I’m still sick and so very, very tired. I’m getting better, slowly.

So, I have a couple pictures. First, I have these pumpkin plants that desperately need to be planted, but I don’t have a spot for them

Here’s the hexagon shawl with the added purple insert and beads

And I have some pictures of the finished alpaca scarf-

side 1

side 2

and a model shot

It’s off to the teacher now.

My sense of smell is starting to come back, and I’m picking up something extremely unpleasant. I’m not sure yet if it’s Clark’s diaper (I’m on one side of the kitchen, he’s on the other, on the far side of the dining room), some old rotting food somewhere it doesn’t belong, or if it’s merely pregnant nose, making a mountain out of a molehill.

I’m about to go investigate. Lucky me.

I have no idea why my blog was down yesterday, or why my pictures aren’t loading today. I’m just glad it’s back. I’m not in a very good mood. If you don’t want to hear it, you may want to skip me.

So, yesterday I was annoyed because after doing all that weighing and math and such, I still ended up with a handful of yarn leftover on the alpaca scarf. About 5 grams of it. It irritates me.

Having finished the scarf, which I love, and which is most likely going to be a gift now, leaving the camel I have yet to spin for me (until I find someone else that deserves a gift, I’m sure), I dug out the long neglected hexagon shawl and started in on it. I made good progress, having spent much of yesterday in bed, and look to do the same today.

And that brings me to my gripings of today… I’m getting another sinus infection! Kill me! I feel awful! I’m sick of mucus. A rotating selection of my children have been dealing with snuffles and coughs for weeks and weeks. I had it a couple weeks ago. And here we are again. Add that to the fact that it appears my acute stomach troubles are NOT necessarily limited to dairy and sciatica has come to visit today, and I am not fit for company. I seriously think that Clark is the ONLY human being I could be around today without biting their head off.

I’m so grumpy.

And another thing… I’m sick of my needles going missing. I’m going to need a 36 inch size 9 in about 17 rounds of shawl, and while there is no doubt that I have owned one at some point, it’s not to be found.

My only consolation, (not that it’s going to make me a nicer person today, just a smidge less miserable), is that unlike Clark’s pregnancy, I’m not too sick to knit. I have been enjoying it immensely and will continue to, provided my elbows behave. They’ve done some mild complaining, but I’m stretching and adjusting positions and so far have been able to get around it.

So, I’m knitting that huge hexagon spider’s web shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I finished the center section last night and have started the band of flowers. I changed colors, the band of flowers is going to be the leftover lavendar/purple yarn from Olivia’s birthday shawl last year.

I was planning to spin some gray silk/mohair for the big, open border, possibly over-dyeing it to make it warmer. After starting the purple however, I might just go back to the Colinette I used on the center. I hated it when I started the shawl, but I’m really liking it right now. I’ll probably post pictures and ask your opinion in a few days.

And Carol, I might be harassing you for a needle or two pretty soon, though I’d much rather have bamboo for this.

I’m almost done with it. I weighed the yarn, counted rows, and figure that I can knit 3 more cats paw repeats ’til starting the border. The yarn was striping early on, then in the middle of the scarf, gets more to the watercolor look where the colors flow into each other. Now it looks like I’m coming to a stripe of undyed alpaca. Not too thrilled about that. I hope it doesn’t last long.

The dye didn’t really move on the top when I dyed it. I left a little space between the colors because the colors are supposed to move towards one another. They didn’t move much if at all, so I had some undyed fiber between the colors. It really muted the yarn, and after spinning it, as with the yarn for the last scarf, I didn’t think I’d like it. It looked drab. But, as with the last scarf, I really like the way it’s knitting up. It has more color in person that you see in the picture, it’s kind of neutral-ish, but still deep. I wish the beads popped more, but they were the best option I could find.

I think I’m on a lace kick. I’m feeling inspired to finish the hexagon shawl, which will involve spinning some laceweight for the border. And I want to knit about 5 other things from Victorian Lace Today.

BTW- I have an ultrasound on the 22nd in the afternoon.

And I’m not even going to count because I don’t know if it’s going to be a weekly thing again or not. I’ve felt rotten, so Health Group hasn’t even been on my mind.

However, I think I’m solidifying the fact that dairy makes me sick. I’m so incredibly not happy about that. I haven’t figured out if it’s lactose or just dairy. I haven’t been avoiding things with whey in them, but it’s pretty clear that milk, cheese, sour cream, and butter (most likely), are upsetting me. I feel like throwing a tantrum, truth be told. In the words of Prince John from Disney’s Robin Hood, “it’s so miserably unfair!”

I love cheese.

