A multi-symptom cold

I'm down for the count, friends. Justin had a horrible cold last week, and I, well, I didn't believe that it was really that bad. I'm paying for it now, because I have that same horrible cold, and I feel absolutely awful. I've been down since late Thursday night, and the only thing I can take without getting stomach pains is night-time cold medicine. Which is fine, because I do love sleep. But I was so looking forward to this weekend. Blurg. Anyway, I hope to be feeling better tomorrow, but I thought that last night, too.

In the meantime, I watched The Squid and the Whale, Every Little Step, and several episodes of my favorite Bravo shows (I include Project Runway in that because, I'm sorry, it will never be a Lifetime program unless one of the designers goes insane and starts stalking another designer). There's been reading and crossword puzzles (both bed activities), as well as lots of crocheting. Cathy taunted me with beautiful yarn until I signed up for the 2010 potholder swap. I'm on the final front - just the backs left to do after this. I'm very pleased with my yarn selection, and the whole thing has actually been rather fun. I haven't crocheted in a long, long time. It was my gateway craft, and like most gateway crafts, it got left behind for its more versatile cousin, knitting. I hope to finish all my potholders this week and get them in the mail before the deadline. Going to the post office is the hardest part.

Blankets I have known: GPB

I love blankets.  I want to be the kind of person who has a blanket for every occasion, every temperature, every size.  My knitting story actually starts with a blanket, and I thought it'd be fun to document the awesome blankets in my life.  I'm going to try to do this every Wednesday until I run out of blankets.  And if I do my job right, I won't run out for awhile.

The blanket that started it all, started my obession with yarn and my complete unwillingness to cut when faced with a knot, is the Gay Pride Blanket.

I crocheted this blanket 12 years ago, when I was 16.  My mom had taught me how to crochet probably four or five years earlier, and like all mothers and daughters engaged in needlework, it caused great strife in our relationship.  I blame this on how you turn a row - how do you know which stitch is last?  I was always bringing my sad, sad projects to her (when she was napping) for help.  That didn't go over well.  So I kind of gave up.

The summer I was 16, I was bored.  Very bored.  Bored with a car.  I woke up one morning and decided I was going to crochet a blanket.  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought an afghan book and a mess of Red Heart to make this rainbow blanket.  It went incredibly fast because you use two strands of yarn at once (which is how you get the color gradiation). 

But I can't tell you how long I spent on that red section.  Red was the first color in the blanket, so I was still working out all the kinks in my crochet technique.  One of the skeins had some particularly heinous knots and I absolutely REFUSED to cut them out.  There was no way I was going to waste perfectly good yarn (says she who now feels no remorse when throwing away an entire ugly sock).  I spent three days in the middle of June, thighs sticking to my parents' green leather couch, unknotting one enormous mess.  I was so Maniac Magee.  (Cobbler's Knot?  Anyone?)  I think I eventually did have to cut some of the yarn, but I put up a really good fight.

Once I was finished (it took about a week of non-stop crocheting), I was completely enamored with the blanket.  So enamored, in fact, that I took it with me to drum major camp.  In the middle of July.  I'm sure I didn't use it once but I had to have it there.

And I'm still in love with it today.  It's been with me to sleepovers, car trips, college, new apartments in a new city and finally on our bed.  I don't care that it matches nothing - it matches EVERYTHING.  It's what I want when I'm sad and keeps me warm when I have nightmares and go to another room to calm down.  And it's also the reason why I generally refuse to crochet with anything except Red Heart.