My entire Outlook contents. The last 6 years of my life, in contacts and emails. Gone. *poof*

I feel like I’m in mourning. Now I have to call all my friends and ask them to email me so I have their addys again, I have to email all the companies I bought Palm programs from and ask them to re-email my access codes, and I have to forget all the irreplaceable and unretrievable things that are now gone from my life.

*sigh*

I did get a bit of work done while vegging tonight. I couldn’t work on the dog sweaters because I still need to modify the pattern and I left it at work by mistake. I would have worked on the Sweetheart Mittens for Yannick’s Valentine’s Day present, but I’ve already done so much and still have 11 days, so I thought I’d take a break on that. The other project that needed work was the lace socks for my knitting class. Even though we’re working on fair isle in our class this coming Monday, we need to be ready to turn the heel by the following week, so I used the time tonight on the sock.

Voila!

This is the sock, loose. You can’t really see much.

This is the sock slipped over my cordless phone to expand it a bit and show some of the stitch detail. I know you can’t see much, but I also only have…um…I didn’t measure it, but the ribbing alone was only 2 cm, and that was 11 rows, and I’ve only done 10 rows of the lace pattern after that, so this is only roughly 4 cm of sock. I tried slipping it over my water bottle to stretch it further, but it looked really stupid and I was worried it was stretching it too far, because it looked really tight.

Now I’m off to bed, even though it’s only 11:30pm and this is really early for me. I’m sure I won’t fall asleep until at least 1am ‘cus I bring my Palm to bed and I’m usually reading or playing around…but at least if I’m up I’ll be able to see Yannick when he gets home later and it will be the first time I’ve seen him all day, so there’s always a bonus, even though I’ll be tired tomorrow. 🙂

First of all, if you’ve sent me an email since Tuesday, I’m sorry if I didn’t respond. I had opened my Outlook (the old .pst file) and pulled in my “new” mail on Tuesday, 59 emails, but then during the process of trying to reinstall the real .pst file, I overwrote the temporary one and lost those 59 emails. I know most of them were bulk emails from some yahoo groups, but if I missed anything important I’m sorry. I’m deliberatly not opening Outlook now while online so I don’t pull in anything new, until my Outlook problems are settled *fingers crossed*.

I worked all day today, the long 9-8 Thursday shift. Normally I look forwards to Thursdays ‘cus it’s “Sushi Thursday”. Not tonight. Because I drove to work I didn’t take my first dose of uber-drugged cough syrop (Hycodan) until 10am. So I took my next dose at 2pm, since the bottle says “every 4 hrs, as needed” and I was coughing quite a bit. I guess 1 tsp is too high a dose or every 4 hrs is too much for me, ‘cus I ended up extremely dizzy and naseous, right up until now when I got home. That’s over 4 hours! And I don’t just mean I felt woozy, I couldn’t work! I spent every minute since around 3pm rocking back and forth on my chair trying not to puke. I couldn’t read, I couldn’t do anything. I ordered supper thinking some food would help, and only managed to eat 2 maki pieces, not even whole rolls. And I had to FORCE myself just to eat those two. Luckily my dad understood and didn’t complain about me just sitting there all afternoon and evening.

So I got no knitting done, and I don’t think I’ll do much tonight. I’m going to crawl into bed and watch CSI and Without A Trace while I tape The Apprentice.

Since I have nothing from today to show, here are two finished pictures of the entrelac in the round tam I made. While I was home on Tuesday I washed it in some Eucalan (my first time using it!) and blocked it on a dinner plate for a few days.

This is the hat, looking very beret-like, on my creepy mannequin.

This pic lets you see the very cool “flower” that’s created when you decrease the rectangles on both sides to close the top of the tam. Even though I really look stupid in the hat, it was really fun to make and I would love to make them as gifts if I knew people would wear them. And the scratchy Alafoss Lopi really softens up when you rince it in the Eucalan, now it’s soft enough to touch against the face, I wouldn’t have done that pre-rinsing!

See you tomorrow. Send lots of prayers that my .pst problems will be fixed by then!

I feel like I’ve been stuck in a vortex where nothing changes, yet time goes on anyways. I’m still fighting this stupid virus, only now my coughing has gotten really bad.

After I posted on Monday I got to work on the first of the two commissioned dog sweaters, even though I was feeling pretty lousy. I did hear back from my doctor’s office eventually, they recommended I try an over the counter cough syrop with codeine…exactly like the one I was already taking. They told me to stay home 1 more day, and if there was no change, to make an appointment.

