The summer before I discovered knitting, our family spent a week at the Cape with my husband’s step-dad and sibs. We all had a wonderful time. During the day, we all did our own thing–we went to the beach, hung around the house and read, etc. It was all very very relaxing. Then, in the evening, the whole family would gather for dinner and then sit together in the fading summer light talking and hanging out until we were all too tired and had to retire to bed. Often a card game would break out. It was just great.
One afternoon, one of my sisters-in-law was playing a kind of solitaire. I watched her play for along time, trying to figure out the rules, but there didn’t seem to be any–it just looked like she was moving the cards from the deck in her hand to a pile on the table. When I finally asked, she was more than happy to teach me this game.
Start with a standard deck of playing cards with the jokers removed and shuffled thoroughly.
From the BACK of the deck,
deal yourself four cards by placing them face up on top of the deck.
The last four cards dealt are the cards in play. Compare the last card with the fourth card to the left. If they are neither the same suit or the same face value, do nothing and deal yourself another card. If they are the same face value, discard all four cards. If they are the same suit, remove the two cards between them:
Since four cards are always in play, deal yourself enough cards to be able to compare the last card dealt with the fourth card to the left:
Continue in this manner, flipping cards over from the back and comparing them as described
until all the cards have been dealt. The idea is to end up with five or fewer cards remaining in play.
You can read the wiki on this game here. This is a great game to play when space is limited, like on an airplane (if the TSA confiscates your needles, e.g.) or while waiting in the doctor’s office. It’s what I did until I learned how to became consumed by knitting.
Knitting Interrupted 