Prove It

The book Quilts from the Quiltmaker’s Gift has a whole section of stretches and safety tips for quilters. I’ve always found that sort of risible, but after spending twelve hours working on this over the weekend, I appreciated a good soak in Batherapy. Sore fingers goes without saying.

So when I needed a break, I cast on for #2 son’s sweater. You can see the ribbing sitting on the quilt frame.

Actually, I was trying Ozarque’s trick of splitting the worsted in order to finish the poor Log Cabin Sock while it is still Socktober. It is possible, though time-consuming and irritating, to split the yarn, but unfortunately half a strand of worsted does not equal sport weight, so I was contemplating the next step, when #2 son approached me.

“You’re not working on my sweater,” he said. I reminded him that I was just going to finish up the sock first.
“Is that the same sock?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said in some consternation.
“Prove it.”
I was struck dumb. His brother joined in. “We want evidence.”
“Yeah,” said #2 son. “Forensic evidence.” He seemed to feel that this clinched the matter.

Since the yarn splitting trick wasn’t actually working anyway, and in the absence of any source of the sport weight yarn, I put the sock down and commenced his ribbing instead.

I cannot read while quilting, let alone doing applique, so it was not until I took my knitting break that I was able to finish the little mystery I was reading and begin my next creepy book for the Autumn Reading Challenge.

During the challenge I have already read The Little Friend, a bit of modern Southern Gothic; The Black Opal, a basic gothic romance; and a collection of classic ghost stories. I figured a bit of black comedy would round out the group. So I am reading The Wooden Overcoat by Pamela Branch. An early scene has a roomful of murderers at dinner, with one of them constantly watching the others for fear of being done in by them. It is masterfully done. If creepiness with humor appeals to you, this would be a good choice.

For the HGP, this is pantry and closet week. We are to begin addressing Christmas cards, but I haven’t bought or made mine yet. We are to get our holiday card picture done, and I am in the happy position of having a new picture of all four of our kids plus our son-in-law. It is a blue jeans snapshot on the front porch, but I love it. I do not usually send pictures, but I think that I will this year. I have cartoonified and shrunken it so that it will not be recognizable (I am not allowed to post recognizable pictures), but you can still see how cute they all are.

We are also to send out invitations for Thanksgiving and order our turkey, two things that I do not need to do. We only have family for Thanksgiving, and my dad cooks one turkey while my husband’s company gives us another. I already put some snickerdoodles into the freezer over the protests of my sons, so the “goodies in the freezer” job is done. We are also to put a meal in the freezer, buy 1/8th of our gifts, spend 1 hour each day on handmade gifts (in my case, that has gone by the board while I complete the wedding gift), and sneak some nonperishable holiday foods into the grocery cart.

If you were not ready for the HGP when it began in August, or have not merely fallen behind a bit like me but have fallen out completely, there is another chance. The Christmas Countdown started yesterday. This is a 6-week plan that does not include cleaning and organizing. They are telling us to get our holiday plans together in one notebook today, and suggesting that people who are beginning their handmade gifts now should go with small things. There is also a recipe for pumpkin cookies. The countdown has daily tasks, and I plan to check it daily so as to catch any of the things I did not get done when I should have.

Fact-checking is not going to be on that list, I know. I intend to complete that this evening, and if I haven’t found a good source, then I will just have to send it in tomorrow without one. Such is life.