Friday, December 23, 2016

Have Hook Will Travel

We are between rain storms. The one yesterday was supposed to just be some drizzle and light rain, but it was quite a bit more. The storm coming tomorrow is supposed to be heavier and much colder. The snow level is supposed to drop, which could mean there will be snow visible on the nearby mountains.

In all the years I’ve lived here, it has only snowed once in Tarzana. It happened in the middle of the night. I tried to wake up my son and husband to see it, but they wouldn’t get up. And in the morning it was all gone and they thought I’d dreamt the whole thing. But there really was a covering of snow in our whole yard. Too bad it was long before cell phone with cameras or I would have taken a bunch of photos.

The sun was out today, at least for part of it. While it seemed everyone was out shopping for last minute gifts, my son was still having meetings. I was his support staff for the day. His meetings were in Torrance which is a long drive when there is traffic which is all the time. And once we got there, I knew there’d be a lot of waiting around for me. I opted not to bring my laptop and just brought along a book and a project I’d recently started.

I prefer to crochet when I’m riding in the car, on a plane, or just waiting around because I usually make mistakes and crochet is so much easier to fix than knitting. This particular project came out of my Chicago trip.

A Michael’s craft store recently opened in my Chicago neighborhood. It was big news for me because before that my only option for yarn and hooks and needles was a store downtown which was a trek. Michael’s had some exclusive yarn which I was curious about. It’s called Cakes and the skein changes colors so that you can make an item with different colors without having to change yarns. The day I went to check it out, the wind chill was something ridiculous like zero or below, so I bundled up and braved the icy day.

I found the Cakes yarn and bought one skein with no idea what I was going to do with it. I decided that with the different colors it would make a fun giant granny square which would be a small afghan. Also I knew it would be easy to work on in the car or when I was waiting around because it is a simple pattern and with crochet you can stop anywhere, whereas with knitting, I need to finish the row.\

I always have a bunch of both knitting and crochet projects going at once, but prefer to do my knitting at home. I’m not one of those knitters who can be talking and looking around while their needles keep going.

Crochet is extremely relaxing, so tomorrow when the big storm arrives with constant pounding hard rain and I start feeling edgy, wondering if it’s going to flood up, I’ll be pulling out this afghan to work on.

Happy Holidays!

4 comments:

ldosborn said...

Well, it's Saturday and now we have sun here in Anaheim--it is supposed to be raining. Last night was pretty wild though. Hopefully I can get 76 gifts to my daughters house without rain tomorrow ! It will take two trips, my little red Hyundai with reindeer horns will not hold everything at once ! Have a wonderful holiday, thinking of the baby to arrive soon !

Linda O. Johnston said...

How fun that you can use all your time so productively. Happy Holidays!

Betty Hechtman said...

Ldosborn, Friday morning we got a call that my son and his wife were on the way to the hospital. Around six hours later Jacob was born just as it was beginning to pour. He had some jaundice so I spent a lot of hours in the hospital just holding him on a light blanket. He looks like my son, so it was like reliving his first few days but without being tired or overwhelmed.

They just went home from the hospital. My husband bought Jakey a birthday cake which we're all going to enjoy later. He's the best present ever!

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, I'm afraid forgot about everything thanks to Jakey's early arrival. Except that is for the blanket I was making for him which I'm rushing to finish. Happy Holidays to you, too.