Lighting of the greens and a knitted mess...

Friday night I took the boys to the local lighting of the greens.  It was a simple affair with the town decorated, a stage for church choirs and Santa hanging out on a park bench.  The boys loved it, although I think they were more excited to see the Chick fil-A cow than Santa.   The highlight of the evening was the village train set lit up with Christmas decorations and all the trains running.  The boys climbed up on a bench and were every bit as glued to the sight as a video game.  Everytime the trains crossed paths they shouted "they're going to crash!"  Nothing could have been more exciting than a fiery crash on the little holiday express.  I did wonder if I might be able to tip the conductor of the remote controls for a minor derailment.  The next great adventure took place at the VFW commemorative cannon enticingly bolted to the ground in the center of the square.  Their faces were glowing as they slipped into a world of pretend, dragging several other willing boys with them into fierce battle, climbing around on the big gun and hiding behind it.  I felt bad for the children whose parents rushed them on from the scene, depriving them of the very rare opportunity to just play.  All in all, the evening was a great success, not at all like my lastest knitting project.

A couple years ago, on my way to NCCAT, I stopped at a wonderful yarn shop in Ashville and bought an exquisite little ball of silk yarn.  The display showed a pattern for a ruffle scarf knit lengthwise.  It was the perfect project for a week long get away.  There are only nine rows but the cast on is enormous.  It seems odd as you are knitting it and you can't see until the end that it really does work.  I was very pleased with the outcome and stashed the pattern for further use.  Well, this week I brought it out again but for an entirely different kind of yarn.  This time I used a bulky alpaca.  The results were disasterous!  It was miles long and looked like a twisted mess of yarn.  Even though it was late last night when I finished it, I had to pull the whole project out and rewind the yarn back into its lovely state of possibility...ready for a second chance as a nice, traditional basic scarf.