Coming Up for Air

The funeral is Tuesday.  Between Lis and I, I think all of Val's friends have been notified.  I made the calls she couldn't bring herself to make.  So...if you knew Val and you get a weird message on your answering machine that sounds like a sheep bleating, "V-v-a-a-a-a-l-l-l's d-d-ea-ea-ea-ea-d-d...", it was me.  It was the best I could do.  My voice has never shook (shaken?) so much in my entire life. 

Thank you for your kind comments and emails.  They mean so much to me.  I am still trying to make sense of how someone so healthy and fit can just drop dead at age 51.  I am still trying to make sense of why Lisa, who has endured more terrible losses than anyone I have ever known in my life, has to endure even one more.  She is extremely fragile, both physically and emotionally, and I am very afraid for her.

 My knitting has been scattershot over the last few days.  A new clue came out for Evenstar, and I've worked on it a little bit.  I've plugged away a little on Luna Moth, but not enough to get a complete color change.  I've been quite the restless knitter, but I have picked up one new technique:

Yes, thanks to Dee who told me she taught herself to knit socks on a road trip (or something like that), I decided to take my mind off of my grief by learning a few techniques for toe-up socks!  I grabbed some of this yarn that I've had lying around for a few years now (bought it the first time I thought I'd learn to knit socks:

I tried this a few years ago, and it was a hissyfit on needles, so I've always thought I'd need to take a class to learn how to knit socks.  I still may find out that would help, but I think I did really well on my first toe!

This might be a nice sock for Romeo.  I think it would fit him (not that he would actually touch his toes to a patterned sock but...).  However, I wanted a pair of socks for me...and I really don't care a lot for this colorway - it was in the clearance bin and was going to be my "learning" yarn, not my "wearing" yarn.

I just happened to have some Knit Picks Stroll kettle dyed sock yarn and a pattern, so I grabbed my #2 dpns and put my newfound sock knitting skills to the test.  My first toe turned out like this (please ignore Romeo's feet):

I was zipping along nicely, did a couple of the instep pattern repeats, then tried it on.  It was...um...big.  I think socks are supposed to fit snugly, yes?  This one was quite roomy.  I felt like I was knitting so tightly that the needles would break, but when I checked my gauge, I was off by both 1 stitch and 1 row.  Curses!!!  I frogged it, put away the #2s and got out the #1s, fed Wilbur and went to bed for the night.  The cute little socks in springy grasshopper green will have to wait till another day.  But now, at least I have confidence that they will be done!

Oh!  I also wanted to show off my new case for circs and dpns!  I bought this nifty suede covered file case at Barnes Noble several years ago and never did anything with it.  It sat sadly in the basement and, every time I cleared out stuff to donate to charity, it would go into a box...then at the last minute be rescued and put back in the basement.  The green case clearly had a purpose.

 I decided this would be the perfect case for my circs and dpns - and it is!  The problem was labeling the individual pockets.  First I tried these Post-It type folder tags:

They really didn't work.  Every time I opened the case, they'd go flipping everywhere.  Some of them I never found.  One, I found on the bottom of Wilbur's left front paw! 

I spent a good half hour at Office Max last week researching tabs, and I found the perfect set.  Voila!!!

My needles are organized, and I am a happy woman!  Wilbur is happy, too, now that he is no longer branded "#10 1/2".  Say "Hi" to my fiddles.  They get pretty lonely these days when all I have time to do is knit and sing.  Poor babies...

And it is officially spring here in Ohio, so you know what that means...

This is what I woke up to Friday morning.  See that footprint just to the left of the skidmark left by the morning paper?  That's where my sandaled-but-otherwise-barefoot foot met three inches of "spring".  The neighbors have yet to recover...

I hope to get some serious knitting done tomorrow (maybe a little blogging, too). Thanks for reading, commenting, and being part of my tying together the holes (both literal and figurative) of my life.

Mama Said...

Remember that old song...I've had Sam Cooke's voice in my head all week..."Mama said there'd be days like this..." She didn't mention a whole week of "days like this".

Quick knitting update: I completed one more triangle of the Jiffy Triangle Scarf for my WIP Wednesday project. It was too warm to drape myself in the Ten-Stitch Blanket.

I also zipped through another pattern repeat of the Luna Moth Shawl which made it possible for me to enjoy a full color change...and develop a mad craving for Stouffer's mac & cheese - just look at that shade of orange! Does it not scream "MAC & CHEESE!!!!!"