So I started knitting. I first modified my Palm patterns. Oh, let me explain. I keep all my knitting patterns in my Palm. I create a database with a checkbox for each instruction. For example, a pattern file might open and have the following items:

-CO 45 sts w/ 6US (4mm)

-work 2×2 rib for 3″

-change to st st and work for 9″ more

but each thing will have a checkbox so I can tick it off when done, plus a column for the total number of rows so far at that point, the number of sts I should have at that row, any special instructions, etc… I do this for each pattern I knit, I type up the pattern into MobileDB and import the database into my Palm so I never have to shlep around a big pattern book. I just have my Palm and it’s always with me anyways, and it keeps my place so I know exactly where I am when I pick it up again.

Because the 2 orders were custom orders, I modified the patterns to fit the exact sizes of the doggie recipients. I uploaded the files, then parked myself on the couch in front of the TV and VCR and started knitting while catching up on all the shows I’ve taped in the past week or so. I did the ribbing and 1 full repeat of the heart pattern when I decided that it just wasn’t working. The woman who commissioned the sweaters wanted something cute and had seen a little cable sweater she liked. The woman who owns?/runs? the pet accessories store looked at my pattern for the cables and one with hearts and thought the client would like the hearts. Unfortunately, the hearts just weren’t standing out. You really couldn’t tell unless you REALLY looked that there was anything on the reverse stockinette background. So I stopped it with the plans to bring it to the pet place and suggest I do the cable pattern instead.

This gave me newly available time to start on the sweetheart mittens, and I managed to complete the 21 rows of ribbing before bed. I know there are patterns for sweetheart mittens available on the net, but I’m using Ann Budd’s book “A Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns” or whatever it’s called. It lets you choose your yarn, your needles, your gauge, and knit a hat, tam, gloves, mittens, sweaters, scarves and socks. Since I was sneaky and had traced Yannick’s hand in his sleep, I knew I could make a custom-fitting mitten for him, one for myself, and just make a large one with 2 cuffs for the “sweetheart” mitten. As I mentioned a few posts ago, my mitten will have pink stripes in the cuff, his will have blue stripes, and the sweetheart mitten will have our matching cuffs.

Tuesday I didn’t go to work, much as my dad would have liked me to. I was so exhausted from coughing all night and waking myself up coughing that I slept until 12 again. I still woke up with a headache, and I was annoyed because if I was going to be home, I would have preferred to have been up early to accomplish stuff.

I did manage to accomplish something horrible. Either from opening an email with no subject or “to” info, or from clicking “yes” to one of those “do you accept Whatever Company as a trusted blah blah” (I know, stupid of me), I somehow let something in that started slowing my computer down. Attuned as I am to how my computer’s running, I right away ran AdAware, CWShredder and SpyBot to weed out any viruses, and quarantined/deleted whatever I found. Then disaster struck. I went to open Outlook to access my email…and it told me it couldn’t find the file “outlook.pst” to open. I, naively, did a search on my computer and found a file with that name in my Windows folder, so I told the program to point there. Outlook opened…with info from 2001! It was an old file! And all my current stuff, every address in my contact list, every file, every folder, EVERYTHING IS GONE! I’m so furious at myself for not making a backup! I’m so stupid! Right away I called my ex ‘cus he’s the only computer guy I know, and he gave me the number of his “go-to” guy. So he had me shut my computer down to avoid any more problems and told me he’d come over tomorrow afternoon (being today afternoon, now).

I don’t know how I managed to knit while being so distraught, but somehow I managed to finish Yannick’s mitten up to the last 8 sts at the top where I had to weave the end through and pull tight. I decided to wait for daylight before breaking out the tapestry needles, so when I went to bed I had only that bit and the thumb left to do.

This morning I went to see my doctor and he gave me a prescription for a cough syrop with such a high codeine content that it’s considered a narcotic and you’re not allowed to drive, or get refills ‘cus it’s too easy to get addicted to it. Cool! 🙂 I’ve been on it in the past, makes me dopey. I’m waiting until I go to bed to take it, which is why I’m still coherent.

I got home, knitted for a bit, then the tech guy showed up. He was here for almost 3 hours, and we managed to find the deleted .pst file. Unfortunately, at this point we still haven’t been able to get it running properly so it will import into Outlook. The file is 182 megs yet it’s importing with a total of 6 random emails. I’m really, really worried that I’ve lost everything. This is every email, all my contacts, my correspondance with Paulette Lane for the knitting calendar (shoot I don’t even have her email addy now!), all the reciepts for everything I’ve ever bought online, all my Palm software’s passwords…Everything Gone. I can’t handle that.

Got only a bit of knitting done once he left, ‘cus he called later and I had to go on the computer for a bit. So today stands with my mitten complete until a few rows after the thumb gusset. I’m at the part now where I just knit until it’s the right length to start the decreases. Here’s a pic:

Again, it’s grainy and out of focus ‘cus of the Palm, yada yada yada.

