Not dead yet!

But oh boy, not well yet, either. Friday the doc checked me all out.  Lungs are clear.  Sinus infection and ear infection are gone, BUT sinuses are still full of gunk, blocking ear. (TMI? Sorry!)  That drainage causes coughing.  She gave me a cough syrup that will help me sleep, said keep on doing the nasal spray and the antibiotics and added a sinus rinse.  Swore I would feel like a new woman by Monday.

That was yesterday.

Same old sick woman here, although I do sleep better with that cough syrup.

Tried going to work yesterday, got through about half a day.  today I went in, and stayed a couple of hours.  I would have stayed longer, but my computer was unavailable, and without it there isn’t too much I can do, so it was just easier to come home.  🙂  I’ll try again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a bit of spinning has happened – I finished one bobbin of Hestia – a nice spin, but I have no energy for it. (Phone shot – bluer than the real color which is a nice rosy hue.)

 

and I blocked Mirno eventually last week (it soaked for a couple of days!)

 

I love this shawl, and can see getting lots of use from it and making more of them.  From stash, of course.  I think I have yarn and beads for two more.  🙂

And because I could not handle lace or long rows, I cast on and finished this hitchhiker in You red My Mind – hand spun.  Which is actually red, not pink or purple.  I love how this came out, it feels quite rustic.  I will also get a lot of use out of this, I am sure.

And lastly, I cast on a sweater this weekend.  Been intending to make it for sometime, and it is a fairly easy knit, so I went ahead and did it.

It is Derry from New England Knits, and I am using the Cottage Craft yarn I re-purposed in September.  So far I am enjoying the knit.  I won’t think about the acres of stockinette in my future, I will think about the nice warm sweater I will have someday.  🙂

Not much to show for being home for nearly two weeks, I know.  But most of that time, I was asleep.

Oh, and just so that you know – on my way home from the doctor last week, I stopped and voted.  So if you are a political survey telephone person, YOU CAN STOP CALLING ME NOW.

Time for a nap, so I will catch up with you all later – and hopefully have more interesting things to talk about than sinus drip.

I told you I was sick*

This is a quiz to see if you are paying attention.

You can tell I am really sick because:

1.) I am too tired to spin.

2.) I gave up knitting lace as too complicated, cast on a hitchhiker shawl from my handspun, stopped knitting that because it was too heavy.

3.) I have no interest in food, and haven’t eaten more than 2 bites since Friday.

4.) All of the above.

 

I don’t want to give away the answer,  but suffice to say it was serious enough to make me take days off from work and actually go to the doctor.  Turns out I have a sinus infection and an ear infection.  If the meds work, I should feel much better in three days. If I don’t I am to go straight back to the doctor.

I hope that is unnecessary.

Good night!

* This is the inscription on a mock gravestone my sister gave my joke-loving grandparents. They proudly displayed it each Halloween

A Friday list this week!

I am so glad that this isn’t the year I decided to go to Rhinebeck!

Came down with a horrible cold this week, and so left work early yesterday, and stayed home today.  My list today has a theme!

Do some research on cold meds I can take – ones with no sugars or alcohol to satisfy the whole 30 eating plan; ones with no caffeine or other stimulants to comply with doctor’s orders regarding the heart; ones with no NSAIDs to comply with gastric by-pass surgery requirements.

I honestly think I can do two out of three with what is in the medicine chest, but I am just not sure.  So on my list today is also a call to the doctor to get her take on it.

Once I know that, I need to make a shopping list – I have no decaffeinated tea!!!! Definitely  want some tea… and the meds, and I think we need more tissues…

If I feel up to it, I will take a hot shower and head out to get those things, if I don’t feel like it, I will call A at work and ask her to stop on her way home tonight.

I expect I will do some knitting and spinning, but mostly, I will be napping.  If only I could lie down without everything hurting and clogging up.  I wonder how horses sleep standing up??? I should learn how to do that.

Not an exciting list.  Sure not as exciting as if I was heading off to Rhinebeck, right?

A quiet weekend in Lake Woebegone

A long weekend, to be sure!

I did go to Whorls and Purls on Saturday, and so did a bit of knitting. Finished up a little hat for the Community Caring project there, using yarn that Debbie wanted us to test out. It was merely OK, so no more about it. We discussed the fact that we are all yarn snobs and we know it, having grown used to good quality wool and silk. So maybe we aren’t the perfect testers? Yet we are her customer base, and we are happy with the commercial lines she does carry…

The rest of Saturday was for puttering about the house. And knitting a bit.

