Making the Best of Things

Okay, so let's say that you had surgery on Monday and you'll be staying home from work to recuperate for two weeks.  What would you do?  Me?  Silly question - I'm a knitter.  The question should be 'what project will I work on'?  The first couple of days I slept a lot and generally felt sorry for myself.  Now, it's been 4 post-surgery days and I still feel like crap, but well enough to knit if it's not too difficult a project - something I can pick up and put down and not get lost and doesn't require too much brain power.

What I chose is a project that I've been looking forward to since I was in the Jamieson & Smith shop in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, last year.  I was drawn to the Hairst Yoke Cardigan by Sandra Manson immediately for it's classical design.  (Hairst means Autumn in the Shetland dialect.) The hard part was picking out the main color.  I decided to go with a rich cobalt blue.  I've got a good selection of colors onhand (thank you A Knitted Peace yarn shop, now closed) that I can use for the yoke, so we'll see what I decide when I get there.  I figured that I'd better get this project started before traveling back to Shetland in a few weeks.  I don't want to say, "I can't buy yarn because I haven't used any of last year's wool yet!"  I think I just gave myself permission to shop! 

The cardigan is knitted in pieces and I managed to do about 10 inches of stocking stitch, fingering weight yarn, in 3 days.  Not too bad, if I say so myself - especially since I knit another mini-mitten today too (#20)!!  It really is easy knitting and I can do it while I watch TV.  I haven't got a lot of interest in the Summer Olympics, but I have a DVD that I've been saving, and it fits right in with my knitting.  It's a TV series from the UK called "Shetland".  I've watched, and enjoyed, the third season already.  Now it's time to get caught up on the first two seasons.  Besides liking the mystery stories, it's great to see the beautiful landscape.

There will be more TV watching this weekend.  Tonight,  on CBC, is the live streaming broadcast of Canada's Tragically Hip's last concert.  If you don't know the story, it's a sad one.  This is a group that's been around for 30 years and the lead singer was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.  They'll be in their (and my) hometown of Kingston, Ontario.  For the past month they've worked their way across Canada.  What a brave thing for singer/lyricist Gord Downie, to do, and what a gift to the fans.

Then, I'll see another concert on Sunday night.  The Denver band, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (every time I type that, it comes out as 'sweater' first!) are playing at my all-time favorite venue, Red Rocks Amphitheater.  They have sold access passes so that you can watch the show even if you're not there. 

  

I'm doing pretty good, except for feeling yucky:  a new sweater well on its way, another mini-mitten finished, two concerts....and all from the comfort of my living room!