Welcome Back, Knitter!

One of the most sublime experiences we can ever have is to wake up feeling healthy after we have been sick.

-Rabbi Harold Kushner

This is absolutely true. A bad cold has been making the rounds at my house. First Middle Daughter, then Youngest Child, then me and now Dear Husband. At first, I didn't mind. All the extra time at home would be good for my Christmas Knitting. Everyone needs a little down time, afterall. But then I got the Bad Cold and it was a doozy. Dizziness, headache, earache, cough, sore throat - everything little germ was having a holiday inside me. By the end of the day, when my cold medicine was working full strength, I barely had the energy to sit in a chair and knit a row or two.

And family life was moving onward and upward so I actually never got to go to bed. Instead, I was driving, running errands and Christmas shopping. I think that was the big mistake - everyone else got to go straight to bed for two days and do nothing but eat a little toast and drink tea, nap a little and then nap some more. Me - I was on the go.

Which explains the lack of posting and my missing Saturday Seven. And the fact that I am still sick with the "Cough that makes my lungs pop out" while everyone else is better. Now, if I can only catch up with the laundry, the present wrapping, the Christmas card sending and the baking. All things I actually like doing (not the laundry!) but just need a little more energy first.

I did actually give away items last week. First, I had to make them, however. My church home, Randolph Heights Presbyterian Church, has a Mitten Tree every holiday season where we collect hats, scarves and mittens for a Women and Families Shelter. The woman who taught me to knit, Mary, now does nothing but knit mittens all year round for the tree. She also developed a simple but warm, double-layer pattern for fleece mittens. I usually sponsor a mitten sewing workshop every year and actually had about 15 pairs of cut-out but not sewn mittens leftover from last year. Since there was no way I was going to be able to knit any mittens this year, I sat down every evening and sewed mittens. Eight pairs went to the tree on Sunday and I have four more pairs cut out and ready to sew. This is what my dining room looks like right now.



I am really looking forward to getting this finished. Knitting wise, I did finish the Mrs. Beeton wristlets and I am down to the I-cord straps on my felted Noro bag. I'll cast on another bag this week and then finish up my other set of wristlets next week. No Christmas stockings or felted door decorations this year - maybe I'll start in July next year!

In other health related news, many of you knitters have been listening to the Lime and Violet podcast. Miss Violet has written about finding a lump in her breast and is now is negotiations with her insurance company over her care. The Lime and Violet podscast homepage is accepting donations to help pay her very large deductible which will re-set again at the start of the new year. Please consider making a donation, even if you don't listen to her, and consider it as giving the gift of good health. Try it - you'll like it! And if you love a knitter, consider buying Lisa Souza's "Violet's Pink Ribbon" colorway in yarn, sock yarn or roving. Her work is excellent and a potion of the proceeds go to Miss Violet's health care fund.

Now, go home and get some rest tonight.

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos - the trees, the clouds, everything.

-Thich Nhat Hanh