Another Thanksgiving

I survived another Family Holiday on my own. I actually enjoyed this one a hellova lot more than when I had to attend the BT's family gatherings. No one got drunk & obnoxious before dinner & no one was too drunk to crawl into a car after dinner. No one slept face down on the table & there were no snarky remarks from anyone. I slept in & spent the entire day knitting & reading in peace & quiet. I had Sushi for lunch - they were open from 12 to 5 - and I two huge bowls of turkey soup for dinner! I rooted around in the freezer & found TWO bags of turkey carcasses - must've been in there since LAST Thanksgiving!! I simmered them all day & dropped in a half box of bow ties pasta & two cups of small green peas at the very end. Now there's two quart jars of the stuff left in the fridge to share with the Ex.

And what do I have to be thankful for?? I really thought about that. I'm thankful for good friends & a healthy Ex. I'm thankful for having all the bills paid even though the Sushi took my last 10 bucks. I have my health, the cupboards are full even though I'm out of cat treats & the tea is running short. I'm happy even though I'm alone most of the time. My brain works well enough & I'm content even though the old bod creaks & aches when its damp outside. I'm thankful that I can look after myself, earn a living & not be a burden to anyone. And I'm thankful I'm not burdened with the BT.

I even made the cat happy yesterday though I'd run out of cat treats. She got a new cat bed. I noticed she tends to lay on the sample square I knit out of Buffalo wool a couple of years ago when I knit my last sweater for someone. She snagged the square & scoots it around the house to lay on. So I grabbed a couple of balls - I found yet another box of the damn stuff - my biggest crochet hook & made her a bed. It just about killed my right hand & wrist - both are really sore today!!! - but I finished it off last nite. And she's laying in it as I type. It's big enough for two cats but I think she likes it anyway. I may make a second smaller one to lay up on her shelf in the office window!

I've been working on the latest Wallaby. The new one is navy & a variegated navy yarn. I thought about doing the sleeves in the variegated yarn & the body in the solid but was halfway thru the first sleeve when I remembered. So, the yoke & hood will be variegated & the sleeves & body solid. It's really cute so I think this way is the best!! I had the yoke finished to the neck when I realized the back was larger than the front! I have no idea how I did what I did but the back was 10 stitches larger than the front . . . I had to frog the whole yoke to correct the problem!! So this is a photo of the Wallaby with only a couple of yoke rows on it with the back & front stitch count corrected. I think I've also solved the stretch problem under the arms too. I've increased the number of stitches to 10 from the 6 in the pattern & put the stitches on loose strings so there's give in the sleeve when I join it onto the body. The live stitches under the arms are sewed or knitted to the body stitches at the end. I have the yarn picked out for the next one already - I think it'll be another version of the solid body & variegated yoke in greens!!

My purple sweater is almost finished - I wish I had it ON today!! I have a large ball & a half left & I think I'm going to knit the collar right away before I finish the bottom. When the collar is done, I can use all the remaining yarn to finish the body in garter stitch. And I think I'll crochet around the entire sweater with dark plum to finish it off!!

With this sudden cool weather - cold for us, that is - I've also decided to finish off the Blue Briggs & Little sweater I started in the early spring when it was so cold. I got it finished halfway up the front yoke when it got just too warm to work on it. It weighs a ton & that's a lot of wool sitting in your lap in the warm weather!!! I made deep side vents - in the photo - & have to finish the back yoke & sleeves. I made a really DEEP armhole a lot like EZ's Tomten jacket & planned on picking up sleeve stiches & short rowing the caps. I still think this is a great idea but the sweater may be just too heavy for me to do it with sore hands. Just have to see how it goes - I have the idea that I could make the sleeves straight from the armhole & do some short rows around the elbow for shaping . . . .