Life's a Stitch

My Thanksgiving crowd left on the 11:00 ferry this morning. Chuck’s on his way down to B’Ham to clean the condo before the next rental. Too bad there was no room for me in the van, it being filled to the brim with U Vicers and the dad. I’ll relax suffer at home, thank you very much. As the song says, I’ve got no place to go and all day to get there. I’d better cherish it, it’s back to work tomorrow.

It was an exceptionally good turkey this year, brined overnight in apple juice and salt. We say it every year, but this one was truly the best. What’s you favourite part of the turkey dinner?  Mine is what my family so indelicately calls "picking the carcass." Plucking off the Pope’s nose, scooping out those last bits of stuffing, pulling off shreds of cold turkey meat, ah it’s the Viking life for me! People in my family come in two varieties, those who like to pick the carcass and those who stand aside and roll their eyes.

Besides cooking,  there was time for knitting. For those who are counting, yes, there are more rectangles than called for the Lady Eleanor pattern. I wanted mine wider; more shawl-like than scarf-like:

Twice in my life I’ve had the opportunity to meet, by chance, particularly interesting 80 some-year-old strangers. The first was when I was about eleven and met a woman while walking home from the bank. Despite my parent’s advice, I talked to strangers. Always the bargain hunter I had walked two miles to open a new account in order to get a free gift. I think it was an electric warming tray – just what an 11-year-old needs. The woman was 82 and told me about her visit to her son in Alaska. She was quite adventurous and I remember telling my incredulous parents that even though she was 82, I thought she was going to live a long time.

On my recent trip to Seattle, 40 years later, I met another one as we exited the Amtrak train at Edmonds, 40 minutes from the Seattle station. We were approached by a woman of advanced age, a New Yorker by voice, wearing an exquisite red leather coat.

She says, in her gravelly New York voice "How do I get to Pike St. Market?"

"That’s in Seattle," we say en chorus.

"Ohhh, I’m so stupid, I got off at the wrong stop. How do I get there from here?"

"We can take you there," the chorus replied.

"You’re accent sounds just like my mother’s," says I en solo.

"Oh honey, I’m much oldah than your muthah."

Is that the truth or a compliment I wondah.

The social worker in me comes out, "Don’t worry you’re safe with us."

"Honey, at my age I don’t worry about THAT anymore."

We pile into the car. She explains that she travels alone when not living on the beach at Far Rockaway. She stays in hostels and finds the young people very nice. Her hostel tonight is called the Green Taw-tis (that would be Tortoise), and not in a very nice part of town, might I add. Riding along in the car I get up the courage, "Would it be too nervy of me to ask how old you are?"

"What?" Either she didn’t hear me or she was shocked by my chutzpah. 

I took a deep breath, upped the volume, and asked again "HOW OLD ARE YOU?"

"I’m 83. Of course I don’t tell that to men. I knock off 20 years."

All four of us are laughing when she adds this, "I told this to my gynecologist and had her in hysterics."

Make that three more in hysterics. She goes on to tell us about her recent ferry trip to Victoria BC. I asked her if she saw whales.

"Oh honey, I only paint whales, I’ve nevah met one face-to-face in person."

I paint, and if I were to paint a whale I’d be at the aquarium studying their every move and muscle before putting brush to paper. No spontaneous whale painting for me. It clarified what a free spirit this woman was. As if I needed clarification from an 83-year-old who knocks 20 years off her age for the men, and still sees a gynecologist! It was late, my brain was obviously asleep.

At Pike Street Market she insisted on getting out, although there was no sign of the Green Tortoise. She wouldn’t be held back. "Don’t worry" she said, I’ll ask a vagrant." There was no getting her back into the car.

I listened for sirens all night.

I can’t think of an appropriate picture to illustrate this post – I should have taken her photo. So, I’ll leave you with my stash enhancements from the trip:

A Happy Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to all. I have a houseful of early 20 somethings, six of them, all here for turkey! OK, Megan the vegan will have to settle for lentils.

Update for Jane’s "Show Me Your Socks" contest. This is the current state of my sock projects:

Chuck and Bryant worked at 7:00am this weekend and I had the house all to myself. I didn’t go out all day Saturday except to walk the dog. I didn’t fix my bedhead. I made a big pot of chicken soup and one of red beans for rice and beans, a staple of my childhood from the Puerto Rican side of the family.

I attacked Mount Laundry. I tidied up my half done Lady Eleanor so the end weaving won’t be so overwhelming. Isn’t the way the colours are coming out absolutely magical?

