Tina is the winner of 400 Stitch Patterns – woo hoo!! There’s a hot ol’ celebration going on at Tina’s house right about now, this is the biggest thing to happen all morning, I’m sure!
Tina – shoot me an email at annie at modeknit dot com with your address and I’ll have this right out to you!
Thanksgiving was very low key. Quite nice, but quiet.
The most exciting part of the meal were the small tarts I made, using cranberry jelly as the filling. I didn’t melt it first, which I’ll do hencforth.
It gave me a cookie idea. I think I’ll melt the cranberry jelly with a little bit of spice & some orange peel, then spoon it into a ball of nut cookie dough to make a sort of spicy thumbprint cookie for a new holiday treat!
There’s a cookie exchange I’m attending in a few weeks – now I have something besides my old standby, the Hanukkah Gelt Cookie!
We had a small feast, no friends were over, and due to my insistence that we have champange at the meal (why?) Gerry and I were so sleepy afterward that our walk at the dog run didn’t happen.
Instead I did a lot of work on the ball wrap (yes, I do understand the double entendre – haven’t you learned yet that I’m a 12-year old boy at heart?) and think I have it to a good point. I’m going to release this pattern early, too, as it’s a fast knit and I think it would be a lovely New Year’s Eve or Holiday Party addition!
When I put it on Hannah she said, “This looks like something for a winter Bride!” Smart girl!
I’m working it up in 2 sizes, with an adjustable ribbon at the neck, so it should fit EVERYONE from the merest slip of a girl to those built more like Scots/Dutch me (aka, “sturdy girls” – go ask Gwen Bortner… she’ll laugh!)
Just as well – we’ve both been dealing with pain, he with back and hip pain (it’s increasing, and it’s a worry. We go to Mayo next week) and me with this danged joint pain that haunts me like Banquo’s ghost.
It’s probably just the residual aches of this long-lasting cold/flu I’ve had. It seems that when I get something, it REALLY settles in. My frustration at this is great, and I’ve been as circumspect and careful as I can be.
I take my vitamins, I’ve been eating better than ever, I exercise every day and I’m generally a very healthy person. But when I get a bad cold it just wants to take up residence.
Ever since I had Lyme disease back in the early 90’s I tend to get odd fevers. When I’m ill they come in the evening, like a child’s fevers, and last about 2 hours. It’s been that way with this go-round, too, and the body aches have become so bad that I began worrying something more serious was at hand.
After some blood tests at the doctor it seems that I’m in excellent shape, no new auto immune deficiencies of note, no RA (which was kind of haunting my dreams) but my Lyme titer is a bit elevated. This is to be expected – once you’ve had it, the test results don’t go back to low/normal range – but nothing to be too alarmed at.
But I ache. Is it age? The drop in temperature? It’s been absolutely lovely here – in the 40’s – but it’s moving into the 30’s now and we may be seeing snow. I look forward to it, I love snow.
This long-winded catalog of my aches is a way of explaining why I’m taking so long to blog these days. I’m canceling appointments and engagements with wild abandon, just trying to rest as much as I can. But that’s no reason to avoid my blog!
I’m recording this blog post – and I’ll catch up the last post in mp3 format. I’ve been SO stuffy-nosed that when I tried to record the last post earlier this week I sounded like an adenoidal bar mitzvah boy.
Baruch atah Nyquil.
/112709.mp3