Piecing, Piecing, Piecing...

I have been SICK since the end of Tuesday. A very yucky sore throat bug that Pat brought home from work. I'm not all the way better, but I've finally started feeling human again.

So far today I've been piecing together the squares of Nephew Rylee's blanket, and starting to feel that the piecing will never end. I've just started the last of six strips of seven squares each. Then the strips will go together and I'll be ready to weave in more than 500 ends. I'm looking forward to knitting the boarders, so those will have to be my reward after all the ends are in.

I've also had PBS on non-stop today. Starting Tuesday we'll no longer have TV. We got one of those digital converter boxes, but because we're in between two markets, and digital signals are weaker than analog, we aren't able to get any TV to speak of. I am strongly anti-cable and am pretty upset by this whole switch. I guess I'm trying to overdose today in hopes that it won't be so bad.

But back to knitting news, I started the skull beanie Polar Knit hat for my brother on Tuesday and finished it last night. That was the only bit of knitting I was able to do while sick this week. So that hat and Pat's Polar Knit hat have been washed and are likely dry by now.

At Knit Night on Monday I picked up a job and I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be putting names on some Christmas stockings using duplicate stitch. Christmas stockings are what I've made the most, and I've never seen any with quite this design. I'm waiting until I'm completely better to work on that, though (I suppose the logic there is that the blanket will get washed and stockings don't really).

And back to sewing up.... starting to think that I really won't take up quilting.

O Glorious Day

Winter weather prevented us from driving to see my grandmother over the weekend, which meant I didn't get the car knitting time I was expecting. I did, however do some serious accomplishing around my house. Laundry, dishes, baking cookies, baking bread, making applesauce, balancing the checkbook, going shopping twice, putting away the final vestiges of Christmas, cleaning & organizing the TV/video area; I think all weekends should have three days.

The lack of car knitting was partially balanced by the seven hours of football knitting on Sunday. With so much uninterrupted knitting it was easy to calculate that it takes me about one hour and a half to knit a square of Rylee's blanket. I have nine squares left to go. Perhaps I could even finish this blanket by mid-February, giving me two whole months to knit the next one.

I have not been completely monogamous with the knitting this weekend though. Last night I went to a Polar Knits Hat class at the LYS. It was the first time I'd used Polar Knits, and I have to say I really like it. Very linty, but that reportedly goes away after the first wash. I think the main thing I love is how quickly it knits up; last night was also my first time using bulky-weight yarn - I may be converted. I knit one complete ball in the two hours of class, and it looks like that will be nearly half the hat. My husband bought a knit hat recently under the belief that if he asked me to knit one for him he might get it by the time it starts getting cold for next winter. We can't have purchasing of mass-produced knitwear going on! I think bulky yarn will be the answer. I might make one for my brother, too.

Off the topic of knitting, I have to say that today I am proud to be an American. I don't make such declarations lightly, and this is a new feeling for me. I've always felt very fortunate to be an American, but today I am also proud. I am also energized and ready to join in the hard work ahead of us.