Last night, I tried to figure out how to knit a toe-up sock...silly me, I should know learning new techniques can only be accomplished during the day when I have the house to myself.  Even if I tell Romeo not to talk to me when I'm working on a particularly tricky task, he'll talk anyway...he "forgot"...it's "important"...he doesn't want to "forget"...  Trust me, when I'm trying to figure out how to knit a sock, the only important thing would be "I'm having a heart attack", "the dog is dying", or "the house is on fire".

After two nights (Saturday and Sunday) of Wilbur sleeping straight through the night, thus ME sleeping straight through the night, he woke me at 3:45am Tuesday morning with an urpy tummy.  Ugh...  This resulted in a migraine most of Tuesday and yesterday.  At least he slept better last night, and I got a full 7 hours sleep - not quite enough, but enough for me to be functional.

I'm still waiting for the yarn to arrive for the Pine and Ivy Shawl.  Last night, I had an anxiety dream about it.  I got the package, and there were all kinds of cool little tchotchkes and doilies in it...but no yarn.  That's okay...I won't have a lot of time to knit in the next few days.

Days like this?  Oh yeah...this morning, I was drinking coffee, planning my day, reading blogs, getting ready to clean the house cuz the kids are coming over for dinner tonight when my phone rang.  I love caller ID...most of the time I don't even answer after I see who it's from...all those 866 telemarketers, ya know.  This time, I saw the name of a dear friend, Lisa...we'd fallen out of touch over the years for no good reason.  I'd introduced her to another dear friend, Val, and they have been together for over twenty years now.  When I answered, all I heard were sobs..."Val's dead.  I just had to hear your voice."

I am in shock, and my heart is broken.  I know Val's dad died of a heart attack at a young age, but...dammit...Val was barely 50.  He was fit and active.  He tried to take good care of himself.  He was family - we were "cousins" - his great grandaunt, Flossie, was married to my great granduncle, Earl.  It didn't matter that we met at a bar on the Ohio State campus and only later discovered our genealogical connection...we were kin.  I've lost a part of my family...I'm an unashamed emotional mess.

Tomorrow, I will be spending the day with Lisa, then there will be all the funereal rituals.  This may involve some travel to the ancestral homelands of southeastern Ohio.  I will probably not be knitting and will definitely not be blogging for the next several days.  I know you all understand.

Hug those you love - right now!  Tell them you love them...

It's like Wrestlemania...(minus the fat guys in spandex)

SHAWLMANIA!!!!!!

Don't even ask me how this happened...I don't know.  Here's the rundown:

Brandywine Shawl  

Not really a lot to show on this one except the garter stitch center panel is widening.  It's going well,and I'm enjoying it.  Took this one to Knorthside Knitters last night and got two pattern repeats done.

Evenstar Shawl KAL
Clue #4 comes out on Friday, and I'm ready!!!  Got caught up yesterday afternoon.  I didn't really enjoy knitting the mesh in Clue #3, but I love the way it looks now it's done.

Last week, I ordered this: 

And what do you do with yarn like this?  You make a shawl!!!

My pick?  Shui Kuen Kozinski's Luna Moth Shawl!  This shawl starts at the neckline, and I wanted to start with red, so I rewound the ball.  Silly me...was too anxious to start knitting to take a picture before I started, but here's how the ball looks now:  

I don't know why...I just thought that was really cool.

I worked on this shawl most of the day today, finished chart A and the first repeat of chart B.  I think it will be really spectacular when it's finished! 

And if that's not enough, I've ordered some gorgeous green lace yarn from Greece of all places, and I'm planning to start Anne Hanson's Pine and Ivy Shawl!

That makes..four...shawls...yikes...  Oh and there's a fifth one I have my eye on...it's going to be a HUGE undertaking, so I'm restraining myself until I get at least two of these completed.  I won't even tell you which one right now.  It'll only urge me on...

It was a beautiful weekend here in Ohio.  Wilbur and I spent a lot of time outside enjoying the sunshine.  Today...cold and rain...had to (temporarily!) put the sandals away and break out the wooly socks for a few days.  Still, spring is officially here, so the cold can't last too long... can it?????

The Evenstar Shawl

There is one thing you will learn about me by reading my blog - I tend to cannonball into a project.  I don't spend a lot of time sitting around thinking, "Hmmmmm...can I do that?  Am I ready for that?  Would I fall flat on my face if I tried that?"  No...I go charging in, full of confidence and enthusiasm and probably more than a little stupidity.  It makes for a fun life and fewer face-fallings than you would expect.

