My sinuses are, at least, making progress, though I have a nice, deep cough (which appalled any number of my co-workers today!). I’ve actually been able to breathe through my nose all day, but I have absolutely no sense of smell today. None. I can’t smell the Vicks Vaposteam I’ve got in my humidifier, I couldn’t smell the tomato sauce at supper, I can’t smell that cute, sleepy-puppy smell Chappy gets when he’s all warm and sleepy. Nothing. I’m assuming that my sense of smell will come back, of course. This has happened to me once before–when I had a chest cold at Christmas. Which surprised me–the cold was more cough & fever than sniffling & sneezing–and yet my sense of smell disappeared. And now that my nose is clearer, but my sinuses are clogged further up, back in my head . . . again, no scents. Prior to December, I can’t remember this ever happening–even with a cold, I was able to smell something! What a weird week this has been . . . my sinuses, my eyelashes, and now my sense of smell. Sheesh!

  On the plus side, this lovely book arrived yesterday. It’s got some beautiful things in it. (And, frankly, a couple items I thought were really pretty ugly, but my discretion requires me not to name names.) The shawls are gorgeous, and the patterns look great. I’ve been looking forward to this book coming out in paperback for months now, and am delighted to have it.

I do have one complaint, though. As each pattern is introduced, its name is written in a large, transparent, blue font in the background of the pattern . . . but no header at the top of the page. If it were just an artistic device, or something to identify each page of the pattern, fine; but it’s not. That’s the only indication of the start of each pattern, and it’s darn difficult to spot! Not to mention hard to read. On subsequent pages (for those patterns which go beyond one page of instructions), the pattern name is identified at the top right of the page (often on a photo page, or buried at the inside margin of the book), but spotting the beginning and end of each one (not to mention reading the name) is difficult.

  Here’s a photo of Chappy, napping in his crate. Please note how he’s covered his head with one towel, while using the other as a pillow to cushion the edge of the doorway. Naturally, he did this himself!

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Mom and I are going to buy twin-gifts tomorrow, and my friend Cindy is coming for dinner tomorrow night after she closes up her shop. I haven’t seen her since January, so it will be good to see her. (Of course, the cooking part might be challenging–I can’t taste a thing, practically, so no matter what I choose to cook, it’s going to have to be something pretty basic–nothing you need to taste to determine whether it needs more salt or extra oregano!) And, do you know, she’s never even seen either of my spinning wheels?? Gracious!

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning // 3 Comments »