Shoot, I hadn’t thought about all the Palm passwords before. Now if I ever have to reset it I don’t even have the contact info to email them to get them back! I think I’m about to cry!

To Jenifer at 5337, from the comments:

Thanks! I brought the sweaters to a local pet accessories store, and she put them in her stock. So far the sweaters were left on consignment, so I haven’t made anything yet. Whatever I earn won’t be as much as I could make if I sold the sweaters myself and avoided the “middleman”, but I don’t have the time to go out and market them. That’s for the 3 I left her. The 3 I’m working on now are orders she took from her clients to give me, based on the models the saw in the store, but worked up to their dog’s particular measurements. And about your contest – I still don’t “get” Borges, but I thought I was pretty clever with my guess based on the picture alone! 🙂 Thanks for writing.

I stole this from Jen’s blog. Jen, feel free to steal anything you want from me! 🙂

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer high- and/natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you? –I’m not a yarn snob, I don’t mind blents or acrylics, and I only started using non-acrylics in my fibercraft in 2004. The only thing I don’t like is when an acrylic knits or crochets up and feels like plastic.

2. Do you spin? Crochet? –I crochet. I would even go as far as calling myself an expert crocheter, can create my own patterns, have made blankets, sweaters, toys, dolls. Haven’t done lace crochet but that’s just ‘cus I know it would take forever on those tiny hooks.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.) –No.

4. How long have you been knitting? –Besides learning when I was a kid then abandonning it, I’ve been knitting non-stop for exactly 1 year next weekend- Superbowl Sunday.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? –Yes, at the side of my blog in the sidebar.

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) –I like vanilla and mint the best, then fruit smells, either berries or citrus. I also like scents of pies or cakes or cookies. I just can’t stand flower scents.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? –No. I prefer carbs like chips and popcorn. I have a salty tooth. 🙂

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? –I do it all. I knit, crochet, cross stitch, paint, draw, sculpt, etch onto glass, write. I also do DIY stuff like build my own bookcases and install computer software.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) –I like all kinds. I love 80’s music, but my personal music collection ranges from musical soundtracks like Andrew Lloyd Weber, French ballads like Francis Cabrel, modern stuff like Gwen Stephani and Black Eyed Peas, older metal like Rob Zombie, pop like Pink and Bon Jovie, and just weird like the soundtrack to the 1 musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And my car stereo can play MP3s. Not my house one.

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? –I used to think my favorite color was black. Now I’d say blue and/or pink. I like and would wear or knit with all colors though.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? –I’m the oldest of 4 kids, my parents are still married. I live with my boyfriend and we have a cat, Sam.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know) –To get married and start a family.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? –I don’t have a favorite.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? –The only thing I don’t like so far is knitting with those polar yarns, like polarspun or snowflake. Ugh, like knitting with plastic. And they hurt my teeth.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? –Dog sweaters, but that’s ‘cus I’m selling them. I’ve been doing a lot of socks and mittens lately, but that could just be the season. I love it all!

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? –everything but sleeves. (unless they’re challenging)

17. What are you knitting right now? –9 wips, but right now a dog sweater.

18. What do you think about ponchos? –I think they’re cute but wouldn’t look good on me.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? –circs all the way, even for straight knitting, except for socks with anything smaller than 4-ply. For that I prefer straight dpns to circs.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? –addi Turbos all the way, unless it’s a slippery yarn, then I’ll use my Denise set.

21. Are you a sock knitter? –yes.

22. How did you learn to knit? –my grandmother taught me when I was a kid, but most recently I started again and the internet and books were my biggest help, then after 2 months of “on my own” I joined a knitting class, and that was the greatest thing.

23. How old is your oldest UFO? –about ten months. It’s a mohair sweater that I just need to figure out how to seam.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? –I used to collect Daffy Duck but grew out of that. Right now my favorite animated character is probably Puss ‘n Boots from Shrek 2. I like all animals and birds, so no fave there.

25. What is your favorite holiday? –Hanukah.

26. Is there anything that you collect? –Besides yarn and books, I have a collection of Charming Tails mice figurines that I’ve been collecting for over 2 years. When I quit smoking I told myself I would spend the $20-ish I was saving on a figurine each week. I stopped buying them for myself, but got quite a few from Yannick and family members.

…but me + sick + knitting deadlines + life + more sick (does not) = productivity.

Friday night I only managed to do 2 rows on the scarf before our friends arrived to play cards. Don’t ask what I did in the 2 hours that only allowed me 2 rows to knit…I don’t know. I have nothing to show for it.

Saturday I worked, then had enough time to cast on & rib the 60 req’d sts for a lace sock for my knitting class Mondays. The yarn is so fine! I’d done Yannick’s sock with a 4-ply, but this one is a 3-ply and I don’t think it will fit me. Then I met some friends for dinner. I would have loved to have cancelled because I felt so crappy, but I was the one who had organized it last week before getting sick, and didn’t feel right canceling. So wouldn’t you know it, 5 mins before having to leave, Yannick asks me to take my car to go ‘cus he wanted to go to bed, he wasn’t feeling well! So I got stuck going alone, sick, when I was the one who wanted to bail! Dinner was good though, and we wound up seeing a movie after, which was kinda a punishment for Yannick ‘cus he’d wanted to see “Meet the Fockers” and I ended up seeing it without him. I was so drained though, and had coughed so much through the movie, that I got home and crashed immediately.

The lack of oxygen must have gotten to me, ‘cus for the first time in over 6 years I slept through the entire night, not waking up until 12 pm!!! I NEVER sleep past 10, and am usually up between 8-9 even on weekends, earlier when I have work that day. I couldn’t believe I fell asleep at 12:30 am and slept straight until 12pm. I must have really needed the rest.

Yannick and I lunched at Montana’s ‘cus we had a coupon for -$10 that expired that day, then did some groceries and went to my parents’ house for the night. My dad needed Yannick’s help installing something, so we went there for dinner. It was such a horrible day for me! Not the company, just the sickness. I don’t know how many times I burst into tears at Loblaws, ‘cus each time I got into a coughing fit, my throat hurt so much and my brain felt like it was trying to squeeze out my left eye socket, that I couldn’t control it and started crying. At my parents’ I took a cough syrop with codeine twice in the space of 4 hours (3 hrs between doses) and STILL kept coughing so much I was so weak and exhausted. The only good thing that came out of it was my dad saw I was really still sick and felt bad about forcing me to go to work each day 🙂 He was actually the one who suggested I go back to the doctor.

While we were there my mom was busy finishing a scrapbook and Yannick was helping my dad, so I lay in my parents’ bed, watching TV and knitting. I finished the Vegas scarf! Woo hoo! Now I can develop the pictures and send them to Paulette Lane and next year we’ll see my Knitting Game in the 2006 calendar!

This is the scarf surrounded by the 6 balls of yarn I used. I can’t wait for the pic to be developed from my camera so you can see the true colors, ‘cus it’s not really purple, more blue/mauve/navy/gray/silver.

This is a closeup. Again, way too purple, and due to the Palm’s fuzziness, you can’t see much difference between the stitches. I hope the camera pics come out better!

This morning I had my knitting class. I really look forwards to going each week, even though it means I can only sleep in on Sundays. My dad said if I was so sick I shouldn’t be going. I told him if I’m well enough to go to work, I’m well enough to go to my class! Besides, if it was contageous, it would have been earlier last week when I had my fever, not any longer. It’s been a week already, I think it’s just a lingering cough now.

In class we came to the conclusion that the 3-ply was just too thin. I switched it for a nice cream-colored 4-ply and managed to do 5 rows in rib (after casting on and doing 2 rows in 1×1 rib before remembering I prefer the look of 2×2 so starting over!). I’m really looking forward to next week’s class, we’ll be learning fair isle. I’ve never done colorwork other than stripes, so I’m really interested in learning. I have books on the subject, but I really prefer learning in person, with others. You get to learn from eachother’s mistakes, have hands-on help and support, and besides, Nicole has so many little tricks for different techniques, I’d prefer to learn from her than from a book. We’ll be making headbands, and the plan is to work on that in class next week while working on the socks at home, so hopefully by the following week we’ll all be at the heel. She will be showing us 2 heel techniques, the square and the triangle (I’m making up names, I don’t know what they’re called). I’ve done the square one, and it looks fine on the person, but when the sock is off it looks a bit weird. Acceptable, but weird. The triangle version looks more polished and sleek, so that’s the one I want to learn.

I called my doctor’s office before leaving the shopping center where my LYS is. I don’t want to make an appointment to see my Dr. if it really is just the virus I have which you can’t treat, so when the secretary answered the phone, I told her when I got sick, what my symptoms were, and what I was doing for it. I asked her to ask my Dr. if there was any point in me coming in to see him, or if I should just keep “self-medicating” the way I’ve been doing all week. She’s supposed to call me back and let me know.

Now my plan is to get moving and do the 2 commissioned sweaters for the pet store. I also told her I’d bring her an aran sweater, but I really want to make Yannick a pair of sweetheart mittens for Valentine’s Day and that’s 2 weeks away. If I rush I can have the 2 commissioned sweaters done by Wednesday (I hope!) which will leave me a week and a half to squeeze in 3 mittens (1 for me, 1 for him, 1 for both of us). I was smart and measured his hand while he slept this morning so I know I can make it to fit him. Now I just need the time.

Oh, and to Moze from the comments:

I’ve NEVER heard of the onion remedy! I love onions, but in honey???? Yuch. The other idea sounds much better…although I don’t see why I couldn’t add the yummy sugar. 🙂 Thanks for the ideas! It’s nice to have people wish me well. Yannick’s seen me sick for a week now, so he forgets that it’s still nice to hear “hope you feel better”.

…but me + sick + knitting deadlines + life + more sick (does not) = productivity.

Friday night I only managed to do 2 rows on the scarf before our friends arrived to play cards. Don’t ask what I did in the 2 hours that only allowed me 2 rows to knit…I don’t know. I have nothing to show for it.

Saturday I worked, then had enough time to cast on & rib the 60 req’d sts for a lace sock for my knitting class Mondays. The yarn is so fine! I’d done Yannick’s sock with a 4-ply, but this one is a 3-ply and I don’t think it will fit me. Then I met some friends for dinner. I would have loved to have cancelled because I felt so crappy, but I was the one who had organized it last week before getting sick, and didn’t feel right canceling. So wouldn’t you know it, 5 mins before having to leave, Yannick asks me to take my car to go ‘cus he wanted to go to bed, he wasn’t feeling well! So I got stuck going alone, sick, when I was the one who wanted to bail! Dinner was good though, and we wound up seeing a movie after, which was kinda a punishment for Yannick ‘cus he’d wanted to see “Meet the Fockers” and I ended up seeing it without him. I was so drained though, and had coughed so much through the movie, that I got home and crashed immediately.

The lack of oxygen must have gotten to me, ‘cus for the first time in over 6 years I slept through the entire night, not waking up until 12 pm!!! I NEVER sleep past 10, and am usually up between 8-9 even on weekends, earlier when I have work that day. I couldn’t believe I fell asleep at 12:30 am and slept straight until 12pm. I must have really needed the rest.

Yannick and I lunched at Montana’s ‘cus we had a coupon for -$10 that expired that day, then did some groceries and went to my parents’ house for the night. My dad needed Yannick’s help installing something, so we went there for dinner. It was such a horrible day for me! Not the company, just the sickness. I don’t know how many times I burst into tears at Loblaws, ‘cus each time I got into a coughing fit, my throat hurt so much and my brain felt like it was trying to squeeze out my left eye socket, that I couldn’t control it and started crying. At my parents’ I took a cough syrop with codeine twice in the space of 4 hours (3 hrs between doses) and STILL kept coughing so much I was so weak and exhausted. The only good thing that came out of it was my dad saw I was really still sick and felt bad about forcing me to go to work each day 🙂 He was actually the one who suggested I go back to the doctor.

While we were there my mom was busy finishing a scrapbook and Yannick was helping my dad, so I lay in my parents’ bed, watching TV and knitting. I finished the Vegas scarf! Woo hoo! Now I can develop the pictures and send them to Paulette Lane and next year we’ll see my Knitting Game in the 2006 calendar!

This is the scarf surrounded by the 6 balls of yarn I used. I can’t wait for the pic to be developed from my camera so you can see the true colors, ‘cus it’s not really purple, more blue/mauve/navy/gray/silver.

This is a closeup. Again, way too purple, and due to the Palm’s fuzziness, you can’t see much difference between the stitches. I hope the camera pics come out better!

This morning I had my knitting class. I really look forwards to going each week, even though it means I can only sleep in on Sundays. My dad said if I was so sick I shouldn’t be going. I told him if I’m well enough to go to work, I’m well enough to go to my class! Besides, if it was contageous, it would have been earlier last week when I had my fever, not any longer. It’s been a week already, I think it’s just a lingering cough now.

In class we came to the conclusion that the 3-ply was just too thin. I switched it for a nice cream-colored 4-ply and managed to do 5 rows in rib (after casting on and doing 2 rows in 1×1 rib before remembering I prefer the look of 2×2 so starting over!). I’m really looking forward to next week’s class, we’ll be learning fair isle. I’ve never done colorwork other than stripes, so I’m really interested in learning. I have books on the subject, but I really prefer learning in person, with others. You get to learn from eachother’s mistakes, have hands-on help and support, and besides, Nicole has so many little tricks for different techniques, I’d prefer to learn from her than from a book. We’ll be making headbands, and the plan is to work on that in class next week while working on the socks at home, so hopefully by the following week we’ll all be at the heel. She will be showing us 2 heel techniques, the square and the triangle (I’m making up names, I don’t know what they’re called). I’ve done the square one, and it looks fine on the person, but when the sock is off it looks a bit weird. Acceptable, but weird. The triangle version looks more polished and sleek, so that’s the one I want to learn.

