Knitamazoo(tm)

Say that five times real fast! Well I promised my Knitty chat buddies (especially Kirsti) that I would post pictures of my complete mitten and the second one in progress. So Kirsti, here you go . . . the promised photos.
Here we see the completed mitten along with the humble beginnings of it’s mate. I wanted to be a little further along on the second one but I’ve been running around like a headless chicken the last couple of nights trying to get ready for our camping trip. But my boss is gone all week so I’ll probably work on it today if things slow down. It’s that whole “while the cat’s away” thing . . . you know . . . I’m just saying. Anyway, I figure even if I am unable to do any knitting today I should be able to get the ends woven in on the first mitten. At least I remembered to bring my darning needle with me so I could actually do that. I used a crochet hook to pull the yarn through the last few stitches to close the top of the mitten and the thumb. Mother of necessity and all.I also thought you might like to see a close-up shot. Actually the mitten demanded that I take a portrait shot to include on the blog. It muttered some threats about unraveling or some such nonsense so I decided to appease it and post a nice close-up shot. What is nice about these mittens is that the multi-colored cuff part is done in garter stitch (pain in the butt on dpn’s) which makes it reversible. So you can roll the cuff up to make the mitten shorter but if you can also wear it long to keep your wrists warm. And believe me when you live in the “mitten” of Michigan you will probably wear them long. It is so blasted cold here and yet I love this state. (note to self: check on the availability of rooms at the mental hospital.) I’m thinking a pair of armwarmers to wear with my driving gloves will be my next project. I just hate it when my coat sleeves creep up my arm and expose my skin. Why can’t they make coat sleeves which stay put?

GROSS PICTURE ALERT!!! Not for the squeamish!

GROSS PICTURE ALERT!!! Not for the squeamish!

OK, I woke up yesterday morning and as I was washing my face I noticed this on my left eyelid. (I warned you!) It’s a bruise! Can someone tell me how you bruise your eyelid?? I can’t figure it out. It doesn’t hurt, it just looks ugly as sin. The only thing I can think of is that I may have done it when I rubbed my eyes. My eye allergies have been bad recently and my eyes have been really itchy. At least you can’t see it unless I close my eyes and I’ll be camping so who cares. It’s just really weird. And for those of you who are wondering, no I didn’t have a catastrophic accident with my size 10 dpn’s.

This will probably be my last post til after the holiday weekend. We are off early tomorrow morning and headed for the lovely UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan to camp. No cell phones, no computer, no clueless helpdesk techs driving me mad. Sheer bliss! I’ll be back next week with vacation pictures and hopefully some knitting progress pictures too! Have a great holiday weekend!

What a weekend! It all started out innocently enough. I spent Friday evening working on the overall look of my blog. (BTW, how does it look?) Slept in on Saturday and was just putzing around the house. I was chatting with my DH and folded my arms across my chest and . . . . OW . . . OW . . . OW . . . OWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Hmmmm, left boob is tender. Check the calendar . . . my monthly joy is still 2 weeks away. Weird . . . so I head for the shower. I’m shaving my legs and as I’m looking down I notice this reddish area on my left boob. What’s going on? I finish my shower and dry off and show reddish area to my DH who promptly tells me it’s a hive. Now there is some logic behind his proclamation, as I do have allergies and I am prone to getting hives from time to time. But this did not itch and it was definitely not a hive. So I get dressed and putz around some more. Then I notice that this reddish area is emitting heat. That’s it . . . no more messing around . . . I called the doctor. It’s now 11:10 am. The receptionist asks me how far away I live and I tell her I can be there in 15 minutes. So she says she can get me in at 11:30. So I grab my purse and am heading out the door when DH decides he’s coming along. We speed all the way to the doctor’s office and they call me in 3 minutes after I’ve checked in. (Note to self: always make last minute doctor appointments on Saturday mornings.) The nurse makes me get on the dreaded scale and then takes my BP which was 140/80. A little high on the top number she tells me. No duh . . . the health and well-being of my left boob is in jeopardy and you expect me to be calm and relaxed? So she gives me a gown to put on backward and leaves. About 5 minutes later she comes back with the doctor. He looks at my chart, turns around and the first question out of his mouth is if I’m breast feeding. Huh? Now if he had actually read my chart he would have seen that I’ve never been pregnant in my life but I have to tell him this little fact. So now he wants to see the affected area. I flash him my boob and he looks. Hmmmmm . . . ah . . . and he takes an even closer look. Then he asks me to show him where this redness is. WHAT? Is he blind? So I point it out and he isn’t impressed. The whole time I see the nurse smirking behind him. I then suggest that he compare it to my other breast to really see the difference. Flash him the right boob . . . ah now he sees what I’m talking about. So he says I have a breast infection and writes me a script for a broad spectrum antibiotic. Take this 3 times a day for 10 days he says and flys out the door. Get dressed, grab DH and go to the pharmacy. Get the big old horse pills and go home. I take the first dose and start reading the pamphlet that comes with the pills. Side effects include: headaches (great), fatigue (wonderful), dizziness (fantastic) and diarrhea (spectacular). So far I’ve been battling the first three and I’m just waiting for that last one to rear it’s ugly head. I can’t believe that I have 8 more days of feeling so tired that I can hardly sit up. All my plans of cleaning my house went out the window and now it looks like it won’t get done until I’m done with these meds. If I could only train my cats how to clean the house while I’m at work . . . hmmmmmmmmmmm . . .

In knitting news, my clapotis is no longer a thong and is now officially a clapotis in progress. It’s safe to come out now Monkee, the Kong Thong is gone!

I know it still has a bit of a triangular shape but I have done my first dropped stitch so it’s officially a clapotis now.

And just because I can, here’s a pic of my fat cat all smooshed in his kitty bed. I couldn’t resist his cuteness!

As I try to stay awake to take my next dose of evil antibiotics, I wish you all a happy Monday! Sorry if this post contained a little TMI, but I figured if I had to suffer than you all should too! Buhuwahahahahahahahahahaha . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .