Sorbet Moment

When I was a teen in 1978, Reunion Tower in Dallas was finished - complete with restaurant, bar and viewing deck. Because my parents loved to go nice places and do fun new things, we went there for dinner - we lived in Hurst, a half hour away. The thrill of it was that as you ate, the entire restaurant - wait for it - slowly turned. Yes, it was quite a thrill. Of course being thirteen or so and being 560 feet in the air, I didn't recognize anything but Texas Stadium. However, my father, who had his private pilot's license and was used to seeing everything from thousands of feet up, could pick out every lamppost and street sign.

The one thing I vividly remember from that evening thirty years ago is the sorbet. After the appetizer and before the main course, a waiter came along with a tray full of tiny little ice cream cones of sorbet to "cleanse the palate." We were living high on the hog and seeing how the rich people lived!

I bound off the top of my Ice Queen Thursday night and then realized that I would have to undo it and concentrate on a lose bind off. Not looking foward. So to "cleanse my palate," I decided to cast on for this Baby Hat from One Skein by Leigh Radford. I have been meaning to make this for my friend Deborah's son, Andreas, and I bought the yarn months ago. (Yes, I'm still not buying yarn.) So I finally cast on. Not long afterwards, I was about half way done, finished with the sweet little border and onto the straight knitting before the decreases. (Oh, by the way, how Doris Day is this picture? No Vaseline on this lens. That's the yarn talking.) After an hour or so yesterday, the whole thing was done.
I had attempted this before with double points and all I got from that was three sticks covered in yarn that seemed to be whimpering like a fairy princess having fallen down the stairs. The yarn overs happen at unfortunate places and, for me, double points are better left until the project is well under way.

What I used was a regular 4,5 mm 16" (40 cm) circular and the project almost knit itself. I'm now going to do a smaller version for a woman at work who is about to have a baby boy. I think I can manage it on these needles and the pattern says you can squeeze a small and a large out of one ball. I am using Rowan Cashcotton, which has a little bit of cashmere in it, but cotton so that it won't felt in the wash. It's super soft and I can imagine it being just fine on a baby's little baby-soft head. I even have another ball of lilac in the stash that I might tag for this and I'll make a couple of baby hats to have on reserve or donate to a local hospital.


Yesterday, I was on the balcony listening to "Defying Gravity" on the ipod, and along came a flock of birds (Little Lou says that they might be starlings.) Then another came along and they merged and split and waved along. Then a smaller group of birds came from out of nowhere and joined in. It was like they were synced with the music. It's was so wonderful. I love watching these birds. I can't figure out what makes them come out like this. They're unpredictable. Yesterday was certainly not a great day, but there they were. Lou also said that they're all trying to stay on the inside of the flock, which I can see them doing.

They just move in such amazing precision. Sometimes you get the side view and then sometimes it's a fuller view from below. It's one of the greatest things about living here - as opposed to NYC, where I didn't have a balcony I could stand on in the middle of the day. It just looks like great fun to be a starling. (Of course then there's the finding your weight in bugs to eat every day, which would be sort of a turn off.)

So the baby hat is off to Canada tomorrow. I hope he can wear it for a while. Now I'm starting on a baby surprise jacket for the woman at work. Pray for me.