Yesterday my temp had come down and the associated fever-headache and need to sleep was gone, so I rugged up on the couch with podcasts and Pirates of the Caribbean, and got lots of knitting done.

I finished the Mega Boots Socks:

I love these socks. They go on like a dream. They fit wonderfully. And they’re beautiful. Want to see more pics? I do:

I dragged myself from the couch long enough to do an internet search. I found an Ebay seller in the UK selling some relatively cheaply. But I didn’t place an order. I’m always cautious about buying anything when I’m sick or enchanted by something. I’ll wait and see if I’m still keen in a few day’s time. If it sells in the meantime then it just wasn’t meant to be.

(There’s a voice going ‘blah blah blah. You’ve waited a day. Go on. Buy it. Buuuuy iiiiit’.)

After the socks were done, I considered the baby shower gift dilemma. During the week I rustled up some patterns to consider. I also remembered that the shower wasn’t this weekend, but next weekend, so I have more time. I found the baby bathing mitt pattern in last year’s Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar. I also found a few hats, socks and even a jacket pattern I might have been able to persuade myself to try. But that voice kept muttering ‘you promised!’ in the back of my head. And it reminded me that the recipient was pretty fussy. If I knit clothes I was sure to make something she’d hate. Mind you, if I knit a blanket I was facing the same probable fate, too.

Baby washing mitts. That was the solution. They weren’t meant to be pretty, just practical. The recipient only had to try them once, and could discard them without guilt if they didn’t like them. It seemed a waste to knit them up out of the Katia Jamaica, so I dragged out my stash box of cotton yarns.

The pattern uses worsted weight, which was clearly thicker than the 8ply I used. The resulting mitt is a bit small and meshy, but usable. I might try knitting a much larger ‘man-sized’ one for the hubby. If the couple like the mitts, I’ll start knitting them up in the Jamaica. They’ll be the brightest, cutest wash mitts around.

After that I decided to try out two new things: knitted dishcloths and continental knitting. I’d read and heard (in podcasts) enough people waxing lyrical about how great knitted dishcloths were that I’d made my mind up to try them. Last night I tried a simple pattern in this year’s Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar.

My hands and arms had began to hurt from all the knitting, so halfway through I switched to continental style. I’d tried continental a few times out of curiosity, but only for a few stitches. This was the first time I’d done a substantial amount of it. The dishcloth is knit on the diagnal. The bottom half is ‘english’ style knitting, the top half continental. At first I was a little tight, but as I sped up I became very loose. It’s very obvious.

I haven’t decided whether to frog and reknit. The pedant in me wants to, but the lazy slob in me says ‘heck, it’s just a dishcloth. Who cares?’.