Monday half way to work I got the dreaded call - "Hi Jill. This is .... we had to send your father to the ER." Great way to start the day. Before I get any further - Dad's okay, he fell in the early morning and his back and neck hurt so they sent him to be checked out. Back to the knitting part of this story.
I turned around and headed to the hospital. He was in one of the rooms looking frail with a neck brace but in good spirits. A wonderful nurse came in and explained things and said - an ER visit usually takes 3-4 hours. I felt the halls closing in on me in - NO! I'm here with nothing to do for 4 hours and Dad sleeping... That's just so not fair!
But then I remembered, I had stuck a ball of Woolease and needles in my purse last week to show a friend how to knit but never used it. I WAS SAVED! I spent the next 3 hours knitting. We went over to the CT scan area and I knit. We came back to his ER room and I knit. During the knitting times I was approached by several hospital staff asking about what I was doing, was I knitting socks for him. For the record, I was knitting a diagonal afghan square which looks about as much like a sock as I look like Twiggy. Sorry, that's funnier than you realize because you've never seen a picture of me. Anyway, just as I bound off the last stitch the nurse came in and released Dad. Perfect timing.
One thing this event reminded me (beyond the obvious how frail old people can be) is how good it is to knit in public. Being able to do this takes a wee bit of planning. You need to figure out what you can knit without the pressure of looking at a pattern often. You also need to have a knitting bag of some sort to carry the yarn and needles in so it doesn't get dirty. But it's worth it. People love to see what you're doing. You keep your sanity during boring waiting times. You get more knitting projects finished sooner. It's a win-win-win situation.
On the home front I finished the blue pair of mitered mittens. I'll get pics up next post. My SILs 3-1 rib fire socks are coming along really slow because I'm bored with them. The Maizy likes to split, the color is not my favorite colorway, and 3-1 rib YAWN! But I will keep working on them because they're for the SIL who is an LA County Fire Captain and she desires the best.
What else - The Green Soft Shoulders sweater is coming along. I'm about 4 inches into the second body piece (front and back are the same). Afghan squares are getting knit when I need to knit a non-thinking item. I also knit some washrags during the non-thinking times.
Thursday night starts the "Teach the Friends" era. I have several friends (guys included) and a few relatives ready to learn to knit. Seems I've been knitting in front of them enough to get their interest. Some of them can't come Thursday night so I'm doing a repeat lesson Friday night. I won't get much knitting of my own done this week but, what a great reason. I got multiple balls of Woolease in lighter colors and several types of knitting needles (straight, circular with different cables) so they can try things out to see what feels right for them. I also have what I think will be good needles for them to start with. I like to let people try different types out once they've got a few good rows in knit finished for two reasons. It lets them see what type needle they like but more important- it lets them see what needles are bad for them. It saves money and effort in the future. I have a Susan Bates circular (the silver looking "quick" needles) that I love the needle but it's one of the worst cables I've handled - wasted money.
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