Much better now...thanks

I realize now that blogging while under the weather is not a terribly inspired idea. Sorry for that last depressing outing. I am doing much better (flu has passed, ear infection is dissipating; and Zen and her dad are fine, too). Thank you so much for the kind comments, despite my negative post. Have you ever noticed that few men handle being ill very well? All three of us were sick, but my lovely husband was convinced that he was worse off than me, and I can't quite wrap my mind around this - I had the flu and an ear infection and he had just the flu. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that our flu symptoms were identical, yet somehow he was in worse shape than me (I know this because he told me). Nat's a terrific guy; I adore him and think he is a wonderful, perfect dad to ZEN, and a terrific husband to me. But the guy does not handle illness well. This must be the reason that only women can be pregnant.

Really, enough of the sickness now! Onto more exciting things, like milestones and yarn fun.



Our little girl is teaching herself to stand up! I am a typical, cliche mom who would prefer that she not stand, because that means she'll be walking, and there are so many troubles she'll find at that point! I know that's ridiculous, though, so I'm just trying to be excited about her milestone. And besides, when she can walk, I won't have to hold her in the yarn store - more hands available for yarn fondling fun!

In knitting news, I was on target to start Clue 2 of Secret of the Stole when I got sick, but this is Clue 1 done. I didn't block it at all, obviously. I am still a little unsure about the pattern. Clue 2 looked promising though. The double points don't bother me, but it seemed like a lot of stockinette stitch for a lace project. It appears to be opening up with Clue 2, so it will be worth moving forward with for now, at least.

In other fun news, I received yarn from my swap partner - I'm going to knit her a scarf out of yarn she sent. It's Paton's SWS (soy wool stripes). It's a single ply, and I think it will self stripe. It's really soft, so I'm excited to work with it. She very kindly offered some suggestions of scarf patterns she likes. I had planned to play with it this weekend, but the illness derailed that, so I hope to get to it this week. I sent some yarn to my swap partner to knit me a scarf, too. She's received it and said she's already started to lovingly pet it! I sent two colors, just in case she wanted options, and she said she's thinking either cables or fair isle! Holy cow - I got lucky with her, don't you think?

Finally, to get everyone in the Halloween spirit, here's ZEN, all oranged up and no place to go!

Yarn love and getting from here to there...

ZEN is learning, at a young age, to embrace and love yarn. Perhaps this is her way of asking me to knit her a pair of socks?

In other knitting news... I cast on the cover sweater from Lace Style. I am using T3 Weavers Alpaca, and I am enjoying the pattern (simple feather and fan) so far. I think it will knit up quick, but I have to shift focus to my Christmas knitting, so it won't be done as quickly as I might like. Here's my swatch and progress.



This week's blog stalking assignment was to show how we get from here to there. I don't have any pictures of my cars, but I drive either a Blue Honda Accord or a Black VW Passat Wagon. If I'm lucky, I get to drive the Passat, which means there's a good chance I have company. That always makes for a better ride!



On a final note, Nat read my last blog entry. He has zero faith that I will finish his sweater. Such doubt, and it's only October!

To Nat, with love

I showed my husband my progress on Tulip today. It looks like this now:


Upon review of the sweater, he said: "It would look better if you'd done those color changes right." I said: "You read my blog?!" This is a momentarialy exciting revelation, until he responds: "No. I don't read it that often - you don't mention me enough." I told him that was because I didn't want to put him out there for public consumption against his wishes. After all, there is a decent chance that three or four people might read my blog, and of those maybe one would know Nat and of those, none would care (ZEN can't read yet, so we're not counting her). He reminded me that he's already in the public domain to a certain extent. He's a journalist who covers high school sports for our newspaper, and his stories are published online. In an effort to get him to quit whining, this blog entry is dedicated to him.

Here is the start of his Christmas sweater:


It doesn't look like much, I know. But by December 25, it will be a cabled sweater for him to hopefully enjoy. I really hope to finish it by Christmas, because I don't want to hear him complaining about how I never finish his knitted gifts on time. I have already finished 1 1/2 of his Christmas socks, which I will gag him with if he chooses to whine.

Here's a picture of him and ZEN:



Aren't they cute?

OK, enough of him. Back to the fun yarn stuff. Look what came in the mail today!

Yarn from artsygal. Yummy, don't you think? Especially in the colorway "strawberry milkshake". 100% Superwash Merino Sock yarn. Sorry the picture stinks.

I'm off to try to crank out at least one Hat for Alex tonight. Because it's Friday night, and baby, that's how I roll.