Life's a Stitch

The product of my weekend efforts, a finished Rippling Waters scarf:

I have been demoted to the shortest person in my family. I used to be second tallest and now I am last. Trying to think positively here – when I make a sweater for myself it will the most reasonable one in the family since I don’t need as much yarn. My scarves can be the shortest, too.

Right now we have another family member, who also happens to be taller than me. She is a French-speaking student from Switzerland who will be with us until Christmas. We have hosted more than 50 students and I consider myself a good communicator, so how come it took three weeks to figure out that her mother works in a knit shop? Marielle, herself, is very creative, having studied jewellery design. She wears a beautiful sweater, done in the tiniest of cables that she knitted – one of her first efforts. Such talent.

We learn a lot from the experience of hosting students. Last night at the dinner table my son trapped a spider underneath an overturned glass. She said at home, they do this with a bee when they eat outside. The bee sends vibes (she pronounced it “veebs”) to the others indicating danger and the others stay away. Have to try it with the wolf spiders here in BC. If you know about spiders in the Pacific NW, they are huge, hairy and scary looking. They are not particularly dangerous and more people get hurt running away from them than from the spider itself.