I Had The.Best.Time

A few days ago, I was contacted by two former students who both live in London, and were interested in coming to visit me. Chris had two dates he was available - today and a Saturday in October. I suggested today and Andrew was available, too. We met at the Symposium Café in Ajax and parked ourselves at a booth for the afternoon. Fortunately there were only a couple of other tables of diners so our prolonged lunch didn't prevent anyone else from getting a table.

The last time we got together was in July 2009 at Andrew's home.

And before that, the last time we had been together was Chris' ordination as a Catholic priest. 

It was so fun today catching up on what we'd been doing these past 17 years. Neither of them are very active on social media but I'm sure we've exchanged messages or texts a couple of times over the years and, of course, they always receive my annual Christmas newsletter, the Glen Hill Times.

As I've mentioned before, spending fun times with long-time friends is the best experience ever. I taught these guys music in the mid-80s. Andrew played clarinet and Chris started out on saxophone then became a bassoonist. He even played bassoon in a community band up to a decade or two ago. I encouraged him to rent a bassoon and come to music camp next year. He's seriously considering it.

Before we knew it, 4 1/2 hours had gone by and it was time for them to head back to London. Of course, we had to have a group photo before going our separate ways.

My afternoon was like breathing pure oxygen. I met these guys when they started Grade 9 at the age of 14 and got to see their social, musical, and intellectual development through the rest of high school. I have continued to follow their post-secondary pursuits and career choices and successes. It has been such a joy to have these guys in my life. I am so fortunate.

In knitting news, I started a Sophie scarf last night with some lovely laceweight yarn (possibly Malabrigo).  The pattern increases on one side every 8 rows but I'm increasing every 6 rows instead. This will made a wider scarf and use up more of the yarn. I haven't decided how long I'll make it. The stitch marker reminds me what side to do the increases on. The Knit Lounge has several Facebook reels on this project starting with this one. The actual knitting starts with this one. 

Basically it's garter stitch (knit every row) with a lovely i-cord edge. Once it's as wide as I want it, I'll decrease back down to the number of stitches I started with. 

You'd think a simple pattern like this would be easy to keep track of the rows. But oh, no! It was hard to read the dark yarn and I was watching TV while knitting. I found checking off each row with pencil and paper to be very tedious, then remembered I had a row counter that goes over my finger which I had bought in 2016. I created a little avalanche of knitting accouterments while rummaging around on a shelf for it but I found it!

Of course the battery was 'deader than a mackerel' as Skip used to say. So I found the appropriate mini Phillips screwdriver and opened it up. The battery was one of those little button batteries like go in hearing aids and wouldn't you know it? I had some spare ones! (People think I'm joking when I tell them I own everything, but it's pretty true). 

It took a couple of tries to get the battery and the innards oriented properly but finally I was successful! A number appeared in the window! Hurray! (I was so proud of myself - Scooter just shook his head - LOL).

Just tap the big button when you finish a row and the little button resets to zero. So handy!

They're $3CAD or less on Amazon and would be a great treat to hand out at knitting events/retreats. Golfers could also use them to count strokes.

And finally, I spent some time yesterday working on the finishing of the triangular sunflower scissor case.

I made SO MANY MISTAKES putting it together which did involve some bad language. One boo boo was not inserting the cording on the tip of the flap for the loop closure before turning everything right side out. 

I used Sulky Petites thread for the cording - 4 strands folded in half for 8 strands total. I think I can tuck the ends into the tip and secure it. Then all I'll have to do is add the pearl bead closure and the HotFix jewels in the spots on the front in the 4-sided Kloster blocks where eyelets were supposed to go.