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.