I had CBC radio on for 14 hours. Did you know that Bryan Adams was a busboy here in North Vancouver at the Tomahawk Restaurant? Or that Sheryl Crowe grew up in a house with three pianos? Thank you Randy Bachman for those musical bits of tid.

Back to my day. The exciting part. I drew the winner of my blogiversary contest. I wish everyone could be the winner. If I win the lottery big time, yarn to all of you! And the winner is… Restless Knitter who came out of lurkdom to say she likes Life’s a Stitch just the way it is. Thanks again to everyone for all your kind comments and feedback. This was fun, I’ll be doing it again.

If you’ve been reading you know about the boat ride. This was a $60 one day mini-cruise from Seattle to Vancouver. This is Part 2 of the great yarn crawl/cruise adventure. To wrap up the yarn crawl, you’ll be amazed that I exercised great self control. My recent criteria for yarn purchasing is either that I’m desperate for yarn to finish a project or that I have a project in mind and the yarn is at least 40% off. This trip enhanced my stash by a few of the Annie Blatt kits at $17.50 and the three remaining skeins for Lady Eleanor.

Prior to boarding we took some photos from Jeff’s apartment’s roof garden, which has spectacular views:

   

Gotta love the Pacific Northwest in the sunshine! And of course, a son who’ll vacate his apartment for two yarn crawling moms. On board the ship there were more views of Seattle in the sunshine. I feel so privileged; people pay good money to see Seattle this time of year and never get to see the sunshine, much less Mount Rainier:

Finally, my travelling companions: me, Marsha, her son Jeff, her husband Dave, his friend, Bill and of course, Lady Eleanor.

I’ll be posting the winner of the blogiversary contest early in the week.

You know it’s a good yarn crawl when:

1. You have to take a break to eat lunch in order to clear your head enough to make purchasing decisions.

2. You get a fortune cookie at lunch that reads "You will take on a new project and complete it."

3. You hit a yarn math shop (yes. you read that right) with a "baker’s dozen special," not the kind you’d see in a bakery – buy 12 and get 1 free. This one was buy 7 and get 6 skeins free. Special note to those who live near Seattle: the store Math and Stuff, on 90th and Roosevelt Way NE, has a yarn section. Go figure. The yarn section is not doing well and the baker’s dozen special is their way of clearing things out. They have an interesting collection, grouped by colour, but limited colours of each yarn. For example they had Tartlette, but only in three colours and Noro Silk Garden but only in two. They have more inventory in back, stored by manufacturer in boxes, and they’ll let you have at them if you ask. Other stock that I remember: Noro Silver Thaw, Segue ribbon, Mountain Colors loopy mohair, Manos del Uruguay in a good selection of colours.This is blogless Marsha sorting the goods.

4. Finding Anny Blatt $44 angora and ribbon scarf kits for $17.50.

5. Tracking down three skeins of discontinued, albeit troublesome Silk Garden in the right colourway, to add length to my Lady Eleanor. Yes, I’m a glutton for knitting punishment, you can tell that by the projects I take on, can’t you? My Noro may be flawed. but thinking positively, the only negative is that I have to weave in more ends. The colours are beautiful.

Marsha and I spent the first two nights in her son’s beautiful downtown Seattle apartment. Thank you, Jeff, for graciously handing over your apartment to us. It was the perfect spot to knit, enjoy the view (this really is the view without a telephoto lens), and of course, enjoy some decent wine.

I can’t leave out one of my travelling companions, Lady Eleanor, posing on Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle:

Next post: the boat ride. Although it is disrespectful to call a ship a boat, our 15 hour trip hardly counts as a cruise, so it has been dubbed the boat ride.

Ok, I’m just knitting along on my Lady Eleanor wrap, in Noro Silk Garden, which, by the way was a terrific bargain at 40% off, and all of a sudden – I’m knitting nothing. The yarn just disintegrated mid stitch. I’ve knit with Silk Garden before, and besides a knot or two in each skein, and occasional detritus that Noro is known for, I have never encountered yarn that goes poof mid stitch. It’s usually on part of the yarn that appears unspun; the cottony looking fluffy bits. You gently pull it and it comes completely apart. 

It gets worse – I’m using two colourways of Silk garden and it’s happening on both. It usually gets better a few feet later, but it’s a frequent occurence. It also will require an unreasonable amount of end weaving. I know the yarn wasn’t on sale because of this – the entire store was 40% off – but I’m getting that "you get what you pay for" feeling and I don’t like that feeling as I am the queen of bargain hunting. And with such bargains comes that rubber stamped receipt that says "final sale." Yeesh.

After the first couple of incidents, I took the time to rewind the yarn, but these weak spots didn’t show up in the process. They wait and attack only in mid stitch.The re-winding, however, allows a pretty preview of colours to come:

Have a great weekend, I’ll be thinking of you while I’m yarn crawling in Seattle. And if you haven’t entered my blog 2nd anniversary contest, go a few posts back and try your luck.

This weekend I’m going on another cruise! It’s on the Dawn Princess and it cost $60! OK, so it’s for a total of 15 hours and I’m sharing a cabin with my knitting buddy Marsha, her husband, and 27 year old son. We sail from Seattle to Vancouver. What the heck, good food, good company, what’s to complain about?

But wait, there’s more. I’m taking the train to Seattle after work on Thursday and Marsha is taking me on a yarn crawl on Friday. There is lots of fun in my future.

What will I take along to knit? Marina requires her own suitcase so she’s being left behind. The lucky winner is Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style. It’s my new entrelac project in Noro Silk Garden. This one is destined for my office, for those times that the air conditioning feels more like refrigeration.

You guys are wonderful. Thank you so much for your blogiversary wishes. What a relief if it was to find out that so many people are actually reading this blog. I find that I can’t trust the stats page on Typepad, so I never accurately know what’s going on. Today, for example, it tells me I’ve had one reader since midnight. Your feedback is appreciated and I’ll be sure to make an effort to post more about Marina and Gracee.

I would love to have the opportunity to knit with each of you in person. You have an open invitation to look me up if you are ever in the Vancouver area. Heck, even if you live thousands of miles away and have always wanted to see YVR, knitting is a good excuse. Right Ellen? And Dorothy, you live close enough you have no excuse. OK, I’m gushing here, but it’s meant with all sincerity.

Relieved again – I went in for my second diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound. When the technician applied the gel I was pleasantly surprised at its warmth. Usually it feels like like having ice jelly spread across your breast. I made a comment and she told me I scored brownie points because she saw me knitting in the waiting room! There you have it, another benefit of knitting. After meeting with the radiologist, in what seemed an unreasonably drawn out process, involving gelled up breast and armpit, I was told it was just a new cyst to add to my growing collection of things lumpy. So that’s it for another year. It’s a relief and I do feel well looked after in this system of socialized medicine. But then again, I’m not sick. I really don’t want the opportunity to test the system any more this year.

To keep part of my promise, here is a photo, no caption necessary:

 

This month, Life’s A Stitch (the original – don’t be fooled by imitations), is two! To celebrate, I’m hosting a contest. So talk to me, give me some feedback. Tell me what you like or don’t like. Isn’t that brave? Each comment relating to my blogiversary this month will get an entry.

The prize? Enough yummy Fleece Artist DK weight non-fuzzy mohair, in the Pinata colourway, to make a scarf, plus a copy of my herringbone rib scarf pattern. Not that you have to make that scarf, the yarn would make a nice Wavy or maybe a slightly heavier weight Branching Out from Knitty. If you win, you can talk to me about the prize if you want. I’ve got lots of neat scarf stuff in my stash and I’m flexible.

Free yarn, free pattern, I think I’ll make a comment. I’m going to make it a really nice one in hopes the random entry generator recognizes the positive energy nice comments produce.

Thanks to you all: the regulars, the drop-ins and the lurkers (that’s such an unappealing name for an innocent behaviour), for the taking the time to visit my blog. I hope you keep reading. Now, try your luck and leave a comment.

How do you justify occasionally spending $18 for yarn for a pair of socks or $48 for a scarf? You’d never spend $18 on a pair of socks in the store. As long as I don’t need the money for the necessities of life like food and mortgage I can justify it:

1. The time I take knitting the project keeps me out of trouble and away from opportunities to spend way more on random things I don’t need.

2. It’s a good value timewise. A movie costs in excess of $10 and it’s over in two hours.

3. It’s healthy – $18 could buy a lot of chocolate.

4. You can wear what you made. Try wearing $18 worth of chocolate on any part of your body other than your hips, where it ultimately settles.

5. Use can use the item as a gift. Unless, of course the recipient would prefer $18 worth of chocolate.

6. I don’t smoke, eat much chocolate or go to bars.  I only have two magazine subscriptions (a previous addiction), and don’t spend money on TV, certainly I can splurge guiltfree on yarn.

Now I feel better. I hope you do, too.