The end of an era and a new start

Yesterday morning, at approximately 5am, a significant milestone was reached: I finished listening to episode 91 of Cast On. When I started listening to Cast On, I downloaded the most recent series at that point, beginning at episode 92. Then after I reached episode 98, there were no more new episodes for a few months so I went back and started to listen from the beginning, as well as catching up with the new ones. Episode 91 was the very last one I had to listen to.

At first I used to listen in the car on the way to meetings, but then for the last four months Cast On began to accompany me through early morning feeding times. I think I will forever associate the mellow tones of Brenda Dayne with being slightly sleep deprived and holding a small, hungry baby in the dark.

I can’t quite express how comforting it has been to hear Brenda chatting away about knitting, this week’s sweater, adventures in natural dying, life in South Wales and many other things.  Brenda, I’ll miss hearing you every day, but I’ll still be downloading the new episodes: thank you. At least there are other knitting-related podcasts to listen to as well. Hey, maybe the baby will get the hint that it might be time to sleep through the night, or maybe not!

So that was the end of an era. The new start was a knitting group. At the farmers’ market last week, I discovered that there is a new weekly knitting group meeting in the King’s Head at Nafferton on a Wednesday afternoon. I won’t be able to go every week, but I drove over there this week and had a lovely time. Kath from Little Houndales Knits was there and there were many people who were happy to entertain the baby while I knit a few rows on my socks. It is just so lovely to chat about knitting with people who understand.

I’ve finished the heels of my Sweet Tomato Socks. Very clever sockitecture, I like it. The only downside is that the heel uses two thirds of the stitches, so it is a bit tricky to adapt other patterns to use this heel. Maybe I’ll just work a few of the patterns in the book. It’s not as if I am short of sock yarn! Anyway, I’m heading up the legs, using the Eskarina leg pattern.