Thwacking Is NOT A Dirty Word

Last week was quite the week.  On Tuesday, my dentist confirmed what I already feared:  I have an abscessed tooth.  How thrilling.  This of course means that I need a root canal and since the tooth in question already has a crown on it, I also need to replace said crown.  Crowns are not free.  In fact, they are quite pricey.  My wallet tells me just to have the affected tooth pulled.  My vanity tells me to pony up the dough.  Vanity wins, in spite of my irrational fear of root canals (never had one before).  My appointment is Thursday.  Today is Monday.  I need drugs already…

The week didn’t get much better.  After my diagnosis, my dentist put me on antibiotics to clear up the infection.  They’ve done a marvelous job but have made me consistently nauseous.  Then on Thursday morning, I managed to come down with a mild case of food poisoning that didn’t feel so mild at the time.  I spent Friday with the now familiar nausea and an all-day headache which made the nausea worse.  Yep, it was a banner week.  The good news is, I am perfectly able to knit while dealing with an abscessed tooth as well as nausea and a headache.

Thankfully, I felt better Saturday because I had a baby shower to attend for the sweetest young woman on the planet who is expecting twins on her first go around.  She’s having a boy and a girl and so I knit these:

The hats aren't as weird as they look

I used the Owlie Sleep Sack and Owlie Hat patterns by TeresaCole and used Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Cinnabar and Jewel Blue.  The hats look slightly weird in this picture (you can see my picture taking ability has not improved any as of yet) but these actually came out well and my friend liked them very much.  These reminded me how little I like doing cables, but the results always make me glad that I pushed through with them. 

On another subject…

Have you ever made something for someone and then looked at it and thought, “This doesn’t look like them at all”?  That’s what happened with the lacy project I made for a friend.  If you recall, I had attempted to do something with lace weight yarn five times using four different patterns when I decided to make a lacy item using a heavier weight yarn that did not threaten my sanity.  I accomplished that but now the project looks like something perfect for a different friend and not the originally intended friend.  I’m not posting a picture of it yet in case I change my mind yet again, but I’ve decided to have one more go at a lace weight project for the gift I need in April.  Stay tuned for the outcome, whether good, bad, or ugly…  :-/

In the meantime, I’ve made a bit more progress on my GlamShells Shawl by Marisa Hernandez.  I did have to insert a lifeline after unsuccessfully trying to tink back a row to fix an error and thankfully, the lifeline was true to its name.  I think I’m going to really like this shawl.

Shibui Sock in colorway Dragonfly

Speaking of really liking something, a couple of months ago an independent dyer out of Texas posted a picture on Twitter of some merino sock yarn she’d dyed that made me drool.  Her name is Laura Jinks Jimenez and I finally talked myself into ordering three skeins of this:

I'm in love with these colors.  Seriously...

I have to say, it did not disappoint when I received it!  This yarn is soft and springy and the colorway, Rinoa, is absolutely gorgeous.  I have no idea what I’ll make out of it yet, so if you have any ideas, leave me a comment.  It is fingering weight and I have 1200 yards to work with.  For now, I’m content to just stare at it…

I have just one more thing to fill you in on today.  The first sweater I ever made was a KAL the ladies at my yarn shop were doing – a Terra Linda Cardigan by Romi Hill.  It came out fine, but I found that it just sat in my drawer.  The neckline was a little too large for my scrawny chicken neck plus I found myself annoyed at the ¾ length sleeves (I didn’t think about my aversion to ¾ length sleeves beforehand).  But the yarn I used is totally yummy – Malabrigo Rios in Aguas – so I didn’t want to just tuck it away somewhere and I couldn’t bear to give this particular yarn away.  After asking the ladies at my LYS about options, I got up the courage to frog the entire project and thwacked the yarn so I could reuse it (Don’t know what thwacking is?  I found instructions here).

What was once this:

Not lovin' it...

Now looks like this:

There's more, but the rest is still drying.

It looks just as good as the day I bought it and so now I’m hoping it will eventually turn into the Agua Rios Vest by Kristin Omdahl which I will indeed wear.  I can feel myself about to go on a vest kick.  The thought of no sleeves makes me happier than a pig in…um, happy as a clam.

***  ***  ***