Survival

So, it's a horrible cell phone photo but I wanted to show this scarf. I made it from Henry's Attic Andromeda (silk/merino) and my simple dropped yarnover pattern. I really liked the pattern when I first made it years ago, and then every time since I've thought about making one I felt it was a little cheesy and unexciting. But with this yarn it really turned out beautifully and I like it all over again. I made this scarf during a weekend of homeopathy classes and wrapped it up to give to my teacher as a new year's present. I need all the help I can get since I haven't done a single assignment all year. My midterms are next week. Should be interesting.

I also made myself these socks in class. This yarn is some (non-superwash) Merino I bought years ago in Milan. I dyed it in my one and only dyeing experiment using acid dyes. I made a single sock about 4 years ago, hated it, and never made the other. So I frogged evil first sock ever and made 2 new ones.

Added a cable up the back to alleviate the boredom.

I then continued my mitten extravaganza by making these for my friend Martha who was visiting. See the blue Ikea bag in the background? It's a sign of things yet to come. I'll get to that part later.

In the meantime, The Mole learned how to play peekaboo. He lives for peekaboo. Epecially when played with a bowl of Pirate Booty.







Then things went to hell. Remember the blue Ikea bag? We brought back more than just some wooden bowls and a string of star-shaped lights on clearance. My little Squid brought back a nasty case of Scarlet Fever which she picked up in the ball pen. Never, ever ever again.

I was trying to figure out which was the worst part of the Scarlet Fever. The fact that she came down with it the day my husband left for a week in Europe? So she was sick, out of school, and I had no co-parent? Or the fact that she and the Mole perfected their synchronized of waking up and wailing "mamma!" in the middle of the night while sleeping in separate bedrooms, so I needed to constantly choose which kid to leave screaming for me while I cared for the other.

But eventually with the help of some antibiotics which made the Squid a Squid-on-Speed, the Scarlet Fever passed. The Squid went back to school. For one day. because the next day she woke with a rash. I gave her benadryl immediately upon seeing the rash, by the doctor's orders. Guess what? she's allergic to that, too. A reaction to the antibiotics and then to the Benadryl has lasted longer than the Scarlet Fever they were treating and led us down the road to anaphylaxis, and, thankfully, back again. Hideous doesn't describe it. Nothing can tell of the fear that coldy gripped my heart as i sat next to my girl's bed watching her chest rise and fall - waiting for it to stop. Willing it not to. Nothing can come close to the look on her face or the sound in her voice as she screamed "IT ITCHES!" at 3 am. And it's still not really gone. Not yet.

Maybe the worst part is that I wore a hole in the bottoms of both of my brand-new green socks within a week of completing them. I just never took them off and shuffled from kid to kid on wool carpets for a week. When I finally took them off (and showered) I noticed the holes. boo. I patched them with some leftover yarn from the Donnie Osmond socks. There's enough Nylon in that yarn to hold anything together.

Here she is today, the Divine Miss M, playing with her baby brother. She just looks sunburned now. That will go away eventually.

Shall we talk about knitting again and banish evil thoughts of sick kids from our hearts? Check out the Mole's sweater. I finally finished it. I had intended to make the sleeves really long so he could wear it for a long time. But really I just ended up making the body too short.

I really need to go back and add a few inches but I just can't bear the thought of more stripes. And yes, he's rummaging through my yarn stash.