I'm baaaaaaaack!

Did you miss me?

I have had a cold and so in the evenings on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I went straight to bed without posting, miserable and sneezing and sniffling. Last night, however, I started a post, only to have lost my internet connection for some reason that only the techies in the house understood. It takes a long time to upload my photos on Blogger ( a complaint that I've heard from others), and so I only do them 2 at a time, and it takes near on a half hour to load them this way!

So now I'm posting on my lunch hour without access to the pictures I wanted to post.....

But anyway, here goes!

I got the above 2 images from The Graphics Fairy. I chose them because I love ice skating, even though I am barely able to stay up on my skates, and because I love Scottish tartans, kilts, tams, and the national flower, the Thistle.

Now, I had wanted to post next about my crochet projects. Hmmmm....well, I have been working on my Filet Heart Runner, even though I need to sign up for a class in Remedial Counting. As I can't show you a picture of my progress, I will simply report to you that the whole runner is 88 rows, and I have completed 17 rows. (Well really I've done about 25 rows, but all the ripping out I've had to do for mis-counting has held me back a bit!) For the advanced mathematicians among you, you will notice that there are 9 more days til Valentine's day and ideally one displays one's Valentine's pretties at least a week before the actual holiday. If we split the difference and give me a generous 5 days to finish, that means, let's see 71 rows in 5 days....a little over 14 rows a day. Sounds like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome to me. I am reminding myself however that very shortly, I'll be approaching rows that are much shorter and therefore quicker to complete. (If I don't have to rip out and re-do, as my counting skills should improve with practice.) And as for the DMC website heart runner, I am clearly going to have to break down and buy a new crochet hook, which means a trip to Michael's or JoAnn's or somewheres....not nearby. Walmart re-modeled the store in my town last year and decimated the fabric and crafts section. Waaaah. I can't believe they didn't check with me first.

Speaking of a trip to a store for additional goods. This post was originally going to ignore crochet and delve into the minutiae of my trying to do a simple task on my embroidery project. As you may recall, my first obstacle was that I hid the kit from myself. Well, as it turns out I did a great job of hiding it by putting it in plain sight exactly where I thought I had put it. Apparently, Friday night-weary is not the right frame-of-mind to get a new craft project underway. So, last Saturday, I got started, and was fairly quickly stymied by another obstacle. But that will be my next post, when I can illustrate with pictures!

Now, speaking of embroidery and Valentine's Day, (we were, weren't we?), get on over to Mary Corbet's website and see the lovely "Heart O'Flowers" design she is offering free of charge, and let me know if you are going to do something with it.

Finally, re: knitting: I am just about to decrease at the toe of the second sock of Sovann's Winter Warmers, and I have added the blue and then finally the brown on Ian's Dapper Chap Vest. I'm looking forward to getting the zig-zaggy stripe done and back to chugging along with the main color. Pictures of all this stitchy productivity coming soon.

Have a good w/e everyone. Super Bowl? Or "Emma" on PBS?