Sneeze Sneeze, Cough Cough

Okay, last week when the PMF was particularly stressed over the training classes at his new job, I promised him we would go to Atlanta on Saturday for a fun day. Late in the week I felt the sinus trouble coming, but would not break my promise. I didn't tell him I was starting to feel bad. Instead, I fortified myself with OTC pharmaceuticals and headed to the ATL. We played miniature golf, ate at a new (for us) restaurant, shopped, went to the cool arcade (Jillian's) at Discover Mills, and then headed for home. By then the OTC pharms were wearing off and I was starting to feel pretty bad. I reloaded on the drugs at a BK drive-thru in Newnan. At that point my cover was blown and he knew I was feeling pretty bad. I dropped him off and headed home to find I had a 99.2 degree temperature -- and that's with two Aleve in me for 90 minutes. I took two Tylenol and went to bed around 10:30. I woke up at 2:30am in a sweat when the fever broke. I didn't make it to church Sunday. They have a rule about not being around the kids when you've had a fever within 24 hours. I sat in my pajamas on the couch and watched a "Heroes" marathon on G4. I didn't even feel like knitting. GASP! Dawn called and was surprised to find me home at 2pm and I told her I was sick. She called back later to check on me, still concerned. When she caught me on ravelry around 7pm, she knew I was going to be okay. I went to work today, but I was pretty mopey. I went to knitting tonight, but left early. I'm going to keep taking my meds and hope I can get better without shelling out $40 to Dr. Lois.

I've fallen and I can't get up.

I've fallen into a pit called ravelry, and there's no escape. It's crazy. I sit at my desk and look at handknits and read people's knitting stories and look at all the pretty yarn. Here's the really crazy part: I'm not getting the knitting done that I want to do. It's insane! Knitting is not a spectator sport! I'm putting myself on Ravelry restriction. I need a life!

Dawn and I have been on the phone doing some long distance ravelry-ing. You find a lot more stuff when you work as a team.

Swatch

I did the swatch last night for Daddy's Christmas vest. It's pretty, isn't it? I'm really happy with how it turned out. Even happier that the gauge matched the required gauge on my first try. This is what it's going to look like:I was telling Dawn about the swatch and she wanted to see the back, so this one is for Dawn:
Pattern is from Knitter's Magazine, Fall 2007, page 80. It's called Canyon Ridge and I've added it to Ravelry. I'm knitting it in Wool-Ease.

I have to go get ready to go run audio at a wedding. Yes, another one.

Have a good weekend.

Holly did a bad, bad thing.

I went to Micheal's today to get a size 6 circular needle I needed for Daddy's vest. There hanging above the clearance yarn was a sign, "Manager's Special: Clearance Yarn 4 for $1". Uh Oh!
That's four skeins of Bling Bling in Carberet Crimson.

Four skeins of CiCi in Parade.

And four skeins of Carmen in Violet.

I figure I'll use it up on Christmas presents. I hope. But remember, I only spent $3 on ALL THAT YARN!

My blog buddy, Holly (her blog is Knit on My Cat - over there -->), is supposed to have had her baby today. I haven't heard anything. I hope all went well.

Today just drug by at work. I thought it was 12:30, and it was 11:00. I thought it was 3pm, but it was 1:30. A long, long day. But buying all that yarn sure cheered me up!

Finishitis, Part II

All those Fun Fur pics from last week. . . well, there were two more skeins that were in the process of becoming a scarf some months ago. Last night, with everything else finished and the yarn for Daddy's vest en route, I picked it up and started knitting. You see, my Internet service at home was down and I had two hours of recorded Monday night TV to watch. One hour of it was "Heroes", which requires me to sit on my exercise ball so I can read the subtitles when they talk in Japanese or Spanish. So there I sat on the exercise ball, big knitting needles (US17) in hand, two skeins of Fun Fur in the floor. It's much longer now than it was before.

It gives me something to do until the yarn I ordered from Lion Brand for Daddy's vest arrives. (There was no medium or light brown Woolease in Columbus. I looked everywhere except the Buena Vista Road WalMart, which actually has a decent selection of yarn. I forgot that I meant to go there and went ahead and ordered.) I also ordered a pattern that I have always loved of theirs called the April in Paris Cardigan. I've just always liked it and always thought that the day I placed an order from the catalog I would order the pattern. So, yea! It's coming, too. According to UPS, it all left Secaucus, New Jersey, last night at 1:37am, but it's not showing up in Atlanta yet. Hmmmm.

There were 15 two-year-olds in Sunday School Sunday. Whew! It was great!

Have a great week, everybody! I'm going to go knit some Fun Fur!!

Finishitis

Last week I finished my Yo, Drop It! Scarf. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I've worn it a couple of times now and gotten lots of compliments on it. I'm glad it's over.

Tonight at the knitting group I finished my ballband dishcloth. It turned out really nice, too. I can't wait to make another one in a different colorway.

Over the weekend I did audio for a wedding a church. It's a good little gig that pays pretty well for the amount of work required. I have another this weekend, then a week off, then another wedding. Whew! In most parts of the country the summer is the popular time to get married, in the Deep South, it's the fall. Far too sweaty in the summer.

Some - some - of the stress at work is letting up, but some of it is still sitting in wait. Dawn says I need a ball of yarn and some needles kept in the car for emergencies like the one I had the other week. Definitely something I need to work on.

Warning for New Knitters!!!!

Okay, when I became obsessed with knitting three years ago, I have to confess, I fell victim to the Fun Fur.

I knit lots of scarves with the Fun Fur. Lots. Many of my friends have fur scarves.

Another confession: My stash is 150 quarts of yarn. That's a 55 quart tote and five 19 quart totes. I was cataloging my stash last night for ravelry. (This should be a mental health exercise.) Last night I got through 93 quarts of it, the 55 and two of the 19's. Oh. My. God. The Fun Fur.

I remember buying it. I know it came from Hobby Lobby. I don't think it all came home on the same trip. I hope not. It was on clearance. 59 cents a skein. What a bargain! I have 19 skeins of Fun Fur, 3 of Festive Fur,

and one of Jai Alai - Moda Dea's equivalent.

Honestly, there may be some more tucked into one of my knitting bags. I don't have the stomach to check it yet.

So, this brings me to my Warning for New Knitters: BEWARE OF CLEARANCE FUN FUR! Before you know it, you'll be beyond the Fun Fur and will have 19 skeins of it, three of the sparkly ones, and one wannabe.

Me? I think I'm going to get 5 skeins of it and knit a scarf with my size 50's. Who knows? It might be cool. If I do this four times, I could almost eliminate the population of Fun Fur in my stash!