Ugh. Stuffy nose, swollen throat, icky taste in the back of my mouth. Whether it’s allergies or a virus I caught while traveling on Monday, the fact still remains that I am sick. I’m not so sick that I can’t get around and do stuff, but it’s enough that I’m reminded of it every 5-10 minutes or so when I have another sneezing fit. Still, I was able to get plenty of work done, and I’m excited about how the new Yarn Expressions site is coming along. I can’t wait til it’s live and I can share it with everyone! It’s gonna be awesome!

Mom’s informed me that she’s going to gift me with some Manos for my new sweater design. I’m also very excited about this… I likely won’t be sharing photos of it, except the occasional ultra-close-up, because if all goes well, I’m thinking I’d like to try to get it published in Knitty or MagKnits. I’ll try not to be too elusive about it, but, well, you know how these things go.

I did a bit more knitting on my third Aurelia socks today, and I’m just about ready to start the heel flap. I love that pattern. It’s going to be hard for me to come up with new designs because that one just keeps popping up in my head. I get excited every time I see someone on Ravelry queue it, though, and mom told me that at the Knit Night tonight at the store, several people were interested in it. I even found out the other day that a friend from long ago whom I’d lost touch with who has taken up knitting in the meantime has started making a pair! It’s always nice to hear that people like what you’ve done.

I’m afraid I’ve got cast-on-itis. I’m mulling over new ideas for my Sockapalooza pal’s socks, but nothing’s cemented yet. In the meantime, I’ve queued up two new sweaters and cast on for a third. The ones in queue are both from the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits - “A Cardigan for Arwen” by Kate Gilbert, and “Nantucket Jacket” by Norah Gaughan. Only one will get made anytime soon, since I’ve only got enough yarn stashed away for one of them, but I’m thinking it’ll be the cardigan first, with the Berroco Touche I’ve got. Pretty.

The sweater I started tonight is the V-Neck Cardigan from Louisa Harding’s Modern Classics, which I’m doing with the brown Garnstudio Silke Tweed I’ve got stashed. I haven’t actually started yet, per se… But I did swatch to make sure I was still getting the correct gauge on it. (I had the entire back of another sweater that I’d started with it that I will frog soon, and I could have used that to measure gauge, but since I knit that years and years ago, I figured it was better to start fresh.) My row gauge is off - 28 rows = 4″ instead of 30 rows, but that’s of little consequence since the pattern is written for lengths instead of rows. And my stitch gauge is dead on. So yay! So, uh, this is what I’ve got so far:

Gauge swatch of Garnstudio Silke Tweed in colorway 02, for Louisa Harding’s V-Neck Cardigan

See those three holes in the swatch? There was a discussion over on the Ravelry forums about organizing gauge swatches, and someone mentioned that they do a series of (yo-k2tog) repeats for whatever size needle they’re using. Brilliant! So looking at the photo, it’s obvious that I’m using size 3 needles. Very clever indeed! I’ll likely actually start the sweater itself tomorrow. Hopefully this sweater won’t bore me to tears. It’s not actually straight st st, which is nice - there are columns of yos evenly spaced throughout, so I’m hoping that will help keep me somewhere between alert and brain-dead. We’ll see.

In non-knitting news, on my way to the grocery store this evening, I ran across a family of geese. There’s a rather large flock of them that lives on the grounds of the apartment complex that’s across the street from the store, and you can usually see them wandering around. Today, though, they were crossing the street. 6 adults and about 12 goslings. I waited patiently to turn into the parking lot while they crossed. On my way home, though, they were crossing again, and there were cars lined up in either direction waiting for the geese to pass. At one point, one of the goslings turned around and started to head in the direction from which they’d just come, and one of the adults had to herd it back into line. As the adult goose was making its way back towards the other end of the street (rather slowly, I might add), an SUV at the front of one of the waiting lines of cars honked at the goose. The goose stopped, turned to face the SUV, and honked back. I about died laughing! I wish I had had my camera, but I’m not really in the habit of taking it with me when I go grocery shopping. I may have to change that practice in the future.

Well, I’m off to drink some herbal tea and get a good night’s rest. I’ve got a job interview tomorrow, and then I’m having dinner tomorrow evening with a friend and his visiting parents, so I need to not be sick tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me, k?