A Blustery Thursday

Fall has shown up on time this year--shocking! Usually I'm complaining well into October about heat and humidity and other miseries of living south of the Mason-Dixon line, but the last week or so has been lovely. Today it's overcast and blustery and sixty degrees, perfect for all sorts of activities, but most perfect for drinking tea and knitting.

Which is what I'll be doing most of the day, since I have a cold. I will resist moaning and groaning about it, because a) it's not that bad of a cold; and b) there's nothing worse than someone moaning and groaning about how lousy they feel, especially when their condition allows them to take a day off of work and knit. I can't write when my head is stuffed, so I don't even try. Well, I'm writing this, but this is fun writing. The other kind of writing I do is fun sometimes, but most often is akin to picking out bubblegum from a shag carpet with a toothpick.

Anyway. Knitting. Mostly I knit socks, because socks are portable and fast and they almost always fit. But I must admit, sometimes I want more of a challenge (sock-knitting only looks hard because you're working on three needles; in fact, it's easy as pie), and most recently I took up the challenge of knitting a lace cowl, thanks to Heather, who modeled this cowl a few weeks ago on her blog.

I'm not sure that a woman such as myself, a left-handed woman with two sons and a puppy and a husband who likes it when I actually glance at him from time to time during our conversations, should be knitting lacy things. It's so easy to get thrown off a stitch, and one stitch is all it takes to throw off everything. Which is to say, I've cast on this cowl eleven times and frogged it ten times. I think I finally have it figured out and may finish it up today since I'm--cough cough--too sick to work. I'm telling you though, as soon as it's off the needles, I'm framing the sucker.

While I've been knitting and hacking away, I've been listening to the most lovely podcast, Sticks and Strings, by David Reidy, an Australian bloke, as he puts it, who likes to knit. He seems like the nicest guy in the world, and I love hearing him talk about wool (that's yarn, to us Yanks) and what he's working on, and the latest knitting books. If you're a knitter, or just someone who likes to listen to Australians talk (it's awfully pleasant), I highly recommend tuning in.

I was going to post about what's going on with Jack right now, but I think I'll wait til tomorrow. I'll say this: I had no idea boys got into those icky, mean triangles that girls do, where one kid gets left out by the others and is generally made to feel miserable. I thought boys just beat each other up, which seems to me a much more honest and sensible approach. Who knew?