Sicker than a dog

I promised myself that I would never complain about my health on this blog, and yet, here I am, sicker than a dog.  It's just a cold.  Though, I asked Doc, what's the difference between a cold and a flu, and he said, "I don't know."  Really?????  I don't have a fever.  I don't have body aches or chills. I just have a ton of snot coming out of my nose at regular blows and some truly loud coughs, the gross wet kind of cough that is not irritating like clearing your throat, but a bit hearty loud cough.  Ugh.  I couldn't go to knitting on Sunday, and if I don't feel significantly better by tomorrow, I will just stop by Wednesday knitting to pick up any projects people want displayed in the Eastside Knitters Guild Booth at Vogue Knitting Live: Seattle/Bellevue.  JulieMustKnit, if you are reading this, let me know if you will bring your purple hats tomorrow night, because I will be sure to pick them up.  Not only am I snotty and coughy, but I have that kind of stupid feeling that a stuffed up head gives you... a bit like I am underwater.

I do NOT want to pass this crud on.  And, Vogue Knitting Live:  Seattle/Bellevue is this coming weekend, and the Eastside Knitters Guild will have a booth.  As the reining Vice President, just call me Madame VP, I am hoping to help out a lot in the booth.  I will help on Friday with set up, and then when ever I can over the weekend.  If I am still blowing and coughing... well, we shall see.

The worst thing about this cold is how stupid I feel.  I am sure it is the cold, and not the normal me.  But, I have been working hard on the last part of my NEWT for the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup.  The NEWT is a long project that is expected to last over 4 months.  I had originally proposed 4 items, 2 lace (Transfiguration - transfigure a huge amount of yarn into something new):

The 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf

The Racing Raindrops Scarf

and for DADA (Defense Against the Dark Arts), the Cruciatus Curse (knitting garter stitch is excruciating for me), 2 shawls: 
Age of Brass and Steam

and the High Plains Drifter.  More on this one in a second.

My two lace scarves didn't use up quite enough yardage, so I added in the Day 15 Cowl.

I am working on the High Plains Drifter.  It is the last piece of the NEWT.  It is also the 2nd of 3 projects I bought yarn for when the Eastside Stitchers did our little 4 shop LYS Crawl in Bellingham a year and a half ago.  I want to finish it.  I am in love with the yarn.  It feels great in my hands.  It looks amazing on the needles.  I can't wait to wear this shawl.  It is garter stitch.  Non-stop garter stitch.  O, wait, there are yarn overs.  And, then more garter stitch.

That isn't even the problem.  I need to finish by the end of March and I really  hope to finish early, by the 21st.  To do that, I need to knit a color a week.  I worked on this shawl a lot on the plane down to So. Cal. and again on the plane back.  The pattern is so nothing.  It is free, and well written, in that I mean there are 2 lines and one of them is Knit.  The other line of the pattern is:  knit to one stitch before the marker, YO, Repeat.

I am not kidding.  I was about 2/3 of the way finished with color 2 (omBob so amazingly beautiful - It's the blue from Sweet Georgia), when I realized that I had actually messed up some of the YO's quite a few rows back.  I think I YO'd on the wrong row a few times, or perhaps forgot to YO or both in one of the sections.  I tried dropping down what I thought were the wrong YO's and then pick back up, and it just was crazy hard.  Also, I was at a sub job (my cold does not keep me from work... students beware), and didn't have a crochet hook.  There was nothing to do but rip.  So, I ripped out about 15 g of the yarn.  (I am doing 50 g of each color).  This was more than a day's knitting.  But, I did it.

No photos of the goof, since I was at work without a decent camera, and no photo of how far I am (I've knit back about 2 rows of the 10 or so I ripped).  At least I have a photo of the three yarns.

I am using the bottom yarn by Huckleberry Knits first, and the middle yarn by Sweet Georgia second, and I can't believe how beautifully they go together.  It's like they were dyed by the same person.  It makes me almost want to go back to the first color at the end, rather than using the third different purple color.  Anyway, I am loving it.  Even with the frog.  Even with the garter stitch.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with an excruciating garter stitch shawl.