Friday, November 23, 2007

Ramblings

Me and Grandma Clara Thanksgiving Day ;0


Black Friday?
What insanity is this? Stores opening at 7am! 6am! 5am! 4am! Holy Cow...cash cow...at least that's what the retailers are hoping for. I've never felt the need to spend spend spend for the holidays. Mostly because we really didn't have much in the way of extra money when I was growing up. Don't get me wrong, as children we always had gifts under the tree. We were encouraged to handmake as much as possible though, and gifts of quilts, knit and crochet'd afghans and slippers, hand embroidered pillowcases and dishtowels, candles, and macrame' plant holders (i know...my age is showing again).
The Thanksgiving holiday was the grand opening for the season. My family would spend the long weekend at my Grandma Lynnie's home where any number of her 14 surviving children and their assorted families congregated. Hams, turkeys, gravies, homemade biscuits, side dishes up the wazoo...desserts beyond counting as Lynnie's daughters and daughter's-in-law (or out-of-law wink, wink) tried to outdo and one-up each other in the down-home country cooking department. Dozens of cousins ran screaming in and through and out of the 2 bedroom clapboard house. The screen door was always slamming. The plastic over the windows (to help keep the propane heat bills down) seemed to breathe in and out all day. After the meal, the aunts and older girl cousins washed and dried dishes. The boy cousins fed plate scraps to the pigs. The uncles lay around in the living room watching TV, or just yammering while the radio played twangy country music a' la Conway Twitty, Porter Wagoner, and miss Tammy Whinette......Later, a few would head to the pond to catch fish....some would head to the fields to hunt....some would just nap. The rest of the Thanksgiving holiday would pass in a blur of food and family and we'd sleepily pile into the car for the 2hour drive home, remarking on the Christmas carols suddenly playing on the car radio. No when...no where during that time was there "shopping".

Yesterday, during our small family feast, DD was invited to camp out with a friend at Best Buy, as the friend's parents were planning some major holiday purchases. DD looked at me with a mix of confusion and disgust...ugh! no way! She's planning to stay home and make bead jewelry for gifts, and watch a movie with the fam. I'm going to knit and work on some other homemade gift projects. I just shake my head at the whole Black Friday phenomenon. I guess that's fun good times for some folks....just not my cup of tea.......

Well, now that you've read my blather....here's a tiny bit of knitting content...I'm just "this" close to finishing Cobblestone. I would be completely finished except I lost/misplaced my pattern for about 36 hours! And it was a critical point of the shaping decreases after the short rows so i didn't want to wing it! Luckily, i found it under the sofa yesterday afternoon(as i was picking up shoes) and now hope to have it ready to block this evening sometime! Here's where I was before I lost the pattern:


In the interval, I opted to start on Grandma Clara's present. She asked for a shawl with buttons and pockets. I liked the look of the Library Wrap in the Cascade 220 pattern book, but as that's loaned out, decided to make-up my very own pattern for a rectangular shawl with a fat cable running down the middle and pockets at both ends (for Grandma Kleenex you know!). I'll then crochet two or three loops and add easy to grip buttons to keep it held together in the front. I'm making it with easy care Lion Brand Jiffy, which will be easy to wash up. The color is a deep ruby red, the grannymeister's favorite!


And lastly, just to give everyone a chuckle, a couple of the furkids got haircuts last week. Pearl underwent her every 8month shavedown. Despite her expression, she actually loves rubbing on everyone and everything and purrs and drools with absolute ecstasy for a couple of months until her base grows back in! Don't worry, the groomer left her a nice tail tuft that Pearl can groom.


Well kids, other than turning other local knitters on to Ravelry, and validating their yarny "splurges"...that's about it these days....hope everyone had a warm, cozy, and fulfilling holiday. Knit on!

9 comments:

Joan said...

Dessert competitions? I would died and gone to heaven. ;-P

GC looks amazing, a testament to her good care.

Bravo, DD! So grounded. I knit a scarf on Thankgiving myself.

Bea said...

Grandma Clara is so cute. I can't wait to see her shawl and the cobblestone. We don't do black Friday either and don't really understand it, but generally try to stay away from shopping centers and malls all year round. Love the idea of making everything so everything gets made. I do wonder if certain relatives get tired of handmade stuff every year.

Allison said...

I love the photo of you and Gradma Clara - she is as beautiful as you! As to the cat - you might be expecting a call from the SPCA pretty soon!

smariek said...

Your Grandma Clara looks great in that photo. I'm trying to knit gifts for family and friends, but sometimes wonder whether they prefer something else. On our drive home after Thanksgiving dinner, we passed by a Circuit City whose parking lot was visible from the freeway. I saw lots of cars there and wondered why CC was open. Then it dawned on me. These are all the who camp out the night before. That's insane.

Unknown said...

thanks Lisa, I needed that more than you know. Its good to know that I'm not the only one that doesn't spend a ton of money on Christmas because the big stores tell us to. I made a bunch of stuff for Christmas and then went to Kohl's for the rest.

Libby

Arctic Knitter said...

Happy Thanksgiving! Yup - I don't get the Black Friday phenom either. The cobblestone is looking great!

Robin said...

Well I for one LOVE Black Friday!
NOT!!!!!
Bunch of loony toons, I say.
In a perfect world, the holiday season would NOT be about the al-frickin-mighty dollar.
It would be about family and helping others and religion if that's your choice.
It's so awesome your daughter "get's it"!

Anonymous said...

Hi Sweetie,

A good memory. I love reading your blog. Pic of you and Clara is excellent. I made your sweet potato pie recipe. Yum. Dave's been busying letting returning troops into the gym. Dec is really ramping up to be busy.

Love ya. mk

junior_goddess said...

Oh, Pearly looks ridiculous. I am surprised you shave her after it snows. Poor baby.

I succumbed to Black Friday. I looked at the ads, called Sears and ordered a washer. Blech to combat shopping!!!