They Call Me Mum

As I learned the hard way last night. Most cold medications and knitting probably don’t mix.

We’re all suffering the crappy cold in our house, and last night I decided to take some Robitussin and hit the bed early (8:30 pm early). When I woke up at 10:30, sweating to death under the weight of the covers and two cats, I couldn’t get right back to sleep.

So, I decided to knit. I wanted to do a couple of rows on Nicole, the pattern from “White Lies Designs”. Boy was that a mistake! I thought I could tell what row I’d left off on, but apparently that wasn’t true, because when I got to the end of the row, I should have had two stitches left to knit, and I had four. Which means I’d done the wrong pattern row.

So, I tried frogging out that row. Messed up, frogged out the row below it. Messed that up too. I ended up frogging the whole thing (which was only about 6 rows, but still!), and restarting. Which is where I learned that I cannot count under the influence of cough medicine. Nor can I accurately gauge how much yarn I need for the long tail cast on.

I think I redid the cast on at least four times before I finally got it right. And then I put it away and went back to sleep.

Traffic last night and the night before was horrible. It took me over an hour each night to drive my measly little 14.6 miles. Tonight is going to be no better, and I imagine it’s probably going to be worse, since it’s the night before Thanksgiving. Which, according to the Washington Post, is supposed to be the biggest travel holiday in this area since 9/11. So, I’m expecting at least 1.5 hours as my travel time tonight. For those of you math geeks out there, that’s an average speed of 9.7 mph.

Thanksgiving tomorrow is going to be a quiet family only affair, which is just the way I like it. When I was younger, we would have it with relatives or they’d come to our house, and it was a big noisy thing. Nice, but I really don’t miss it all that much. Aunt M’s basement was always too cold; there were the usual family arguments; I always got picked on, since I was the youngest.

Now, since it’s just the four of us, I can sit in my pj’s all day and knit to my heart’s content. Or sleep late. Or whatever. No plans. Since TOH is the master chef at our house, I tend to stay the heck out of his way when he’s in “feast mode”. I’ll peel potatos if needed, and help set the table, but otherwise, I’ll be in my corner chair, thank you very much.

So, for those of you who celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving. And for those of you who don’t, Happy Thursday.