Happenings Have Happened

I've been quite the past couple of weeks. Sorry for that. I had a gluten reaction to some chocolate about three weeks ago and have been riding that out, so I've been kind of grumpy. Since I try not to post just to whine, I haven't posted, cause yeah, I would have just whined.

The whole reaction thing was kind of interesting objectively - seeing exactly how I react to something cross-contaminated with gluten after having most of my celiac-related problems calm down. Of course, after going through the first week of flu-like symptoms and utter exhaustion, the second week full of pain and more exhaustion, and the third week of crazy digestion issues and being unable to eat without pain? Yeah, no longer so objectively interesting. More just really, really annoying. Stupid gluten. I'm not quite out of the reaction-woods yet but I hold out hope that it will be soon. I was able to eat a normal-sized dinner last night with only a little discomfort, so progress?

Anyway, there have been more positive happenings lately, but they've all been knitting related. I'm still working on my striped cardigan. I've currently got about 39-ish hours in it or so and the end is nigh. Kinda.

I have no idea how much more time this sweater needs before it is done, but I can't imagine more than 10. Which is a lot (and probably underestimated). Especially since I'm used to socks that take between 25 and 35 hours a pair, depending on complexity. Of course, a big chunk of that time has been weaving in all the ends. Almost every stripe gives me two ends of yarn to weave in and I've been doing it as I go. That takes so much time. Ugh.

I'm also pretty much thinking I'm going to need to get some more yarn to finish this off because I think I want a big shawl collar. Maybe. I'll see how it goes when I get there, but I have already stalked the place I got the yarn from originally and they have more. No idea if it is in the same dye lot but eh. It'll be for the button band/collar so a slight mismatch shouldn't be too horrific.

As happy as I am with how my future cuddly cardi is going, I will admit to getting a tiny bit bored. I suppose not having a finished project after 30 hours makes me antsy. So I spent some of my Christmas money and got a cute little pattern book from Amazon, Mini Knitted Woodland. It arrived yesterday afternoon, so last night I made this little guy.

He's about two and a half inches tall and he's been dubbed Victor the Turkey Vulture. And as a project break, it worked perfectly. I spent the evening on him - the knitting took maybe an hour, the finishing another hour - and suddenly I was all enthused about picking up my sweater to knit more on the sleeves. Yay!

The book has a hippopotamus, which I think is next on my list, but I do have some yarn coming for a specific project, so if that comes in, Ms. Hippo might take a back seat to something (hopefully) even more awesome. Otherwise, I plan on continuing with my sweater and I will confess to having some yarn balled for my next pair of socks.

Other than that, not too much of note is going on here. We are still working on the guest bathroom. Demolition is done (though I need to get in there and clean up the remaining broken tiles, etc). Dan and I are planning on going bathtub and fixture shopping soon, then getting those things installed. (Pretty sure Dan's planning on getting someone to install the tub as we are leaning towards an enameled cast iron one and neither of us wants to have to try to lift it.) We've got the shower tile picked out but still have to pick a floor tile. And then, you know, put it all together. We need it all done before the end of May, but we are hoping to get it done before the end of March. No real rush, though. Plenty of time for more knitting!