Crystal Ball Gazing
Madame Fortuna at your service, darling. I see you've returned for your annual palm reading session. Autumn is blowing by, the colors of fall are fading. The weather is changing, the world is changing. Let me look at your palm to see what awaits you in the coming year. Hmmmm, this is very interesting.... It seems as though your view on the world is taking a radical shift?

Well, there's that construction project across the street from our house. You'd think that tiny strip of land would be too dangerously narrow for a house, but that isn't stopping the real estate developer. Apparently, the new house will be built on stilts. I'm a little blue that the new house will block our view of the trees that grow across the way, especially this time of year when the oranges and reds and yellows are in a riot.


A Living Room with a View

On the other hand... you see those buildings down there? The buildings are a YMCA, and they have lots of plans to expand. They're planning to cover the tennis courts and pool for year-round play with those bland-looking Morton Buildings. Maybe blocking the view of corregated-steel siding ain't such a bad thing.

Fascinating, yes. That may explain this new crease in your palm here. Could it be you are starting a new venture, a new quest for love and good fortune?

I've started my holiday knitting. I'm hoping to knit Randy a sweater before Christmas, which gives me exactly 8 weeks of knitting time to get it finished. I've never knit Randy a sweater, and he's a bit picky about his clothing, so this should be an interesting experiment for the two of us. I'm using Victorian 2-Ply Wool, a sports-weight yarn I found when we visited Halcyon Yarn in Maine during vacation. Since it's lighter weight, the sweater should be wearable indoors, so hopefully Randy will actually put on the sweater from time to time.


Thousands of Possibilities, So Little Knitting Time 

For the design, I'm using Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, which is great fun to use. The plan is to make a pullover sweater with set-in sleeves and a shawl collar. I'll be making up the shawl collar design as I go along, which means Christmas Eve I will be frantically searching through my sweater pattern collection for some shred of guidance about how to make this work. But you know me, I'll worry about the details when they matter.

That explains it then, this new tension line across your palm. I thought perhaps you were facing a dreadful disease, or bankruptcy, or the loss of your job. Instead, the tension line must be a result of the Victorian 2-Ply Yarn.

You see right through me, Madame. The yarn has a rustic feel, characteristic of many of the Halcyon exclusive yarns. It reminds me of Bartlett's Yarn or Lopi Yarn, only much lighter weight, and it is a wooly yarn that likes to cling to itself. When I tried to hand-wind the first skein of yarn into a center-pull ball, the skein became hopelessly tangled. It's now a great wad of wool stuffed back into the bookshelf. On my second try with a fresh skein of wool, it took me two hours of knitting time to wind it by hand into a useable ball. This may be the excuse I need to by a mechanical ball winder.


Thus the Randy Sweater Begins with a Sleeve 

Darling,that's not really bad news at all. I predict another trip to the yarn store, where you will find that new knitting toy, plus some additional yarn you don't really need. For the coming year, I see much knitting in your future. Yes, I see it, a finished "Blue Shimmer" sweater with successful 2-color knitting and steak. I see you learning how to knit lace, and perhaps knitting that lace shawl you promised your sister Sarah if she would make that trip down the wedding aisle. Ah yes, and those neutral-colored sweaters you've been telling yourself you will knit one of these days to go with your work wardrobe. This is the year, darling. This is the year.



- posted by Laurie @ 9:55 AM