Redford and Hutchin.

I haven't really had time to update this blog for almost a week now. On Wednesday we had guests coming to celebrate Magnus’s birthday and on Saturday we visited friends and family in our home town. I’ve also been busy planning and learning new choreographies for my Zumba classes (I instructed the first class of the fall term on Thursday). All of it was left to last minute since I’ve been sick and haven’t felt well enough to dance. People don’t always understand how much work it takes to first choose music, then plan the dance moves and on top of it learn them so well that you can stand in the front of the class and teach them to the others. It takes hours. However it is something I love and enjoy so I’m not complaining.

On top of all of this our oldest cat Otto has been a bit sick, so I’ve been worrying about him quite a lot. Luckily he’s starting to feel much better now. It’s always really sad when a pet is sick since they can’t tell you what’s wrong and where it hurts. You can’t really comfort them in the same way as humans either, since they don’t understand when you say that taking the medicine makes them feel better. Instead they just look at you horrified when you try to force the medicine down their throat and in addition to them already feeling under the weather they also start sulking and looking at you like you are the worst person ever. The vet said that we should start treating Otto like a senior citizen now that he is over 10 years old which feels a bit weird since he still runs around and plays just as much as our younger cats do. But the vet explained that Otto is already something like 60 years in human years so it’s inevitable that he starts to get age related illnesses.  

Because of all this other stuff happening in my life my knitting projects haven’t progressed as much as I would have wanted to. Magnus’s birthday sweater is nowhere near done even though I’ve been trying to knit it as much as possible. I’ve finished the front and the back as well as the side panels, but I still have the sleeves and the neck band to knit plus all the assembling, seaming and weaving in ends. Hopefully it’s ready by the end of the week.

I put the Aurora scarf on hold until Magnus’s sweater is ready and vowed not to knit anything else. But the plain stockinette stitch is so boring and monotonous that on Friday I found myself looking through the new Brooklyn Tweed BT Fall 14 catalogue and before I knew what was happening I realized I was knitting the Hutchin cap. I would probably be much further along with the Redford sweater if I didn’t constantly knit something else in between, but then again knitting something that requires all your attention (like the cables in the Hutchin cap) makes the mindless back and forth knit and purl feel like a refreshing change again.

I’m not sure if I like the exposed seams the Redford pattern has on the sides. I’m not confident enough with my seaming skills and am afraid it won’t look finished and polished, so I have been looking for some alternatives. I’m still undecided what to do though. Magnus also asked for a ribbing to the bottom edge of the sweater because he hates when the edges of garments start to roll up, so I promised to make one.   

P.S. Thank you all for your comments regarding my last post on feeling lonely and without friends. It’s good to know it’s a common problem, even though it’s sad that anyone should feel friendless. So many of you recommended joining a local knitting group and I’ve seriously taken it under consideration although even the thought of going to a meeting where I know no-one terrifies me. I was planning on going past their meeting place the next time they gather and nonchalantly try to spy through the window to see how it looks, haha. I kind of need to know what to expect before going so maybe the next time after that I have enough courage to go in. I’m also going for a coffee on Friday with a couple of my colleagues (one who works in another museum and one from my work, but she works in a different unit) so hopefully things are starting to look up.