monday - catchup day

home sick today - started with an asthma attack during the wee hours of the morn and so i was going to go in late morningish but when i woke up after about 4 hours of sleep, i had a splitting headache and it didnt get better, thru hot shower, hot tea, toast - so i gave up. spent three+ hours fielding emails and cellphone calls about work. .. well its hours later and still not feeling better... am praying its not the flu - but since i am achy all over and feel slightly - well, you know, when food is something you dont want - it may be. ugh. i took advil and am pretending to feel better.

Updates
the end of last week was very busy - i was at work late both thu and fri - and didnt want to stay to update my blog. pretty much went to bed right away when i got home each night. spent sat and sun continuing the ongoing cleanup project called my apartment (i worked seven days for almost four straight months - so things were pretty much neglected around here). this is the second weekend ive had a weekend - and i am starting to feel encouraged... of course the next big project is to clean out the living room closet of all the clothes i have stored in there that i havent worn in ages (and probably wont) and then redo the closet as a "stash" closet - thus ridding the other half of the sofa of its stash and clearing the room of the numerous shopping bags in neat stacks - all filled with yarn.

on the knitting fronti
finished the little aran pullover from Nichols/Falick Heirloom Projects for baby book - ended up knitting the sleeves separately and then sewing them in - it actually looks pretty adorable - its the three month size - but the yarn i used was a little thicker so while i got the stitch gauge, my row gauge was a bit larger - its longer than it would have been - not really a bad thing i think given things like diapers. i designed a little aran hat to go with it. i just have to sew buttons on. and take a photo. and then wrap it up and take it to work to give to the colleague.

i re-examined the other almostFOs for my nephew - one i know (a best baby sweater) is definitely too small - there is another new baby boy among my colleagues - only thing is that this sweater is a pretty soft red and i dont know if i can give red to a chinese baby boy? anyone know if that's a problem? i seem to remember reading on some knit list.

the other is a little red aran cardigan - it may be too short, in which case i can rip out the bottom ribbing and add a few inches of the cables to the bottom - i will have to get updated measurements from my sister. it just needs buttons. i really need to get these things out of here.

on the aran pullover for my nephew i had the end of the first sleeve to finish and then the second sleeve to do. i am doing them by picking up the stitches from the sleeve opening and knitting down from the top (reversing the pattern increases to decreases). its pretty easy as the increases where every fourth row and i am doing a XO cable down the center of the sleeve and doing the increases on the cable rows. i love that when the second sleeve is done, i just have the buttons to sew on.

of course, now i see why someone posted that loong list of button websites on the KNITU mailing list - they are the finishing item that can really make the garment, i think and of course, it is the design decision that is easy to put off (at least for me).

ok, i need to go lie down now.