Where I went from there...

Hello! I exsist! I promise!

I haven't been doing much knitting lately, mainly reading for work.

Um... so this weekend we went to West Virginia. It's not China, but it was fun.



I took the waters at the spa, had a massage, got my nails done. But mainly hung out and read in front of the fire and ate a lot of s'mores.

And then I came home to this awesome package from my secret pal! Who has a name now! It's Meghan and you can read her blog here!



But that picture of goodness is the RYC Cafe book (yum!) 3 balls of DKsoft in a wonderful shade of dark blue. PLUS! a stuffed lamb that is so soft and cuddly and peppermint tea and some rose smelling bath confetti AND Cadbury eggs and Lindor truffles. Yum, yum and yummy yum. Plus, she's from Iowa, which we all know is the greatest state EVER. Seriously. Anyone who disses Iowa has clearly NEVER been there. It's awesome and I'd move back in a heartbeat.

Here're the stitch markers I made for my SP7.

Very Un-Hip

Eep! I totally forgot to mention the awesome CD that my secret pal got me too! (It was in my car!)



That's Wild Cool & Swingin: Ultra Lounge 5 and it is awesome.

I've been groovin' to it a lot this past week!

Hello World

So, I'm up and walking again and feeling a lot better. I went back to work on Monday. Things have been going... ok, even though I have enough restrictions that I can't do half my job (it's hard to "not bend" when you work in a children's section and half the shelving only comes up to your waist).

BUT

In one week and 11 hours, we were supposed to by flying off to Beijing. But the doctors have put the kebash on that. On one hand, I'm a bit relieved, because deep down I knew I'd be fairly miserable after that flight and then backpacking and spending a lot of times on long train rides... but... I was going to go back to China!!!!

But... here are some pictures of what I have been doing with my time.

First off, here's the package from my secret pal:



That's some empty chocolate wrappers (it was yummy!) a box of mac and cheese (yum yum yum) 2 balls of Crystal Palace's Kid Merino in the prettiest shade of pink, these really cool 3-D stickers of London-town, a box of Tazo Tea (when I was in college, I used to go to every reception and steal all the Tazo Tea bags at the end of the night), these AWESOME HANDMADE STITCH MARKERS and Scarf Style

And I thought it was so cool that she MADE THESE STITCH MARKERS and I thought, I wanna do that! So I got thisbook from the library (we just got it in) and learned how to make earrings, figuring stitch markers aren't that different. So tomorrow I'm off to the craft store to buy things like "jump rings" and "head pins".



I don't know if you can tell, but the ones on the far left have charms on them that are balls of yarn with knitting needles in them. V. cute!

Here's the blue sweater (baby suprise from Elizabeth Zimmerman's The Opinionated Knitter I was working on earlier, all nice and done (ok, it still needs buttons in to have its ends woven in)



And here's a little lesson in gauge, ok? I knit the blue one with Encore Worsted Weight, on a size 8 needle. The red is done in sock yarn on a size 1. There is no other difference. Same number of stitches and rows and everything, just different gauges...



One's for a preemie and one's for a 15 month old...

But look! The red one now has a matching bonnet!



It's the same pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts I had been using in 2004 when the last batch of babies came, BUT with sock yarn instead of worsted weight!!!

Also, last Friday, Dan's cousin's family came with their 15 month old and I gave them the bonnet that I knit for them when she was BORN and it still fit! And she was the cutest thing ever! But I didn't think to grab my camera in my drugged out haze. But seriously? CUTE CUTE CUTE.

And here's one in the proper DK weight (and this is for one of Dan's other cousin's new baby), but still on the needles:



And here's a picture to compare all 3 gauges of this sweater:



And here's the back of a sweater I'm working on from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Little Cherubsfor the new baby's older sister.



And to spread the word, earlier this week, I got an email from one of my favorite record labels, Six Degrees that described a band as blending "the rhythms of 60's Cambodian pop - heavily influenced by American surf, rock and early psychedelic garage bands - with their own eclectic mix of American and international styles...There are echoes of Bollywood soundtracks, Ethiopian soul, American R&B, Cambodian funk, Spagetti Western and girl group angst in the mix, but the resulting concoction is all their own." and I thought, how can I NOT check that out? So I went to their website and it'll play their whole album for you and now I'm totally in love with Dengue Fever.

