Pompoms of dooooom

I felt very much like I wanted to be distracted on the anniversary. I've always felt more sad that I'd expect of myself when thinking about 9/11. I don't know how to describe what I mean by that, but I went up the tower as a kid, was the first person in my class to hear about the first crash (and interrupted the lecturer to pass on the news - in rural Scotland a shocking number of people were unaware of what the WTC was), had a friend I was scared for (who had actually left NYC the night before, a change in his plans) and have been back to the site. I think I just mean that very few news articles and frightening events really scare or upset me, the only thing that affects me the same way is the Dunblane shootings. 7/7, I would have thought, should hit me more, but it doesn't, even after spending a few hours with one of it's heroes, hearing his story, crying with him. I suppose it's just because it's the biggest, the most implausible, the one we all knew where we were when we found out about it...

So. After crawling out of a mild hangover, and eating bacon and eggs, I was glad my parents came for a visit. Together we looked at short break options for Mum and I in October. We settled on 4 days on the Costa del Sol, I'm excited as it's my first visit to mainland Spain. More on that another day...

Mum also bought a hoodie I'd asked her to knit for a friend's newborn. I'd chosen the wool and pattern, and decided that I wanted to help by making the two pompoms that make little ears on the hood. I must have made them as a kid but I found this so difficult - at one point Mum just looked at me, laughed, and said "you're making pompoms not a cats cradle!". The first one was maybe a little sloppy, but it was also too big, so I have made smaller ones and the first attempt has been well received by the cat...