I know that I kind of did this to myself. I was really pushing things as I got everything baked, stitched, knitted, wrapped, mailed and cleaned for Christmas. It was wonderful. My family was all here on the big day, the dinner was perfect, and it was even snowing lightly making it a true White Christmas. A wonderful, wonderful day.
I was just exhausted afterwards.
Still, I made some after-Christmas plans. I wrote out some ideas for the end-of-the-year blog post and made a list of projects to tackle in the coming weeks and months. Great stuff: weaving, spinning and quilting made the list along with the usual plethora of knitting items.
The Monday after Christmas I woke up sick. Influenza!! I had had the vaccine, but I knew that it was unlikely that I would get the full benefit because of my immuno-suppressant drugs. By New Year’s Day I literally couldn’t get out of bed. The next day I dragged into the after-hours clinic and was sent home with antibiotics and some serious cough medicine. Thus a cascade of severe unhappiness was launched. Here’s the short version: bronchitis; removal from immuno-suppressant drugs; allergic reaction to the first antibiotics; more antibiotics; a full rebellion by my digestive system; low blood pressure; dizzy, dizzy, and more dizzy; help: I can’t even manage to knit; a flare of my systemic sclerosis; and a complete helping of why can’t I breathe right yet??? There. That was the whole month!! In fact, it is still going, but I am definitely on the mend.
Take home lesson: it is possible to survive on yogurt, cranberry juice and Christmas cookies. Maybe I should write this up as a new fad diet. 🙂 It is also good to have a pile of books waiting to be read. An emergency stash of chocolate is a given, right? Oh yeah, one more thing: GET YOUR FLU SHOT, PEOPLE!!
Two weeks ago I pulled out my partially completed Daelyn Sweater (by Isabell Kraemer) and got started knitting on it again between naps. Last week I finally finished it. Oh, my goodness. What a wonderful sweater. It kind of looks like a sweatshirt…
I have to give a shout out to this yarn. You almost have to work with this stuff to believe it; it is soft, squishy and very light weight. My finished sweater is soft, warm, comfy, looks and hangs like a bulky sweater but weighs very little. It is almost a shock when I lift it to put it on. There are little bits of veggie matter in the yarn, but I think that is because it hasn’t been over processed. It was fairly easy to pull them out while I worked.
When I got ready to knit my sleeves I began to panic about running out of yarn. I ordered two more skeins online that were from another dye lot. I blended the new yarn in by knitting every other row for 8 rows (it did happen on the sleeves..) and you absolutely can’t see the change in yarn. I could have just skipped the blending. How’s that for quality control! Here are the Ravelry notes for my project if you want more info.
So, here it is whole month late but I am starting to think about my new projects for the year. Lots to do. You weren’t very nice to me at the start, 2016, but let’s see what we can get going now. Behave yourself!!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
So glad to see you post again! I’ve missed you! Glad you are on the mend after what sounds like a hellacious start for the year. Beautiful sweater!
You are so sweet. I’m glad to be back. 🙂
I too was glad to hear from you. Sorry 2016 had such a rocky start but it will be better! There is sun and yarn and bad/mad kitties. Plus now you have that rocking sweater!
You are darn right there are bad/mad kitties. After a month of sleeping on top of me all day long (this is kitty support at its best/worst) these cats are totally out of control. What a wonderful thing it is to have kitties. 🙂
I sat in the yarn room yesterday just soaking it in and organizing the new queue. Life is good.
Happy to see your post and glad to hear you are on the mend! The sweater looks so comfy. I will need to get some Brooklyn Tweed in my stash.
It is a great addition to any stash. 🙂 It is rustic, but wonderful in the right project.
Nice Sweater, good to read you are on the mend. Feel better my friend.
Thank you.
Sorry to read of your illness. I trust you are better now
Still working on it, but much better. Thank you. 🙂
The sweater looks great. Best wishes on your mending journey, and may you accomplish some more projects soon;-). Enjoy that sweater this winter(almost makes you want more winter, but not really.) I’m sure you can wear it for chilly spring days, as well.
I started another top down sweater this week, and the weather report is for a major snow storm early next week. I will be rocking the new sweater and knitting on the new one between shoveling outings.
I’m glad you’re back! That sounds like it was awful! I’m glad you stayed out of the hospital.
Your furry guy has the best facial expressions. He looks so fierce initially, but when he’s caught with some yarn in his mouth, I can see the playful kitten come out.
I have to admit, I got worried there for awhile when the blood pressure took a nose dive. Much better now. 🙂
He is a photogenic cat with tons of personality. Makes eye contact, talks to me, insists on being on top of me when I’m reading in bed and is my good boy. At Christmas he tried to bite my son!! He is a handful, that is for sure. He has such a big purr I forgive him almost anything. 🙂
I was thinking of you just the other day as it dawned on me that I hadn’t seen a post from you for a bit in my inbox. I am so sorry to hear that you were so sick. I pray you continue to improve daily by leaps and bounds. Comfy looking sweater!
Thank you! It’s good to be back. 🙂 Hopefully I am now immune to all viruses!
So sorry you had such a rough month. I have missed you being around over here and wondered several times if you were OK. I really hope that you can get back on top soon. Your jumper looks great, hopefully you will be able to knit as you recover. x
Thank you. I’m still struggling a bit, but I’m knitting and doing more each week. Hopefully I’ll be blogging more now. 🙂
So glad that you are on the mend!