Thursday 13 November 2014

Grandma saves the day

Well I'm here again.  I don't want to offer a long drawn out explanation/excuse for my absence, but let's just say it's been a tough few months, mentally and physically, and I haven't felt much like blogging.  When I started writing this post in my head earlier this week I knew I was ready to start up again!

I did recover from the pinched nerve in my neck (totally back to normal now after a bout of physiotherapy and some massage therapy), and don't worry, I have been knitting lots.

I managed to block the Juneberry shawl for my friend, which she now has in her possession and is hopefully wearing lots!


I finished knitting the Ease sweater for myself and am now waiting for cold(er) weather to wear it.  It's so comfy and warm, I really love how it turned out!


In my last post I wrote about my glittery teal yarn that I had been searching for the perfect pattern for.  Unfortunately I haven't knit much more than what's in the below picture, because shortly afterwards I started doing my Christmas knitting and I've mostly been focusing on that instead.


The other thing that I started knitting for myself is a Sockhead Hat, which is a great way to use up those single skeins of sock yarn that just don't belong on your feet.  The softly spun, single ply yarn (Manos del Uruguay Clara) knits like a dream, has beautiful stitch definition and is oh so soft, but as socks I think they'd wear out too quickly and/or get really fuzzy really fast.  A hat is the perfect solution for this yarn, especially since I have a few other skeins of yarn in the same colour family that are possibly destined to be a (sort of) matching scarf.


Back in summer (remember summer?  Seems like so long ago already...) I knit another Umaro blanket as a wedding present for dear friends of ours who got married in late August.  It was almost as much fun the second time around, but I think I'll wait at least a year before knitting another one.  That's three blankets this year already, it's no wonder that all I wanted to do after this was finished was knit socks.  Tiny, portable, mindless socks.


Our friends scheduled the rehearsal for the wedding two days before the actual wedding, which happened to be at the same time as a massive rainstorm (if you live in/around Winnipeg you'll probably remember it) which caused all sorts of problems.  The rehearsal had to be cancelled, since it was an outdoor wedding, but the bride, groom, and several of the groomsmen, including the Enabler, were caught in the rainstorm as they were unloading the beer which was to be served at the wedding.  Needless to say they were all completely soaked and needed to go home to change before heading to the rehearsal dinner.  We live only a 5-10 minute drive away from where the wedding was, with the restaurant we were to meet at being halfway in between, but with the rain causing every underpass and low point in the city to become completely flooded, it took us over an hour to get home.  We had to take the very long way around and by the time we got home, the Enabler was in no shape to go back out, as he was miserable from being soaked and had also injured his back while unloading the beer.  We decided that I would go to the rehearsal dinner by myself and he'd stay home and order a pizza.

It was well after the long drive back to the restaurant and into the meal when I realized that I had the Enabler's wallet in my purse, which I had taken from him before he went to unload beer to keep it dry.  I sent him a frantic text to see if he'd ordered the pizza already, and he said that it was fine, he found some money at home to pay for it.  I was of course relieved that I hadn't made his night even worse, and I thought no more of it.

We were recounting this story to friends of ours earlier this week, when the Enabler let slip an additional detail.  This is where my grandma comes in.  When my brother and I were young, my grandma would sometimes give us each the sets of commemorative coins which were released annually.  You know the ones, set in a sheet of cardboard, protected by a plastic sleeve, one quarter for each province and occasionally a loonie as well.  I had left these at my parents' house when I moved out, but a year or two ago, my parents were cleaning out our old rooms and insisted that I take them.  I have a slight sentimental streak, but had no real attachment to these sets of coins.  I was therefore left with a problem.  I didn't want to display them, didn't want to break them apart for the cash, and didn't want to give them away because they had actual monetary value.  So they sat in a closet for some time before the Enabler finally pushed me to make a decision.  My decision was to let him decide.  He could do whatever he wanted with them, I just didn't want to know about it.

I'm sure by now you've figured out the end to this story.  About 10 minutes before the delivery guy showed up with the pizza, the Enabler realized that I had his wallet.  He raided the change jar in the kitchen, but was still several dollars short.  That's when he remembered the coin sets in the closet.  He had just finished ripping them apart and counting up the money, cardboard and plastic still strewn all over the floor, when the delivery guy showed up.  The Enabler gave the delivery guy his handful of coins and just said, "I needed pizza."

So we both owe my grandma a lot.  Not only did she help rekindle my love of knitting which has helped to keep me sane in the past few years, but she also helped my dear husband to buy pizza in his time of need.  Thanks Grandma!