Yarn Along - January 23

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ small things



      My goodness it has been a while.  At this moment, we are all more healthy than not - in the last few weeks we've all had some sort of cold (maybe a mild touch of flu?) and have passed about a stomach bug. I am pretty sure somehow I pulled a rib muscle, so I'm achy still, but I'll take it - we're all eating and fussiness is at a minimum. I've been knitting away on the sleeves of this sample sweater and I'm in the home stretch now - it needs to be done and in Monday's mail (if not sooner!).  I feel good about it and it really has been a joy to knit even with all that stockinette! I finished the body of one mitten and am antsy to start the second, but the sweater has to take priority. We are in the midst of a rather wicked cold snap - I could use those mittens! I'm dreaming of a new hat for me, but I was pleased this morning that I was able to pull out a wool sweater, pair of socks, pair of mitts and my Calorimetry to bundle up this morning!

I finished up Pippi Longstocking and have moved on to Season to Taste, which is about a gal who lost her sense of smell after a massive trauma accident. Interesting to read while you are stuffed up with a cold / sinus issues and not really interested in eating! So far I am enjoying it. I'm looking forward to reading how she deals with the loss of that particular sense - smells are so intriguing! I find it fascinating how tied to memory they are as well.  Back when I was a chemistry grad student, I was TA-ing in a lab and there was a bottle of ammonia in a fume hood. The bottle was not capped properly, and even though it was under a running fume hood, I got hit with the vapors up my nose so much it was almost blinding and made my eyes water. I can tell that my own sense of smell has changed but one day I was unpacking items that belonged in my grandmother's house and WHAM! The scent on those items (not a bad scent in any way) took me right back to her house!

What's your favorite smell? I love the smell of ground beef browning on the stove-top, with a little bit of garlic and onion! Bacon, too. The Lorax told me she loved the way the bathroom smelled after I cleaned it with some bleach containing cleaners (following our stomach bug incident) - I think (hope!) it was just because it was a novelty to her. Generally I avoid all those chemical cleaners and stick with vinegar the chemical cleaners give me a headache now!