I called my doctor’s office before leaving the shopping center where my LYS is. I don’t want to make an appointment to see my Dr. if it really is just the virus I have which you can’t treat, so when the secretary answered the phone, I told her when I got sick, what my symptoms were, and what I was doing for it. I asked her to ask my Dr. if there was any point in me coming in to see him, or if I should just keep “self-medicating” the way I’ve been doing all week. She’s supposed to call me back and let me know.

Now my plan is to get moving and do the 2 commissioned sweaters for the pet store. I also told her I’d bring her an aran sweater, but I really want to make Yannick a pair of sweetheart mittens for Valentine’s Day and that’s 2 weeks away. If I rush I can have the 2 commissioned sweaters done by Wednesday (I hope!) which will leave me a week and a half to squeeze in 3 mittens (1 for me, 1 for him, 1 for both of us). I was smart and measured his hand while he slept this morning so I know I can make it to fit him. Now I just need the time.

Oh, and to Moze from the comments:

I’ve NEVER heard of the onion remedy! I love onions, but in honey???? Yuch. The other idea sounds much better…although I don’t see why I couldn’t add the yummy sugar. 🙂 Thanks for the ideas! It’s nice to have people wish me well. Yannick’s seen me sick for a week now, so he forgets that it’s still nice to hear “hope you feel better”.

…but me + sick + knitting deadlines + life + more sick (does not) = productivity.

Friday night I only managed to do 2 rows on the scarf before our friends arrived to play cards. Don’t ask what I did in the 2 hours that only allowed me 2 rows to knit…I don’t know. I have nothing to show for it.

Saturday I worked, then had enough time to cast on & rib the 60 req’d sts for a lace sock for my knitting class Mondays. The yarn is so fine! I’d done Yannick’s sock with a 4-ply, but this one is a 3-ply and I don’t think it will fit me. Then I met some friends for dinner. I would have loved to have cancelled because I felt so crappy, but I was the one who had organized it last week before getting sick, and didn’t feel right canceling. So wouldn’t you know it, 5 mins before having to leave, Yannick asks me to take my car to go ‘cus he wanted to go to bed, he wasn’t feeling well! So I got stuck going alone, sick, when I was the one who wanted to bail! Dinner was good though, and we wound up seeing a movie after, which was kinda a punishment for Yannick ‘cus he’d wanted to see “Meet the Fockers” and I ended up seeing it without him. I was so drained though, and had coughed so much through the movie, that I got home and crashed immediately.

The lack of oxygen must have gotten to me, ‘cus for the first time in over 6 years I slept through the entire night, not waking up until 12 pm!!! I NEVER sleep past 10, and am usually up between 8-9 even on weekends, earlier when I have work that day. I couldn’t believe I fell asleep at 12:30 am and slept straight until 12pm. I must have really needed the rest.

Yannick and I lunched at Montana’s ‘cus we had a coupon for -$10 that expired that day, then did some groceries and went to my parents’ house for the night. My dad needed Yannick’s help installing something, so we went there for dinner. It was such a horrible day for me! Not the company, just the sickness. I don’t know how many times I burst into tears at Loblaws, ‘cus each time I got into a coughing fit, my throat hurt so much and my brain felt like it was trying to squeeze out my left eye socket, that I couldn’t control it and started crying. At my parents’ I took a cough syrop with codeine twice in the space of 4 hours (3 hrs between doses) and STILL kept coughing so much I was so weak and exhausted. The only good thing that came out of it was my dad saw I was really still sick and felt bad about forcing me to go to work each day 🙂 He was actually the one who suggested I go back to the doctor.

While we were there my mom was busy finishing a scrapbook and Yannick was helping my dad, so I lay in my parents’ bed, watching TV and knitting. I finished the Vegas scarf! Woo hoo! Now I can develop the pictures and send them to Paulette Lane and next year we’ll see my Knitting Game in the 2006 calendar!

This is the scarf surrounded by the 6 balls of yarn I used. I can’t wait for the pic to be developed from my camera so you can see the true colors, ‘cus it’s not really purple, more blue/mauve/navy/gray/silver.

This is a closeup. Again, way too purple, and due to the Palm’s fuzziness, you can’t see much difference between the stitches. I hope the camera pics come out better!

