Post-Christmas

I'm back from a couple of days in Powell River, BC. We were visiting my dh's parents and brothers. DH stayed up there for a couple more days while ds and I came home. Dd didn't even go - she had a cold and wasn't feeling all that well, but admitted that seeing her aging grandparents is hard on her. Her grandmother doesn't remember much of anything these days and constantly has to be reminded who people are. She does remember her own children but can't remember if they're married or have children. Dd said that the emotional pain on top of being sick would be too much for her. So we let her stay on her own for two days at home. The first time. She's 17 so I wasn't too concerned. She's not the type to invite lots of friends over and trash the house. She did make more of a mess than the post-Christmas mess we had when we left. Darn! I wish she had gotten the cleanup bug, LOL.



Dh's two brothers and one nephew live with his parents. One brother is their caregiver. The other brother is unemployed and content to stay that way. The nephew is there temporarily, I think. They have turned the basement rec room into a bit of a 'den of iniquity'. Friday and Saturday nights (the nights I was there), they had 2 - 3 tables of poker players come in. It felt just like a casino. I played a few games over the time I was there. It just didn't feel like visiting family. Even my dh, who loves getting into long conversations with his family mentioned it. Hopefully these next couple of days are better for him.



While in Powell River I looked for yarn stores. Dh was quite supportive. He even helped me look for stores in the smaller towns along the 4-5 hour drive up and asked if I wanted to make small detours to look more. I didn't take him up on it on the way but went out on my own once we got there. Dh's brother said there was a yarn store in the mall. It was two days away from closing and was mostly cleaned out. But, what was there was 80% off! I bought some acrylic yarn to add to my stash - not exciting but cheap. I found some Linie 64 Nobile, regularly priced at 13.99 a ball, in the same (I hope) colourway as my dd's grad dress. It's a deep almost brown burgundy colour. It has shiny flecks in it. I want to make her a shrug to wear with her dress. In all I got about $170 worth of yarn for $30. Oh Yeah!



Right now I'm knitting some wrist warmers. I wanted to do a cable and found a lovely pattern:




It's called Rose's Wrist Warmers and was, apparently, copied from an episode of Dr. Who. This is a photo I found online. I'm about halfway finished one of them and I'm using purple Alpaca Merino from Sweaterkits. It's lovely and soft but does have some clear coloured flyaways. I'm knitting them with my new Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle set that I got for Christmas. Maybe I'll see if the store where I bought the yarn (Shan's Needlework in New Westminster) has enough left for a beret. That would be a nice set.


Have a happy new year!

Christmas

I see I have not blogged since Dec 2. No, that's not true. I did blog one day, then clicked the wrong button and that entry went to post heaven. I missed it very much for a few minutes but did not replace it. It was too soon.

All the Christmas hats done; the bags are felted. They are all in one big box, each filled with plastic bags of three different kinds of fudge and a couple of lottery tickets -big gift-giving items in my family.

The preparations for Christmas went well. Lots of money was spent on electronics. Tomorrow I shall see if I got my Denise Knitting Needle set.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at church tonight at 6:00. Both of our kids, teenagers of 16 and 17, were working at McDonald's. They're growing up and things will only continue to change. Jobs, marriages, moves to different locations will all affect how Christmas works each year. With our oldest graduating this year, this may be the last Christmas we're all together. But, really, I don't think so, at least not yet.

Merry Christmas.

Knitters at Christmas Parties

Last night I went to my husband's company's Christmas Party. It had snowed overnight so the Lower Mainland could go into its usual snow-tizzy -an inch of snow and a little ice on the road and many people get stuck on the road. Last year it took me three hours to get home from work a couple of days.

This party was at Swan E Set golf and country club way out in Pitt Meadows (funny name, eh?). We thought it was smooth sailing until we found the road we were supposed to turn on and P put his foot on the brake and we slid on black ice right past it and another car that had gone into a ditch. The ride home was a little treacherous too but we made it fine.

But - at the party: P has been working for this company for only about 6 weeks so even he didn't know many of the people there. I, of course didn't know anybody. When I looked across the room I saw somebody knitting! I got right up and went over to talk to her. She was knitting a scarf. She was quite a beginner, someone who was looking forward to knitting lace. I showed her the long tail cast on and how lace is made - yarn overs and knit two togethers to keep the number of stitches on the needles constant. I wrote down some web sites for her: Knittinghelp.com, Ravelry. She asked a lot of questions. I think I scared her when I said knitting could become all-consuming. She said she already had one of those hobbies: water-colour painting.

Well, you know, you plant the seeds and see what grows.

As for my own knitting, I haven't been for a few days. I've finished about 5-6 hats and have been thinking about felting those bags. I guess I'm a bit stalled but that's okay, I've gots lots of time before everything has to be finished.