Ohai!

My mom had a birthday. I knit her a shawl.

Pattern: Clothilde by Kristen Hanley Cardozo
Yarn: Cascade Heritage in hot pink (I don't have the ball band at the moment.)
Needles: US 5
Size: Large. Finished dimensions are approximately 60x25"

Remember when I was complaining about the lack of color around the stores? Well, this was my antidote. It is an incredibly saturated pink. It was quick and fun and perfectly wonderful. I kind of wish that I had done one more repeat of the gull lace before the spearhead edging, but yardage was somewhat in question. Cascade Heritage has good yardage, the price was right, and it was nice to work with. It's a lighter fingering weight, and I would definitely use it again.

Mom loved it. It should be very wearable in many circumstances from casual to moderately dressy and in all seasons. I kind of wish I had one myself.....

Well, it's been a gorgeous week around here, weather-wise. Seven full days of sun in a row. Temperatures are still low, but the smell of spring is in the air, and the birds are singing their little hearts out. It has been amazing to have all this sun, and I'm fully primed for spring to really get here - asparagus and crocuses and even rain if it means that I don't have to scrape frost off my car every morning.

Sadly, things have not been so great around here health-wise this week. I caught an incredibly nasty cold which started in my chest and went straight for my head, leaving me prone in the bottom of the shower in the aftermath of a very scary fainting incident. I'm still not sure what that was about. I spent most of the week on the couch with a box of tissues and a trash basket handy, watching episode after episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was so sick that I didn't knit a stitch for days. I had no energy to do anything but stare blankly at my computer, vaguely wishing that Spike (with a soul, of course) was real instead of a character. Luckily, while I'm not exactly back to normal, I have resumed my half-marathon training (which has been seriously thrown off due to basically tossing a whole week of my life down the drain.) I'm still using a higher than average number of tissues, my cough would make you step back, and my energy isn't what it usually is, but I'm getting there.

I also managed to go yarn shopping with Danielle yesterday. I had a list of things I was looking for, but in the end only bought two skeins. One is going to be Clothilde for my mom's birthday. The other is still a secret right now....

Side note, but kind of related - is anybody else hungry for color? I go to the store (yarn store, clothes store, doesn't seem to matter) and all I see is shades of clay, putty, and mud. And then black, white, grey, and navy. Ew. I have rebelled against this enforced color palette by buying hot pink yarn and by painting my toes an even more electric shade of pink. So there.