American Thanksgiving- a sale

Pumpkin colored Spire Smock from Knit Green-- available on Sale at Ravelry

As an American living in Canada (and a permanent resident here), today, Thursday, is just a regular day.  I mean, I know it's American Thanksgiving--happy Thanksgiving!  However, for us, we had Thanksgiving and a holiday in October....it was awesome, thanks, and we are having an ordinary work day.

Well, ordinary besides having a sale.

Until the end of November, I'm offering 30% off all my patterns for sale on Ravelry.  This includes my eBook, Three Ply.  If you were wanting to send a knitter a gift, you might want to consider a Yarn Spinner Story+Pattern.  However, for a real deal, you'd buy Three Ply, because if you purchase it at this discount....all the patterns are 50% off.

There's a coupon code: Thanksgiving

Please, Enjoy!  Use it!  :)

A funny story or two about this odd North American holiday disconnect.

Recently, an American relative asked my professor husband what he would be doing on Thanksgiving, meaning ....Thursday.  He explained that he would be at work, likely at his desk or in his laboratory.  "But," the relative replied, sounding confused, "you always call me then!"

"Yes," says the absent minded professor.  "I use the phone on my desk."

(Did you laugh?!  Understated humor, indeed....)

Second story:
I visited with an American friend this morning who has lived in Canada for a long time.  Probably she moved here when I was in grade school, or something like that.  She had tea and apple crumble ready, and we 'celebrated' the day for a couple of hours by getting together.  She told me her husband felt desperately deprived without his "All-American" pumpkin pie, but she was offering him a heart-healthy apple crumble.

I explained that nobody in our family is in love with pumpkin, but that apple desserts were definitely a thing with us.

At the end of the visit, she handed me a treat to take home, and it was a pumpkin bread.  We laughed.  I traded her one pumpkin bread for most of the apple crumble.  I bet her husband will enjoy it!   We sure will eat the crumble for dessert....

Kid and Adult sized Basketweave Hat--on Sale on Ravelry

See?  Not so ordinary a day after all.  Homebaked dessert on a weeknight!?  Wow.

Say Hi or Happy Thursday in the comments, ok? :) Joanne

Cankles

The other day I heard all about my younger nephew's cankles. This is apparently the area we would call...ankles and calves. On a baby, this would be "cankles." As in, this baby doesn't have any socks that fit properly because of his outsized, fleshy, delicious to kiss-- cankles.

The next line of the email mentioned something about Auntie Joanne, knitter, and whether she'd do something about it right now?

I immediately dropped all my dithering about a knitting impasse. On the way to the Ozarks, I drove 200 miles and then the professor took over and I whipped up the first pair of cankles. The yarn is called Merino Bambino. It is great stuff, machine washable fingering weight Merino, but it seems to only be sold in Australia. (bought in on vacation a few years ago.) The socks hopefully fit someone in the 15th percentile for his age (we're not quite thriving yet, this is the nephew that spent 10 weeks in neo-natal intensive care and it's hard to get enough nutrients through the naso-gastric tube) and that foot length is 4.5". Toe up socks, figure 8 cast-on, round toe, short row heel, and ribbing on a larger needle and a large bind off to accomodate those dear cankles.

It occurred to me while knitting pair number two (in green cotton sock yarn for spring) that I haven't knit much for my nephews...clearly a case of the cobbler's children having no shoes. Or the knitter's nephews having no handknit socks. Or something. They don't even have their own set of bug finger puppets! Their grandmother (my mother) is an avid knitter too, so maybe we should get on that. They are very good for creative play...and use up all your sock yarn odds and ends.

This came up because over on Ravelry, the fabulous database for knitters that is already over 300,000 knitters strong, is having a contest. It's called the Bobby Awards, and there is a category for coolest toy. If you don't have a horse in this race, (as we say here in Kentucky) would you mind voting for my Bug Finger Puppets? Thank you, if you're so inclined. The professor studies bugs, so we'd have to say we're a fan of them over here. Too bad I don't still have the original samples. We'd be playing all the time! :)

In other news, several kind friends have posted fun things about Fiber Gathering. On foodperson.com, Janet tried out the one recipe in the book, apple crisp,...and she liked it! (I wish there had been room for more recipes. I would have gone wild!) My friend Alison posted another kind, wonderful note celebrating all our connections over here at her blog, Spindyeknit. We also dropped by our local book store to pick up a magazine and saw an actual copy of the book there! Yes, we are truly neophytes. This blew my mind. The professor also talked about it for two days, so apparently it blew his prodigious brain as well! We are pretty easy to bowl over these days. It's all a bit overwhelming!

If you voted for Bug Finger Puppets, would you let me know in a comment? Or tell me what you think about those lovely little cankles that babies have? Or whatever? I love hearing from you!