Saturday

Saturday was, all in all, a good day. John went to work for a couple of hours, giving me some time by myself. After tidying up the house a bit, I drove to the library to pick up the books I had on hold, all three being books on breadmaking. I also picked up a fourth book, a knitting book.

It’s “Knitting New Scarves” by Lynne  Barr. I vaguely remember looking through this book once before and thinking that the scarves were singularly impractical, certainly not for warmth. They make me think more of sculpture than wearable pieces of clothing intended to keep the wearer warm in the middle of a prairie winter. That said, winters here in Kelowna are nothing like winters in the middle of the prairies. I DO sometimes wear a scarf as an accessory rather than a “neck warmer”. So, I signed the book out.

After going through it a couple of times, I decided to try one of them. I settled on the New Wave Scarf, found some yarn that I’d bought for a specific project, realized it was the wrong weight and had put back into the stash.

After a couple of false starts (it does help to actually read the pattern through carefully first), I have it going and the knitting has become soothing and fun, if a little fiddly.

The wave effect is achieved by knitting with needles of two different sizes. The scarf is predominantly knit as a tube, with the sections between the waves knitted on a single needle. I know, it sounds confusing, and it is at first. It’s ingenious!

The yarn I’m using is Mission Falls 1824 washable merino. The scarf is knitted with 4.5 mm and 6.0 mm needles. I’ve never used this yarn before and I’m falling in love with it. It’s lovely and soft and the fact that it’s washable makes it all the better. I only have 3 balls of it, though, and it only has 85 yards/50 grams, so I know I’ll have to get more in order to make a scarf of decent length.

We have heard from my family in New Zealand. My cousin wrote:

Thank you so much for your thoughts and well wishes, guys! Power just on. No water or sewerage. Our 1/4 acre section now sports a temporary "long drop"! Our suburb is a mess!! Our home relatively unscathed. ALL family members okay and accounted for...

Life will be a bit tough for a while, but at least there IS life! We will survive! We still may have to evacuate because of health reasons with the sewers gone and the incoming tides causing mayhem. But we can cope with that. :)