Uncle Leona's Day Camp

So sue me, it's been nuts around here

The bronchitis didn't kill me...it just lasted two weeks.

The Browns haven't killed me...but a few of those wins have been hard on the nerves.

Black Friday didn't kill me...but I did manage to get Rock Band for my brother and nephew.

I'm back. It has been a bit nuts around here with illness and a holiday and power shopping, but now that my health has been restored and my Christmas shopping is almost done, it's blog time, baby!! I do need to brag about my shopping coup of the century: the procurement of Rock Band, the Must Have Gift of 2007. Last Tuesday, as I was trying to figure out how to attack Black Friday,

(Yes, I am more organized than I need to be. It's a curse.)

I got my sister-in-law on the phone to ask for assistance when it came to the gang out in Toledo and their Christmas wishes. She told me that the only thing my nephew has been asking for is Rock Band, and that my brother wanted to be the drummer. OK, so I hit the internet....all sold out and selling for gazillions on eBay. I go home from work,

(Yes, I was organizing between patients. I call it multitasking.)

and start reading the posts on the golf board about Rock Band. Apparently, one of the guys got it at their local Best Buy...said they had over 100 available. So, I think, "Hey, I have a local Best Buy!" Sure enough, it was there, and walking out at a quick pace. I got one, and ticketed it as a dual birthday gift for my nephew and brother, who I was going out to visit that weekend.

When they opened my trunk, my nearly six foot, 185 pound nephew jumped in my brother's arms. I guess it was a hit. We were playing that silly game until 2 AM that night. It's really a hoot. I play a rockin' bass. We're touring next year.

OK, enough about me being, once again, The World's Greatest Aunt. I have managed to get a few things knitted while I was in the sick ward. The ArtFibers cardigan is done:

I love this sweater. The yarn is beautiful, and the cabling is just right. I even had the buttons around the house so I didn't have to spread joy and viral particles to JoAnn's. After completing that, I managed to blow through a quick project in two days:

This is the Point 5 sweater pattern found in Knitter's Stash, which was designed by one of our LYS's owners. It's done from the top down on size 15's. Love that. I got the Point 5 yarn, which is normally $23/skein, at Cucumberpatch in Wales for $12/ skein. I recommend that place highly; placed the yarn order and had it on my doorstep (Wales to Ohio) in 5 days. Nothing like quick and cheap. Up close, this is the stuff:

Yummy yarn. And quick to knit. The pattern has a few squirrelly moments, but for the most part, it's easy. Next on the needles are the Christmas gifts. First, for my sister-in-law:

This is the back of the Simply Seed Jacket from Fiber Trends. It's done with two strands on size 13's, so it also goes quick, even for seed stitch. I am using Cascade 220 and a hand-dyed version of Lamb's Pride that I scored on eBay. The colors are subtle and lovely. We'll see how this goes with the other skeins; the colors aren't completely dyed the same (more greens in one skein, more reds and beiges in another). I'm alternating skeins at the moment, and that seems to be working just fine. I'm anticipating issues when I get to the trim, but that's the pessimist in me.

After that is done, I have two pairs of gloves to knit for my niece and nephew (requests were made). My niece announced that I needed to make Happy Badger gloves. So, I was looking up Happy Badger on the internet and found a lot of contented University of Wisconsin fans. When I pressed the kid for some assistance, she came down from her room with this:

Gloves knit at a 4 stitch/inch gauge. Apparently, they come from a hippie shop in Bowling Green. My niece liked this one (it apparently is an orphan), and wanted a new pair "made with love."

Ugh. Excuse me while I puke from the sweetness.

My nephew, who was awakened from his fantasy football trance by the glove talk, said, "They would look real good in black and white."

The yarn is en route from Beaverslide Dry Goods in Montana. It knits to gauge and comes in black and tangerine. Why tangerine? It's my niece. Who knows?

Now if I could only come up with a gift for my Mom. I'm not falling back on yarn this year. OK, she is getting a skein of sock yarn, but that's all the yarn I'm getting for her! It would be so much easier if she were techno-savvy. I'm just afraid she would stare at an Ipod.

