It's hard to believe that we've been home for over a week after spending several days with Son#3 and his family. While we had a wonderful time with his three children and it felt that we really got to connect with the youngest, I did learn two things while there (or on the way there).
One, you should never put off taking photos of Mounts Ruapehu, Tongariro and/or Ngauruhoe when travelling through the Central Plateau of the North Island. If any one is visible and looks amazing, stop and take a photo. We didn't and our photos on the way home are nowhere near as spectacular as they would have been had we stopped to take photos on our way there.
Two, always travel with sock yarn. This is because I had to one, "shorten" a pair of socks that I gave DIL#3 for her birthday last month and had to rely on the yarn saved after cutting into the toe (scary!) to unravel and, two, I had to rely on tiny scraps to darn the sock pair that The Most Charming Grandson#1 slipped to me to be repaired.
The latter reminded me of my promise of long ago to restore the files for resole-able socks that used to be on this blog but which mysteriously disappeared. I've been working on that this week and it's almost done. (It's taking time to gather photos as I can't find the original and so I've had to actually make a pair of socks again. At least it's an excuse to knit another pair of socks.)
The one thing about driving through the centre of the North Island and being exposed to all that incredible splendour (especially in winter) is that I develop a strong urge to live somewhere near the mountain - despite not particularly enjoying cold weather.
But cold weather means knits and since rediscovering my love for knitting (it got put on the back burner while raising a family and then patchwork and quilting took over for a while - but knitting is more portable as I've discovered) my wishlist of items I would love to make someday has grown.
And there's nothing more satisfying than a recipient who loves to wear what you've knitted and gifted. Even if it is inside out! (I'm with The Most Adorable Granddaughter#9 in that I think this hat looks even better when worn inside out.)
Gingersnap for Bigger Kids apparently worn under sufferance by at least one recipient. ("Mum always makes us wear these." Thanks to Mum for appreciating the time and effort.)
Long car journeys also provide lots of time for knitting and what better opportunity than to crank out some of those long and boring rounds on a top-down sweater?
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