Lobster's in Winter!

Hi Megs,

Love the lobster socks. I found a great pair of knitted lobster mitts that I love! Have no idea who designed them. "Our Lobstermen in the Buff" calendar for our local cancer centre brings many such lobster related gifts. But - wow - happy to say that we, the "calendar girls" , have, to date, raised over $80,000 for the centre! We are really proud of this and hope to get close to $100,000 by the time all sales returns are completed!

And - answer is YES! I have no idea who or when or if I will knit anything from any of the books or every use all the yarn in my "collection" - an "extra special collector's items of sweaters that could be. But I do love to admire all the sweaters in my books and the yarn - lovely stuff.

I love your socks. They are beautiful! Lace is always picky and when you are doing it on circular needles - it gets crazy. But they are FINISHED and really nice. I love wearing my gray socks. Make me feel good. If you want more sock ideas I found some great vintage sock and mitt books. They have some really nice patters, particularly for knee socks - boy do I remember trying to keep those darn things up!

I tried reading "knit lit" but just can't get into it. I guess with the Knitting Guild and the Rug Hooking Guild I am living it! I am so into audiobooks (plug-in at Figures and when I drive) that if I can't get it from audiobooks or I-books I don't "read" it. I do always have one real book but tend to like to read Can-Lit (Canadian that is) like Wayne Johnston. Am currently reading The Custodian of Paradise by him. I do really like the Coxeter book, King of Infinite Space. It is a very good read - as a mathematician I really love the images and the thought processes that are described.

I have been knitting away on my shawls for the Rotary Brazil group. Also rug hooking. I am taking a course all next week on colour planning and dyeing with Barbie Baker-Dykens. She is a well known rug hooking teacher who specialized in these two areas. Really looking forward to this. She also works on unique dyeing formulas and techniques. What I need is a sink in the basement so I can do more dyeing. I hate to do it in our WHITE Corian sink!

And - we are just digging our of a big snowstorm! We were totally socked in on Monday. Everything closed - schools, banks, stores downtown and get this - the mall! The only thing opened according to the radio because we didn't go out - was Tim Horton's! Guess it is a Canadian thing eh!

Meanwhile, your brother is enjoying the Barbados! His only problem seems to be the goats and monkeys that invade his backyard. But he is warm and he says he is writing a lot so all is well with him.

All is well with us except my car got broken into while I was rug hooking - outside Holy Trinity Anglican Church no less! Is nothing sacred? I only noticed when my car info panel told me my alarm had been tripped (at least I know I locked it). All they got was my gym bag (black workout pants, underwear, toiletries, towel and a t-shirt) and the neat yellow bag. I keep my great shoes on the rack at Figures. At least that was all I thought they got until I realized that my extra set of car keys (with house key) was in the bag! Also sort of worried because I have the only Saab in Yarmouth so if they want to they can find my car. Your Dad parked his truck across the driveway last night and we made sure the "stay" alarm was on - little freaky! Called the RCMP. Officer Jenkins took a very serious report on it all - said their had been a lot of these car break-ins going around. So having the keys reprogrammed this morning and the key re-figured this afternoon. Finally figures out that how they got in was through the back hatch because when my car's back was repaired last month they somehow didn't reconnect the back lock. Have to drive to Halifax to get that fixed. Oh bother!

Am working on the mag, knitting shawls, hooking and having a grand time trying to survive until Spring!

Love ya, Mom XOP