Life and times

Ryan is back to normal as far as his hives go. I had him back to the doctor this afternoon because he had so much mucus that Gillian asked "Mom, why does Ryan have those green things coming out of his nose?" I'll spare you the details, but it was gross. Since his cough was getting worse and he seemed miserable, back to the doctor we went. We're going to start some Zythromax and try to get the recurring ear infections cleared up, since the original antibiotic prescription got cut short. I'm not one of those people who beg the doctor for antibiotics all the time, since I understand the dangers of breeding "super bugs," but he's just not kicking this illness on his own. That's enough baby boy/health stuff!

I'm about 2/3 of the way done with my Fir Cone 3/4 shawl, amazingly! I've got the pattern memorized so it's going pretty quickly. I tend to fall asleep on the plain purl rows so I'm practicing "knitting back backwards" and I'm getting faster at it. I'm faster at purling back, but it's just so boring! I know it's an opportunity to count and make sure you're not off, but that just wasn't working for me on this pattern. It's just as easy to make adjustments on the knit side and I've only messed up once which was due to confusing myself about which row I was on.

Last weekend I went up to a friend's place by Grand Lake with some quilting friends and we had a GREAT time!! It was my first night away from Ryan and neither kid handled it particularly well, according to Greg (who is the most wonderful husband EVER). I got a fair bit of knitting done, and I'll post pictures when the project I started--and almost finished--is done. Woo hoo! It's something I've had in my head for a while, and it's nice to get it onto needles. I'm using a ribbon yarn that I got on a killer sale at Robert's Crafts in Idaho Falls, and I'm using US15 needles. After the 5s I usually use for lace, those are BIG honking needles!! I'm not really enjoying using needles that big, but it's giving me the look I'm going for. Here's a teaser:

The yarn isn't quite that shiny in real life, but I had to use a flash since it's dark outside. The color isn't quite right, as there's a touch more orange in the yarn, but you can get the idea. If it looks good I'll be posting the pattern here on my blog. We'll see.