From Grandma

I've had this for a while, and to be honest, I've been a little scared the few times I've worn it. Definitely not drinking the red wine or eating the brownies. The sweater was a gift my Grandma Pearl gave to my mother when she first met my father, way back when. It's cashmere and mink, lined in lace, and feels like a million bucks on your back.

There's something special about a soft furry collar up around your neck and cashmere on your arms. Makes you feel like Grace Kelly. Even if you have jeans and boots on the bottom half.

And I'm completely powerless around buttons like these, which shouldn't surprise any of you.

But even though I own the cardigan, I'm pretty aware of the fact that it's one of a few items I'm really caretaking, to pass on down to my daughters someday with the story and photos. It's not exactly mine and I am very mindful of that every time I choose to wear it.

But I do love it. So much.

So my wheels started spinning when a new box of fur hats and collars came my way last week from my Grandma Edie's house, which she's moving out of. Nestled among the weird critters with eyes and legs still attached - that's so wrong. And, eew. (Why is it different if you chop the legs and heads and tails off??) But the girls are having SO much fun with those. Used To Be Live stuffed animals. Kind of gross, and pretty funny. The eyes are especially spooky and everyone jumped back when a tail fell off. Extra gross.

Anyways, nestled in the box were these.

And I have jeweled buttons. And yarn. And ideas on a v neck cardigan with a deep babycables ribbing for the waist that would begin where the collars end and babycable wrists with a little picot edge and then I'd have a furry sweater I'm not scared of.
Is it wrong to make a cardigan for the fur collars? So not PC? Or is it OK, since like the cardigan (or the coats, ahem) they were pre-owned and inherited? Hmm.

Either way, first I do have to finish up this puppy, which has been re-drawn and re-knit a few times over the past couple weeks. I think the changes were good and I only have a little more to go. Side two had me stumped, but I think I'm back in the driver's seat now. I still love the heavy aran yarn and the deep kaluha color. And in the spirit of being a perfectionist in 2010, I'm very proud of myself for ripping and redrawing and reknitting.

Lastly, there's something else I inherited from Grandma's house. My sister and her boyfriend showed up last week with the contents of their liquor cabinet. Some bottles have tax stamps still on them with dates like 1957 and 1963, and the labels are awesome.

However, a lot of it wasn't meant to be open for over 30/40/50 years (really, what is?) so in the interest of avoiding all kinds of trouble, we looked at the labels, sniffed, and then poured those down the drain.

Leftover was about a case of fun stuff, some of which isn't even made anymore, and I'll be pulling it out to share as I figure out what to do with it.

This I knew what to do with. It's Akvavit, a Danish liquor. It's a little like gin or vodka, but has a more herbal taste and smell to it. We had it in the house when I was growing up since my Aunt and Uncle would bring it over from Denmark when they visited. Apparently they brought Grandma some too. So, last night, I mixed this:

2 oz Akvavit
2 oz pear nectar (leftover from new years...)
2 lime slices squeezed in
one half can of tonic

And then I sat on the sofa and read The Lightning Thief, and didn't knit a stitch.
It was that good. (the book, not the drink. Although the drink was good too.)