That aside, I did manage to exercise 2 days this week. 30 minutes on the elliptical each time. I’m able to keep up my pre-pregnancy speed, but I don’t increase resistance anymore. It actually feels good to exercise, but I’m never in the mood to do it. The only reason I did it this week is 1., I thought I might actually be able to, and 2., my sister-in-law came over to exercise with me. I’m so glad she did.

So, I’m going to try to make a habit of it. It’ll be an uphill effort each time I’m sure, but I’ll be better off if I do.

Jello Jigglers. I can’t get enough of ’em. Jello and ham. Yum. Tell your friends.

Still feeling a little better, but really tired. I was in bed most of yesterday simply because being out of bed was too tiring. It feels so pathetic. This morning, after taking the girls to school, I’m going to dash to Costco to get some basic food and supplies before the fatigue hits in ernest.

Then maybe I’ll pick through the rest of my dyed silk so I can get these purple batts finished. I think everyone is tired of the wool and drum carder taking up the breakfast bar and one of the islands. It’s really in the way.

I started spinning the silk,

then cut into the tip of my drafting thumb while making dinner two nights ago, so that’s on pause for a bit. I think it’s going to be really pretty. There’s variation in the color that I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t feel like switching over to the accelerated head, because it involves a wrench, so I’m struggling to get enough twist into the single on the fastest whorl and am kind of kicking myself.

Oh, and Jean, the cookies were great with tea, thanks! I had them with some unsweetened Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime that night. Hit the spot.

But I’ll start in and see where it goes.

I’m feeling a little better. Still not great, but definitely better. I think I’m sensitive to dairy. When I eat it, I feel a lot worse. So naturally, I want milk all the time. No, that’s not right, I want things that you eat with milk. Cereal. Cookies. That kind of thing. I made some oatmeal raisin cookies last night, looking online for a recipe that uses shortening instead of butter. They’re really good, but cookies and water just aren’t as satisfying. Nor are cookies and soymilk.

Wah, wah. I know. I should just be glad I’m feeling somewhat better.

I haven’t done much with knitting or spinning in the last few days. And I haven’t finished carding the batts. I think I need to pick more of the roughage out of the noil first. My friend Katie spun a couple batts and thought there was too much in it. I tried (knowing ahead of time the nightmare it would be) to card a batt of noil, to open it up and ease the picking, but it was way more hassle than help. Maybe I’ll try handcards and see what that does. It’s much nicer to pick sharp bits out of noil that’s been carded, but getting it off of the drum carder and then cleaning the drum carder afterwards is awful.

Boring post, boring post.

Liv is home sick today. I swear she went out and found the first virus she could after her antibiotic treatment last week. I’d say I’m anxious for summer, but we’ve been sick during summer before, too.

I’m hoping in the next day or so to start spinning two ounces of Bombyx silk for a friend of mine. I’ve never spun pure silk in any quantity, and it sounds fun.

I’ve washed most of the two fleece I was worried about having forgot. It’s washing just fine.

I have half of the gray left to wash, but it’s already sorted and organized into lingerie bags so I’m really close.

Now I’m really, really, really anxious to get more alpaca so I can dye again!

You may need to be family or know me personally to appreciate this post, but I’ll try to explain well enough that you’ll at least understand.

I bought some flax to try spinning awhile ago. Spun flax is linen. In Exodus, and throughout the Book of Mormon, they mention “fine twined linen” and when I told the girls that I was spinning flax into linen, they picked up on it. Abby got an amused look on her face and, somewhat mocking, asked if I was spinning “fine twined linen?” Ha ha, we all had a laugh. But not as much as a week or so later when Veronica came into my room and picked up the knit linen swatch on my bedside table and in reverent awe asked if it was the fine twined linen? So very funny. It’s good to know they’re paying attention. I just said I was spinning linen, they made the scriptural connection on their own.

Of course in the Book of Mormon, “fine twined linen” primarily comes up when the Nephite civilization has become worldly, prideful, and are headed for some serious chastisement and humbling. Hence Abby’s sarcasm my direction. But whatever.

I have a couple of quiet hours this morning, and I’m making batts.

This is all of it.

This is one batt’s worth of fiber.

I have enough to make about 48 batts. 6 batts per 4 ounces/2 pounds total.

I’m a little worried about the silk. This dyelot was still a test, just on a larger scale. I didn’t weight out the colors of silk, just dyed by handfuls. As it is, I do have enough of the silk, but the distribution of colors isn’t exactly right. I have too much of the light blue, and since I’m using much less light blue than the other two colors in each batt, I’m going to run out of the other two too soon. So I guess I’ll have some batts that don’t match the rest.

I’m anxious to try out some other colorways, but my alpaca supplier hasn’t had any alpaca since early December. I’m going to need to find another source.