It's a relief to have my knitting planned and ready for the upcoming trip, sock finished and sock started; maybe now I can think about which clothing I want to bring. I hit a slight snag when I started the new sock: I was going to use one of the new sets of needles that I got at Rhinebeck, but as I was knitting, the second needle snapped in my hand. I've never had that happen before! I broke a needle once in my purse, before I found the protective tubes, but never in my hand. Guess that's a strike against that set! I had just been thinking how flexible they felt when it snapped. Flexible, fragile, one of those words. Back to the Knitpicks ones, which may not be the sharpest, but are clearly winners in sturdy, even in 2mm.
Anyway, I was very glad Thursday afternoon that I had started the sock in the morning, for it turned out that I had a lot of unanticipated knitting time. Our office holiday party was in the afternoon--remember how I thought it was odd, that the time was set for 1:30 to 4:30, at a restaurant? What else would we be doing besides eating, I wondered? Games or something? Because it's not like a meal takes three hours, right?
Well. I had never gone out for fondue before, so now I know that yes, it can take three hours, or more, for a meal. We were actually there longer! We all arrived from 1:30 to 1:45 or so, and weren't actually eating anything until probably 2:30 (me, who usually eats lunch at 11:30!), and there was cheese fondue and then salads and then meat fondue, and by the time we finished with the dessert course, it was almost 5. Good lord! Have you tried this? Is it normal? (The food wasn't bad, but I prefer to have the restaurant do the work for me, frankly.)
This is not my type of eating: three-plus hours is a lot of casual conversation with people you don't know very well! I mean, the boss may have purposely chosen it so we could get to know each other better, but for me, small talk is a lot of work, and if I hadn't had the knitting to pull out I would have been seriously stressed on top of being hungry. I was at a table with one person I like, one I don't*, and two I don't know very well, one of whom is very quiet and I kept not hearing what she said, and, and, and. Well. Let's say that I was extra tired Friday morning.
*Friday, the same person got a bad case of "I Don't Know What I'm Talking About But I Will Not Stop Talking, No, I'll Just Keep Talking, Where Are You Going, I Was Talking To You" until I was actually grinding my teeth. I had a mental picture of myself walking out to my car and her following me, still talking, as I got in and closed the door.
Off topic but not really: I wonder what kind of evolutionary reasoning might account for why sometimes you like someone as soon as you meet them, and other times you dislike someone for no apparent reason. Is my hind brain trying to tell me something?
So, knitting: I was on the second row before the party started, and then afterward I went to the hairdresser and she was running late, so this is where I got to Thursday night. Zoom!
Last night, wanting something positive to think about in the midst of all the unthinkable, I remembered seeing the mitten tree that my local library puts up every holiday season, and how I'd thought about whipping out some baby mittens for it. I pulled out some leftover Lion Brand Wool-Ease, and started knitting.
Mmmmm, fondue! Where did you go?
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