Getting My Knitting Mojo Back

A couple of weeks ago I was unexpectedly felled by a very nasty virus, presumably a strain of Norovirus. Without going into excessively gory details, I spent half of one night on my knees in the bathroom, the entire next day and night in bed, and was actually too ill to knit for four entire days. Although my energy level has taken a serious hit, and I clearly don't bounce back nearly as quickly in my old age (or perhaps it's just that I have never before been this sick in my entire life!), I'm happy to report that I'm finally making some headway on my knitting once again.

The first and most pressing issue was my "big" project that I was working on, a baby shower gift with a definite deadline to be completed. My overall lack of energy helped out to some extent, because I used time when I didn't feel up to doing anything else to catch up on my knitting, and I finished the baby gift with a little more than 24 hours to spare. Since it was presented at the shower last Saturday, I can now post photos:

 

The pattern is my original design Double Hearts Blanket, worked in sage green and white because the recipient isn't really a huge fan of pink and so there is no reason to assume that her precious soon-to-arrive daughter will be either.

I'm also busily preparing for my next upcoming craft show, the Triad Spring Craft Show in Troy, IL on March 2 & 3. I've stocked up on my selection of children's hats, including apple, grape, pumpkin, strawberry, cupcake, ruffle, and football hats. 

I've also made a few more ruffle scarves from that goofy yarn where you pick up and knit the loops along the edge, and I'm also making bow knot scarves, where one end tucks into a loop to secure the scarf in place. Last but not least, I have made a couple of Mobius shawls from the pattern in One Ball Knits Accessories: 20 Stylish Designs Made with a Single Ball, Skein, Hank, or Spool.

I still need to restock some slippers and dishcloths and finish a couple more baby blankets that I have in progress, and there are several other things I'd like to do before the show that realistically are not likely to happen. I have another children's hat pattern floating around in my head but it remains to be seen whether I'll be able to pull that off or not. 

As always, the project queue continues to outstrip the available knitting time by a factor of approximately 5 to 1. But it's so good to be back to knitting and actually accomplishing some things!

Missing…..

Over the past few years, I’ve accumulated several wristbands which stay on my wrist virtually 24/7.  The first one, a white one with the Nike swoosh and the word “dream” came from a Presbytery meeting which I attended with my then-pastor, Jeff Johnson. I wear it to remind me of the things I learned that day and of God’s guidance in my life. The second band is bright green, with the words “soy”, “rice”, “veggie”, and “chicken”, and came from a packing event for the charity group “Kids Against Hunger” where we packed balanced, easily prepared meals to be shipped to areas in our country and the world where hunger is prevalent. The four words comprise the “recipe” of the meals we packed in sealed bags which are prepared by adding water and boiling for 20 minutes. The third band is pink, with the word “hope” on the side, and represents breast cancer awareness. The fourth band is purple and reads “gotta have faith”. I received this one shortly after my grandson’s first grade classmate, whose first name is “Faith” received a diagnosis of cancer on Christmas Eve. The fifth one, also purple, promotes autism awareness and was given to me by my daughter Katie, who works for The Autism Program in Springfield, during April which is Autism Awareness Month. These bands have been on my wrist for so long that I barely notice them anymore, and as they are slightly smaller than my hand they don’t come off easily, so it was quite a shock last Wednesday evening when I realized that two were missing.

After racking my brain and mentally retracing my steps I realized that the two most likely places for them to have gone missing were at my friend’s house when I stopped by to pick up a desk, or at Walmart when I stopped by to pick up a couple of things I needed right after that. A quick message to my friend yielded no results, and I didn’t have time to make an extra trip to Walmart right away. So you can imagine my delight on Saturday evening when my dear husband came home from Walmart and handed me the missing wristbands. He had been out on an errand and stopped by the service desk to check their lost and found box. I’m still not 100% certain how they made their way off my wrist, but for now I’m very happy to have them back.