Tis the Season

Here we are again - the Season I love to hate. The time of year when Good Cheer is supposed to reign but it's more likely to be Bad Manners & Short Tempers that rule.

This year, for the first time in my life, I'm a Gimp with a Parking Pass. This means that my cane & I are guaranteed a parking spot outside the door of Just About Anywhere. Sounds delightful, right?? Nope. Seems those Handicapped Parking spots - that we pay for incidentally - are handy as drop off, picking up & various other excuses that people without passes use to park at the door. A running van, loaded with kids, was left in the Handicap Spot while the Owner ran an errand. I pulled up & had to force myself not to park directly behind it while I went into the mall to find the Post Office. It was my Good Deed this year.

And speaking of Canada Post - another sore spot on my agenda. Seems Canada Post in it's wisdom picked December, a week before Christmas, to stop delivering parcels to my Post Office box at the UPS Store. Not only will they not deliver parcels to my box, they decided NOT to drop them at the Postal Outlet at the end of the block in the same strip mall but instead, drop them inside Guildford Mall, at their new Postal Outlet. Is this advertising for their new site?? I tried to get it redelivered to my box but NO, it has to be signed for. Since I thought it was my new cheques, I made the trip. Turned out to be a box of knitting magazines. Last year, I ordered everything by internet & had all parcels delivered safely to my Box at the UPS Store, even the US ones. This year Canada Post changed the rules. I wasn't surprised to hear the Canada Post is cutting everywhere - they are overpriced, top heavy, inconsistent, slow & inefficient. Problem is, they're cutting at the wrong end to save money. The mail carriers are the most important part of the service! Without them, Canada Post might as well shut down.

 
And now that I've vented my spleen, it's time to get on with Knitting. I dropped wrist warmers & a tuque to the delight of my favorite Industrial Cafe on Friday. They all got a bottle of Port from the batch I made two years ago too. They make the best soup from scratch every morning & chicken/swiss on rye to go with it whenever I drop in. This time of year, they're cooking turkey constantly so I get REAL Turkey on rye instead. Today, I lucked out & took home leftover Turkey & Veggie soup - a whole gallon!!! I love that cafe! Monday, I dropped off tuques to the Front Room in Whalley  with promises of more to come. My bus driver pal will pick up some more after Christmas to hand out on his skid row run.

Since I'm so done with tuques, it's time to relax & knit for me. I need a couple of sweaters. I want one big unstructured one for indoors that I can snuggle into while I read or watch TV. I'm not a shawl lover but found a Berocco sweater which is just a very long rectangle with two openings for arms & one for neck. A button band is picked up from the front hem around the back neck & down the other side to the front hem. It can be knit as wide as you like & forms a shawl collar. The sleeves can be knitted with a cuff on the end or left as they are. Another in Interweave Crochet is a sweater called Red Rocks Wrap. It's also basically a rectangle joined to a very long rectangle which is wrapped & crossed around the body & joined with buttons at the side with a crocheted waistband.
I could knit a standard sweater in strips using leftovers. As seen above, the strips run shoulder to hem - basically 2 to 4 per side in the front & 2 to 4 in the back. Each sleeve is made up of 2 & an additional strip could be fitted from underarm to hem for extra shaping or more room at the hip if necessary. I just love this sweater in the classic sweatshirt configuration. What a great way to use up leftovers!