Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Hi Dear Folk,

The best laid plans of mice and men, that was my weekend.  Saturday morning my sister phoned and that was nice, but it meant that I didn't get out as planned.  Later I was planning to attend the memorial of the death of an older friend in a neighboring congregation, but as I was pulling into the parking lot at 1:30PM I knew I must have got the time wrong as it was almost empty.  Sure enough I was able to ask a straggling car group who were just leaving and the memorial was at 12:00PM and not 2:00PM.  Oh well!  Nothing I could do there.  I was so cross with myself.

So decided to go to Target and pick up some more jumbo size Ziploc bags to keep fabric in.  Eventually after walking almost around the entire store, I found where they were kept.  On walking on my way to the checkout, the next thing I know I'm laying flat on my stomach on the floor.  People are running over saying am I alright?  Not a store employee to be seen and I never did report it to the store. although it's probably on video somewhere.  Fortunately I was alright, but you feel such a fool, and I was already totally overdressed for shopping in Target.

OK after that I did go to a yarn shop and soothed my soul by finding some very nice yarns which I may go back for.

Sunday poured with rain all day and was black ice, so after my fall the previous day I did not feel like venturing out.

Monday my friend J. phoned and we chatted about her trip to Iceland, that was fun to hear all her experiences, adventures and mis-adventures.

It could not be ignored anymore, we had to take action on the backed up sewer line, it had been draining, but now was not.  I sent Mr. B. down there for the grand clean up, well just the water.  I did have to go down and help him run the snake.  After putting in a new trap several years ago we have not had a problem.  But on an almost 100 year old house, with plumbing that old to match, it seems they used to use terracotta pipes and tree roots easily get into them.  I helped him get it out of the SUV, it weighs a ton, we man handled it down five basement stops, not an easy job.  We were sweating bullets because we had over 90 feet of a 100 foot snake out there and it was still blocked, but all of a sudden it started to gurgle and it was unblocked, thank goodness for that.  After which we did two loads of wash just to make sure.

In between all this madness, I did however manage to finish one crochet beret in 100% wool, and one crochet cloche where I used left over acrylic and it had no natural content and I should have headed my sister's warning, do not use yarn without some natural, such as wool content, because it stretches ridiculously and sure enough it did,  So now I need to figure out how to bring it in a little, shearing elastic may do it, the colour is pretty like a candy floss, with white, pink, lavender and gray, subtle.  I will crochet the pattern again with a different yarn.

I am so happy to have found a pattern for my mohair yarn, the colour is  called brown spice with heather frost, I love that name, a cinnamon brown colour with a blue/grey mohair. A very simple shawl pattern just using chain stitch and slip stitch, it really suits this yarn.  I am so excited as I had started on one fingerless mitt with this yarn and that was the one where Mr. B. said it looked as if I had just wrapped yarn around my hand.

So as you can see Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men, was how my weekend went.  Hope yours went a little better.

From Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786. It tells of how he, while ploughing a field, upturned a mouse's nest. The resulting poem is an apology to the mouse:
...
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.
...
The poem is of course the source for the title of John Steinbeck's 1937 novel - Of Mice and Men.
 
Christy


 

1 comment:

  1. I'm sorry your plans went awry. I love Burns as he hits the nail right on the head in such a lovely way. I dread falling over on my own as yes it does make you feel foolish. At least your plumbing went well and sounds like you have beautiful yarn so hope that makes you feel calm.

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