This morning I had my knitting class. I really look forwards to going each week, even though it means I can only sleep in on Sundays. My dad said if I was so sick I shouldn’t be going. I told him if I’m well enough to go to work, I’m well enough to go to my class! Besides, if it was contageous, it would have been earlier last week when I had my fever, not any longer. It’s been a week already, I think it’s just a lingering cough now.

In class we came to the conclusion that the 3-ply was just too thin. I switched it for a nice cream-colored 4-ply and managed to do 5 rows in rib (after casting on and doing 2 rows in 1×1 rib before remembering I prefer the look of 2×2 so starting over!). I’m really looking forward to next week’s class, we’ll be learning fair isle. I’ve never done colorwork other than stripes, so I’m really interested in learning. I have books on the subject, but I really prefer learning in person, with others. You get to learn from eachother’s mistakes, have hands-on help and support, and besides, Nicole has so many little tricks for different techniques, I’d prefer to learn from her than from a book. We’ll be making headbands, and the plan is to work on that in class next week while working on the socks at home, so hopefully by the following week we’ll all be at the heel. She will be showing us 2 heel techniques, the square and the triangle (I’m making up names, I don’t know what they’re called). I’ve done the square one, and it looks fine on the person, but when the sock is off it looks a bit weird. Acceptable, but weird. The triangle version looks more polished and sleek, so that’s the one I want to learn.

I called my doctor’s office before leaving the shopping center where my LYS is. I don’t want to make an appointment to see my Dr. if it really is just the virus I have which you can’t treat, so when the secretary answered the phone, I told her when I got sick, what my symptoms were, and what I was doing for it. I asked her to ask my Dr. if there was any point in me coming in to see him, or if I should just keep “self-medicating” the way I’ve been doing all week. She’s supposed to call me back and let me know.

Now my plan is to get moving and do the 2 commissioned sweaters for the pet store. I also told her I’d bring her an aran sweater, but I really want to make Yannick a pair of sweetheart mittens for Valentine’s Day and that’s 2 weeks away. If I rush I can have the 2 commissioned sweaters done by Wednesday (I hope!) which will leave me a week and a half to squeeze in 3 mittens (1 for me, 1 for him, 1 for both of us). I was smart and measured his hand while he slept this morning so I know I can make it to fit him. Now I just need the time.

Oh, and to Moze from the comments:

I’ve NEVER heard of the onion remedy! I love onions, but in honey???? Yuch. The other idea sounds much better…although I don’t see why I couldn’t add the yummy sugar. 🙂 Thanks for the ideas! It’s nice to have people wish me well. Yannick’s seen me sick for a week now, so he forgets that it’s still nice to hear “hope you feel better”.

…but me + sick + knitting deadlines + life + more sick (does not) = productivity.

Friday night I only managed to do 2 rows on the scarf before our friends arrived to play cards. Don’t ask what I did in the 2 hours that only allowed me 2 rows to knit…I don’t know. I have nothing to show for it.

Saturday I worked, then had enough time to cast on & rib the 60 req’d sts for a lace sock for my knitting class Mondays. The yarn is so fine! I’d done Yannick’s sock with a 4-ply, but this one is a 3-ply and I don’t think it will fit me. Then I met some friends for dinner. I would have loved to have cancelled because I felt so crappy, but I was the one who had organized it last week before getting sick, and didn’t feel right canceling. So wouldn’t you know it, 5 mins before having to leave, Yannick asks me to take my car to go ‘cus he wanted to go to bed, he wasn’t feeling well! So I got stuck going alone, sick, when I was the one who wanted to bail! Dinner was good though, and we wound up seeing a movie after, which was kinda a punishment for Yannick ‘cus he’d wanted to see “Meet the Fockers” and I ended up seeing it without him. I was so drained though, and had coughed so much through the movie, that I got home and crashed immediately.

The lack of oxygen must have gotten to me, ‘cus for the first time in over 6 years I slept through the entire night, not waking up until 12 pm!!! I NEVER sleep past 10, and am usually up between 8-9 even on weekends, earlier when I have work that day. I couldn’t believe I fell asleep at 12:30 am and slept straight until 12pm. I must have really needed the rest.

Yannick and I lunched at Montana’s ‘cus we had a coupon for -$10 that expired that day, then did some groceries and went to my parents’ house for the night. My dad needed Yannick’s help installing something, so we went there for dinner. It was such a horrible day for me! Not the company, just the sickness. I don’t know how many times I burst into tears at Loblaws, ‘cus each time I got into a coughing fit, my throat hurt so much and my brain felt like it was trying to squeeze out my left eye socket, that I couldn’t control it and started crying. At my parents’ I took a cough syrop with codeine twice in the space of 4 hours (3 hrs between doses) and STILL kept coughing so much I was so weak and exhausted. The only good thing that came out of it was my dad saw I was really still sick and felt bad about forcing me to go to work each day 🙂 He was actually the one who suggested I go back to the doctor.

