I get so sleepy at work... I'm beginning to wonder if there's a carbon monoxide problem in my office. Why else would I be so tired? I do actually get enough sleep. And once I leave the office I'm much less tired. Perhaps it has to do with the dark green walls.

Anyway, thanks for your comments about my yuckiness. I have good days and bad days with the headaches. Sunday (my birthday) was a pretty bad one. Of course Mark wanted us to go on a two-mile hike (aka forced march), and we were in the parking lot of the park before the headache got bad... Not a great day in general. I am finally getting Options, though! Woo! No more crappy inflexible cords! No more needle points wearing down! I'm really looking forward to getting started with them.

In the meantime, there was this. On size 15 needles.


There's a reason I named this COOKIES!!! on Ravelry. It's a basic belted cardigan pattern, with lots of extra shaping, a change in gauge and a crocheted belt. If I have an issue, it's that the right arm is taking a beating from my purse. (The yarn is Fleece Artist Curly Locks, which has lots of little loops that catch on things. Not particularly fun to knit with, even on size 15 needles. Then again, those present problems of their own. My wrists are still sore.)

And just in time for warm weather, here's my new house sweater:


You'd think that I'd be really vigilant about counting my stitches at the ends of rows, considering my bad track record with crochet, but no. This is kind of wonky, and the yarn is particularly awful to frog in crochet (Red Heart Symphony--stay away!). It is warm, though, and the kilt pin is just right for keeping it closed.


This was a better crochet project. Isn't it adorable? It's actually a hybrid pattern (found here). Sewing in the filling was harder than you'd think. It took me a while to get it to look okay.

Another hybrid project; this is an elephant (duh) for my friend's daughter. It would've been cooler if I'd had enough bits and pieces in coordinating colors to stripe it, but no such luck. Still, so cute.

In Cotton-Ease news, I decided to try on my St. James when I finished the waist decreases. It was five sizes too big, no kidding. I must've misread my gauge swatch: I was clearly getting 4 stitches per inch instead of 4.5. I think that means my sweater was about ten percent too big. So I'm making Venus instead, for which I get spot-on gauge if I go down a needle size. I'm about half done, but I had to put it aside the other day when I remembered that my anniversary is next week.

They're going way faster than I thought they would. (The pattern is Phineas--modified for a 64-st foot.) At this rate I may have two days to spare...