Maybe I just have a natural instinct for picking things I have a good chance of doing well.  After all, it would never cross my mind to wake up one morning and say, "Hey!  I think I'm going to go out and teach myself to do brain surgery today!"  Nah, I know that even if I do have the requisite eye-hand coordination (which is a possibility), I'd throw right up at the first sight of blood and my neurosurgery hobby/career would be toast.  So I pick safe...easy...goals...like knitting my first serious lace shawl ("serious" meaning using cobwebby-fine lace yarn and itty-bitty needles) as part of a mystery KAL. "Mystery" meaning "got no clue what this puppy's supposed to look like or if I'm anywhere close to following this pattern".  And there is that little issue of the...what...4,000 beads to be knitted into it at some point... 

I had some nice lace yarn, Knit Picks Shimmer, on hand.

Lace knitting was in my "someday" plans...in private...with a clearly photographed pattern.  But, I stumbled upon Susan Pandorf's awesome blog "A Few Stitches Short of a Full Row" and fell in love with her patterns.  Then I read that she was doing this mystery KAL to benefit earthquake victims in Haiti, and I was totally sucked in.  Heck, I didn't even have to go out and buy yarn!

As you know, however, I did have to purchase needles, and that turned into a major fiasco about which I posted here and here.  But I persevered and ended up with a truly impressive array of #3 circs and dpns.  And...a couple weeks or so behind my fellow KALers, I cast on.  I figured knitting the shawl couldn't be half as difficult as buying the needles had been, right?

I started using these cute little 5" Hiya Hiya dpns, and they were a dream to work with.  I'd really rather chew tinfoil than knit the first few rows of a circular project on dpns...9 stitches of pure hell.  I know you all understand.  The slippage is more than maddening.  But the stitches really hung in on those Hiya Hiyas - I didn't drop one!  I didn't even have a problem with the circular cast on (which looked really intimidating until I did it).  Before long, I had this:

At about 72 stitches, I switched up to the 8" Crystal Palace dpns.  They were just as dreamy to knit with.

All continued to go well.  When I started working on the pattern, I switched to my 16" Addi Turbo Lace circs and really took off.  By the end of the evening, I had this, and I was feeling cocky:

The next night, I was determined to get caught up.  I knit feverishly, but silly girl...I didn't use lifelines, and I wasn't marking my pattern repeats.  I'd think I was confused, then think I wasn't.  I counted my stitches on each even row, and they all came out even, so I thought I was doing well.  I finished Clue #1 late in the evening and went to bed a happy woman.

Next morning, I was excited to take pictures of my masterpiece-in-progress.  When I pinned out the shawl, this is what I saw:

Even though my stitch count had been right, those triangles were a travesty!  And since I had no lifelines nor patience for tinking all the way back to row whoknowswhat, I frogged the whole thing and started over.

This ended up being a blessing, believe it or not.  As I'd been reading the posts on Ravelry, one of the little tricks I'd learned but not practiced (kind of like those lifelines...) was not using the pull center with lace yarn.  Since one of the minuses of Shimmer, IMO, is its fondness to knot up whenever it touches itself (that isn't nearly as dirty as it sounds, believe me), I knew I'd have a knotty (but not naughty...) mess when the center eventually collapsed.  So...having to start again allowed me to do three very smart things:

1. Start the new ball from the outside so it doesn't knot.
2. Use stitch markers for each pattern repeat.
3. Use lifelines!!!

I grabbed another ball of Shimmer and my cute little Hiya Hiyas and cast on again.  All went wonderfully, and I was about a quarter of the way through Clue #1 when...I fell asleep while knitting.  I can't believe I did this.  More embarrassing...it was about 2pm on a Saturday -  not late, not early...just a typical afternoon.  Luckily, I was on an even (knit every stitch) row, so I was able to figure it out pretty quickly, finish the row...and put the needles down, Laurie...step away from the needles...you need a nap!

There were a few days when no work was done on the Evenstar because I felt too crappy to concentrate.  Then Clue #3 came out, and I was still only slightly through Clue #1.  So last week, after the antibiotics kicked in, I went into Evenstar Overdrive and finished Clue #1.  You'll notice the very liberal use of lifelines in the picture below.  I decided to put in a lifeline every sixth row and the row before a pattern row that I think is particularly dicey. In Clue #1 there were a bunch of kfb7-k3togs that caused me no end of misery.  I ran a lifeline through the row before every row that had those boogers.  It truly did save me on more than one occasion.

