How about we tackle the oldest news first before it becomes stale bread. Or should I say, stale yeasty beer bread? Or should I say, stale, yeasty, IRISH beer bread?

When people say to me, "What nationality are you, Japanese? Korean? Russian? I just can't tell You People apart," I can now say without batting an almond-shaped eye, "I'm Irish."

Yes it's official, I am a citizen of Ireland, ba ha ha! Even though I went through all the proper channels to get this, it still seems totally wrong. I think the requisites should have at least been something like:

Applicants must 1) fry within 5 minutes in the sun or 2) fry within 10 minutes in the shade or 3) own all Riverdance videocassettes 4) avoid sushi.

[P.S. I was eligible for an Irish citizenship through marriage. Duck has been Irish himself for a dozen years or so. He was born in the US, his parents were born in the US, but his maternal grandmother was born in Ireland (and a distant cousin of Gregory Peck!). You can obtain citizenship if a grandparent was born in Ireland, and you have the birth certificate to prove it and other documentation that prove you are indeed related.

November 29 2005 was the last day they were accepting applications for post-nuptial citizenship, so I really wanted to get it done before the opportunity closed for good. Why not!?]

None of those apply to me, but worse I have never even set foot in Ireland. Not even for a layover. I am a fraud! I don't know who the president is! I don't drink Guinness and never freckle in the sun! I can take a Jameson on the rocks, but not without some mild gagging. And the Magners cider, it comes in a can that's so enormous, I get stage fright.

[Funny, in the rules it says you "must have had a period of one year's continuous residence in the island of Ireland immediately before the date of your application." Hm. I think they just made that up. There were a lot more rules that applied that aren't listed there.]

People ask me what I'm going to do with this citizenship, like it's the oddest thing to want to have. Hello, I'll get a passport, and then the key to the doors of all of EU will be mine!!! I can live and work in France as a citizen. Or Turkey. Or Greece. Who knows if I ever will, but having the option to someday exercize those options is a no-brainer.

PS The president of Ireland is Mary McAleese. So progressive! I should have known this.

***

Finally we get to some knitting. I feel I've slacked off a lot in knitting even though I still knit a bit everyday. I've just adopted an extremely scatterbrained process. I currently have about 4 projects going on, 2 of which could have been completed a long time ago if I could just focus on one thing at a time.

So, here is another half of what will one day become a second pair of Pomatomus (so I have a complete pair now, but mismatched). I so love this pattern. This one is worked in Koigu, toe-up with a short row heel.

With this half of a pair finished, I've gone back to finish the other half of my first pair. I hate this non-linear approach but it keeps me from getting bored with a yarn.

Remember me wanting to make a table runner/doily/something very lacy? I haven't forgotten about it. It took me awhile to settle on a yarn. I visited a yarn store with my mom last month in Atlanta, it had a 30% off sale on a laceweight cashmere/silk blend. Yummy. I bought 2 hanks with Rose of England in mind. But I hedged. Do I really want to use cashmere for a tablecloth? This was all supposed to be about process knitting so practicality shouldn't have mattered, but still...couldn't bring myself to start.

Later in Michaels I spotted a spool of cotton crochet thread and for $1.50, I thought what the hell, I'll give that a go.

Rose of England progress

I started Rose of England this weekend. It took several tries and I nearly gave up after the 1000th attempt of trying to get past round 3, but once I finally did, pretty smooth sailing! I made it to round 23 before I started running out of room on my supershort DPNs. I'm excited about this project though. The potential for mistakes are aplenty and I was convinced that, especially with no end-of-rounds stitch counts given - I'd find myself losing my place or missing a stitch here, there. It hasn't happened so far. The easy-to-read chart and written instructions are really helpful used together. And most surprisingly, working with cotton thread has been pretty decent. Once I get a pair of suitable circs I'll be on my way again.

***

Now I've saved the best for last. A couple of weeks ago a reader named Veronica requested a photocopy pattern swap which I happily (and hopefully not illegally) obliged. You know how I love one-for-one pattern swapping. I sent it off but instead of getting a pattern in return, I got two skeins of HANDSPUN 100% CASHMERE. Can you believe it? How generous is that? I love you knitting people! Come here, let's all get in a big circle and snuggle!

The yarn is gorgeous, scrumptious, edible, luxurious, beautiful, lovely lovely lovely, too lovely to knit with. She sent one 2-ply skein, but because that one turned out "flawed," (whatever!), she included another skein in 3-ply. Oh cashmere what have I done to deserve you? It came attached with a HANDSTAMPED multi-paged card. AND a handwritten letter. I was totally beside myself with glee, but also a little sheepish and embarrassed. So much handiwork and care, and all I did was make a few photocopies and lick a stamp. It doesn't seem fair, but I'll take it!

LOVE the personal card

The spinner of the glorious yarn lives in Seattle and that's all I can tell you. She doesn't have (or didn't include) a website to some online business and doesn't have (or didn't tell me) a blog. Too bad! Maybe she's working on it...?

Thank you Veronica for the incredibly generous gift! If you have a website and/or business, let me know!

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Filed Under: Life | Socks | Pomatomus | Rose of England