Wednesday was the burial for my Great Aunt Lois's ashes in the town that she and my grandmother grew up in, Avoca. After the ceremony, we went to see the farm that they grew up on just outside of the tiny tiny town. My grandmother is now the only living of her family of 8 children. She was the youngest, and at almost 80, she's doing pretty well. She is shrinking though, she wasn't always this much shorter than me, and not because I was growing!
While their family was very poor, they were rich in the view their farm provided them of the valley. My grandmother used to have to take the bus to the end of her road, and then a car would take her the rest of the way up the hill. Unfortunately they would only shovel the roads for a little while, after which she would have to walk about a mile and a half up a very steep hill to get to her house. I never really believed the old story of "when I was a girl, we had to walk so far, in snowdrifts over our heads, up hill, just to get to school." Now that I've seen it, I believe it. My grandma said that she hadn't realized just how bad those hills were until she saw them now.
Rochester it's self is a bit of a combination between many things, part completely double sketch, and part very nice and quaint. My mom said that parts reminded her of Chicago, I think it's because of all the Art Deco architecture.
Of course we went yarn shopping on the Thursday. We went to The Village Yarn Shop, which is inside a bookstore in the super sketchy downtown mall. At first I was disappointed in the selection, there just wasn't that much, and there was certainly no sock yarn. However, then I turned around one corner, again around another. Around each was more and more yarn! Hurrah! I found some very nice Austerman Step, which will become some plain old stockinette socks.
My mom and I found the sale section, in which they were getting rid of all of their Debbie Bliss. All of it was super discounted. Unfortunately most of the stuff on the shelves was icky colours, so it was looking like I wouldn't find anything. I found a few rogue balls of a few colours, but not enough to make it worth it. Then I found a single ball of a gorgeous steel grayish blue. My mom went on a mad search through a huge chest of yarn and found 5 more balls! In total I got 6 balls Merino Aran for about 40% off. Granted, it's only about half a sweater's worth since the Debbie Bliss yardage is tiny, and it's aran weight. But even if I have to get the rest of it for regular price, I still save money. It's all thanks to my awesome mom, who definitely knows a bargain when she sees one.
We drove back to Toronto on Friday morning, getting in at about 2:30. I knit the majority of my hat for the Yarn Harlot's Represent hat Collection in the car, but forgot to take a picture of it. I finished it while sitting around doing not much at all, before heading out to see her at Indigo. All my pictures of the talk are blurry and very far away, since I was almost late and ended up in the back.
Afterwards I went to the Spotted Dick where I ended up sitting next to two lovely girls, Tina and Julia, both blogless. Tina is holding her spectacular first sock which she made up on her own out of two knitty patterns. Julia has a blurry Pomotomus knit out of Koigu, and I have my Koigu Roza's. Twas a good night overall.
This morning I finished a hat I was asked to make ages ago. It needs the ends woven in but it's pretty good.
I just need to fix the gnome problem too. Luckily I think that it's just the last few decreases that are being problematic, so it shouldn't be a problem.
That's one thing off my to knit list. Too bad I've already replaced it with another pair of socks and am desperately trying to not cast on for another sweater until I have a few more things off the list. I will finish some things!
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