Eclecticitee

Reaching home after a long wonderful day of knitting, I had to gather my energy and head off to kidlet’s boarding school, where a crisis needed to be  dealt with.  Although it wasn’t an open weekend when the kids come home, she was determined to come home anyway, and was causing quite a ruckus.

After several hours of discussion between me, the house “dad” and kidlet, we reached a compromise – which wasn’t easy, since my darling daughter believes in all or nothing and forget about compromise…until she realises that it really truly will be nothing, and then she regroups and attacks.  It was quite late in the discussion when she let slip the real problem.  Seems there’s a new boyfriend in the picture, back at home, and she didn’t get to see him on her last visit, and well….   So the compromise was that partner and I would come visit the next day, bringing her best friend and the new boyfriend with us.  Fine.

So Saturday morning – despite early signs of a monster cold – we set out, picking up kids along the way, and drove up into the Galilee.  Kidlet was very happy to see all of us, although partner and I were soon ignored.  We sat at the house for a while, having fun with the other kids and the counselors.  There was a whole group doing crafts, including some felting, so I joined in.  They had a big basket of acrylic roving, which they were felting into shapes.

One of the kids was making the solar system, trying to match colours of planets.  I decided to just make a rainbow:

Brought ’em home later,  added a ring and some beads, and it’s a new keychain.

Mostly I sat and drank tea, and worked on the Summer Mystery shawl.  Then partner and I went to the restaurant for lunch, then drove out to some shops where we sat and I had more tea…the cold had hit, and I was using up tissues at an alarming rate.  Towards evening, we went back, picked up the visiting kids, and drove home, dropping them off on the way.

I’ve put the Mystery aside for a few days to make something new.  One of kidlet’s friends is always fascinated by my knitting.  She’s a self-taught knitter, has never read a pattern, just tries to work things out by herself.  She’s going in the army now, at 18 she is out of the foster care system, which was not good to her, and is pretty much on her own now.  She does have an older brother whom she sees occasionally, and a younger sister still in the system.  She has come to visit us with kidlet in the past.  She comes to the boarding school as her only real home, and was there before going to a pre-army course.   When she saw the Mystery shawl, she asked me if someday I would make her something.  I said of course, and asked what she wants – socks, hat, shawl?  She shyly said shawl, and that she loves purple.

So when I got home I did some stash diving, and it certainly was not hard to find some purple yarn (ha!).  I chose some Mondial Merino Plus in varying shades of purple, and cast on for 198 yards of heaven by Verity Knits.  I plan to make 7 rows of pattern instead of the 5 the pattern calls for, to make it a bigger shawl.  I thought the needle size suggested for the heavier yarn was a bit small, so I went up a needle size – and I think I should have gone up more, but never mind.  I’ve just about finished the 4th row of pattern.

I want to finish it quickly and block it aggressively.  Then I can continue with the Mystery!

Unfortunately the nasty cold has hit hard, the nose is running, the throat and head and ears are hurting, the eyes are tearing, the fever rises and falls, and I’m coughing to beat the band.  It even hurts my hands to knit.  I do manage a row occasionally.  I’m going to wash away in echinacea tea.  As soon as I feel human again, I’ll finish it up.

No work in the meantime, I’ll get to the doc tomorrow, and now it’s back to bed!

See ya on the flip side.