I need new bronchi

For the first time in umpteen years, I took a day off of work for a respiratory issue on Friday. One of the rugrats had shared their croup with me, which I had been battling all week. On Friday, however, I gave up. The head was pounding, my bronchi were burning, my chest ached from the cough, and I just needed a break.

So, I took one. Felt guilty for about five minutes.

In the past two plus days, I have left the house to pick up a prescription and feminine hygeine products--that's it. Brasseire? Not a chance. The boobs got a break, too. I'm feeling a bit better today. Haven't had to do a breathing treatment in over 24 hours, but now the nose is dripping. This is easily the worst cold I have had to deal with in years. At least I'll get it out of the way before Thanksgiving.

I need to be in tip-top shape for Black Friday the family.

Needless to say, I didn't do much other than mope on the couch and knit this weekend. The Artfibers cardigan is on its last sleeve:

I really heart this yarn. It's pricey as hell, but worth every penny.

Speaking of pricey as hell, I wore Glen Albyn to work on Thursday. The staff was amazed at my little creation (OK, I am, too....). What was really comical was that my best friend, who insists that all fashion needs to come from Ann Taylor or Saks, piled on a couple of complements as well, and she NEVER says anything about my knitting. I guess the sweater is a hit. It'll be a while before I do another stranded project, though. So much work...

"A while" means "a day" in Leona-ese.

I decided to open up some space in Ikealand and knit up a Philosopher's Wool kit that had been sitting there since Stitches West 2006. Their fair isle idea is a bit different than standard fair isle. They don't use steeks. Basically, it's up to you to machine sew two nice stitch lines and then do some cutting. The pattern does have facings to cover seams, though, so that should help. I was supposed to start with the sleeves, but I just decided to dive into the body of the thing. The task at hand is to knit the tube to my desired total length, then I machine sew a neckline to work with and add the bands accordingly.

I like my steeks better, but I'm going to plow through this technique as instructed. It's going to be educational.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to track down some Kleenex.

Bunker mentality

I have had the call week from hell this week. Every kid in town, I think, was in the office coughing. The kids fell in three catagories:

A. The kid who has had a runny nose for about an hour who I need to assure won't miss trick-or-treat.
B. The kid who has a massive mold allergy who trick-or-treated in the leaf piles for hours and now has the asthma attack from hell.
C. The kid who refused to miss trick-or-treat and now has pneumonia.

As for Kid B, I saw one on November 1 who also was in for the same problem on November 1, 2006. I think it may be time to think about premedicating for 2008. Anyhow, after plowing through 15 kids in 2 1/2 hours this morning, I'm ready to call it a week. Right after I make hospital rounds for the 7th time this week tomorrow morning.

I just keep telling myself I don't have to do it again for a month. Makes it tolerable. Then again, so does the wine.

So, with nothing to do but deal with the beeper, I have hunkered down in the Bunker de Leona and finished some stuff. First of all, Glen Albyn is done save the buttons:

I'll get the buttons tomorrow after hospital rounds. It is so nice to have this sweater done--it's a pretty heady accomplishment. To top it off, they're calling for snow early next week, so it will have the opportunity to be worn quickly.

God must like stranded knitting.

After finishing Glen Albyn, I wanted to get to work on another project, but a long-languishing UFO was staring at me from a bin across the living room. For once in my life, I felt a strong urge to finish it. So I did. And I had buttons to boot!

This is the cardigan I made out of the handspun wool I got from the 2006 Michigan Fiber Fest that was dyed in cochineal. My biggest concern still is the dye, which had stained my hands quite a bit while I was knitting it. However, the dye stayed in the wool during the finishing today, so maybe sitting out for almost a year did it some good.

I still ain't wearing a white shirt under it. I have a black turtleneck that will look lovely with it.

Now, I head to Ikealand to perhaps start a new project. Or maybe I just finish up the sleeve on the Artfibers cardigan and finish that up this week. Decisions, decisions....

I have a better idea. I'll have a glass of wine. Or maybe a LaBatt's. Can't get away from decisions.