Wednesday, April 02, 2008

No April Fools Here....

Greetings and Dear Laura:

I've really been enjoying your posts, keeping up with the happenings in your life and all of your knitting. It seems that we've been walking some parallel paths lately - I just haven't found time or energy to post.

Way back when you were doing Spring Break, Week One - I was having my version. Although I don't have wee-ones, my parents came home for the week. I know it's not the same, but whenever they are home I find that most of my normal activities outside of work just come to a screeching halt. And they've been home most of the winter, with only short excursions to their place in KY. It's been an adjustment, I have to say. However, with the return of warmer weather to the south, my dad is finding projects to keep busy with, so perhaps I'll be blogging more!

We also had a funeral that week - one of my cousins died after a brief illness. It was good to gather with family and enjoy re-telling the stories from our youth (when did we get to be grandparents instead of teenagers, could someone explain that to me?????) I was asked several times if I'm still knitting and crocheting - turns out I'm the only grandchild who inherited my grandma's "yarn tendencies!" I posted in the past about her influence on my stashing obsession, turns out that I got 22 other grandchildren's share of the yarn lust, so it's no wonder that I usually have yarn in my hands!

Also like you, I cooked Easter Dinner for my family. It was a smaller group this year, only 11 of us, and no children of "egg-hunting age!" And in the evening, I was invited to dinner with at friends, so I also got to enjoy a lovely meal which I did not have to cook! While I (thankfully!) did not have strep throat, I did have a bit of a scratchy throat. It turned out to be Day One of The Flu. (A big thank you to both you and your mom for instilling in me the habit of lots of hand washing while cooking. 10 days later, and I haven't infected anyone!!!) I was out of work all last week with the full gamut of upper respiratory symptoms, chest cough and fever. I was able to work from home later in the week and am back at work this week, although the cough lingers. I was back at work Monday, and came REALLY close to posting that evening. I sat down in my chair with my laptop at about 7:00, but dozed off and woke again at 10. Which is bedtime. SO, nap done, I headed for bed and posting had to wait!

There. The non-knitting update! But I have been knitting too, although not nearly as much as I thought I would do. Turns out that sick days aren't so much knitting days.

First, I'm DELIGHTED to report that the red socks are complete!
Red Socks
There has been some mumbling about shoddy heels, and that one seems to be a bit shorter than the other, and there may be a dropped stitch on one toe....but THEY'RE DONE. (Ok, I'm gonna fix the dropped stitch....) That makes two of my twelve mission possibles.

And I'm moving along on another of those projects - socks from the Cascade Sassy Stripes Yarn in my stash.
IMG_4180.JPG Photo_040108_001
I'm teaching a class at a LYS for "Toe-Up Two At A Time On Magic Loop!" It's really quite a lot to teach in one class, but everyone is going along quite well. I decided to knit along with the class (something I don't always do!) and I'm really enjoying it. As with your striped socks (!) I felt that #2's were too big, but I went all the way down to 0's! I love the resulting fabric, but doing two at a time on 0's does feel rather slow. But when I cast off, I'll have both done, so it will be worth it!

I did a quick pair of baby socks for a co-worker. She and her husband just adopted a baby boy from Guatemala, and Knitting at Lunch and I decided that a baby from the tropics was going to need WOOL to finish out the cold season! These are made with Dream In Color, which has become one of my favorite yarns.

Nick's socks

And finally, on the subject of stash, I've done some stash "realignment." A Ravelry user was interested in swapping for some London Tweed I had in my stash. We were able to agree on sock yarn from her stash, so I'm the happy owner of some Socks That Rock and SockItToMe yarn in beautiful colorways. She also added some partial skeins, which I'm always glad to have for baby/toddler socks. I really enjoyed the swapping, turning yarn that was giving me guilt in sock yarn. YAY!!!
IMG_3815.JPG Package

Whew.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

2 comments:

Lauren said...

Yay a post!!! Hehehehe. Isn't it fun to sum up all your projects? You have done a lot! And your stripey socks 2 at a time... just think of the glorious moment when you cast off... and you're done, no second sock syndrome!!! :-)

p.s. thanks for not infecting me with your illness (yet) even though half the office has had it so far!

Marie N. said...

The green baby socks have stolen my heart! They are adorable!