useful...

Marie N. said...

Sounds like a fabulous post Thanksgiving tradition. I love that it had been keps alive for generations!

There are lighted knitting needles out there -- never tried them myself. And I think they are only available down to a size 6 or so.

Marie N. said...

I just saw my friend in Finland (blog is Dances with Wool) showed a photo of her lighted needles on her Dec. 1st post!