Sunday, April 29, 2007

A Trip Home

I was in Saint John for work this week - which worked out well for my company as I stayed at my Grandmother's house rather than at a hotel!

I had a bit of an adventure on Wednesday night: I was just getting ready for bed, pulling on my pajama bottoms in fact, when I felt something kind of painful and itchy on my right thigh. I couldn't imagine what could be going on - so I pulled down my pjs to check out the situation. Nothing seemed wrong, only that my leg hurt and was a little itchy. As I stood there examining my leg, I heard a very distinct sound... "buzzzzzzzzz". I looked wildly around the room, and stepped out of my pajamas to grab my weapon, uh, hairbrush. Then I saw the culprit - a wasp, sitting on my pjs!

A few whacks of the hairbrush and the wasp was dead. I went to Grammy's room to ask if she had any ice or a cold pack - and we had a good laugh at how absurd it was to be stung by a wasp while putting on your flannel pjs. How did it get in there? I had hung the clothes on the line on Saturday. When I brought in the laundry, I had folded the wasp into my pjs where he stayed until Wednesday night. I'm thankful that he wasn't at "full strength" because his stings didn't hurt very much. I'm also thankful that I'm not allergic to wasp stings like I am to horsefly bites!

Grammy and I had a great visit on Thursday when I was done work. Grammy has knit more in her life than you could ever begin to imagine. I asked her if we could take a peek through some of her knitting books. We looked at the books she keeps in the cupboard next to her chair in the living room. The patterns aged from 1953 to the present. I took a photo of the more absurd patterns.

This one may already be out there on the internet:

When Wool Becomes Fur



Heh heh - When Wool Becomes Fur Sheep Weep With Shame.

Then a couple of gems from the 1980s:

Hideousness Knows No Bounds



Really - they were knit.


Just think - somewhere out there, some poor woman knit this bathing suit, wore it to the beach and did her own interpretation of the woman in the song "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" when the yarn stretched out in the water. Heh heh.

Once we put away the pattern books, Grammy and I headed to my dad's house for the night. Of course, we stopped at Cricket Cove on the way. I showed amazing strength and left yarnless - Grammy on the other hand, fell prey to the lure of the yarn. (I know what three family members are getting for Christmas!)

She didn't, however, bring her pattern or her needles with her. I couldn't stand sitting there knitting while her hands were idle. I felt like I was having all the fun so I handed over my nearly completed Posh sock. I would like to present my new socks, which were completed that night, with a little help from Grammy!:

Posh socks


Details:
Pattern: toe up, chevron (Row 1: k1, m1, k3, sl1k2p, k3, m1 Row 2: Knit) - 60 stitches
3x3 rib at top
Yarn: Posh
Needles: 2.5mm (foot, ankle and ribbing) and 2.75 mm (between ankle and ribbing)

More news later. I've got to get to bed. Busy week ahead.

5 comments:

  1. shudder.... ug, knitted swimwear.... that is just a whole new level of itchiness I don't even want to think about....

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  2. Anonymous10:28 a.m.

    The wet stretch factor alone is enough to make me cringe.

    Those vests...*gag*

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  3. um does this mean there's also something wrong with having a literal yelow pokeeedot bikini? oops.
    speaking of grannys did i tell you i asked mine about using varigated for fair isle -re elephants- and she yelled "that's bullshit!!!" did your grammy make any of the delightful items pictured??

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  4. Heh heh - my grammy didn't make any of the items pictured - however, she did make a knit bikini for one of my aunts, who, upon trying it on said, "That's too skimpy, even for me."

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  5. Steph, I have never met anyone who had an adventure in the act of putting on jammie pants.

    Sounds like you had a great time with your grandmother.

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