Last night, I did a little finishing on Bella sweater before I crashed and went to sleep around 9 pm. No more allergy meds...commencing the withdrawl process. This morning, I woke up feeling like a puddle on the floor.

Anyway, I was looking forward to backstitching the collar on, as it was something new to me. It was interesting to do, and looks nice, though I think I boggled it a little in my daze. The tape yarn was difficult to work with because the needle kept getting stuck in the webbing of the yarn, but I like the finished sweater a lot and so does Becky.

I announced, "Look Becky, I finished your sweater!" and expected her to just chirp and skip away with her basket of stuffed animals, but she squealed, grabbed it and started to put it on herself. Much to my surprise. Yeah, she actually wants to wear it. (What's going on? Did the stars align today or something?)

I had a crazy weekend--had to go to the emergency department because of an allergic reaction. To what? Who the heck knows!

All the nurses and the doctor who saw me kept asking, "Didja eat shellfish?"
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."

Hmmmm.

So, it's a mystery. I'm guessing it was a mosquito bite or something weird like that. Maybe the guy at Wawa put weed on my hoagie that night or something. Who knows?

Originally I thought all the hives I had were mosquito bites because they LOOKED like mosquito bites and weren't like the hives I usually get when I have an allergic reaction (yes, I get hives when I get strep throat and mononucleosis--I'm weird like that, but no fever eliminated that cause at least for now).
But then, I noticed that Noel and Becky didn't have any bites at all. Weird.

I thought, "Did Isabel blow all those no-see-ums up from North Carolina to bite me?" No, uhuh!

So anyway, they put me on some meds and everything calmed down. It was magical. It was also Miss B-Grrl's 2nd birthday that day, so I wanted to get out of the hospital quick and go have some fun. They gave me 2 options: corticosteroids and allergy meds for a short course or an adrenalin shot and hook me up to an IV and hang out in the hospital watching CNN. But I ain't no fool. I remember how painful and trying getting an IV was when I was having my babies. I swear it was worse than any contraction I had. Hideous.

I think the medicine they gave me has made me hyper and talkative. So unlike me! Can you tell?
I've been wanting to post to my blog every hour or two with random thoughts but I restrain myself. Who wants to read a whole post on what I had for breakfast anyway? Or how my commute to and from preschool went (and that damn person stuck in the left lane talking on their cell phone)? Or how I spent Saturday morning in the ED??

I'm almost done. After steam blocking it a bit at 1 am last night and trying it on, I've decided to forgo the knitted facings and just sew the zipper right to the raw edges, then cover them up all nice and neat with some grosgrain ribbon--perhaps in a jarring shade of crimson red. Or green. Or red. Oh, or maybe pink.

Nah....

Hmmm, note to me, Must hunt down and purchase 2-way separating metal-toothed zipper....and ribbon....maybe zipper pull, too. Hmmm.

Though I still have almost 3 balls of the Bartlett's left. Not enough to make much of anything, but enough left over to make me anxious that it needs to be used up. Call me odd. I don't care! Sticks and stones may break my bones....Ha!

I think I need to get out now and take a walk or something--I'm going stir crazy! (can you tell?) My Grammy, rest her soul, used to say, "Let's go to Kroger's and and blow the stink off!"

Really, I should probably stop while I'm ahead--check out this weird mistake I made on the back while doing the decreases. Somehow I started in some extra ribbing and didn't notice until I was almost to the collar. The pix is after I ripped back and started reworking it as stockinette with a crochet hook.

Did you know it was National Chocolate Day on Saturday? We all drove over to Hershey, PA to celebrate. (Kerrie, this is where Reeses' come from...)
Here are Becky and Noel all ready to go.

Here is a closeup of the raglan shaping so far. See the side bar for a picture of the whole thing.

I'm enjoying knitting Birch. Kidsilk Haze is an interesting yarn. I unwind a bit from the ball and it wafts ever so slowly to the floor to rest until it gets knitted up. (Unlike Ribby Cardie's yarn, which I wing across the room to unwind.)

What keeps me going is knowing that the shawl is getting smaller with (almost) every row.

Thirty stitches down...266 to go.

Click for better view

(warning: pictures are large)

Yesterday, we took a drive to Lancaster, Pa to ride on the Strasburg Railroad. We like to go up a few times a year it's so much fun for the kids. The picture above is of the steam engine coming around to hook up to the front of the train for the ride back. The ride takes about 45 minutes and is very peaceful. We rode through Amish and Mennonite farms, tall cornfields, cows out to pasture. I love the old lights and especially the cast-iron stove in the corner.

When the ride was over, we visited an official Thomas the Train store where Noel went cuckoo over whether to get a Diesel 10 or a "clean" Percy. (He has a Percy with painted on dirt which goes with some train wash set he got.)

It was a beautiful, uncrowded day.

Here is Birch after an hour of fiddling with the yarn and starting to cast on. In the middle of casting on--only 219 stitches to go. I'm using 3.75 mm needles. Yesterday, someone who was knitting Birch at The Woolgathering in Kennett as working on 6 mm. Little worried 'bout the discrepancy.

Here are 2 skeins of Apple Blossom yarn. There are some slubs in them but I like them pretty well. I'm thinking I will make wrist warmers, or fingerless gloves or maybe a scarf with the yarn instead of socks.

Noel went to school today. He was very excited until he saw a girl clinging to her mom and screaming. He looked at me as if to say, "Mommy, this not what you said school would be like!" Then he started to cry when the teacher came over and asked him his name. So, Becky and I left quickly.

Becky and I were moping around the house once we got home. I didn't expect her to be so upset by Noel going to school. She keeps wandering around saying, "Where Noe? I want Noe. Noe?" I found her sitting by Noel's Thomas trains just looking. Usually she wants to play and Noel won't let her. So here is her big chance but she just looked sad.