Good morning. I’m feeling a bit better, although I’m still quite tired. So, to get to the point, I haven’t been exercising and I’ve been eating rotten. I miss my healthy routine extremely and hope to get back to it this next week. It will be a bit challenging because we’re now on Spring Break, and I intend to go out of town for at least part of it.

How is it going out there? This weekly check in is so helpful for me. Spending three Saturdays in a row “off the wagon” due to illness threatens routine. Checking in every Saturday keeps me from being complacent. I’m anxious to get going again. It’s nice.

Oh, and as for my birthday goal, I think it’s too late. Nothing has been happening for me since I started it, so I’m going to give up the specific weight goal and just try to recover from being sick. Sigh.

We were talking about nightmares on Wednesday. Well, while nightmares are never pleasant, at least they’re not real. Unlike what happened to me the other day. Let me show you.

I know the picture is dark, so I’ll describe it to you. I happened to walk in on my three year old holding a pair of scissors, AND the back of my cardigan. She claimed she wasn’t cutting anything. That was a relief, but didn’t prevent the near miss of a heart attack upon first entering the room. It wasn’t until later, when I was cleaning the area, that I found the other potentially disastrous object. It was just out of view at the time, but was none the less in dangerous proximity to my sweater. The green Sharpie pen.

The crazy part of all of this is that once I realized she wasn’t cutting my sweater, I left her to it and stumbled off to another room. Don’t ask me why. I’m still extrememly tired from being sick, so I’m hardly thinking straight. When I came back later, I found it as you see in the picture. All of the elements of a real life nightmare that by some miracle, seems to have been avoided. My sweater-in-progress, scissors, a permanent marker she shouldn’t have access to, and my three year old. There is a knitting angel out there somewhere, assigned to me. I publicly thank her.

Speaking of thanks…. Thank you all for your input yesterday. I think I’m going to leave it. Mainly because it does look nice the way it is, and I like the celtic cables so much that I’m sure I’ll take an opportunity to knit one again. Not the VCC, but I’ll knit another sweater with a similar cable, and I’ll make sure it’s more celtic next time. Plus, I could hardly risk the anger of Hayden. She sounded quite forceful in the comments yesterday. :-).

UPDATE- Whoa! I totally forgot about knitalong day! Wow. I remembered, and then completely forgot. I’m telling you, my brain isn’t right. I’m SO tired! Sorry about that.

Shana, honey, please don’t read this. Your cardigan is wonderful, and I want you to always see it that way. Of course, you probably will because I’d imagine you are much more sensible than me.

So, I finished the first front side of my cardigan.

Yes, yes, it’s very nice. Here’s where it gets troublesome. I was at a friend’s house last night, briefly, to watch her kids while she ran an errand. I took my knitting basket, my VCC pattern, and the start of the other side of the front. I thought about bringing the finished side for reference in case I needed it, but decided against it on account of the extra bulk it would add to my basket. I knit 15 rows of the cable chart before my friend returned, and then I gave it a good, sound look. I thought it looked a bit off. I compared it to the picture on the pattern. It was different. I didn’t think I’d made a mistake, but I could clearly see a difference. I thought about waiting ’til I came home so I could compare it to the other front, but decided that since it was clearly different from the picture, I’d frog it. My friend had to avert her eyes.

Side note- it always amuses me how I can frog something without even batting an eye, just acknowledging slight annoyance, while the non-knitters that surround me pale and balk. Nate can’t stand watching me rrrripit-rrrrripit. Last night, my friend Michal literally blanched. For some reason, I find that funny.

Getting back to it…. So, I frog my second front, then I come home. I look at my finished side. It is just like the side I just frogged. I sort of panic. I am comforted by the fact that I am consistent all the way up, so I figure it has to be the pattern. I go to the computer to look at Shana’s cardi. Hers is the same as mine. So it is clear that the pattern’s cable chart is different than the picture. (Not all that uncommon, I’ve found, but I REALLY hate it). Here’s my problem. I think the cable in the picture is better than the cable on my sweater. As the title to this entry states, Nate thinks I’m nuts. I don’t think it’s worth frogging the whole side and re-writing the pattern, but it’s a huge DANGIT!!!, and I have to admit to contemplating the venture. Talk some sense into me, won’t you? Argh! Blast! Stupid… stinking… pattern!

If you care to, you can click the link to see a comparable close up to both my cables, and the cables pictured in the magazine.

Thank you all very much for you comments and compliments yesterday. Yes, it is a magnificent shawl, and it was fun to do. I did end up going and seeing the show yesterday. I forgot to take pictures, which is annoying. There were some lovely shawls there. There was a wrap by Evelyn Clark, who wrote the Flower Basket Shawl that has been popular on the blogs. She also writes some patterns for Fiber Trends. That was fun to see. There was a stunning woven wrap (#17 for those of you who are local) that I just loved. Very, very cool.

In other news, Shana has finished her Vogue Cabled Cardigan. It is so nice. I can’t wait for mine to be done!

Healthwise, I am doing better. Although, I’m still so tired I’ve been taking long naps. Those naps have been accompanied by nightmares. I’m getting quite sick of it. Two days ago, for example, I dreamt that I left Nate because I found out he was sneaking our 3 year old off to the orthodontist, and I didn’t notice ’til she came home with headgear. How random is that? And why would I find it divorce worthy? I woke up spittin’ mad, and my day just wasn’t the same after that. This has got to stop.

Of course today, after the nightmare that I won’t go into involving many dead birds, I dreamt that Stephanie called to tell me she was coming to Seattle on her book tour, and wanted to hang out. I even got to talk to Joe. The only bad part about that one was waking up. No, I’m not obsessed with Stephanie. Remember the orthodontist? My dreams are wack.

Oooh, ahhhhhhhh….

This is the Feather and Fan shawl from Meg Swansen’s Gathering of Lace book, knit with the optional eyelet panels. It’s over 6 feet in diameter, and here you see it pinned and blocking for the shawl show. I had to re-block it because the first time I blocked it, I stretched it out to over 8 feet or something. It was huge, and the scalloped edges were sort of distorted. It looks much nicer now.

The reason I decided to knit this shawl was because I felt an overwhelming need to knit the center of it…

Once again… Oooooooh, ahhhhhhhhhh!!! It’s so pretty. I’m planning on going down to Weaving Works today to see it displayed it in the show. I can’t help it. It’s my masterpiece thus far. And now, consistent with each time I look at and handle it, I really want to knit another big lace shawl.

My baby is seven today. I can hardly believe it. We all love her very much, and want to wish her a very happy birthday.

I got a lot of knitting done over the weekend.

I am so loving this project! The one pain about this pattern is that the cables are worked from two different charts that repeat at different times. Fortunately, I have a layout guy for a husband, so Nate made me a long, 80 row chart with the cables side by side. It is a breeze to work from. Thanks Nate! You’re the man.

I haven’t weighed today, but I’ve been maintaining my 5-6 pounds of weight loss from last week. It’s still related to being sick. I haven’t exercised. I haven’t eaten, much less eaten well. I’m averaging a meal a day, and it’s a fast and easy meal at that, so nothing fabulous. I do have more energy today, so aside from feeling like someone has a death grip on my chest and is squeezing at random, I’m doing better.

How are you?