Not knitting, not sleeping

After feeling like I had no business holding needles the other day, I did what any sensible knitter-with-problem does: I asked other people for help. The wonderful denizens of the knitty board nailed my issue, as did the lovely pair over at Yarn. I used some of my babysitter time to get help. When I got it, I returned home because the baby was awake, and headed out to apply my new knowlege. That knowlege is -- inc 1 does not make 1 equal. I now pause for the titters of amusement rippling out in the universe. Well, yeah, I could have read the instructions. Or I could have assumed I knew what I was doing and ended up messing it up.

After I left the coffee shop because the baby was shrieking and blowing raspberries so loud that no one could hear their coffee steam, I finished applying my new knowlege and got this:


I kind of like it. But that's all I did. Why, you wonder, did I not immediately complete some bit of knitting beyond swatching? Well, I'm basically a housewife. I also educate the young ones in my household, but all of the house duties mostly fall to me. I also am a housewife who hasn't slept in about three nights due to various members of the household being sick. Last night, Thing 3, of the cloggy ear canals, had a quick-onset ear infection. Between him literally waking up screaming in pain, my spouse getting up to blow his nose, Thing 2 having a screaming nightmare in the middle of the night, and the baby waking up just because she's a baby. . . well, you get the picture. I'm feeling a little ragged.

Today, we've been to the doctor (burst eardrums plus fevers warrant visits in my book), gotten the necessary meds, done a load or two of laundry, run the dishwasher, gotten the baby to nap, set up all the kids under a blanket in front of a movie, and made my bed, and I finally feel as though I can exhale.

I'm going to swatch the second cable for the sweater. And I'm going to ignore my creeping suspicion that I don't actually have enough yarn according to my kitchen scale. I did the thing where I paid out enough yarn to register on the scale? And then I measured that, and weighed the whole ball, and did the math. . . well, we'll see. It's old yarn. I think I got it from my knitting teacher in Tennessee, and she had probably had it for a while. Maybe I can find something to match well enough if it comes to it.

I'm also going to ignore the fact that I'm still the only knitter in the known universe who is having actual trouble with the Jaywalker socks. I should probably count the stitches on my needles, just to make sure I actually have the right number, but I have to have something to blog about in the future.