When I finished Clue #1, I figured I had enough stitches to switch up to 24" circs.  It was then I discovered that, in my hypoglycemic hysterical needle buying misadventure, I had accidentally bought two pair of 32" Addi Turbo Lace needles and zero pair of 24".  Curses!  Where is that 24-hour LYS when you need it?  I had a some Pryms in #3, but the points looked downright thick as a brick.  And I had an old OLD Susan Bates plastic #3 24" circ.  How old?  I'd wager at least 20 years...it cost $4.25...one  piece, translucent molded plastic.  Who'd try to knit lace with that, right?  The points looked pointy enough for lace, so I decided to give them a try...and they were a dream to knit with.  Whodathunkit?  I don't think I lost a single stitch in Clue #2, not even those pesky SSKs that were killing me in Clue #1, literally jumping off the needles.  When I got to the end of Clue #2 and switched up to 32" Addi Turbo Laces, I sighed wistfully, not wanting to give up the ease of those old Susan Bates needles.

Here's my work through Clue #2 with the lifelines still in place (there are ten of them, though they're hard to see in this pic):

Here it is pinned out, with the multitude of lifelines removed:

I'll probably start Clue #3 this evening...more lifelines, I'm sure.  Wish me luck!  This is fun!

Oh, what's this? Consciousness!!!

Folks, it has been a rough week.  I am not usually bothered by the time change every spring and fall, but this year...OY!  Maybe it's because I'm just recovered from that nasty bout of strep throat, and maybe also because of some (Avert yer eyes, male readers!) "womanly issues" (I'll say no more...).  Cause bedamned, exhaustion has been my friend this week. 

Chores have piled up pitifully as I've alternated black coffee with three-hour naps, all to no avail.  The one thing I have managed to do is get Wilbur out for his daily DoggieBoy Adventure.  It's been fairly easy to do, as Tuesday was (drum roll!!) the beginning of...

SANDAL SEASON!!!!!

I could go on about a few trips to the park with Wilbur and all the napping, which has been pretty much my whole life so far this week, but I know you really want to know about...

WIP WEDNESDAY!

Fear not!  I worked on my UFOs as promised. I completed one more triangle on the Jiffy Scarf, and I completed almost half a strip on the Ten-Stitch Blanket.  That was my priority, since Cindy has asked me to show her how to do this, and I needed to see if I could remember!  This project goes so fast, but it is a blanket, so I stopped short of my goal of completing one whole strip because I got a little too warm knitting underneath it.  

I frogged the Thick & Quick Scarf.  Didn't care much for the pattern, and that yarn is just too darn heavy for a scarf, IMO.  It wasn't an "official" project anyway.  I'm thinking of using the yarn for some hot pads...later.

I haven't made any progress on the Brandywine Shawl since Sunday.  My priority is getting caught up on the clues in the Evenstar KAL, and I'm happy to say, I got to Clue #3 last night, so now I'll be working on Brandywine between clues.  Here are a couple pics.  I'm just a couple repeats into Section B.  LOVE this pattern, and am even getting a little kick out of the yarn.

I have a few more things to share later but, till then...Happy Thursday! 

Jumping on the Bandwagon...

I'm not a person who forwards chain emails or answers questionnaires and forwards them on...but I'm still a brain-dead zombie from the time change and am about three days behind on my household chores.  This one is fun and a whole lot of other bloggers who I really like are doing it so...forgive me...

1.Explain what ended your last relationship?

I realized the ONLY (and I DO mean ONLY!) thing we had in common was the fact that we liked each other.  Oh, that and the fact that he didn't like music - had only ONE CD in his whole house!

2. When was the last time you shaved?

I think about a week ago...

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.

Sitting on the couch, gulping strong, black coffee, reading email, trying to achieve consciousness, if not total functionality

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?

Putting towels in the washer.

5. Some things you are excited about?

The arrival of spring.  The Evenstar Shawl, which is really starting to look like something (pics soon, I promise!).  Oh, and this Saturday, I get to do something I've always wanted to do (at least since a few years ago, when I overcame my phobia) - ride a horse!!!

6. What is your favorite flavor of JELL-O?

Eeeeeewwwwwww...

7. Your prom night, what do you remember about it?

Being chased by a goose (LONG story...)

