Strep Throat

Yep, i haz it. I'm still contagious for the next 24 hours until the medicine sets in so I already called out sick for tomorrow. Actually, I'm going in super early tomorrow morning to drop off some sub plans and meet with 3 parents for conferences and then I'm going to be home for the rest of the day. I decided to go ahead with my conferences because it's so hard to get the parents to reschedule. I didn't think it would be smart to be around the kids all day though. Close proximity and all. That means that I should have plenty of knitting time. The general clutter of the apartment is starting to get to me though and I still have 2 piles of laundry that need to be done so I'll probably spend most of my day catching up on those things. But should I get the opportunity to knit then my clapotis will be waiting for me.

Stalled

The breaking of the sock DPN seems to have broken my knitting streak as well. Obviously that project is now on hold until I can find some more needles (or another project).

I started a pair of socks for Global Knit but have lost some interest in these as well.
Just past the heel turn of the first sock. These only have 20-30 rows until they're done but I'm not in love with this yarn: it's single ply (therefore very splity), and in some drab colors (not helped by the fact that it has been cold and rainy here for 2 days).

I started and finished another quick charity knit (this one for H 2 H International) this weekend.
The next step is to start a hat to go with them. But that would require me finding my 16" cable and balling some more yarn.

The baby blanket pretty much looks like the same except with 6-10 more repeats. I'm ready for that to be finished with.

I have a whole queue on Ravlery of projects for myself but that would require balling yarn, finding needles and swatching.

I also have a whole list of knits for other people that need to be done but, again, these require balling yarn, finding needles, and swatching.

Plus, I need to update my inventory in my stores since I'm sending a new LYS some of my yarn and Rare Purls needed more stuff.

Oh, and I need to update Ravlery with all the projects from Christmas (and maybe a little before then too) and don't get me started on the housework...

Unmotivated is what I am.

Saturday I was sidelined with a 24 hour stomach virus which certainly didn't help things. Thankfully I have tomorrow off so maybe after a few days of recuperation I will feel up for something productive.

Sidelined

I have this theory on flu shots. See, I've never had one. And I never plan to get one. I've adopted what I call the "Herd Mentality." Look at it this way: Suppose a farmer has a huge herd of animals, hundreds even. He can't afford the time or money to inoculate them all against every possible disease. Sure, he hits the major ones but there will always be a new outbreak to protect against. The farmer, being a smart cookie, figures out the percentage of animals likely to catch the disease and vaccinates only this percentage of his herds. It saves him time and money. The other animals (without the vaccine) are, essentially, "protected" because the chances of the disease a)hitting their farm and b) then hitting an un-vaccinated animal are now small. I see myself as being part of a "herd" of people in my community. If the right proportion of people get the flu vaccine then I'm protected by them. The downside to this theory is that, occasionally, one of the un-vaccinated animals gets sick. Case in point: myself. Last Wednesday I came down with a nasty flu virus. Thankfully the worst of it lasted less than 36 hours but those first 12 or so were pretty bad. I'm still not getting the vaccine though. Medicine isn't always the answer.

Before I got sick on Wednesday night (before I knew I was sick) I mustered enough fortitude to go to a friend's house for knit night. She's part of the Noble Knitters that meets at the Barnes and Nobles each week but she wanted to thank everyone for their support through the years (I haven't been around for all that time but she and I have become friends).
Here's a few group shots of everyone gathering in the living room.
And yes, all these people have been known to converge at the same time on an unsuspecting Barnes and Nobles cafe. We pretty much take over the place.

I went in for half a day of work on Thursday (thank goodness there were no children) only so that I could talk to my boss, get the rest of the day off, and call my doctor. The doctor gave me magic pills which made me feel a whole lot better but my body still wanted to recover internally. So Friday after work I came home, puttered around, and fell dead asleep on the couch at 7:00. I woke up just long enough at 2:00 to drag myself into the bedroom where I promptly fell back asleep until 8:00 the next morning.

I woke up Saturday with a plan to get things done so I pulled out my other dye apron
and got to work.

I'll have a more thorough update once the yarn's finished drying and I can reskein it but here's a sneak peak of one of the new colorways that I had a lot of fun creating.
Watermelon!

Once my fun with dyeing was done I spent the evening on the couch resting. I finished my Warm Woolies Big 10 test knit socks.
Started a new pair of socks for myself.
Rivulets socks by Wendy Johnson
Bugga! sock yarn in Acrobatic snail
US size 0s

Today I started a baby blanket for my cousin Britt who's due in July.
Oat Couture's Prairie Blanket

I'm done with the "getting started" part and now I'm on to the "repeat until x" long" part so I should be able to get into a groove with this and just keep trucking along.

I'm feeling a whole lot better now so I'm ready to tackle my last day at work on Tuesday and then start my summer. It's already looking to be a busy one-there are a lot of new job opportunities that I can't wait to talk about but need a final seal of approval before they are go for launch. Expect a lot more dyeing though!

:::Sniff:::

For only the second time in almost 4 years of teaching I find myself laid up on my couch resting from not feeling well. I realized last night that the more I keep dragging myself into work the less good I'm doing myself. Especially at this job. When I taught middle school band I never worked as closely (literally) to the kids. I was a bit emotionally and physically unattached to them. Teaching 1st grade I spend everyday in close proximity to children. They climb on me, squeeze me, and call my name all day long. I'm very much a physical and emotional epicenter for them. When I don't feel well continuing to try and tough it out just doesn't work like it used to. There's no chance for a nap during lunch time any more. I know that I need to take good care of myself. I tell the kids all the time not to come to school if they are sick, why should I? So, here I am, just now waking up from a nice long nap. I can tell I'm getting better: my cough isn't as frequent and I've used some Zycam to dry up my sinuses. I had to go to work for about 4 hours this morning because I had 2 conferences before school and I couldn't find the sub hot line number (note to self: find before next fall). I'll be back tomorrow because it's only a half day and then I have conferences after school. Thursday is another half day with less conferences (thankfully) and Friday is a full day but hey, it's a Friday, and the day before Valentine's Day, I can make it through one more day. Valentine's Day I'd already claimed for myself so I'll be sleeping late and probably dyeing more yarn for the shop.

Sadly, I have no real knitting to show you. The last time I made any significant headway on a project was last Thursday at the Atlanta Guild Meeting when I finished the body of a charity sweater. I've done a few rounds on a secret project that I started in December but other than that I've been looking for Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick in antique white to finish the Calla Lily and looking for size 10 DPNs to make sleeves for the sweater. I'm also gearing up for a Mystery Sweater Knit-a-long being held my LISMI on Ravelry. She's designing a sweater for the Warm Woolies 10 for 10 by 2010 contest and revealing parts of it in a knit-a-long. I do a fan girl sqwee! every time I think about. I'm ready to get started, have the yarn and everything, but the official kick off is the 20th.

For now I'm off to pay some bills and read a chapter for a book club that starts tonight.