Holiday Knitting

Cold rain blew in this morning. The skies are very gray and the outside air was damp when I filled the bird feeder. My husband and I had a quiet Christmas. We celebrated Christmas Eve with his family and then spent yesterday together. Technology allowed my three siblings and I to exchange greetings. We also had some Face Time and photos from our children.  Everyone is well and happy. No one is trying to get home in inclement weather and for that I am thankful. Yesterday, Lance and I took a long afternoon walk on a trail near Wilderness Park. If we had walked at sunset, we might have seen a great horned owl. Another walk for another day.

Since I am linking with Kat and the Unravelers, I'll write about knitting and reading. Over the weekend, I unraveled my Christmas sock back to the ribbing. After completing the gusset and some of the foot, I noticed the broken rib pattern interrupted the patterning in the yarn. If I had looked at the pattern photo that came with the yarn, I'd have knit a plain stockinette sock. Ribbed socks fit me better so they have become my vanilla sock pattern. Haste just made more time to knit with the joyful yarn. Christmas Eve day, I started over. It wasn't quite a Christmas Eve cast on but what the heck. We had the tree lights on and I had a cup of tea and cookie beside me on the end table. It is all knitting, right?   

Since the fridge is full of leftovers and cookies, I hope to cast on an Archer sweater today. The yarn has been properly swatched. Weeks ago, while knitting for Christmas, I wound the first skein. The yoke begins with an unusual construction so I've been waiting for some uninterrupted daylight hours. This afternoon will be perfect for a cup of tea and this project. My goal is to begin without errors. Wish me luck. Once the sweater is definitely a go, I'll make a project page on Ravelery. 

I am reading The Hello Girls, a nonfiction work about the young women who served as telephone operators for the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War One. The information could have been better edited but the story coinciding with women's suffrage is fascinating. After the war, a few of the women spent years trying to receive the benefits accorded to men who served in the war. I am also enjoying a Christmas gift from a good friend, American Journal: Fifty Poems For Our Time, edited and introduced by Tracy K. Smith. Smith, the 22nd Poet Laureate of the U.S. is an elegant poet in her own right. This collection includes work of poets from all walks of American life. Smith writes in her introduction, "This is why I love poems: they require me to sit still, listen deeply, and imagine putting myself in someone else's unfamiliar shoes. The world I return to when the poem is over seems fuller and more comprehensible as a result." Smith was interviewed earlier this year by Krista Tippett on"On Being." The interview is worth a listen. Smith has much to teach us.

Stay warm and dry. Enjoy this week between Christmas and New Years Day.