Cold brew coffee

I was listening to the most recent StitchIt! podcast today and her favorite thing this week was cold brew coffee. So I thought "what the heck" and whipped myself up a batch tonite for tomorrow morning. I made double what the "recipe" said. I'm always on the look out for coffee that tastes as good as it smells. Plus Meghan and several blogs I looked up said that the acid content on the coffee is much lower than the hot brew coffee. I would love to be able to use less creamer and stuff.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it being coffee concentrate. If I could make up a batch on the weekend and nurse it all week, that would be wicked-awesome!

What did you get for Mother's Day?

I got stomach flu. Are you jealous?

Last Friday DS got sick. By 11:3o a.m. I knew this time the sickness was different from the last time he had a bout of vomit and diarrhea. So I called the doctor. DS's white blood cell count was 22 (12 is considered high for a child) and off we were to the hospital.

At the hospital he tested positive for rotavirus. After an exhausting night I was able to bring him home. He was wore out, I was wore out.

We attempted to go to where we planned our vacation Sunday but only spent one night (oh yeah, lol, this past weekend was supposed to be the start of a vacation). We came back home Monday. Tuesday I spent the day on the couch and by Wednesday it was my turn. DH is starting to come down with it now.

Now I have today and Monday to get the paper done. Let's not forget that I'm still learning. I think I will be calling in some favors, lol.

And for whatever reason I was dreaming of going to drive buses. But I couldn't cause the pope was in town. Bizarre.

Just so this won't be a pictureless image, here is a shot of my toe up sock by the fire that DH built at the cabin.


Wearing wool socks and being next to a fire when it's 40 degrees out. Oh! It feels good!

I have since finished the sock. Inbetween trips to the loo and when I wasn't feeling like death warmed over. I will post a picture when I have finished the second sock. At the rate I'm going, that could be a while. I am thrilled I figured out the heel though. I think I messed up on the bind off though ... No biggie though. I will know it for the next pair of toe ups though.

When I was laying on the couch DH really stepped up and took care of both me and DS, and taking over household stuff. That's one of the many reasons I love him. I know not too many husbands would do that. I am very lucky when it comes to my guy. :-)

Frogged the last UFO this morning

Apparently I thought that there was a lot more time to this month than there really is. Just goes to show how busy I am at work. Where the heck did the month go? Last night I thought it was Wednesday. Maybe I am itching for it to be the weekend again? lol.

So yeah, I frogged the last thing this morning. It was a simple shawl made out of the LionBrand sparkley mohair yarn. I set it aside some time ago because I made yarn overs in the wrong place and it was *so* obvious. I'm kind of bummed because it was three balls worth of yarn. I was more than 1/2 way done with it. *sigh* oh well.

But now everything is off the needles, so to speak, and I can now start anything I want. I'm seriously debateing on having a project at work, in the car and one for around the house. But I can't decide if that will be too much. I also have to start thinking of another gift to give come July but I don't know what this person would appreciate. A hat, should I try to make socks, or just look on their Amazon wishlist?

knitters block?

Cause I seem to have it, lol.

This weekend I was sick. And with all this talk about the swine flu, who knows if I got it or not.

Last week I had the problem with the sock heel. So I decided to rip it and be done. Then I could have kicked myself once I figured out my problem.

So I got some knitting magazines from the library. I really like Knit Simple from Vogue. I can't tell if it's cause they have a lot of patterns that I could see myself wearing or the bright colors most everything was done in.

I found a couple patterns for lace shawls and stoles

I decided this weekend that, Yes, I am going to frog the MS KAL 5 stole. So I found a pattern to use the yarn with. It's simple and elegant looking. I hadn't invested a TON of time in the MS KAL. It's not that the pattern isn't pretty, but I think that, at this place in my life, where I have a lot of brain power being expended, I want something with a simple repeat and this new pattern has it.

There is one more UFO hanging around the house. It's the start of a simple little mitten for DS. I'm gonna frog that as well. The rest of this month is going to be used to organize new projects, go through my little stash and possibly give some up. Most of my stash of other yarns is acryllics. I bought it all with the intention of making blankets and stuff. Maybe I should finally start a blanket? That should be simple, right? LOL, I have been thinking of starting a modern log cabin blanket.

Other than the one project (which I still can't share of photo of yet) I have finished nothing else. I didn't even finish the bobbin I started earlier this month. This has been kind of a poor knitting month now that I think of it.

Frogged the toe up :-(

I just do not *get* the pattern and I can't visualize how it's supposed to turn out since I've tried it twice and I don't think it was coming out how it was supposed to. ... I think I'm gonna need someone to show or explain IRL to me what it's all about.

In the meantime I think I'm gonna need to clear out the cache so to speak. I'm thinking of working with my handspun but I don't know what do work with it yet since it's still so thick and thin. ... I wanted to do something other than a scarf, but I am thinking that might be my only option right now.

A little more about that darn heel

That short row heel is kicking my butt. I got to a point where I was going back and forth and either p or k 2tog and it wasn't making sense. I shared my pain with some knitting friends and one of them told me that the way it was written up couldn't be right, it didn't make sense. *shrugs* I don't know. So I tinked back to a certain point again. I think I'm gonna give the slip stitch heel a try. That's gotta be easier on my poor brain right now.

Why are things being hard on me right now? Perhaps it's because I feel like my brain is being pulled in a bunch of different directions right now. Honestly I'm surprised it hasn't exploded. I'm overworking the poor thing. Little more than a month to go and I can give it a rest. ... Maybe, lol.

Butchered my short row

on my green vanilla sock. I probably should have learned how to purl through the back of the loop before going at the heel enthusiastically. So I ripped it back some and stuck it back on needles until I can focus on it. (Today is sooooo not the day) I also ended up with extra stitches. Like two or three, at least.

In other news, I did spin for about an hour last night. Felt good to spin. I jumped on that and started spinning like I had not been on any spinning hiatus. I'd say bobbin is about two-thirds full.

I've also got the urge to knit a sweater. I don't know where this urge came from. Maybe because I see flowers blooming on southern blogs and it's still snowing up here. :-P

I seen this one called the Coraline Tunic and feel it's just gorgeous. But I think I better start with something like the Boxed sweater from knitty.com. Although I don't know if I want to spin all the fiber for it. ... If I do make the Boxed sweater I would make it longer. I'm not too thrilled at the idea of a sweater that short. The sleeves are fine though :-)