Not A Book Club Event

I have the greatest friends in my book club. The problem is we have trouble choosing a book, reading it and discussing it.
This summer we read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (three of us did) and then in the fall, her Wives and Daughters (two of us finished it). I had a lovely Folio edition, a gift from the other one who finished it.
Last week we met on a Wednesday evening with no kids or husbands (shocking neglect) to watch the movie North and South. It was actually the second showing, I missed the first, and four episodes all together. It was marvelous.
At the end we asked, "Are we going to pick another book?"
There was discussion, but no answer.
The good news is most of us brought our knitting and it was entirely satisfactory as a sit and knit.
These are the stitch markers I have made for my bestest friend for Christmas. She doesn't celebrate Christmas, but she's good for gifts and exquisitie baking. This is her colour and matches the Kiri shawl I knit her for her birthday. They are packed in a sweet chiffon bag and tucked inside a tiny box marked, "Peace On Earth". I hope I can wait to give them to her. Our black Alaska finally came in at our LYS. I gave up on waiting for it for the Counterpoint scarf and just bought Cascade 220. Dependable 220. We have the Canadian distributer here in town. She does not have my favourite yarn shop, but I can be a bit mercenary when I want Cascade.
This is some Araucania sock yarn that slipped into my basket at my favourite store when I was buying extra Maisy yarn for the chemo cap. I don't know how that happened. I was only buying black Alaska for Noodle Pie's felted messenger bag. Whoops. As it turns out, I didn't need the extra skein of maisy and will trade it in for another of the Araucania. I think I will need more than one skein for socks and if I knit from the toe up, I can happily knit them as long as I choose.

My book club also went on a craft crawl. We started at our regular organic bakery and bought some Christmas cake, biscotti, home made chocolates (with Red Chili!) and lunch.

Next we toodled off to Greendale Pottery, a fellow music mom and brilliant potter. I bought a Brie Baker for my mom. She had the alpaca farm people there (woo hoo). I bought another skein of sock yarn. Next door is the soap maker and I bought enough for all the girlfriends of my nephews. I have never given them gifts and some have been around for years (even if I don't get to see them). I will extend my auntiness to them as well. Perhaps we can be the kind of family that welcomes friends.

Finally I finished the Maisy corn fibre and elastic chemo cap. It is nutbrown (plum) softness. I was afraid it would be too tight. I had good stitch gauge and terrible row gauge (again, none was given). I ended up measuring my head with a napkin (we were knitting at the said bakery) and still being unsure.

Because I read your blogs, I have learned a lot. Uncertainty is not a necessary part of knitting. I slipped the stitches onto a thread and tried the darn thing on. It fit my skimpy little head and still had give and sproing from the elastic. I was satisfied enough to knit up the border and cast off. Now I must get into the next town to deliver it.

I hope she can wear it. I hope her head does not itch as her hair grows back. I hope that returning to work will give her zest for life and not sap her of the energy required to heal and be a mom and wife. I hope she knows how thankful we are that she was brave enough to complete the full breast cancer treatment and how our prayers were answered that she has survived to come out the other side.

Now if I could only teach her to knit.