Monday, October 08, 2007

The Story of Willow's Monday

Wherein she goes to school having a cold and comes home to sleep almost three hours, wakes up and telephoness her regrets for the evening, needing to stay in to rest for Tuesday.



This is how I make tea when I am sick. Not the canonical way, but it works in a pinch.








I chose an autumny tea cup. Inside the cup it says, "Robert Burns" and on the saucer is written the phrase, "Ye banks and braes". I'm sure this teacup was my grandmother's.

Then I looked around for the left over chocolate bar. Where is it? Did The Professor eat the whole thing this morning before he left for the university?

Oh, there it is! Nestled in among the fruit in the fruit bowl.

I have made some progress on the back of the Aran sweater. It is now up to 6.5 inches. I've completed two repeats of the aran diamond.

This center section is what I added to the design from the sleeves. In the center are six 2-strand cables that weave in and out and twist up the middle. I found the pattern in Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting. On some rows there are five cable moves.

The ribbed cables on either side of the center design are made with seven stitches. Every ten rows three or four stitches move across the cable, depending on whether the cable goes to the left or right.

Every row is an adventure!

Especially when the knitter's mind is a bit foggy today.

I thought I'd comment a bit about the weather here at Willow's Cottage. Southern California is experiencing what is called the Santa Ana Winds. These very strong winds of up to 85 miles per hour bring warm temperatures during autumn and early winter. The Santa Anas were blowing yesterday, drying everything out, causing large branches to break from the trees. When the Santa Anas are blowing, the sky is very clear and the beach areas are warmer than usual.

I looked up the etymology of Santa Ana Winds in Wikipedia. One possible origin is from the Spanish words for 'wind of Satan'; another possibility is that the winds take their name from the Santa Ana Mounntains to the east of Los Angeles where the winds can be extra strong. They make allergy sufferers more miserable than usual, dry skin drier, and they cause everyone to grab their water bottles to quench dry throats.

9 comments:

Bethany said...

I'm so sorry to hear that you are sick!! I hope you feel much better soon. I can't believe you chose to work on such a difficult pattern when you're not feeling well. I am so amazed at your knitting!!!
And I loved reading about the Santa Ana winds... I read it outloud to my son (a little geography/weather lesson!). I learn so much about different parts of the country and the world through everyone!
Have a good evening!

Bethany said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!
(I'll let others guess about that!)
I'm so happy for you :)

Mary said...

willow,

I'm sorry that you're not feeling well. I send wishes for a speedy recovery.

Love the pattern in the sweater. I haven't knitted for many years. You may inspire me to pick up my needles again.

It's always nice to hear about weather patterns from different parts of the world. We had a record-breaker today. It was 32 C today, which is about 90 degrees. Very unusual for Canadian Thanksgiving. The record broken was 26 C, which is around 82F. Crazy weather and last month it was very cool here.

Take care and feel better soon.

Mary

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry you aren't feeling well. We are all getting over colds here too. The sweater is coming along nicely. :)I love your teacup and how the weather is down there. I hope you feel better soon.

Barbara said...

Get well soon. Sorry you are sick.Glad you found the chocolate!

Ineresting to read about your current winds, we can all learn so much more about the world like this.

I'm glad that you are tracking my posts on a map. If you want to track where I live it is Romford in North East London. I en joy looking up places on Google earth too but of course not every place is up and running yet.Romford is though and you can see my house.

I also love studying my maps of the USA.

Your knitting is just so so clever and neat.

roxie said...

Ahh, the sweater is looking splendid! Love that tricksy plaited center cable!

Blessings on your cold and your microwave tea technique! Rest and heal. Rest and heal.

Stephanie S said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephanie S said...

Hi,
I know a couple of your children through Biola, and I've been reading your blog for quite some time. I enjoy it quite a lot.
I'm finally commenting because I wanted to tell you that the sweater is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

That teacup is way cool.

Everyone else admired your knitting so I thought that I'd admire the cup and saucer!