SWAP!!!!

I just did my first swap and received my package from my partner today. Score! Check out the haul:



My awesome partner, Kim, even sent a gift for Emma. It's that sweet little kitty hat in the top left corner. It's tough to see, so here's a pic of Emma wearing it:



It has little ears on top and earflaps on the sides. Emma is a lover of hats so this was right up her alley. She wore it today when we went to the nursery to buy seeds and got lots of smiles and admiring looks. Cute kids in cute hats tend to get attention...

I have another swap coming up and I'm super-excited about it. The next one focuses on yarn that's suitable for the season and I have some nice stuff ready for my swap partner already. Of course, while I'm excited about sending stuff, I'm even more amped about getting a package myself. Though how the next person can top Kim's excellent work, I just don't know. :)

The week from hell

I can say, with certainty and confidence, that this has been the week from hell. At the end of last week, I came down with this wicked cough, with my lungs feeling so irritated and tight that my cough actually squeaked at the end. I went to urgent care and saw a nurse-practitioner (generally not a problem for me) who proclaimed that the lung irritation was simply due to the cough I'd had the week before. She gave me an albuterol treatement and an rx for an albuterol inhaler and sent me on my way. The cough got worse. I finally gave up and called in sick on Tuesday because I could hardly breathe without coughing. Lung irritation my ass...this was the flu. Okay, so I felt better on Wednesday and got up to get ready for work, but I passed out in the shower. I didn't collapse, thank goodness, but only slumped against the shower wall and blacked out. When I came to, it was like I had a gray curtain in front of my eyes and I literally could not see. So that was another work day missed.

Meanwhile, Emma had been sick this entire time, as well, coughing and snotting all over the place, but she was well enough to go to school on Wednesday. By Thursday we were back to our normal routine..or so I thought. Thursday night Emma woke up crying, saying that her ear hurt. When a half hour went by and the ibuprofen I'd given her hadn't worked, I bundled her into the car and took her to the ER, where they diagnosed an inner-ear infection. We finally got home, rx in hand, at 12:30 a.m.

There was a definite bright spot in the bleakness of this past week: a green, flaired-sleeve and hem sweater of a bright spot. I finished Pullover Flair and I love, love, love it! I was about three inches from finishing the last seam when Emma started crying, but you know I finished that sweater when I came home. I got so many compliments on it when I wore it today...and was even told I look skinny! Ha! Take that, week from hell! You can judge for yourself in the pics. What do you think?



I love this pattern, by the way, and am planning on knitting it in wool for fall or winter wear. It was an easy pattern, it came together nicely, and it does look good. All in all, a happy experience!

The Pokey Little Blogger

That's me...pokey. I've been meaning to post and plan on doing it every day but, well, clearly that doesn't happen. So it's catch-up time!

I've been knitting the Interweave Knits pattern, Pullover Flair, in Berroco Nostalgia and am almost finished. I love how this yarn feels and how the tonally-variegated yarn creates wavy patterns when knit up. I'll be posting pics soon, but for right now you can check out the pattern from my Ravelry projects page here. I'm gearing up to knit the Celtic Tote from Interweave Knits Winter 2007 for my mom, who is traveling to Ireland this June for her 60th birthday. I'll be using Brown Sheep wool for the pattern and will post pictures soon.

The weather here in Ohio has been miserable and it leaves me wishing I'd spent more free time knitting warm fuzzies this past year. I'm looking out the window right now at the gray sky and rain and wishing for spring. Back when I lived in CA I never noticed the change of seasons; here, though, there's definitely a change from winter to fall and I love it. I just can't wait for the blue sky and warmer weather to get here!

Um, yeah, okay, this blog post is as dull as I feel. Consider this a check-in and nothing more; I'll get those pictures up very soon!

And yet another non-knitting post

I'm a Hillary Clinton fan. Now, if you're reading this and are not a fan, please don't bombard me with comments on all the reason you don't like Hillary. I like her and am not in the mood to argue.

When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination, one of my first thoughts was that I would love for Emma to see her in person. I want Emma to grow up without ever questioning the extents to which a woman can rise. I kept my eyes peeled and my ears open for an announcement of a local campaign stop but, as the primary drew closer, I figured the opportunity to see her wouldn't come.

Then I got one of those annoying recorded phone calls, the kind that I usually hang up on. Only this time, I listened, and discovered that Hillary would be stopping very near my house. I was thrilled!

So, this past Sunday, my mom, my daughter, and I all went to see Hillary Clinton speak. She was fantastic! She was Presidential and authoritative, but appeared to be very approachable. She's an excellent speaker and I enjoyed her a great deal...as did Emma.

When we voted in our local primary on Tuesday, Emma went to the machine with me and found Hillary's name. She was happy to participate and happy when, the next day, we learned that Hillary had won. When she went to bed, Emma said to me, "Mama, when I grow up, I'm gonna VOTE!"

That's my girl...both of them!