Non-Busy Business

I have had a really busy non-busy weekend. (Busy in the sense that I felt like I was on the go constantly; non-busy in the sense that I feel like I got absolutely nothing accomplished.) Friday was St. Paddy’s Day so we headed over to the Papists’ for some beer and truly excellent Irish stew. (Seriously, Major, I want the recipe.) Saturday morning I was off to Newtown for my quarterly Depo injection, at which time I realized that my new Pommy doctor is actually Sir Bob Geldof. Sir Bob wants me to have a bone density scan to make sure I’m not losing calcium from the hormones. Whatever, Bob. I also met up with Miss Jane, who lent me Miss Fee’s knitting swift and ball winder. The Snook and I then had a lot of fun figuring it out so I could turn my five skeins of Harmony (color 801 Natural) into five beautiful center-pull balls. In the afternoon I was back to Newtown for SSK where I completed my gauge swatch for Rogue. Later that night I also experimented with different knitted hems. I like the twisted stitch hem the pattern recommends, but I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work with cardiganizing the pattern (since the hem lies on the bias rather than flat). So I tried a few widths of stocking stitch and then knitting my cast-on edge up into a tube, which seems to work well. I went with eight rows and I think it’s going to look nice. I also tried out one of the side cable panels just to make sure I was understanding the symbols right. Then I actually washed my swatches and laid them out to dry. (I know! Who does that?) Checking in the morning, I’m still a tiny bit tighter than the pattern suggests – I get more like 4.75 than 4.5 stitches per inch – but I’m not knitting it any looser. It’ll block to the right size. I did manage to go on a run Sunday, thank God, because Sunday night ended up being an orgy of consumption. One of Rodd’s cousins (well, kinda) got married and we attended the reception in Pyrmont. It was the biggest, funnest, most ostentatiously Italian gathering I’ve ever been to. We drank ridiculous amounts of wine and danced to “That’s Amore!” I ate everything – in a good way. I mean that I tried absolutely everything they put in front of me. Anchovies, olives, mussels, oysters (natural and kilpatrick), nonnata (which, since I now know what it is: *shudder*!), prawns, ocean trout, EVERYTHING. As I said to Ma Snook at one point, “Did you ever think that the girl who cried because you tricked her into eating yabbie paté would be eating this stuff?” (She maintains that there was no deception involved.)

So diet-wise, yeah… It’s not going to be a good week. But I just need to write it off and get back to work, right?