Wednesday Musings

After getting my last post up on Monday withOUT the help of my grandkid — though not without a struggle (she loves keyboards!) — I took most of yesterday off to relax. And knit. And spent 2 hours with our financial advisor. The latter was necessary to figure out what we’re doing with my little inheritance from my adopted mom. Our financial advisor is a very personable guy, but the facts and figures somehow make my brain fill up with cotton candy. Good thing T-Man is more immune and can actually follow what he tries to tell us. We’ve got it all sorted now and after he ran a computer scenario we are relieved to realize that if T was to lose his job as early as next year, we could survive at something above the poverty level. Good to know. His job is very specialized and fairly high-stress plus his company recently was purchased by Kodak so who knows what that giant corporation will subsequently do to his department. He has only been working there for 2 years so he is unlikely to advance any further. How many companies would take a chance promoting a grandfather with only a limited time left to retirement? And in a high-tech situation like his, the chance is more remote even with his rare combination of technical and people skills. He doesn’t have the computer science degrees — they didn’t exist when we were going to school! He does try to keep up with his training but it ain’t easy. Now we don’t have to worry quite so much.

In crafty news, I’ve finished one of the wristlets and am halfway done the second. Even this far into the knitting I’m still a bit confused as to what happens over the “jog” where the round begins. I actually went so far as to email Donna Druchunas since it’s her pattern to ask how she handles knitting diagonal lace in the round. She just moves her marker over whenever you need to k2tog-tbl. This means the first stitch of the round moves as you go on rendering the chart inaccurate. I tend to want that first stitch to stay in one place at the beginning of my first needle in spite of whatever lace moves happen to it, but I’m not sure if I’m being consistent or if I’m causing “glitches” to happen at the jog. It’s not really apparent though so I’m not going to stress over it. I tried looking up how more seasoned lace knitters handle something like this but it seems as if the situation doesn’t turn up often. Or maybe I’m just over-thinking it and it’s so obvious what to do that nobody mentions any special problems. The round’s beginning just moves over as Donna says. Other than resisting my attempts to order it into a neat square chart, it’s a very simple diagonal lace eyelet repeat. Looks very cool with beads too. Carrying on. More when I’m done. They are so warm and comfy that I want 2 of them to wear instead of only one!

I feel like the day is much longer today. T is working until 4pm and then going to see his mom so he won’t be home until almost dinner time. I got spoiled with him coming home at 2:30pm and there still being daylight left! On the other hand, getting him out of bed early is a lot harder when he starts later. After all, why get up before you have to, hey? I hope he remembers to ask his mom if she would like a pair of my handknit socks. I don’t knit them for people who don’t want them. They are precious and not to be discarded in a drawer never to see the inside of a shoe. I won’t even start this pair until I know for sure. They will be a quick knit though — she has the teensiest little feet! And she’s always cold.

I also have to get going on a handmade decoration for our weavers’ guild gift exchange. I have changed my mind on this so often that I haven’t done anything yet! I think I’ve got it settled now but I won’t mention any more until after the meeting on the 21st. I’ll be working on it at our surface design group meeting on Saturday however, so a few members will know what I’m making. A hint: there’s knitting involved.