old friends

Please forgive me for my recent absence from BlogLand. I had to have (very minor!) surgery (really! Very minor! No need to panic!), and it really took it out of me. My schedule for the last three days has been: get up, eat breakfast, brush teeth, take a nap. I go back to work tomorrow, so fingers crossed that I'll have more energy. I should have gone back today, but I needed one more day to recuperate. And also I was really comfy and had two kitties sleeping on me. Details, details.

Hey, if this was the first thing you saw in the morning, you wouldn't want to get up either.

I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely snow the other day. I didn't get any pictures because I was way too busy running to the window every twelve seconds and squealing, "Snow! Snow!!!" The people who love me are very patient people, that's all I have to say. According to the weather people, we are supposed to get an inch of snow tomorrow. I'm baffled. This is GEORGIA, people. We don't get snow. And unfortunately, in my line of work, we don't get snow days. Should be exciting.

Unfortunately, I have no new knitting progress to show you. Isn't it funny that I always think I'll get so much knitting done on sick days, when what usually happens is I feel so sleepy I'm barely able to sit upright? But, fortunately, I realized a while back that I have several knitted objects that I've never shown the blog, mostly because they are in constant rotation so I never get the chance to photograph them. In honor of not having actual knitting content, here they are.

1) The very first socks I ever made (well, not counting Fuzzy Feet) in the wilds of a local coffee shop.


(narrated by David Attenborough) Look how bold they are! Just brazenly sitting right out in the open, in plain view, mocking all the store-bought socks. It's a perfect example of hand-knit sock behavior in their natural habitat.
Thanks, Dave, for your help. These socks were knit with Colinette Jitterbug in the Mardi Gras colorway. The pattern was a generic toe-up sock pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch.

In addition to flaunting my socks dangerously close to other people's beverages (dangerous for them, not me. Socks can be washed, but no one wants to drink something that smells like my feet. Or if you do, please don't tell me about it.), here we have another of my favorite handknits to flaunt:

2) A generic raglan sweater made from Blue Sky Alpaca organic cotton, using a pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, of which everyone should own at least one copy.

It fits beautifully, and it had better. I had to rip out and redo this puppy FOUR TIMES. It spent a year sitting in the bottom of my yarn trunk (the only truly cat-proof place in the entire house), thinking about what it had done. But, as they say, fifth time's the charm. I made about five different people verify my gauge before I started the last time. Alex likes it too.


3) Lastly, a scarf and hat set made from Gedifra Chandra, in colorway #7607.


Here we can see Jaymie sleeping on the scarf.


Do anybody else's cats do that? It's not enough that they're sleeping on top of a blanket on top of another blanket on top of a comforter on top of a mattress on top of a box spring. Oh, no. They need another layer, so they sleep on the scarf/sweater/pajamas/whatever as well. I wonder if I placed a single dried pea underneath the bed, if he'd feel it and wake up horribly bruised.

I'm extremely proud of this hat, because it marks important progress in my mental development: Finally Realizing How Big My Head Actually Is. Here we have a progression of three hats, my first, second, and third attempts to make a hat that actually fit. Notice how the final (successful) one is at least twice as wide as the first. Which is weird because I don't think I look strange or anything, walking around with a giant melon head. I guess I need a lot of space for all that useless trivia I have stuffed in there.


And now if you'll excuse me, I need to do some more recuperating by sitting in front of the TV, eating salty things and drinking carbonated beverages. All this healing is grueling, I tell you.