Catsup. Ketchup. Catch Up.

Last Thursday and Friday I had the flu. It was horrible, but I've had worse. I was still randomly dizzy Saturday and Sunday, but I felt fine yesterday and have deemed myself completely recovered. This particular strain has a ridiculously long incubation period, so Andrew is not out of the woods yet. Cross your fingers that particular virus parade has passed him by.

So, obviously no cooking as I existed on toast and Diet Sprite spiked with orange juice for days. Also no family party that was planned for this weekend.

There also wasn't a ton of knitting. I didn't feel like doing anything, including knitting, until Saturday.

However, before I got sick, I finished the baby blanket for the new niece.



I'm a whore for cables. LOVE THEM. I think they're stunning.



And yet again:



Pretty, right?

I'm a smidgen worried about the color. I did get approval from the father-to-be before I bought it, but I became awfully weary of the orange by the time the blanket was finished. I hope it isn't looked back upon with the same distaste I feel toward my mom's old brown oven.

I like to cross things off lists. This happens with my knitting as well. I have the tendency, not uncommon among crafty types the world over, to make things for others before I make things for myself. It's not because I don't think I deserve knitwear; it's because I like to cross projects off. Projects for others are always lurking in the back of my mind, and it's easier for me to put off my own stuff rather than stuff for others.

After finishing all the Christmas gifts and the baby shower gifts for the new niece, I decided to buckle down and work on some things I had been putting off for myself: namely, sock club socks and mittens.

The sock-in-progress has been put on hold while I work on the mittens. There are two reasons for this.

1. It's January in the Midwest. I have socks. I need an awesome pair of mittens. Andrew has told me that knit hats are warmer than fleece hats. I have a pair of fleece mittens and am anxious to test this for myself.

2. Apparently, January has been designated National Knit Mittens Month*. You may not believe me, so here's a link to prove it. Ha! It's on a blog on the Internet; it must be true!

I already had my design picked out. Aren't they pretty? Not only are they pretty, but the source is in another language! And there's not a complete pattern! Why make things easy?

Just for fun, I also decided that I wanted to add fancy-pants braids. Y'know, inspired by the Estonians.**

Unbecoming language and frogging*** began Saturday and has yet to cease. I will discuss tomorrow, when the pain is not quite so fresh. Unless, of course, knitting today also goes badly, at which point we may play a game entitled "What Can I Do With Mitten Yarn Besides Make Mittens?"

* I like this idea of designating months for specific things and calling it National Whatever. I hereby designate February as National Give Peaceable Liberal Presents Month. Celebrate accordingly.

**You know what I mean, right? No? It occurs to me that there is no target audience for this blog. Nobody could possibly care about all the weird stuff I talk about. Just me. I might as well start each entry with, "Dear Diary."

*** "Frogging" is ripping out completed knitted rows. Frog is used when there's a lot of ripping as frogs say "rip-it, rip-it" rather than "ribbit, ribbit" as commonly assumed. When you frog something, you just yank out the needles, curse loudly, and start pulling out the stitches. "Tink," by contrast, is when you use your knitting needles to carefully knit back one stitch at a time. See how "tink" is "knit" backwards? See also what I mean about no target audience?