I took Monday morning off, much to the cat's approval. She is always hoping I'll have a duvet day. In the afternoon I had an appointment to discuss treatments for osteoporosis - an unwelcome side-effect of being on steroids. It was a bit of a done-deal really - the previous load of pills had disagreed with me, so I knew that they would probably be recommending an infusion, which should last for a year and hopefully without ALL the side-effects of the last stuff.
As the week went on, I felt more and more like my usual self, buoyed up in the knowledge that this weekend (11th/12th February) I had very little scheduled.
It snowed very briefly this week - lovely fine brilliant white crystals on Friday night - on my way to African Drumming. It was soooo coooold at church, and no heating on (again) so I unlocked the hall and we had a good time sitting in a corner near a heater there. Just the four of us this week - usually there are a couple more - and for some reason we sounded Really Good together. Maybe because we weren't shivering as usual? The snow had stopped, coming home, and there was just enough left on Saturday morning to act as a reminder that it hadn't all been a dream. Apparently the current full moon is knows as the "Snow Moon", so I'm glad that it did do a bit of snowing.
One of my "unofficial" resolutions is to finish something every month. I'm not sure if finishing the back of my green knitted jumper counts. After all, I have to knit the front and two sleeves and then sew it all together before it is properly finished.
There are a couple of other jumpers I want to knit, but the problem is choosing the right yarn. The recommended yarn would make it a very expensive project, and I'm not prepared to lay out that amount of money unless I am sure I am going to finish it. So, I bought a ball of cheaper wool, and knitted up a swatch to see if I could get the right tension (so many rows and stitches in so many inches). The answer with this wool was "not quite" - right number of stitches, but too many rows. However, this pattern claims to be do-able in a couple of hours:
That seemed a good plan, as I gave the last hat I made to number 1 daughter after her umbrella failed to survive a bruising encounter with a lamp post. (Can't find a picture of it.) Anyway, I cast on 50 stitches and set to. It should have been knitted on circular needles, but I don'y have any in that size (10mm) so I knitted it flat, and got in some more practice at sewing up seams.
Result, three hours later, (with pause for supper).
It was very straightforward. A certain amount of "un-knitting" was required as I was watching "Sense and Sensibility" on television at the time. Something went a bit wrong with the knitting at the same time that something went a bit wrong between Marianne and Willoughby. But that's what advertisement breaks are for - sorting out the knitting. I was forewarned, though, and set it aside when Edward Ferrars visited the Dashwoods at the end of the final episode. All's well that ends well, including the hat. Which fits. And I have met that unofficial resolution for this month.
I've also finished a novel that I have sort of enjoyed. A friend recommended it after I had described how taken aback I was at the monumental rudeness of two African characters in a murder mystery I had read, where an African, of African descent, shouted "you son of a slave" at another African, or Caribbean descent. The fact that both characters were clergymen made it all the more shocking. This is a love story, but also illuminates the differences between being American Black and African Black, and how it all works in America, Nigeria and London. I might not have got around to finishing it, if I hadn't had the "unofficial" resolution at the back of my mind, but in the end I'm glad I did. I think this story ends happily too. I can't be sure, because the ending is really a beginning, if you see what I mean. I'll find something easy and cheerful to read next, before I pluck up the courage to read the next "real" book on my list:
which I bought in my favourite bookshop, in Petworth, last time we were there.
Somewhere I came across the idea of creating a list of 100 things to do over the course of the year. I've put together about thirty or so, with room to add other ideas as I think of them. It's a mixture of mainly small items. Like "go for a pic-nic", "take in the view from the top of a hill", "spend a day at the sea", "eat a vegetable that I have grown in the garden". I like lists, and marking off when things are completed. If the items are too large, I might not have the pleasure of putting in a tick beside them. I loathe the "One hundred things/places/books to do/see/read before you die" types of lists. Maybe if I were about twenty-something I'd feel differently.
Now then. Are you ready for Valentine's Day on Tuesday? Me neither. But I Have A Plan...
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