Yoked to a Turtle

I started a sweater for LSH a long time ago. Actually, I started several sweaters for him a long time ago. But this particular sweater I started about 10 years ago (and yes, there’s another one of his that’s been a UFO even longer).

It’s a perfectly nice sweater in a perfectly nice pattern, but as often happens, I got distracted. By what I really couldn’t say, given that it was so very long ago. The sweater itself has been moved 3 times since then, with not a single stitch knit in the intervening time. It’s a very traditional looking Lopi sweater with a circular yoke. The body is finished up to the yoke. One of the sleeves was within an inch and a half of being finished up to the yoke. And that’s how it stayed.

I had a pretty good idea how much of this sweater remained to be knit, so I hatched a scheme. I’d knit it when he wasn’t around and give him a surprise gift for his birthday at the end of March.

He left on Monday for a week long business trip, and Monday afternoon ‘Parkle Girl and I hit the stash. There it was – right where it was supposed to be, in a box all the way down. We retrieved it, I found the pattern, and I was ready to go. By the time he got home, I’d finished the first sleeve (up through the yoke) and was about 10” into the second. Now I just have to wait until he’s very distracted or busy and see how much knitting I can sneak in.

5 a.m. Wake Up Call, With Soup

Finally, a use for robo-calling! I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of two phones ringing at once, just after 5 a.m. I’m thrilled that the new automated calling system functions so very, very well, and I know that they need to let families know as soon as school is canceled, but still, it was a very, very abrupt awakening.

Instead of the regular Wednesday routine, we had a nice, chaotic, but somehow relaxing day at home. Universe Man showed me his literature project, which was hysterical, and Mr. Personality finished the first draft of his book report. All by himself. It will need some editing, particularly because he quoted an important letter from the book verbatim (with quotes though, so no plagiarizing) and also some formatting. I’m very impressed with his work, even so.

It wasn’t all work yesterday, though. Mostly, it seems to have been cooking.

Universe Man decided that he wanted to cook soup for everyone for lunch. From scratch. Without a recipe. He told me what vegetables he wanted to use (potatoes, carrot, cabbage, peas), and asked for some help in organizing how to cook it, took a little bit of guidance about which (really, how many) spices to add, and cooked soup. It was actually rather good. So rather good that Mr. Personality went back for another bowl during dinner because I have to admit that Universe Man’s soup turned out better than the new soup recipe I tried.

During the end of ‘Parkle Girl’s nap, Mr. Personality and I started the baking I had planned. We tried a new cake recipe, to mixed reviews, and made some corn muffins for dinner. Then we made some corn chowder (the new recipe, which I could tell would likely be lacking in flavor when I read it, but thought I should follow the first time through. Lesson learned), and Mr. Personality and ‘Parkle Girl learned about the blender. No matter how we tried (and I even consulted the resident mechanical genius AKA Mr. Personality) we could not get the food processor lid back on after I washed it. I don’t think it’s broken because it worked just fine for the cake, but after 10 minutes of fiddling with it, I gave up, got the blender out, and used that instead. Life without kitchen gadgets would be a terrible, terrible thing.

Today, the sun is shining, the ice appears to be melting, and the kids are at school. I’m back to my usual, but I must say, it’s a lot less fun than I had yesterday.