In celebration of mathematics

It could have been a wonderful and knit full week-end: some freezing weather but tampered with a nice fire going in the stove, absolutely no need to go out and some nice crock-pot meal slowly stewing away its many layers of homey goodness and filing the air with all its irresistible aromas. Heaven. And yes, to top it all off, Superbowl XLIII!

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I use to hate sports (well, the kind called “sport” by those who just “watch” it) with a great dose of dedication, if not even sheer passion, maybe even tinged with a tad of intellectual superiority. I should have known better. For I have offended the knitting goddess, I fear. Through offending the sports god, I mean.

Because now, blessed be, sports mean more knitting time for me. So I embrace them all, all those many sports my beau is fancying, however far fetched, weirdo or plain boring. I don’t care, as long as I can knit meanwhile. And merrily knitting I am. But not this week-end. Darn. It would have been the perfect week-end for it though!

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They say football is all maths. Well, not unlike knitting, I ponder to myself. Same with mazes and labyrinths. And cathedrals. And music. And computers….
…daydreaming…

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When you offend the gods, there is usually hell to pay, at least that’s what men of Antiquity use to think. There was a natural order of things not to be tampered with: Hubris. And as a consequence to disturbing it, a tribute was in order to reestablish peace.

Where am I going with all this rambling you might think? Well, for starters, I would have really liked to cast-on my Latvian Mittens for the Nordic Mitten KAL held jointly by the Effiloché/North-Shore Knitters groups. But I’ve been stuck working on an urgent assignment for the past 6 days. All work and no play make Nathalie daydream of chili…. and Latvian mittens… and statues of Greek gods… but mostly of knitting. So this post constitute my Mea Culpa for not casting on, albeit having everything on hand.

Mind you, I still didn’t make up my mind on the final choice of yarn and pattern. Incorrigible I tell ya’!

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The assignment had the upside of making me travel back to Greece’s Ancient Mythological times and make me forget my little sore spots. So, upon doing research for the assignment on Labyrinths, I’ve been loosing myself in the modern maze that we refer to as “Wikipedia”. One maze to another. Funny how life is sometimes so humoristic in a twisted kind of way. Click-click-click! One hour gone. Click-click-click... Hey, don’t blame me; it’s as bad as a drug as knitting!

I felt sorry for my beau, all abandoned by me while I was supposedly all absorbed on my laptop, but actually secretly browsing on Ravelry and/or obsessively clicking from one Greek deity to the other. Mind you, I did sweat a lot on the assignment too. “Are you finished yet?” “Yes, darling”, I replied. “It’s coming along just fine, but you know how hard it is, all this weird and ancient Greek terminology… It takes time to verify everything”. And me, subtlety: click-click-click-clicking away!

That’s why I decided to pay tribute to him (and the Gods) with a big pot of chili in honor of this very meaningful and waited upon day. Superbowl day, I mean! Honored by my tribute of a super bowl of mighty chili. I devised that maybe the agreeable scent would appease the knitting goddess as well. Or at least make her wait patiently without unleashing all her fury on me, at least until I would find those precious minutes to cast-on my project. Well, you know, it doesn’t hurt to try.

Mind you, I would have been better without loosing myself in that lengthy preparation that made me cut by hand a pound of poultry in the finest dice ever. All sticky, all tacky, all pulp. What was I thinking? Argh!

But the pungent smell of roasting garlic laced with the sweet herbaceous accent of summer savory and oregano, in stark contrast to the hearty tones of cumin and coriander, made me forget my woes and sorrows. Just so heavenly. And add to that the citrus zing of the tomatillos, the slight punch of the jalapenos, the refreshing and subtle perfume of cilantro. And let’s not forget those irresistible plump chewy nuggets of hominy…. We where in for a major treat!

But now, what do Greek Gods with their mazes and labyrinths, Tex-Mex White Turkey Chili, Latvian mittens, the knitting goddess and football have in common? Hell, how could I know!? I’m the one who got lost in Deadalus labyrinth, without Ariadne’s thread, because my knitting gear has been stashed away for the past 6 days!