Sunday, I convinced A that we wanted to go for a ride to see the colors north of us. Naturally it was the first rainy day in a long time. NOT complaining, we need the rain. Just noting.  We took the back roads up to Bangor, then the highway to Staceyville.

Saw this from a highway overlook. That’s Mount Katadhin, the northern end of the Appalachian Trail.

From there we took State Route 11 up to Patten, then back down through Millinocket.

This was in Patten.

Here we made a slight detour to the New England Outdoor Center, for which I had an ulterior motive.  I wanted to see this site of the Highland Handmades knitting retreat. Can’t make it this year but I want to sometime. I wanted to see if it is a place A might like to spend a weekend. 😀  I think it is. So perhaps next year…

From there we followed route 11 to Milo, then went back down the highway and home.  As A said “6 hours of driving and we didn’t go anywhere!” But I said since she likes to sleep in her own bed think of it as a vacation. Lol.

Monday was yare work as the weather was fine. Pool is all ready for the winter, gardens are getting there.  A used her new brush cutter to clear the edges of the driveway, she wants to get that done before snowfly. And who knows when that will be?

Of course there was more knitting and spinning. I finished the knitting of Mirno, I’ll try to block it this week so you can see it next week. That left two shawls on the needles from my big cast on in July. So naturally I cast on 2 more. 😝  One is a Gloria del Sol in Purple Fleece’s Radiant Gradient in aquamarine, the other is hitchhiker in my handspun you red my mind. I’ll post photos when there is enough progress to see.

Now it’s Tuesday and so back to normal routines. Like knitting isn’t?

What have I been up to?

Well, there has been a whole lot, actually.

But it all seems mundane and just busy work.  Work has been a long line of not hard but very frustrating things – getting 400 invitations to come out of the computer with no streaks blips, blobs, or smears,  and all lined up.  Getting 400 mailing labels to do the same.  And deal with division heads who didn’t know that I MEANT it when I said I needed their mailing lists at a certain date and time, and so going back and redoing labels and printing more invitations.

You know -around my other work,  being special projects girl is not always easy.  🙂

 

But then there was a weekend, and a big finish!  Just look at this yarn, I am so proud of it.  This is just UNDER 4 ounces, and it is about 600 yards!!!!  (601 before the bath.  Don’t know the after the bath number yet.)  That is lace weight, my friends, and it is what I have been striving to make since I learned to spin. It took forever to spin, and it is a good thing it is my favorite colors, I would have grown bored otherwise.  Even plying it took two evenings, and I ply pretty fast.

 

I took it with me to Whorls and Purls on Saturday, for show and tell.  🙂  While there, I picked up 3 skeins of yarn that Debbie got sent “on approval” which I will use to make hats for her box.  Not loving the colors but the yarn is OK.  Other people must like these colors as they turn up everywhere.  🙂   Of course I cast on a hat immediately even though I have plenty of other things going.  I needed a mobile project and wanted to get it done for her. And someone will be glad for a warm hat in just a few weeks, right?

I also finished my first Christmas present which I can’t show you yet because the recipient might read it, but I felt it was a nice quick knit and I hope she likes it.  🙂 It was knit in Ella Rae Seasons, again a yarn I would not normally choose (acrylic wool blend, chainette structure) in colors the recipient chose.  Let’s just say it came out better than I would have thought.  🙂

I had hope to finish Mirno by the weekend, but that didn’t happen because I made a huge push on the spinning, so I am working in the last chart of that shawl, and then I will have two of the four done.  The last two are slower going, but I work on them regularly, so hope to have progress worth sharing in the next few weeks.

Since I do try to spin each day, I put the next project on the wheel.  Amanita was the September roving of the month at Purple Fleece, and I remembered some Lamb’s Pride I have in the hat yarn bag that will go nicely with it.  So, I am spinning it to be thick – I will three ply it and try for a bulky yarn for  the accent yarn on an alpine topper.  We will see how it goes.  The spin is going SO FAST!  Finished the first bobbin, and am about halfway through the second one now.

 

I feel like I am missing something, but if I think of it, I will share it later.

 

This weekend coming is a long one – love it!  The weather is so nice and warm, I am still getting cherry tomatoes from the garden, but I need to start putting things to bed, and plant some fall things like garlic, and maybe a bit of lettuce. I also need to dig up the remaining carrots.  So I expect we will do some yard work, and I will definitely do some knitting and spinning.  Maybe we will go on a little day trip someplace – can’t sit home ALL weekend, and the trees are so beautiful right now. Colors are getting perfect around here, and farther north, I think they are prime.  Maybe I will see if A wants to go for a ride.  Not that she doesn’t do that all week long…but this would be for fun.  Haven’t been for a ride for ages.  Think of the knitting I could get done.