8. Do you have any famous ancestors?

My husband says I'm related to everyone.  He's not far off.  Let's see...Turner Ashby (Confederate General from Virginia), Ernie Carpenter (WV old-time fiddler), John Ashby (VA old-time fiddler), um...there are a few baseball players here and there, the person who founded Dallas, Texas..and the book "True Women" by Janice Windle is about some distant cousins (again, those famous Ashbys).

9. Last thing received in the mail?

The Gail Callahan book on dyeing that I won.  But I have some cool things on the way!!!  ;-)

10. How many different beverages have you had today?

Coffee...coffee...more coffee...some orange-tangerine juice...more coffee...a little water.  Is there any coffee left?

11. Do you ever leave messages on people’s answering machine?

Sure, why not?

12. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?

Have not been to the beach in more years than I can count.  Don't remember what I did when I was there.

13. Any plans for Friday night?

A friend has invited me to a gospel-bluegrass jam session at her church.  I'm thinking it sounds like fun!

14. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?

See #12.  The last time my hair touched ocean was 1974. 

15. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns?

Yeah, once...everyone in my department got one as a gift for hitting a big deadline.  The hubband and I were in the midst of moving in together, I couldn't get any time off work to make this process easier...we were desperate...I think we actually ate the stuff while we were moving one night.

16. Do you re-use towels after you shower?

Yes.

17. Describe your keychain(s)?

Keys...loyalty tags out the wazoo...one of those little squeezy light-up things for nights when I get home from choir and the hubband has forgotten to turn on the porch light (grrrr......)

18. Where do you keep your change?

In a cute little turquoise piggy bank I got at TarZHAY for a couple bucks.

19. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?

Don't remember...

20. What kind of winter coat do you own? 

Several...a nice London Fog full-length coat, a "Michelen Man" car coat, and a bunch of great fleece jackets (again, cheap at TarZHAY)that are my everyday, go-to coats for all but the coldest, dressiest of occasions.

Laundry awaits...more tomorrow...

Boo!

As you can see, I'm playing around a little with my blog design.  I'm not far enough into either of my shawls to take a great closeup for my background and, frankly, I couldn't stand looking at that wintery yarn (lovely as it may be...) one more second.  This just felt fresh and hopeful and...springy!  I still need to do some more housekeeping, such as adding all the cool blogs I've become hooked on.  But this feels good to me - what do you think?

I'm moving terribly slow today.  The time change has kicked my butt in a big way.  Spent most of the weekend knitting.  Made major progress on the Evenstar Shawl KAL - Clue #3 came out Friday and I'm over halfway through Clue #2, thanks to the (very!) liberal use of lifelines.  I'm through section A of the Brandywine Shawl and a little bit into section B.  This shawl is a blast to knit, and I'm liking the pastel-y yarn more and more with every row.  It's very gray and gloomy here today, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.  I'll try to get some pics then!

My agenda for the rest of the afternoon consists of working on all the choral music I have to learn.  More about that in another post...a few more tidbits to add, too.  My list of things to post about is getting ridiculously long!

Wilbur sez, "So tell me...what did YOU do this weekend?"

I frogged it...(collective gasp of breath here...)

only because I saw an error when I looked at the picture...oh, and I thought some of my ssks looked a little sloppy.  So, I frogged...and restarted the bunnybarf yarn shawl, (collective exhale of relief here...).  I have to admit, when I looked at the pictures, especially the closeups, it started to grow on me.  And yesterday, lovely day that it was, I spent some time working on it outside, and it really grew on me.  In the end, it may become a gift to someone since I don't think there is thing one in my wardrobe that will go with it, but I'm happily committed to the (newly named!) Springtime Brandywine Shawl (no more bunnybarf!).  Thanks for setting me straight on the beauty of pastels.

I've decided to designate Wednesdays as "WIP Day".  Right now, I have four projects I'm struggling to complete:

The Ten-Stitch Blanket

The Christmas Tree Skirt (which I'm committed to only doing one wedge per month)

The Jiffy Scarf which goes with the cool triangle hat I knocked off a week or so back

and a Thick & Quick scarf that goes with another hat I recently made.  I'm only about four rows into it so haven't bothered with taking a picture yet.  Truth be told, I'm sick of all the wintery hats and scarves, and since I won't be using them (hopefully!) again till next year, my motivation is seriously flagging.  However, I am hereby pledging that these projects will get my full attention every Wednesday, and I'll report back on my progress.  Feel free to hold my colorfully-toenailed feet to the fire on this.

