Week in Review

This past week, at knitting group, Paris came up and I realised I couldn't remember the name of the métro stop near my grandmother's flat. This was the stop I emerged from every Friday afternoon to go to lunch with my grandparents and my aunt and the occasional other friend or family member, as well as for every holiday and every birthday for a whole year, and I couldn't remember the name! Quelle honte, n'est-ce pas? As soon as I got home I had to look it up: Laumière! It was such a relief - of course, I can remember what it looked like, and the walk from the métro to her house. I remember arriving and that there would always be some lovely smell emanating from the kitchen. My grandfather was usually the one who cooked, and he was really good at it. After lunch, my aunt and my grandmother would smoke a cigarette each, and we'd each eat a small square of chocolate. Every once in a while, when I left, my grandmother would press a 100 franc note in my hand (yes, it was that long ago that I lived there), which made me feel like a child, but in a really good way. She used to knit all the time, and how I wish that I had been a knitter back then, so I could have knit with her.

Aside from my memory lapse, it was a lovely evening with the Hoxton knitting group - it was a big group, and one new knitter had just seen us in passing, barely even knew what ravelry was, and just decided to join us, which I thought was so nice. And, by coincidence, she had happened to go to school with one of the other women there. Anyway, I had a really good time.

This is what I was knitting that night:




The colour is most accurate in the first photo.

In non-knitting news, I sent in my absentee ballot this week - it won't make too much of a difference, as I'm in NY, which will go for Obama anyway, but it still felt good to do it. Now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that he wins. Even Karl Rove thinks McCain is highly unlikely to win; he said if he does, he'll “have engineered the most impressive and improbable political comeback since Harry Truman in 1948." Though I wonder if he's doing this as a kind of reverse jinx - you know?

Another thing I've been able to tick off my to-do list is that I've finally bought some brown boots, which I've been wanting since I got here back in February: everyone here has such cute brown boots, all different shapes (within reason of course) and sizes, and I think after eight months, I can say my wanting them wasn't just a flash in the pan. I really love my new boots. So cute.



Also, it's been getting chilly in London, so I made some house socks. They did not turn out anywhere near as pretty as Ysolda's, but that's not the pattern's fault, I think my yarn choice, while good for warmth, was not so good for cuteness.




I've started some druid mittens from the latest vogue knitting.



Speaking of mittens, my niece called me yesterday to tell me that the mittens I made for her a few years ago are now too small. Hint hint. Her favourite color is constantly changing. A month and a half ago, it was dark blue and dark green, so I asked if she wanted dark green mittens, only to be told that she would prefer if they were brown. I hope I can knit them fast enough that she gets them while she still likes brown!