While we were there my mom was busy finishing a scrapbook and Yannick was helping my dad, so I lay in my parents’ bed, watching TV and knitting. I finished the Vegas scarf! Woo hoo! Now I can develop the pictures and send them to Paulette Lane and next year we’ll see my Knitting Game in the 2006 calendar!

This is the scarf surrounded by the 6 balls of yarn I used. I can’t wait for the pic to be developed from my camera so you can see the true colors, ‘cus it’s not really purple, more blue/mauve/navy/gray/silver.

This is a closeup. Again, way too purple, and due to the Palm’s fuzziness, you can’t see much difference between the stitches. I hope the camera pics come out better!

This morning I had my knitting class. I really look forwards to going each week, even though it means I can only sleep in on Sundays. My dad said if I was so sick I shouldn’t be going. I told him if I’m well enough to go to work, I’m well enough to go to my class! Besides, if it was contageous, it would have been earlier last week when I had my fever, not any longer. It’s been a week already, I think it’s just a lingering cough now.

In class we came to the conclusion that the 3-ply was just too thin. I switched it for a nice cream-colored 4-ply and managed to do 5 rows in rib (after casting on and doing 2 rows in 1×1 rib before remembering I prefer the look of 2×2 so starting over!). I’m really looking forward to next week’s class, we’ll be learning fair isle. I’ve never done colorwork other than stripes, so I’m really interested in learning. I have books on the subject, but I really prefer learning in person, with others. You get to learn from eachother’s mistakes, have hands-on help and support, and besides, Nicole has so many little tricks for different techniques, I’d prefer to learn from her than from a book. We’ll be making headbands, and the plan is to work on that in class next week while working on the socks at home, so hopefully by the following week we’ll all be at the heel. She will be showing us 2 heel techniques, the square and the triangle (I’m making up names, I don’t know what they’re called). I’ve done the square one, and it looks fine on the person, but when the sock is off it looks a bit weird. Acceptable, but weird. The triangle version looks more polished and sleek, so that’s the one I want to learn.

I called my doctor’s office before leaving the shopping center where my LYS is. I don’t want to make an appointment to see my Dr. if it really is just the virus I have which you can’t treat, so when the secretary answered the phone, I told her when I got sick, what my symptoms were, and what I was doing for it. I asked her to ask my Dr. if there was any point in me coming in to see him, or if I should just keep “self-medicating” the way I’ve been doing all week. She’s supposed to call me back and let me know.

Now my plan is to get moving and do the 2 commissioned sweaters for the pet store. I also told her I’d bring her an aran sweater, but I really want to make Yannick a pair of sweetheart mittens for Valentine’s Day and that’s 2 weeks away. If I rush I can have the 2 commissioned sweaters done by Wednesday (I hope!) which will leave me a week and a half to squeeze in 3 mittens (1 for me, 1 for him, 1 for both of us). I was smart and measured his hand while he slept this morning so I know I can make it to fit him. Now I just need the time.

Oh, and to Moze from the comments:

I’ve NEVER heard of the onion remedy! I love onions, but in honey???? Yuch. The other idea sounds much better…although I don’t see why I couldn’t add the yummy sugar. 🙂 Thanks for the ideas! It’s nice to have people wish me well. Yannick’s seen me sick for a week now, so he forgets that it’s still nice to hear “hope you feel better”.

UGH days pass soooooooo ssssssssllllllllloooooooooowwwwwww when you’re sick! And I have a feeling I’m at the lingering part of the virus, where it’s not sick enough that people feel sorry for you, but still sick enough that you feel crappy but can’t complain because they’ll say you’re not really “sick” any more. And I still can’t swallow.

Luckily Yannick’s not home yet and I have at least an hour before he gets here, another hour after that before Julie and Rich show up for our bi-monthly card game. Which means I can finally get something accomplished! I’m having my most unproductive week ever. 3 sweaters due, 1 scarf plus photo of said scarf…and nothing to show for it but a garbage bin of wadded up Kleenexes and a half-empty box of Riccola. No knitting.

I’d like to work even longer tonight but I haven’t mastered the art of knitting while playing cards. If we were doing anything else I could, but I need my hands every second to throw out my cards, and it’s almost not worth it to pick up the knitting when its someone else’s turn to deal, ‘cus I wouldn’t even get a row finished. Well, at least I have those 2 hours now.

*cough, cough*

*whimper*

Someone feel sorry for me?

*sigh*