Birthday fun

Well, the "Big Birthday" is tomorrow. My personal celebration always includes taking the day off from work. This year I made it a long weekend by taking Friday off too. I tried not to have an agenda for my time off, other than having a few things such as doing laundry and cleaning the bathtub on my must-do list. I ended up spending more time than I might have planned on Friday spending a bit of my allowance on yarn. I looked through the patterns I've been wanting to do and went shopping online. I also spent some time accumulating a list of books I'd like to buy (almost all knitting books) and whittling down the list to an affordable one. It was great fun! And when the boxes arrive, it will be fun all over again!

I solved the problem of what to do to really celebrate turning 50. As I've mentioned before, I considered a spa day or a dinner party, but ended up electing to plan a knitting trip in the spring. I've been listening to the Webs podcast, Ready, Set, Knit, and decided that a trip to Northampton, MA would be just the ticket. We'll go in May, when they are having their anniversary sale, and I'll see if I can plan it for a weekend when there is a class or event that I'd like to attend. We'll find someplace to spend the night and a good place to go to dinner and just have fun. Planning that far ahead will allow me to save up some of my allowance for the spending -- ah, I feel the tingle of anticipation already!

I remember one Christmas when I was a teenager, when I had the opportunity to be home alone (or, all my younger brothers and sisters were in bed and my parents were out -- it was pretty rare to actually be alone in our family of 7), when I realized that anticipation is often as good as, if not better, than the realization. Planning my knitting trip so far ahead gives me the best of both. Plus it solves the problem of figuring out when to fit it into an already busy fall.

Speaking of anticipation, I'm only about 1500 people away from being invited to join Ravelry! I hope it really helps me organize my stash in a usable way. I'd really like to be an organized person, but somehow it never seems to stick.

I also made a dash to my LYS (Local Yarn Store -- an acronym I learned from reading the "New Guard" interviews in the 25th anniversary Vogue Knitting magazine) yesterday, under the guise of taking a walk, and picked up yarn for a gift for one of my nieces for Christmas. The other thing I did while shopping online on Friday was look at the Classic Elite yarn site. I had spotted a pattern photo in the Webs (paper) catalog but didn't want to buy the whole book unless there were more than one pattern I liked. (Yard Goods, here in Waterville, had the book and I bought it -- Celebrating Classics by Classic Elite.) Anyway, I found about a half dozen free patterns (there were lots of patterns to choose from) that I liked and downloaded them. One of them would be an easy, pretty gift for a teenage girl -- the Four Seasons Vine Lace Vest. YG didn't have the Four Seasons yarn, but I opted for Berocco's Comfort (machine washable!). Then, today I took my ipod for a walk and Steve Elkins was talking about Comfort on the podcast I was listening to. Funny how life often criss-crosses itself in that way.

Anyway, even though the "Big Birthday" (that's what my husband wrote on our family calendar) isn't until tomorrow, we celebrated with my parents and one sister and one brother yesterday. It was a lovely day and we had a leisurely lunch and afternoon together. I'm working my way through my favorite birthday cake -- white cake with brown-sugar frosting (really more like penuche fudge than frosting) and enjoying knowing that I don't have to go to work tomorrow. And now, I think I'll take my next piece of cake into the living room and pick up my knitting!

ON MY NEEDLES
I'm up to the cap on the sleeves for my Jean Frost jacket. I thought I was going to be very close on the yarn, but discovered another skein in my big yarn basket. Phew!

I bought a ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino recently to make the Fetching fingerless gloves since the pattern claims you can make a pair in one weekend with one ball. I didn't get them done in a weekend, but I do have one hand done and have started the other one. (The pattern is free at Knitty.com.) We like to keep our bedroom quite cool, but also like to read in bed before going to sleep, so these will be wonderful for the winter. Now I should make a matching shrug. The yarn is just beautiful -- so soft.

The Vine Lace Vest is being knit in a poison green (that's a color that is popular in quilting). I'm not sure I could wear the color myself, but it is fun to knit with it. I've started the back and got about an inch of the 4X4 ribbing done before I had to go to bed last night. I was up late the night before and couldn't stay up to knit or listen to the late Red Sox game against Cleveland. It is probably my fault they lost but I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

I haven't touched the feather and fan shawl in a week or so, but am not in a hurry.

I tied in the ends on my poncho which I started last spring. To get the correct gauge, I knit it rather more loosely than my normal stitch and may end up wishing I'd knit it tighter, but it is warm and pretty in Brown Sheep's berry heather (not the real name) color.

Zeben's socks are languishing. I need to have him try them on, but never seem to think of that when his feet are clean. Teenage boys' feet are not something you want to have your knitting touch unless they've just come out of the shower!!

WHAT I'M READING
I just finished the first book in the Sunday Philosopher's Club series, lent to my by my Aunt Alice. I'm not sure what I think of the book (my aunt and I love the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by the same author), but thoroughly enjoyed the scenes of Edinburgh in the story. I lived in Edinburgh for 7 months in 1981/2. I was a CSV (Community Service Volunteer -- a youth voluntary program in Britain), working in a psychiatric hospital, and loved being there. I think the neighborhood that the main character lives in is close to the neighborhood I lived in, Morningside. It was one of the most formative experiences of my life, so I'll probably read more of these just to get those peeks of Edinburgh.

And I've just started a book my mother lent me, called Shoutin' into the Fog: Growing up on Maine's Ragged Edge, by Thomas Hanna. From the introduction I get a hint of self-pity, but am keeping an open mind. I grew up near the coast myself, so am always interested in stories about the area.