Girl Times

After a fabulous, month-long vacation, K had to return to Portland for her final semester at college. After dropping her off at the airport, I visited my sister and her family. One reason was to shop with my niece to choose fabric for her own lap quilt, to be sewn by me. It should have been her Christmas present, but there was a lack of communication, and of time... you know how crazy things can be at Christmas!

Let me tell you about my reasonable family. My sisters and I have a lot of kids, and if we tried to give gifts to all of them at Christmas, it would not be as joyous as we would hope. So, we draw names for our nieces and nephews, and each kid gets a gift from one of the aunts. In fact, we don't really draw names; one of my sisters has made a spreadsheet so that in the course of five years, each aunt will have gifted each kid. I know that some of my readers are sighing, wishing their families were as reasonable as mine. I agree.

Picking fabric with 8-year-old niece M was a very entertaining experience. I think she had fifty different fabric in her shopping cart, to be narrowed down to 12-15. She listened to my advice to choose light, medium, and dark values, and large and small scale prints. She took direction from the photo of the inspiration quilt she'd chosen from some online patterns I'd shared with her, and came up with a color palette of her own. And she gave up the snowflake-patterned fleece for the backing in favor of a brighter, simpler pattern.

M's fabric choices, with the pink flowered fleece backing.

Before going back to work, my friend Monica and I enjoyed a girls' day out. We drove to Cambria, where we strolled on the beach and walked the bluff trail. We had a yummy lunch, then window shopped a bit. We were both enticed by a charming yarn store, and we shared the view that we imagine ourselves knitters, who sit by the fire watching TV with our husbands or listening to music or a good podcast, needles softly clicking, hands occupied, minds gentled by the rhythm of knit and purl. We went in and stroked yarns, and chatted with the friendly shopkeepers, and said "Why not?" when invited to sit down and give it a try. Learning with artistic wooden needles and pretty, soft yarn was enchanting, and I left the store with a bag of supplies to try it at home.

 This pretty yarn does a good job of hiding my missed stitches and the spot where I knitted instead of purled, and my infinity scarf is making progress! Soon I'll have to learn how to cast off. Maybe that'll mean another visit to Cambria!