Yesterday was one of those frustrating days where everything seems to take much longer than it should. Gym. Several errands. Hours on the road and in just a couple of stores, stupidity, incompetence, lack of sales help on the floor, all of these things did nothing to improve my mood. And it’s not even Christmas season yet...thank goodness I had Tesla with me so I could knit even a little bit while I stood in line, far better than rolling my eyes, looking at the ceiling and starting to rearrange the displays next to the registers.
It’s not that I am impatient; well that is patently not true. I can be patient, but I have to feel like I am in control. This is not necessarily possible in the world of retail.
When I got home, far later than I had planned, I just had time to wolf down some yogurt and start preparing dinner before going off to knitting group. I anticipated that George would be home late, after 10, so I contemplated putting off starting the dinner until I returned, but knew that if I did so he would have an inexplicably light day and be waiting for me when I arrived.
Even this, cooking a simple beloved dish, was a lesson in frustration.Still more delays occurred. I was planning to cook Squid in Red Wine which requires about an hour of simmering. I quickly minced a nice Spanish onion and several garlic cloves and got the onion started in the olive oil. Then I opened the wine. I had planned on using a nice Alion Ribera del Duero, 1995. We had been working our way through this wine of late and it has been quite lovely. I had one bottle up in the house. I opened it, took a sip, and spat it into the sink. This was followed by extremely foul language. The wine had corked. As there was no other red wine upstairs in the house this meant I had to go down to the crawl space that we call basement and wine cellar and crawl around the cases of wine trying to find something appropriate. Yet again, I found myself cursing myself for not building those wine storage shelves down there, knowing full well that the reason I keep putting it off is that I had crawling around and the thought of sitting on the bare rock ledge building shelves in a place I can't even stand up is also fully unappealing.
I found a Domaine Tempier Bandol 2000, pretty quickly in fact, and rather than look further, I quickly retreated to the kitchen. I had a slightly larger package of squid than I had used in the past so it took most of the bottle. This was a treat as it meant that I could relax with a half-glass of wine before Alexine picked me up for knitting.
We opened the second bottle with dinner.
Time spent at knitting group proved productive for Tesla and she is progressing nicely. I continue to switch back and forth between left-handed and right-handed carrying, fully aware that this may not be wise, but I still can’t discern any difference in my gauge. In the stores it depended on my mood. Initially at group I knit with the yarn in the right as I found the combination of conversation and left-handed carrying too confusing. Eventually, as I sat around looking at how everyone knit, I noticed that Leslie carries her yarn in the left and holds it in a way that I had not considered. After a little finagling with the yarn I eventually found a nice tension and was able to finally eliminate my penchant for laddering at the joins between the double points when using the left-handed carry. I have been knitting with the yarn in the left ever since. Ahh, peace at last.
I don't know that I will always knit this way on all projects. It may depend on the other techniques being used. For example I really want to knit Rogue but as it is knit at least partly in the round, I will have to use Western Knitting. I don't like knitting through the front loop and carrying the yarn in the left, so I will probably work right handed for that.
I am also getting bored with having only one project. I have tried to be faithful, but it is proving difficult. Simultaneous projects will be starting soon, including socks, if the sock yarn ever arrives.
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