Beret Blues

One of my good knitting buddies had a sad experience a couple of months ago, knitting a beret for her daughter. The beret ended up being too big for her rather petite daughter. She tried shrinking it, and, as she says, it ended up looking kind of like a felted bowl.  Sympathetic friend that I am, I had the audacity to make fun of her. I laughingly referred to the "lovely bowl"-- that she had knit for her daughter. When my daughter asked for a beret several weeks ago, I poured over Ravelry until I found the perfect beret, the Grace Lace Beret  from Loop Knits. I confidently mentioned to my friend my progress throughout this week; however last night, as I neared the end of the pattern, I began to feel a little apprehensive, noticing that the circumference of the beret was far wider than my daughter's head. I blocked it last night, and when I came home from work today, my daughter had it on the table beside her. She put it on, and it covered her entire head and drooped down the sides, and so I.....dampened it under the sink and threw it in the dryer. I too am now the proud owner of a....felted bowl. Actually, it might be wearable, but it wasn't what I had envisioned. Oh, and I saw my friend at work, and I've already admitted to her that I too am singing the "beret blues." On the positive side, Kitty thinks it makes a wonderful bed.

Surprise from Scotland

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from an address I didn't recognize. I almost didn't open it, but I'm so glad I did. It was from Anne at Frayed at the Edges. She said that I'd won third prize in her drawing.  I was, of course, happy, thinking that third prize probably meant a stitch marker or some other little knitting-related item. I never dreamed it would be luscious, hand-dyed yarn from Scotland. But, that is what I received today in the mail. The color is called Stormy Beach, which is perfect for someone like me who loves the ocean. It's such beautiful yarn. I've been admiring it all day. What a generous present!

 I'm already planning to knit some socks with my new yarn, but I have to finish a beret I've started for Paige first. I didn't accomplish too much knitting today, overcome by the lethargic atmosphere that pervaded our house, I had a good two-hour nap.

Slow Start

I love the process of reading, not just the content of what I'm reading but the actual process. I remember as a kid making a little "fort" around my breakfast bowl with cereal boxes and just reading them as I ate. I just like reading. Of course, now, since I don't have as much time to waste, I'm unwilling to waste time on mindless reading. I'm pretty thoughtful about what I read. My knitting--that's another story. Sometimes Often, I just have the urge to knit. That's fine when I'm in the middle of a carefully chosen project, but when I'm between projects, what's a girl to do? That is when I come up with useless knitted items, like hearts or mini-mittens.

I've spent most of this month, just knitting little ornaments. They serve no purpose, other than I have enjoyed knitting them, and they help me ease into taking down my last few remnants of Christmas. Perhaps I need to get a little focus. Nah!!

 

I'm not sorry to tell Lyric Tree good-bye. I finally finished it last night, and Paige seems to be very happy with it, but I won't hold my breath waiting for her to actually wear it. Part of the reason for my pessimism is that our weather has been just too dang perfect! It was in the mid 60s today. A heavy wool sweater just won't cut it if we don't get some miserable weather soon. I know that was rude, you poor freezing people back East.

I've been reading Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob for the last couple of weeks. One of the things that she says that makes a lot of sense if you want to be a successful blogger is to be dependable .

People will check in on you more frequently if they know that you will be posting often. OK, that seems to be something that I obviously need to work on. I'm not sure if I read this in her book or somewhere else, another piece of advice I've recently read is that your blog should be focused on one subject.and shouldn't veer off onto twenty different subjects.

Mmmmmm, that was another rule that I break quite consistently. I just have the need to share part of a video Kai took this weekend while we were at the coast. About a mile north of Heart Castle, is a elephant seal lion viewing area. I don't know who told the elephant seals  to hang out there, but they been there for as long as I can remember. Every year, in the fall, I think that we should go see them when the babies are there between December and March, and every year we forget until later in the year when all that's left are the lazy old males, who just lie there grunting. It was truly an incredible experience, so incredible that Russ and I plan to go there again this weekend without our kids, who, for some reason, didn't want to hang around there endlessly like Russ and I wanted to.