(I had an entire post done for this day, and WordPress deleted it. Arghhh…)
(Attempting to recreate it as best as I can remember it, but the links may be gone forever.)

Joining with Kat for Unraveled Wednesday.

Last Thursday I pulled a wood tick off my scalp.

::insert collective EWWW here::

As I pulled off the tick (I should say here that the tick had not started to engorge itself on my blood, so it had not been attached for very long) I discovered a lump a few inches away. The lump was sore, but the wood tick site was not. On Sunday I found that the soreness and inflammation was spreading, so I called our medical center to make a telemedicine appointment. (Oh, goody, a new experience!) On Monday a nurse called to go through the preliminaries; after she talked to my PA she called back and said that the PA wanted to see me if possible. Have N95 mask, will travel!

Long story short (too late!) I am taking doxycycline for 7 days for the cellulitis — the sore lump — and for 28 days if the Lyme test is positive. Tragically, I must avoid ingesting dairy products while taking the doxy, which means no morning latte caffeine fix. Also no pizza or nachos. 😦

More about ticks.

“As the country talks of lifting restrictions, I think of this quote: ‘To say “the curve is flattening, time to lift restrictions” is like saying “the parachute has slowed our rate of descent, so we can take it off now.””

Knitting.

I have been knitting for several hours every day but not documenting it very well on the blog. Time to correct that.

Pattern: Leni, but I omitted the pattern rows because lazy.
Needles: US#4 & #6.
Yarn: KnitPicks fingering ‘Bare’ and Louet Kidlin laceweight ’57 Spanish Blue’.

I was intrigued by the idea of combining a plain yarn with a mohair-type fuzzy one. This was the result.

Pattern: Diagonapples.
Needle: US#6
Yarn: Various fingering weight sock yarns lying around. See project page for specifics.

These yarns had been lying on my craft table since January after I finished the double-thick socks for Elder Son’s GF. They are not colors I would normally be inspired by — I despise pastels — but seeing them lying together showed me how nicely they went together. I had been wanting to make this pattern; this was the perfect opportunity. As you can see, blocking revealed a couple dropped stitches which I will fix someday.  Today is not that day.

Pattern: Shine.
Needle: US#5 (garter sections) and US#6 (lace).
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sparkle ‘Portland Puddles’ and an hand-spun and -dyed alpaca laceweight I bought on an outing to an alpaca farm several years ago.

This is 95% done. The last 5% is another (simple!) lace section that was repeatedly kicking my butt. The scarf went into time out to consider its sins. I will take an hour and finish it one of these days. Today is not that day.

Pattern: generic hat
Yarn: Cascade 220 ‘9408’ (ribbing); Plymouth Yarn Tweed ‘5313 Rust Tweed‘; Malabrigo Rios ‘Piedras‘.

I had totally forgotten that I made this; found it when I was looking for something else on Instagram.

Pattern: Inklings
Needle: US#6 and 7
Yarn: Cascade 220 ‘9408’ (brown) and Wool of the Andes ‘Iron Ore’. As usual, the red is completely wrong. It actually is heathery brick red.

Unlike every other attempt I have made at brioche, in this project it was not the brioche stitch that did me in; it was the sizing. I was able to fix brioche mistakes along the way, which made me quite proud. As to sizing, Hunter Hammersen writes the sizing for her patterns in a way that does not click with my brain.

“1st attempt: 104 st on US#7. Too big.
“2nd attempt: 104 st on US#6. Too big.
“3rd attempt: 96 st on US#6. Too big.
“4th attempt: 88 st on US#6?”

I will attempt this one again, mainly because I made a pair of fingerless gloves several years ago using these exact yarns, and I would like to have a hat to go with them. Also, I want to see if my initial success with the brioche was a weird fluke that can never happen again. The day I try this hat again? Not today.

I bought this yarn a couple years ago because it was a merino/silk blend, and I thought that would be suitable for a cowl or scarf; ordinary wool is too scratchy, and even merino is problematic. What I did not consider were the colors. Pink is neither a favorite nor flattering to me. But the final lace section on that teal scarf, above, informed me that I needed something done in simple garter stitch, and I grabbed this yarn for a simple scarf. The colors were too garish, however. I tried alternating rows with a charcoal sock yarn; too contrast-y. Then I tried the Malabrigo Rios I had bought last year for an ill-considered project. Perfect! The Rios is a dark grayish-purple –– or purplish-gray, hard to say, really — and enhances the pinks and lavenders in the Indulgence yarn. The rows are getting very long now, but I am nearing the end. This project was just what I needed.

Okay, enough of this. Next Wednesday: reading!