Health Report - with knitting

I've been a little ill lately. That's not news, but it's a lot of what's been going on in my life for the past two weeks. Seems to me that it would have been gone if I had had time to sit and heal. But I continued working and running around. Fortunately we have this week off school and I have been sitting at home knitting.

Speaking of knitting, I have some progress to report. The first is that the house shoes, which were a Christmas present of a sort, are finished. They were sort of a pain, but they went together beautifully. I think I will always think of Carnivale when I look at them, as we were watching it the whole time. Fred bought the second season in London a month or so ago and we watched it like we were on some heavy time constraint. I want to watch the whole thing again.

Anyway, I'll post the pictures when my computer (actually it's the modem) is up and running again.

The sweater I am making for Fred (already done once and ripped out) is sitting in a bag. I'm finding the pattern a little boring. Plus, I've decided that I need to learn to knit Continental and the sweater is going to have to wait. Still, it remains on my WIP list (that's Works in Progress in knitter talk) and I need to do it eventually. Maybe if I do a little every evening.

My sock project is continuing. I'm almost finished with the one sock. It's looking good, but it's taking more time than I thought it would. It's a nice train project, but I have to look at it as something to do on the train rather than a real way I'm getting socks. I think Continental knitting might help that as well. It's a lot of straight knitting the way I do socks.

The third project (as I allow myself three) has lately been a gaitor, which is the same one pictured here in about the same color. The problem is that I'm using the wrong yarn and my gaitor is much too large. Then in the daylight I noticed that I used the yarn from a different dye lot, so my plan to send it to some country where they need such things was scrapped. Poor people need free stuff, but I don't want to send them something that looks sort of crappy. So I'll take a picture of it and rip it out.

I'm doing a lot of knitting and ripping out lately. I guess everyone does, but it's sort of discouraging. I feel like somebody who is constantly trying to cook and keeps screwing it up. Like planning a big dinner and everything comes out oily or burned or tasteless. Still, I'm enjoying the knitting. I guess that's the important thing, huh?

When the gaitor is done, I will make a red scarf for the Red Scarf Project. I've chosen a fairly straightforward pattern that is a lot of knit and some purl. I'm doing the whole thing continental. I even bought new needles and a nice red yarn for it. It will be a quick thing and hopefully will help me get the continental thing in my hands. The Red Scarf Project is through the Orphan Foundation of America. Every time I hear about it, I get all teary. My family is a very difficult bunch of people to get along with (aside from my lovely sister, Kathy), they are mostly homophobic, Republican and over-religious, but at least I know where to find them. The whole orphan thing gets to me. I want to knit a few scarves this year - and learn to knit Continental. My mother taught me English knitting, and it's served me well, but I would like to produce a few more things and I've heard this Continental thing is the way to go.

So I still have a little congestion, and Fred is now coming down with something. Apparently it's all over the place. Lots of folks have it. It's not a horrible cold, it just won't go away. I'll be fine. It's all about getting rest. I'm convinced of that.