Hello!!!

Sorry I've been incommunicado lately!

First off, I want to give a shout out to terpsichore, who knit my Big Wool Mittens! As far as I'm aware, this is the first time someone's knit one of my patterns. I feel really cool and would do a dance if I could, which I can't (keep reading). But her mittens turned out really well! I really like her stripes! Check them out!

On Friday, I finished felting Market Squares.



Then I went to Knit and Stitch = Bliss in Bethesda. This is the FIRST TIME I've been to a yarn store since we moved. I bought buttons for the sweater's I'll talk about later.

On Saturday, I went to my friend Jonathan's Birthday party, which featured a Journey cover-band! Woot! And, the part of the crazy girl who doesn't know when to shut up? Totally played by me, as always.

And! Look, I finished my olympic project.



Also, Amy had an awesome Closing Ceremony party. Look what I won!



That's the Shaun White Flying Tomato gold medal! With a prize!



That's a really cool pattern for a fair-isle throw with the necessary Hemp 4 Knitting. Yarn. Very sweet.

The big news is that I've totally and utterly thrown out my back. While sitting at my computer. On Monday, my coworkers had to wheel me out to the car on my desk chair, screaming. Even after the ER pumped me full of muscle relaxers and narcotics, I was still in enough pain that they let me take the wheelchair home. On Tuesday morning, I passed out from either the pain or the percoset. Thursday morning, I woke up screaming in pain at 3am. Things ARE getting better though. I'm in physical therapy 2 times a week. I've been given a note to get me out of work "indefinetly". Today, I got out of bed unassisted. TWICE! This was awesome. I'm also now consistently going to the bathroom by myself. Yeah. That's how bad it's been.

But let's just talk abot how awesome Dan is. To get me on Monday (because I knew I couldn't drive) he had to take lots of public transport and a cab across DC to get me. I bit him on numerous occasions to keep myself from screaming in the emergency room. He let me chew up his wallet. He walked about the holding room we were in and gave the nurse the evil eye until she came back with a shot full of pain killer. He stayed home with me all day Tuesday and drove me all over. (Can I also give a shout-out to my doctor? I called at 9, explained the situation, saw her at 11. She got me a 1pm appointment with her favorite orthopedist. He saw me, ran across the hall to the physical therapy place and begged someone to see me ASAP and I saw them at 3. AWESOME). Dan has to go away on Sunday for business. He's been FREAKING OUT about leaving me home alone. But, on Wednesday he went to work for a few hours (and then came home to me saying "I have to go the bathroom, but I can't get up") Yesterday he went all afternoon and I was FINE. And after today's awesome smooth moves of getting out of bed ALL BY MYSELF, he went all day. I called him for something this afternoon and I could just hear the panic in his voice, thinking I was lying on the floor, wetting myself or something.

But seriously, to quote Jed Bartlett "So this is why they make you take vows". Even though I'm super-cute, helping me off the toilet isn't fun. (Plus, I am not super-thing. Hell, I'm not even thin.) Having me wake you up at all hours of the night because I need you to help move me or something is not cool. Having to use up your vacation time to take care of me, being totally helpless, is not fun but he hasn't complained at all. Not one bit. So super duper lovely.

But I've been knitting a lot and enjoying the Project Runway marathons.

It's baby-fest in my world. Lots of people popping out little bundles of joy. So... here is EZ's Baby Suprise Sweater. Yes, I swear this is a sweater. See?







It's for a preemie, so I didn't change the sweater, but knit it at a much smaller gauge, using sock yarn. Here is one for older brother (a one year old) knitting at a bigger gauge, per EZ's suggestion



I've also totally finished the blue sweater. And a bonnet for the red sweater. And a baby bootie. I just haven't been able to take photos, because, you know, the whole-not-being-able-t0-move thing.

ALSO! Yesterday, I got a most awesome package from my secret pal. (who is from Davenport! Iowa! I love Iowa!) It's really really awesome and most of the chocolate is already in my belly, but I'll cover it more indepth later (with all of it's cool contents) when I can get photos. Or have Dan take photos for me.