As I told you the other day, before this flu thing hit me I finished up the Serpentine Mitts. At least, I thought I told you about that. Maybe I just thought about it really hard. It’s really hard to tell the difference when your brain’s full of snot. Anyway, I did finish them. Just before the snot hit. I was finally able to get a couple pictures for you this morning, so here goes.

A finish

• Pattern: Serpentine Mitts by Miriam Felton
• Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Sand Ridge, about 30 grams
• Needles: Size 0 bamboo DPNs
• Elapsed time: February 17 — March 1, 2008
• Finished size: Size small
• Notes: I had a bunch of this yarn left over after making my Illusions socks, and wanted to use it on something. Mitts sounded like a good idea. I needed some (still more, please), and the small amount of yarn I had left seemed like just the thing. After making both mitts I still have enough yarn left over for a third mitt. I guess if something happens to one of them in the future, I can re-knit it with the left over yarn. Oh, and I love the mitts. They keep my hands nice and warm, they’re comfy—the thumb gusset makes a world of difference—and they fit just right. The only thing I would change is that I’d knit a little farther up the hand to reach my knuckles.

Some swatching

I’ve slowly added knitting back into my day, starting with pouring over stitch books looking for inspiration. I found it in some vine variations, so started swatching with yarn that was handy.

I tinkered with some non-vine motifs before I hit on the vine ones. Some of them are quite nice, just not what I was looking for. I especially like the one that’s at the bottom of the larger of the two swatches. Once you get up near the top you can see the first of the vine stitches that I played with. And you can see how I had it messed up, then corrected it near the top. At the same time I played with a simple border motif. It’s a perfectly fine border, but it didn’t give me what I was looking for here. I tried out a second border, also nice, also missing the mark, on the second swatch in the last photo.

I finally came up with a border that I like, but that swatch is still drying, so you can’t see it yet. Soon. The latest swatch is in the Malabrigo that I’ll be using for this shawl. Oooh. I like that yarn. It’s loverly.

Health

Dave finally felt awful enough yesterday morning that he let me take him to the doctor. Not just any doctor, of course, but our OMD—Oriental medical doctor, a.ka. our acupuncturist. Dr. Woo is amazing. It can be years between visits, yet he remembers who we are, what we’ve been in for before, who referred us, what she used to go in for, what her mother went in for, where my mother lives (and he’s never even met my mother)… And, of course, he’s really good at his type of medicine. Poor Dave was in such sorry shape that Dr. Woo kept him for a longer-than-normal appointment. It really, really helped. He also sent us home with plenty of herbal medications to break up the snot, as well as the garbage collecting in Dave’s lungs. The result: today we’re hacking (Dave), snorting, sniffing, and blowing up a storm. And clearing out all kinds of nasties. The process is distinctly unpleasant. Yet we’re both feeling quite a bit better. Dave’s even down in his office for the first time in a week.

Another photo

I have one more friend-photo to share with you. Remember back at the start of February when Charlie was in town for a convention, and had time that first night to have dinner with us? And what a horrible picture we got of him? Well, early this week he was having fun and joking around with some of the folk in his office, and someone snapped this great picture of him. This is more like it. Smiling, relaxed, having a good time. Thank you for letting me share it here, Charlie.