zigzagstitch

I received Knitting Around for Christmas, and today, yet another snow day, I’ve been reading through Elizabeth’s Digressions. The funniest thing ever must be the story of when EZ’s not-yet husband Arnold met her parents for the first time. They served roast mutton for dinner and Arnold was offered mustard. He took a large amount of Coleman’s mustard and was left sputtering for air, “with tears streaming down his face.” The mustard is very spicy.

The reason this little passage is funny to me is because THE SAME EXACT THING happened to me. I’m not sure if Coleman’s is very well known here in the States, but I happen to have an Irish mother-in-law with a fondness for mustard and we usually have a little jar of it in the fridge. The mustard is very spicy, and for most folks must be consumed in moderation.

My parents were visiting one time, and we were having sandwiches. Naturally, Gerald got the mustard out and as my Dad put together his sandwich, he slathered a large amount of Coleman’s on the bread. Gerald warned him, “That mustard is very spicy.” My Dad may have mumbled acknowledgment, but sat down to eat his sandwich anyway. After his first bite, his face got red and his eyes were watering, and he finally acknowledged, “Boy, that’s hot.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but today I have become even more fond of EZ.

An unrelated picture, just to prove that we have snow. Again. All the woollies are getting a big workout this year!

One night at dinner, I said, “I did not know that.” I was referring to something Gerald had said, the subject of which has long been forgotten.  A few minutes later, in complete context, Maggie said it. “I did not know that.” Coming from a three year old, it was freakin hilarious. We all cracked up. Since then, there has been much discussion of who, in our house, is funny.

Poor Jerry; he often tries to drop in an “I did not know that.” But his timing is always off. It’s really not funny when he says it, ever. I feel bad for him, especially because he feels like if he could just nail this one joke, he’d be the man of the hour.

The thing is, most of what Jerry says is funny. Not usually laugh out loud funny, but seriously, quietly funny. He’s been reading The Guinness Book of World Records. About once a day out of the blue, he’ll tell you the world record for something.  So funny. I wish he wasn’t so concerned about this one particular joke. He’s a funny, funny kid. I love him so much that it sounds silly just saying I love him.

For Christmas, I knew Jerry wanted to buy me yarn (he’s funny and smart). So I filled out the “wish list” cards they had at my LYS and sent Gerald off with the kids one Saturday. On Christmas morning, I got two gorgeous skeins of Cascade 220. One bright blue. One bright orange.  Beautiful. This weekend, I finally got around to making him a hat.

The pattern is Kirsten Kapur’s Wood Hollow Hat. I used a size 5 needle (instead of a 6) and made the ribbing a bit shorter than in the pattern. Jerry is 7, but he’s got quite a noggin. This fits him perfectly.

The yarn, of course, is Cascade 220. The color is…9457, one of The Heathers. It took less than a skein, even with the ginormous pompom.

Jerry doesn’t really want the pompom, so he requested it be made removeable. “Like with a tie-clip or something.”

I couldn’t help myself and had to make the pompom anyway, even though I knew he didn’t want it.

That last picture immediately reminded me of another back porch photo shoot we had nearly 3 years ago. My how time flies:

march 2007

He’s all big now.

And funny as hell.

I’ve been knitting. A lot. It’s just secret stuff for now, but I’ve got some awesome things in the pipeline. For now, they’re hidden in the bag:

This sweet little bag was a gift from my friend, Jen. She has recently started making them and selling them in her etsy shop, yarn play cafe. There’s a blog, too.

Funny story. So Jen sent me the bag before Christmas and I ripped open the package, got very excited about it, then set the bag down and forgot about it. Actually, I think the bag came the day I had my second knitting class with the students at Jerry’s school.  I was busy and nervous and when I got home from class the bag was nowhere. Nowhere! I asked the kids but no one had a clue. The bag was missing for days! Weeks!  I was so embarrassed that I had received such a beautiful handmade gift and then I had gone and lost it. I looked and looked but couldn’t find it. It finally turned up one day when I was looking for something else. It was behind my bedside table, under other stuff, and I really do wish I knew how it got there.

Jen keeps adding new styles of bags with all sorts of cool sayings on them. It’s all I can do not to buy one of each. Thanks, Jen.

As for the secret knitting projects? They’re awesome. And you’re gonna love them. No kidding. But my lips are sealed for now!

Oh! And I almost forgot! I made a very sizable donation to Doctor’s Without Borders, thanks to all the wonderful knitters who bought an End of May pattern from Jan. 15 – Jan 31st.  I feel so privileged to be able to help, and I couldn’t have been so generous without all of your purchases. A big thanks to each and every one of you.

And to close it down for today, here are some SNOW pictures from our very snowy last week. All pictures, I’ll have you know, feature hand-knits.

In that last one, I’m wearing one of the first hats I ever knit! It was knit back and forth and then I actually seamed it! Mattress stitch FTW!