My treat is on its way!

Yes, I just received an e-mail from "Knitting Irene," my Knitters Treat Exchange partner that my treat is coming! I'm so excited! I could sure use a treat--on Sunday, I was felled by a stomach virus, my first in 15 years! I couldn't even knit. I even had to ask my husband to stay home from work on Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday mornings to help with the kids--boy, was I out of commission. And my parents were total troupers; thank goodness they were able to help out in the afternoons. (Oh, and adding to the fun: Boy J and I went to the allergist on Friday. I had a scratch test and surprised the doctor and myself with all my food allergies. So now I'm toting an epi pen and am worrying a little more about what I eat. On the plus side, I haven't really been able to eat since Sunday, though I'm getting really hungry at this point).

Prior to this, I had picked up some knitting. I went back to the Timberline sock (see March posts). The colorway should work for the Socktopia "May Flowers" theme. I had to completely rip out the heel: when I leave a project for six weeks or so, I tend to forget things like the fact I put it down because I needed to rip out the heel. Of course, I remembered after I did all the heel increases and got to the end and had the wrong number of stitches. The cool thing about the garter stitch heel in the pattern is that I don't have to pick up gusset stitches. It looks really cool, too.

I also started an under the radar project. We're doing family photos in October, and I had this idea that I would knit sweaters for all four children. I didn't post about it because I knew my family (my reading public, for the most part) would think I was insane. I did confide in my youngest sister when she came to visit a few weeks ago, and not only did she help me choose a sweater, she offered to pinch-knit if necessary. Is she totally cool, or what! And when I cast on the sweater, I revealed my intent to mom (hard to hide, since I was winding yarn at her house), and she thought it was cool, too--and told me it was good I picked a bulky yarn because I may need some pinch-knitting! Obviously, we all came out of the same gene pool.

And back to the Knitters Treat Exchange. How 'bout a shout out to Janice for nominating me as a best treater!

Finally, I'm getting ready for my gnome to arrive; did I mention the Knitting Gnome Swap? (I hope I don't repeat myself as often on the blog as I do in person--the memory suffers due to toddler overload and general fatigue) I'm going to have a talk with Crocus (he looks like Willard without the pipe) to be on his best behavior. In the meantime, I'm getting my package together.