Knitting, buses and studs

Funny how sometimes I can go for days without posting and then other times I can post two or three times in one day.

I was going to photograph the progress on the vest earlier but couldn't find a clean sunny spot to do it and then I realised I had to run off to the bus.

Buses (waiting for them and riding on them) make excellent knitting opportunities. This morning I had to drag myself out of my warm bed to take the car to the tire place to get winter tires put on. It's getting harder and harder to find any tires for our Ford Festiva - it takes 12 inch ones and most cars are now 13 inch or bigger.

As I didn't have an appointment, they said to drop it in and leave it for the day. Assuming that they would get around to my car late in the day, I walked downtown (about 40 minutes - I could have taken a bus but it was a nice day and the exercise was good). I was early for the bus so sat on a bench waiting - and knitting. Two teenage girls sat down next to me and after a short pause, one said, "Is knitting hard?" Kudos to her for knowing I was knitting, and being interested! I told her no, it's easy, well, after the initial learning part, which doesn't take long.

Waiting is SO much nicer when there is knitting in your hands. I have now decreased for the armholes - started out with 98 stitches at 5 stitches to the inch - knitted 14 inches - decreased 9 stitches each side for the armholes - and now that I'm down to 80 stitches per row (which isn't a whole lot less really) I feel like I'm moving on much faster.

The funny thing is that I arrived home at about 11.10am to find a message on my answering machine from the tire shop - my tires were switched and the car was ready for pickup! I could have run off to the bus straight away to go back into town, but I stayed home, ate lunch and did the housework first. Mid-afternoon, I caught a bus, my husband picked me up at the station and drove me to the tire place.

Be envious - I now have STUDS on my tires. They don't look anything like THESE studs though - shame!