Only thing worse than a sick kiddo...

Is a sick husband. (snicker, snicker) At least it's not that bad.

You guessed it, one of the kiddos is sick. Poor Keegs has swimmers ear, on top of a double ear infection. (I thought they were the same, but apparently swimmers ear is when the ear canal is infected, too? Not sure on this one.) Anyhow, lots of fussing this week; no one slept well; everyone was stressed and irritable. I'm happy to say that we now know what is going on. That helps. And our little buddy has all the meds he needs, and I think he's on the mend. While he's all right with the oral medicine, he is NOT a big fan of the ear drops. Can't say I blame him...fluid in the ear feels so awful, plus you know it's darned cold! He's been a sport though, so I started a hat for him.

This is a hat I've been planning for him for the winter to match his coat. We've chosen the Halton Crown Hat from Cabin Fever's Kids' Knitted Hats. It's Knitpicks Swish superwash wool in Red Pepper, Dark Navy, a grey (can't remember which color), and Dublin green. And of course, Keegan's favorite part is that it will have bells on the top. Any suggestions for bells that won't rust? Hmmm...I'll have to look around.



Now, I realize this is a rather terrible picture, but for some reason I can't do any better today. No idea why. The red is just going crazy, but I assure you it's not quite that loud in real life. It is pretty loud, but much less. Really, the colors look nice in front of me, but the pic makes them look so awful I wanted to frog the whole thing the first time I saw the rendering. Luckily, when I picked it up to rip, I saw how pretty it actually is...whew!

I am hoping to finish over the weekend and get a chance to pick up some bells for it, but we will see. Pretty busy weekend ahead of us. In true "child" spirit, my little feverish, double ear infected, run down little boy wanted to run out to the store and buy the bells this afternoon--just in case I finished soon. Made me laugh, but there was no way he was leaving the house, much less infecting the entire northern RI area.

I have also been working on Brian's socks, but they're not coming along as quickly as I would like. This particular go-round, I'm finding the tiny needles painful to work with for too long or too often. Luckily, when I suggested the grey socks for Brian as my Grey's Anatomy KAL project, I made the disclaimer that I might only work on it during the show, because I have a lot I need to do. Brian agreed, so I think I dodged a bullet there. Here's what I've done so far--they're plain, but I like them. And the grey is really sharp looking.


That was supposed to be more artsy, but I guess I have some work to do, huh? At least it's interesting.

The miles of stockinette are making me feel like I may never be done. Positive thinking would be helpful here, but it seems to be evading me. It occurred to me that if it was a glove, I'd be almost done. See for yourself:



Stitchin' Mary's stitch markers arrived yesterday. They are gorgeous. I've never seen this style before, with the flexible wire. So I hid then under my fridge and I won't give them away. All right. I will. But I don't want to!


The pic is a little dark, but it's the only shot that showed the flowers in the flat beads properly. Nice, aren't they?

OK, as far as the contest goes, I have finally gotten the program to randomly pick the winners to work. The winners have been determined and (you're going to kill me) I will be posting them tomorrow. --ducking to avoid needles, scissors, and wool of all sorts being thrown at me-- I promise it will be up tomorrow. You're going to have to live with it. Well, maybe tonight if you ask nicely. At this point, I have 5 of the 6 prizes in my possession, so I can only announce those winners. I will announce a sixth winner when the last prize donation arrives. I'd just hate to get someone's hopes up and then not be able to follow through. My plan is that the last one arrives in the mail tomorrow, so that's why I am really waiting. Cross your fingers...

Well, the contest leads me to the walk. It is on Sunday, and I am so pumped up for it! The last time I checked my website (I'll be honest, it was like a minute before I started this post) I was
99% of the way to my goal!!

Isn't that something? I can hardly believe it myself. I am literally FIVE dollars away from reaching my fundraising goal. I can't thank you all enough--even my wordy self can't think of what to say, exactly. Now that I'm not so worried about the contest and whether I'm going to make my goal or not, I am thinking about the walk. About the feeling I had last year. About looking around at all these people who are there to help fight! About the way my skin tingles, being a part of something so big--so grand. And I'm thinking that I can't wait to walk. It should be great. I will try to remember to bring my camera with me and take some photos, and I'll be sure to share all about it.

I've also made some fingerless mitts for myself (in case the walk's chilly) from the yarn I received from Qutecowgirl. I wanted to try out her Keri pattern, but I needed something I could work on without thinking too much, and I seem to be genetically predisposed to fail at lace. Go figure. Maybe next time. This time, I used the Fetching pattern from Knitty.



Now, the question is--what to make with the leftover yarn? I figure I have probably over 100 yds left or so. What do you think?

I wonder if it would be enough for a hat?


PS...I have notified all the winners, but the official post will go up tomorrow. If you are a winner---shhh!