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!