Write the date

I proctored another GED test today, and like everyone else, had to struggle to write the date. (Don't tell me you just wrote it right the very first time because I won't believe you.) I kept writing it as '80 instead of '08. Wonder how long it will take to get it right without having to stop and scratch it out? February, probably. Practice, practice, praktiss.

Other than that, though, it's been a lovely day. The temperature is between 37 and 47 degrees farenheit, the cloud cover is impenetrable, and the rain is a persistent, penetrating unceasing drizzle. It's not freezing (Thank God) no one is shooting at me, and I'm not pregnant. Everything over and above that is gravy!!

The way the light spreads out and evens up with every little drop of rain gently diffusing it is quite wonderful. The light sort of gets blended with the shadows and spread equally over and under everything. Colors are all greyed down and distances melt into pearly ambiguity. You know what it reminds me of? Politics! Politics is like a January day in the Willamette valley. All shades of grey, no blacks, no whites, no edges, and no clear views. Everything is fuzzy and muddled and best viewed from inside a warm dry house with a hot dinner on the stove. No one in their right mind would want to get out into that soul-freezing netherworld. See - just like politics!

Oh, don't I wax philisophical at times? I'm so sharp I could cut myself. Best I stick to my knitting, I think.

Sooo, right now, I am issuing a general invitation to anyone reading this who will be in the area on the second saturday of the month: Knitting at my house from 10 till noon, Jan 12. Yes, Linda, Tamara and Tammy, this means you, too. My theme this month is yellow. Yellow tablecloth, yellow china, lemon cake and who knows what else. I'm open to suggestions.

New Year's Day had some sunshine, and the kitties took advantage of the window. Ben admires that handsome cat under his feet.
Pepper lounges a great deal the way Cleopatra might, don't you think? Cleocatra perhaps?

Way back on last Saturday, at ten in the morning, LG and I hit the LYS for a pre-inventory sale. If you were there in the first half hour, regularly priced merchandise was %25 off. And all the sale stuff was %50 off. Can you say yarn orgy? We were waiting in the car at 10 minutes till opening and we were not the first people into the store. And the feeding frenzy around those sale bins? The shark tank at Sea World could not show such grace, speed and efficiency. And yet, no one was snatching yarn away from others. Strangers were helping each other find the right dyelots, and saying, "Oh, this is just the right accent for that!" LG and I were oh so moderate, but still cleaned up.


I got five skeins of pale lavender Cascade Dolce - 55% alpaca, 23% wool, and 22% silk,109 yds each, for $4.20 each, and one accent ball of plum-colored Cashsoft Aran. What will I knit? I dunno. It would make a wonderful sweater, but I need to carefully assess my current shape and size before I start designing. LG asked me how I decided how much to buy. "All I could find.It's a killer price!"



Meanwhile, I have finished the colorblock mittens and an ear-band, and there is so much yarn left that I think a scarf will grow from it as well.

Projects for next year - two hat and fingerless gloves sets have been requested - any color but pink. Hmm - I have some lime green, magenta and olive drab . . .