Yes, look at that!!!  It was so balmy yesterday, I was able to set bare feet onto the porch for the first time in 2010!  Sandal season cannot be far away!  It was a beautiful barefoot day to sit on the porch and knit.  Wilbur thought it was a good day for porchsitting, too.  Happy weekend, all!!!

Back among the living...

Yes, I am back among the (relatively...) living today after my week-long battle with what turned out to be strep throat. My body kept fighting it off, it kept coming back, wearing my immune system down a bit more each time till the REAL sore throat and ice-pick-in-the-ear pain started late Monday night. Thank goodness for antibiotics and ibuprofen...I'm pretty comfortable and a lot more energetic (read - LESS brain dead!) today!

Before I launch into my promised tale of how the Easter Bunny barfed in my knitting basket, I want to announce that I received my autographed (YAY!) copy of "Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece" yesterday. Thanks again, Gail and Kristin!!! And stay tuned for my dyeing (mis)adventures in weeks to come!

A little background: I don't like pastels. I don't even usually knit baby clothes in pastels. Every year about this time I look at the new spring clothes in the store and think "WTF???? I don't want to look like I fell face-down in a vat of rainbow sherbet!!!" I'm an earthtone, jeweltone, primary colors kind of gal. And I'm pale...really pale...put me in some lovely pastel outfit and I'll become completely invisible. I need bright colors so you know I'm there!

So...remember this lovely Inca Sport yarn I picked up at Tuesday Morning last week?


Whoda thunk (c'mon, really, could you have predicted this???) that when I got the skeins wound, they would look like a psychedelic orgy of Jordan almonds? It still looked relatively normal, nice mid-tone, clear colors, when I put the first skein on my office chair/swift (Am I handy, or what?):

Yes, this really does a good job...most of the time...


As I started winding, chaos ensued. I think the yarn realized I was going to hate it as soon as it was wound into balls, so it resisted. It didn't knot but it...stuck together in some strange way...and it didn't wind neatly. I'm used to winding very neat little balls of yarn...like this:



or this...


The Inca Sport wound into loose floppy balls, it wound itself under and around my yarnwinder in maddening patterns...but it never, ever knotted. Amazing...naughty, but not knotty, if you will.

It took an hour to wind the first skein, and it looked like this:



And that's when I said to myself, "This will look like the Easter Bunny threw up in my knitting basket."



For some reason, the second skein wound much more easily than the first, though the yarn still liked to stick together and before long, I had a whole basket of psychedelic, Jordan-almond bunnybarf. And I sat there and stared at it and pondered...

I had plans for this yarn. I wanted to make the gorgeous Brandywine Shawl. I purchased it almost a month ago, and that pdf is sitting on my desktop teasing me every time I turn on my computer, "C'mon...knit me...knit me...you know you wanna..." Now I had to decide...would I be doing this shawl a grave disservice by knitting it in the bunnybarf yarn? I still can't decide, but here are some pics of my progress thus far:







What do you think? It's still not too late for me to frog it and use a more dignified yarn. I'm more than happy to do it.

As you ponder. I'll leave you with a picture of Wilbur, enjoying his after breakfast nap. Please don't notice the filthy carpet - remember, I've been sick!

And then she just fell off the face of the earth...

Well, no I didn't...not really...

LSS, this "cold" that I've been fussing with off and on for the last week is kicking me hard. One minute I think it's gone, the next minute...I just gotta go lay down.. Last night, after having a great time at choir rehearsal (more about that in another post), I developed what has to be the worst sore throat of my life. It's still here, and I'm off to see the doc in about an hour. I'm sure there are antibiotics in my future, and I'll be back on top of my game in a day or so.

In the meantime, here are a few pics to tide y'all over...we took Wilbur to Whetstone on Saturday and let him run around in a full-fledged doggie scrum (had to be 20+ dogs, but who could tell, they were moving so fast and all were black with red collars and harnesses). Enjoy!!!

A walking advertisement for Cento! Notice how the cowl also makes a nifty headband for those days when it just isn't quite warm enough to go hatless.


Wilbur: "Woooo-hooooo! Buddies!"


My dog is in here somewhere, honest!


Wilbur met a new four-legged friend...


And a new two-legged friend...


I'm plugging away on the Evenstar Shawl and frogging on a regular basis. More about THAT in another post...


And...stay tuned for how the Easter Bunny threw up in my knitting basket (and I didn't even know he was sick...).