Two Finished Objects!!!

Uggg... *sniff*....blah....*cough*

That's how I've felt for the past four days. I have been down with the flu. I know it's the flu because I have never been this sick for this long in my whole life. I literally couldn't get out of bed to make myself soup or get myself anything. Several of the days were a NyQuil induced blur where I was more asleep than awake which was a blessing. Being awake was torture.

Thankfully, it's on it's way out. I'm a functioning human being once again. That's a really nice feeling.

Right before I got sick I had a post in mind to show you not one, but two FO that I finished on the same day! The first being the Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks I was working on...I'm very happy with how they turned out. There's nothing like adding another pair of socks to the collection in time to actually wear them for part of the season!

Next, as you may have guessed, is the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. It's is 99.99% complete. The only thing it's missing is buttons. It just doesn't look quite right from the front without the buttons to hold it closed so I'll show some other pictures.
I'm so excited with how it turned out. I may actually leave the apartment today to go get some buttons!

A mish-mashy post

I have been like a woman on a mission this morning. My mission: clean, clean like I've never cleaned before (only I have cleaned like this before, just not in a long time). It's almost like Spring cleaning though it's not Spring. I couldn't wait for Spring. We still have two months of winter left. For whatever reason, this cleaning is helping to wash away the winter blahs I've had. It helps to have a clean space (and I mean sparkling) to make it seem less drab, less gloomy, etc.

I was up at 7am this morning. For those of you who work normal schedules this may not seem like such an amazing thing, but for me whose earliest shift begins at noon, 7am is the earliest I've woken up in awhile. 8:30am is usually my get-up-and-start-the-day time, but not this morning. I was awake, fully awake at 7am. It's sort of refreshing. I feel like I've been cleaning all day and that it's already the afternoon, but it's only 12:30. There's plenty of day left for other things.

Things like knitting...I've been working on my Tangled Yoke Cardigan ever since I finished up those socks for mom and it's really coming along. Another inch or so and I get to start the cable!

It also leaves time for other things.... like my new found happiness, Netflix. I've known about Netflix for awhile now and I've even known about their online viewing option, but I've just not jumped on the bandwagon until now. Let me say a few things here. I own a television set, but I do not have cable or network TV to watch on it. Most of what you can find on TV is mindless programming with equally mindless commercials inbetween and I refuse to spend my money on things like that. I do, however, watch movies. I love movies, movies that make you think, movies that make you laugh or cry. They're fantastic. As are some well made, thoughtful TV shows, but I just couldn't stand sitting through the commercials. Also one of my favorite things that I've been missing are nature documentaries. I really miss Animal Planet. Now that I have access to these things, minus the commercials, I am really excited. Now I can watch my nature shows and movies while I knit mindless projects.

There's also time for something else I've been meaning to do recently.... bake my own bread. It occurred to me that so few of us even know how to make a loaf of bread. I've been reading up on it and it's actually very basic with huge potential for variety. Having never done it before, this could end up being trial and error, but I'm ok with that. I'm also totally ok with the fact that I'll know exactly what's in my bread... anybody else have no idea what calcium propionate or natamycin are and what they're doing in bread?

Inspiration strikes.

I finished my mom's socks. Boy did those things fly off the needles. I guess when the leg of the sock is only two inches long, you cut down on a little knitting time!I washed them with the hope that they would turn out a bit softer and they did! They're going to be the perfect pair of socks for spring or fall, maybe even a cool summer day. They're not too heavy and the fiber content makes them seem a bit cooler.

I finally got some pictures of that shawl on the recipient.
She wore it this past weekend to our weekly knitting group and it was greatly admired. The wonderful part about it too is that the color matches almost all of her clothes!

So I have to say, I haven't been blogging much recently mostly because I've become inspired by something else. Cooking. Recently I came across the book "In Defense Of Food" by Michael Pollan who also wrote "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and I was so inspired to cook my own foods that for the past several weeks I've been spending a lot of my time planning meals and buying food.

I found it quite interesting that in the book he points out that it's more expensive to buy food that's good for you (mainly fruits and vegetables and whole grains that haven't been enriched, etc) than it is to buy food that's incredibly over processed. Turns out he's right. I really don't mind paying extra because I do have the money. I don't spend my money on purchases I don't need, like clothes, when my closet is already full to capacity, or spending it on the latest gadgetry. My only indulgence is yarn... can you blame me?

Also, I recently started a yoga class which, so far, has been going really well. To be honest, I think it's really going to help me with the aches and pains I get from waitressing. The only downside to the class is that it's so full that it's sometimes a little crowded and with certain poses or maneuvers you're at risk of smacking the person next to you! I guess the bright side of that is that so many people are interested in bettering themselves and that in itself is uplifting.

Even though I haven't been blogging all that much, I am thinking of it and of you. I don't always have time to comment but I'm trying to keep up on everything going on in your own blogs/lives.