October 27, 2004

I can't help it. My son cracks me up. I took him to the carnival set up in the square in La Croix Rousse, and he immediately wanted to ride these cars. One can't tell from the photo, but those cars are not slowpokey go-karts that are stuck on a rail or anything similar. They're electric cars that run noisily around the track at what seems to be 1,000 miles per hour, and I nearly jumped out of my skin every time I saw the Captain speed by like he was zooming around a glorieta on Reforma in Mexico City*. Just look at him frowning in concentration as he careens past that curve! He had the time of his life. (And heck YEAH I'd let him go on again if he asked me. Fun times.)

As for my knitting for the Captain, I've made a lot of progress with his tweedy sweater:




I completed both the back and front pieces late last week, and joined the shoulders together using three-needle bind-off because i) the yarn is so thick, and ii) stitches are picked up along the armholes for the sleeves, which are then worked down. [BONUS: Photo of the pajama-ed child trying on the sweater after I joined the shoulders.] Now I'm blocking the whole piece so that the edge stitches along the armholes are nice and neat for when I pick up stitches for the sleeves. [How I blocked: Placed on a blocking board face down, sprayed with water, covered with lightweight cloth, sprayed that with water, then gently steam-blocked.] This evening and tomorrow I'll work both sleeves, and if I'm feeling on a roll I'll probably work the neck immediately afterwards so my son can wear the sweater back to school after vacation.

But that's not all. New stash alert! Kimberly sent me a load of great stuff: Some lovely Noro Silk Garden and Debbie Bliss Cash-mer-ino [let it roll slowly off the tongue, please] Aran, some food treats and Debbie Bliss books in trade. Check it out!

*That's where I learned how to drive. People, after years of driving around Mexico City, which is quite possibly among the top ten cities inhabited by the highest number of wackiest drivers EVER (really..don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise), I've discovered that there is NO amusement park ride that can provide more nervous excitement than zooming down Mexico City's main boulevard at 8:50 a.m. in a rush to get to work.

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