Back home again....

Dear Laura:

That was the slogan on our license plates a few years ago....Back Home Again In Indiana. And I am! I got back late Sunday night from my two week vacation in Wisconsin.

My dogs were happy to see me, and so were my parents - they were also back in Indiana and waiting to go back to Kentucky until I got home, so they could see me!

It was also fun to come back home and find my sockapaloooza socks waiting! And my wonderful sockpal included some sock yarn - yay! I love sock yarn! Remember at Coyote Yarns that I looked at a sock yarn with narrow stipes, but they didn't have enough to do a pair of socks? This is that same yarn in a different colorway, in a bigger skein! So, hurray!!

After all the joy and fun of the initial homecoming, I relaxed a bit and then fell into bed. I dozed off, but woke up about half an hour later, coughing, eyes watering, sinuses draining. Which was exactly what was going on when I left for Wisconsin. I thought I had a cold the week before my trip, which ended a day or two after I left home.

The other piece of the puzzle is that two weeks before my trip, we got a new water heater. Later that week, I noticed water under my washing machine, so it was determined I should turn the water off to the washer and use the one upstairs. While I was gone, they had determined that the new drain hose they installed for the water heater/water softner hadn't been properly hooked into the drain, so that water was going into my laundry room.

They used a fan to dry out the carpet, but it had been getting wet and drying out without my noticing for a couple of weeks by time it was fixed, and developed mold/mildew. So, my "cold" and my nasal distress seem to have been caused by an allergy to that.

The carpet is glued down, so we haven't been able to take it up easily. I've been spraying it with a bleach solution and a mold/mildew cleaner. Meanwhile, I spent the first two nights up in the spare bedroom up-upstairs and that helped. Last night I slept in my own bed with no adverse effects! If I have any more trouble, we'll have to get serious about removing the carpet.

While there is still lots of madness involved in settling back in, unpacking (ha!) and catching up on things, I did get some knitting done on the baby blanket yesterday, and that felt good.

Today I brought the yarn for the baby sweater that I'm working on and some size 4 needles. I'm glad I got to talk to you during my drive home about this project. I've decided to do a gauge swatch with size 4 needles and see if the fabric drapes more softly and determine the number of stitches I would need. At this point, I'm no longer making the pattern from the book, just matching the measurements. I'm going to knit it flat on circulars, using steeks for the sleeve holes, and putting a zipper in the front. That should keep the variegation from looking different in the fronts than the back.

Also, at lunch....browsing the new issue of Cast On that was in my mailbox last night! ^wink^ Good luck with the paperwork - I feel your pain all too clearly. But I have 2 weeks worth of TV shows recorded on DVR and plenty-o-baby-knitting to distract me from my stacks!

Keep knitting!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)