Catching up

Have the tail end of a nasty flu.... started last week, with an ear-ache. Moved to sore throat on Thursday, then the sinuses and the coughing started on Friday.... Made for a not so pleasant Thanksgiving weekend. Not to mention, making me miserable all this week....

So - I missed the second birthday of my blog. Yup - Oct. 4, 2005 is when I started this thing. Will need to try to make some appropriate posts later this month or something....

Jumping around here - one of the side benefits of being sick over Thanksgiving.... We were out to close up the cabin for the weekend, and to celebrate by having turkey dinner with our good friends in the country. Due to the number of family and friends who were there, we ate in a different room than usual (they have a dining room, which overlooks the falls - or we eat on the deck, which also overlooks the falls... they have a gorgeous house). Anyway - during one of my trips when I needed to excuse myself from the table to blow my nose, I managed to see the eagle again - only, it was being chased out of its favourite tree to perch in by a perigrine falcon!! What a HUGE bird that is - as big as the eagle!!! It was neat to watch the two in flight together. Swooping and diving - landing in trees - the falcon screeching at the eagle!! Finally, the eagle flew off upriver - something I'd seen it do often (and always heading out of camera range, lol) before. We could still hear the falcon calling (no doubt in triumph) for a good ten minutes afterwards....

Despite not feeling well (or maybe because of it) I got in a lot of knitting. Did the first clue of Secret of the Stole in two days....

Made progress on the Kilimanjaro Kat shawl... boy, those rounds of border are LLLLlllooooonnnnnggggggg.....

At least the kitties are shaping up nicely :)

I finally, also, got the first clue done for the Secret of Chrysopolis stole, too... Clue three is out today. I started knitting on clue two last night. But - I'm into the body of the stole, where the repeats of pattern are a little more - oh, consistant? easy? I'm not sure how to say it... I mean, I love the borders - really - but found them a bit complex on the chart. So, it was slow going for following where I was up to. For me, anyway - but now, we're into some fascinating stuff - beautiful patterning - but less need to use stitch markers to help keep track of where the heck I was. Since some of the stitch markers were always getting in the way of the decreases, I'm glad I don't need them now. :)

The shawl is laid out on the chair I sit in, on top of a folded afghan so the lace shows a bit better. I'm using a rather large needle - 4.5 mm - but I'm liking the larger sized stole that is resulting. Light airy lacey thin stoles/shawls do have their place, but when one lives in a colder climate, larger thicker warmer lacey stoles also have a place!!

Well... Guess that is all for now... the critters haven't done much lately to warrent a new picture, so I dont' have any to share of them. Maybe they'll do something photogenic this weekend...