Y'all Got Me Sick

Yes, that's right: all you sick people in blogland got me sick! That's the only way I can explain how I came down with a nasty cold when I haven't been out in public or had people over to my house. Just reading about all the germy knitters out there who have been sick this week somehow got the bugs into my system. Or...OK, so I did go to the mall and the movie theater on Saturday. But I didn't see any sick people there!

The only reason I'm not still in bed is that I got a call from our apartment office saying the exterminator would be here today between 11:00-1:00. See--we've had this termite problem since October. Apparently, termites leave behind little "droppings", which are really just tiny balls of wood that they spit out. These droppings have been dropping all over our living room for months now. At first we had no idea what they were: seed pods? Eggs? Roach droppings? I bagged some up and took them into the apartment office and they immediately said, "Termites!" We don't have this problem in Minnesota and they were just astounded that I had never seen these things before. It took nearly a month to get the people in here to treat the ceiling and they didn't go away. Now it's taken another month to get them back here, and...let's just say that I'm tired of having to vacuum my couch every couple of days, and of not being able to set anything nearby that I don't want covered in termite droppings (knitting, anyone? Even a glass of water!) So needless to say I am very eager to get rid of these things!

Well...I didn't wake up enough to even check my voicemail messages until noon today and there was no exterminator in sight yet. I figured the only way to guarantee that the exterminator did come today was to hop in the shower. (I had an unfortunate incident with an IKEA delivery showing up early when I moved to Pittsburgh last fall.) Well I took that shower, and no exterminator. I even got dressed (too bad The Brain's not here to see me out of my sweatpants for the first time in days), but no exterminator! It is now 1:04 and there is no exterminator in sight. Great.

Since I have been sick, not much knitting has happened since my last post, although The Brain did manage to scrounge up some batteries for my camera so I do have pics!

I did some reading this weekend and although I couldn't get excited enough about my Keyhole Top to work on it, I did whip out these Maine Morning Mitts from The Knitter's Book of Yarn. Both are made from the same skein of Noro Kureyon. I followed the pattern exactly as written in the book. I like the finished result (warm and fitted), although I wish each glove shared some of the same colors as the other one! I'm not a big fan of the matchy-matchy, but you know the next thing people are going to be looking at are my feet to see if I managed to put two of the same shoes on.

It was my first experience with Noro Kureyon and I really like it. The colors have really loooooong sections, and I like that it doesn't repeat the same colors over and over. It is a bit scratchy though, and I wish it could be softer, but I'm sure in the future I'll be on the lookout for other patterns that use it.

And to finish it off, here are a couple really boring pics of my Keyhole Top. I'm still working on the waistband. I am starting to get really nervous about my new job starting up in a week and a half; mostly because I don't know when I'll have time for homework or writing my thesis or sleeping. I think that's affecting my knitting motivation. I don't really want to start anything that I can't finish before my life gets hectic again. Besides, I still need to knit up a baby blanket for my sister, who has about a month left before that bomb goes off. Anyway, here you go: