Superstitious

I try not to be superstitious. I inherited a few from my parents, though. When the salt spills I have to throw a bit over my shoulder, for instance. Innocuous, for the most part. However, the past two times I've blogged, I've come down with a big illness shortly thereafter. What's up with that?

I'm actually still sick. Low-grade fever and possibly heading toward another sinus infection. I'm trying to head it off with a neti pot. Thankfully husband is in town this week and has been picking up my slack.

Monday was the last day I was out and about. Here's a colorful photo of M, who is growing up so quickly lately. We had to take her to the ER last week with croup, but she has recovered.

Doing her best to beautify our house while it's for sale

Over the weekend, our son really got the hang of riding his bike without training wheels. Santa brought this new bike for Christmas, and it didn't come with training wheels, so there has been some motivation to ride it. Seeing as Santa also took the other bike that had training wheels. Santa's ways are mysterious, for sure.



Like about a billion other people, I started the February Lady Sweater. I'm using Araucania Nature Wool and although I had to fiddle with the numbers because my gauge is off, it's working up nicely. I don't know what those people at Araucania were smoking when they got 18 stitches for 4 inches on size 6 needles--the gauge on the label. I like this wool at 6 stitches per inch.

I've also decided to write up my diaper cover/wool soaker pattern and sell it on Ravelry. I have uploaded a total of three hat patterns on Ravelry for free, and they seem to be going over well. I like my diaper cover, because the design is very clean and has an adjustable waistband, too. We'll see how it goes. Right now I'm just trying to recover from this virus and make sure it doesn't go all bacterial in my sinuses. I'm sure blogging about it won't help, eh?

Published

I forgot to share that I finally published my Cherie Beret pattern (free) on Ravelry. You can find it here!

"I don't know where you went..."

I've been here the whole time, Internet. Just not feeling like blogging. When I have nothing but complaints, whines and moans, I usually refrain from posting. So that makes me a very intermittent blogger, at best.

But then a blog pal left a comment and said "I don't know where you went..." and it made me feel a little badly for not updating lately.

Let's see. Shortly after that last post, I had a vicious stomach flu that took a week to get over. I did finish my mom's socks for Mother's Day and they were semi well-received, although a week later she still had not tried them on. And I haven't asked about them since.

After that, I needed a sure-fire project to pick me up, so I knit my first lace: a Shetland Triangle Shawl for my oldest friend. We go back to the 4th or 5th grade, when she moved to my school. Somehow we keep reaching out to each other from time to time and I truly believe we will be connected throughout our lives. She's a very special person to me.

Project: Healing Shawl (Shetland Triangle Shawl from Wrap Style)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy Sock in Gothic Rose
Modifications: 10 repeats, but I'm pretty sure I could have done 11
Received: Extremely well. Better than expected. Happy.

After that, I knit a cabled pillow, but I have yet to sew it up, so that'll be for the next post. I also caught the February Lady Sweater fever, and cast on in 100purewool's 3-ply. It's turning out lovely.

100purewool 3-ply in Azul Profundo

On a continuing personal note, our house has been on the market for just over a month. We are hoping to move before school starts, but we're not counting on it. The housing market, if you haven't heard, isn't great. But we are buoyed by the fact that a few houses in our neighborhood have sold in the past few weeks.

I continue to spend way too much time on Ravelry, and CESOB in particular. I've met some great friends there and would like to give them a shout-out. We just had a stitch marker swap, and these are ones I received from Lynnea. I'll post photos of the others in another post. I promise to post again in June. Although I can't promise it'll be upbeat.

Lovely stitch markers from Lynnea