Good lord, a lot has happened since I last wrote, though I guess that’s to be expected, since it’s been a couple weeks. I do apologize for not writing sooner, though I suppose I have a good enough excuse, as this last week I’ve been completely bed-ridden with the flu. Let me tell you—the flu is nasty stuff. I don’t remember ever being so sick. I’m stubborn and often refuse to go to the doctor when I’m feeling under the weather, but I was feeling so awful by Sunday morning that I finally dragged myself down to the urgent care clinic to be seen by a doctor. Five hours later, I had a diagnosis of the flu, a $50 copay bill, and a $110 copay worth of prescription drugs. Being sick ain’t cheap, even with health insurance! And I’ve got the expensive PPO health insurance, not the HMO option that costs less but also covers less. I can’t imagine what this all would have cost without health insurance.

And then, as if the flu weren’t bad enough, this Wednesday I fell (the drugs I was on made me a little dizzy) and really messed up my ankle. I thought it was broken—I’ve twisted my ankle dozens of times, and it had never felt like this before. My wonderful co-worker, Jenny, came and picked up and drove me to the ER and sat with me while they ran X-rays and all that. Thankfully, the ankle wasn’t broken, just severely sprained, but I’ve still got to wear this big bulky boot while the muscles heal. The ER visit was another $100 copay (though I did get a nice boot and some crutches for my expenses…).

All these medical bills are eating into my yarn budget! Not cool. On the plus side, I am feeling decidedly better this evening, and I’m hoping to have made a full recovery from both flu and injured ankle by Monday. Okay, the ankle may not be fully healed by then (they want me to see an orthopaedist to make sure there’s not any tendon damage), but at least I’ll be able to go back to work.

ANYway… other than being sick and injured, lots has happened in the last two or three weeks. On February 19th, I received my new Fiberphile yarn in the mail (yay!) and immediately cast on for a pair of socks. I started off with the Drift Wood colorway using the Pillars pattern by Lisa Stichweh (Ravelry link).

Fiberphile Mosaic in colorway Drift Wood

Pillars socks WIP in Fiberphile Mosaic Drift Wood

First Pillars sock completed!

I finished the first sock at the urgent care clinic on Saturday while I was waiting for my test results to come back (the ones that eventually told me I did, indeed, have the flu). The doctors and nurses were all completely mesmerized by the sock knitting. The main doctor who was treating me told me I reminded her of her favorite grandmother, who used to knit socks all the time.

I’m nearly finished with the second sock. Staying home all day every day for a week does give you plenty of time to get some decent knitting done, and I was glad to have this brainless pattern to work on. Cables and complicated lace weren’t gonna cut it when I was doped up on meds, but simple stockinette was easy enough.

At any rate… so the weekend after I started the socks, Franklin Habit paid a visit to Raleigh. On Saturday, February 21st, he did a book reading/signing at Yarns Etc. in Chapel Hill promoting his new book, It Itches. There was a huge turnout (we ran out of chairs! So I got to sit on the floor, which I actually prefer anyway…), and everyone had a great time.

Afterwards, I drove him back to his hotel, and we chatted about Mom and her store (Franklin did the last 1000 Knitters photo shoot and the first It Itches book signing there back in November), yarn stores worth visiting in Chicago (since I go to Chicago on business 1-2 times per year), and cameras (since he was teaching a photography class in Raleigh the next day).

Which brings me to Sunday, February 22nd, when Franklin taught his photography class at Great Yarns in Raleigh. We had another great turn-out that morning. Franklin talked a lot about light and color and how the former affects the latter. He taught us all the basics of how to adjust our cameras settings for indoor, outdoor, and various light settings.

He discussed shutter speed and focal length, and he even brought out his beautiful new lace shawl to demonstrate how some fabrics are really shown at their best when there’s a hint of motion in play. Not that the photo below is the perfect example of that—it’s by no means a great photo, but at least there’s motion…

He also taught us how to make a cheap, simple lightbox, which is a really useful tool when you have to photograph something small indoors. (I use one all the time.)

After about a 45-minute discussion, he turns us to our own devices and let us play with our cameras, photographing the small projects and yarns we’d brought with us. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, and it was really nice to see people helping each other out, locating the right settings on the various cameras (because of course, no one’s cameras were exactly the same) and suggesting different ways to photograph items in interesting ways.

Afterwards, many people came by to say that they had such a wonderful time and learned so much. I know I can speak for everyone at Great Yarns and Yarns Etc. when I say thank you to Franklin for coming and sharing your time and knowledge with us! We all had a fabulous time!

So, as if my weekend weren’t already busy enough, I decided to dye yarn when I got home after the photography class. I’d been putting it off for entirely too long, and I was itching to play with color. So I pulled out all my dyes and the undyed sock yarn I had stashed away, and I spent the entire afternoon and evening dyeing up a bunch of yarn. And here are the fruits of my labor:

Grass Stain

Autumn Iris

Cirque du Fête

Gypsy

Sea Candy

Pomegranate

Waikiki

Lady Lavender Grey

So, there’s the recap of my life for the last three weeks. Hopefully next time I post, another three weeks won’t have passed, and I won’t have to inundate you with so many pictures all at once! So, til then (whenever “then” happens to be), happy knitting!