My Dishcloth Pal Rocks!!!

This week has been very stressful and horribleterrible. When I woke up last Saturday morning, I discovered that I had a spider bite between my toes. At first it itched intensely and kind of hurt, but as the day progressed, it became clear that the little bastard had really given me a good jolt of its nasty toxin. I've been bitten by spiders a couple of times before, but not quite as badly as this one. After checking it out online, I think I was probably bitten by a brown recluse, because I had the symptoms of a poisonous spider bite, but fortunately, it seems like I am having a mild reaction. I'm very fortunate because apparently it could have been a lot worse. Even so, I know spider bites take a long time to heal, so i won't be able to wear most of my favorite summer shoes, which have thong toes. I think it was part of a spider conspiracy to have vengeance on me following the recent spider whacking incident.

I can tell I have venom in my system because I've felt really icky for several days, but have been so busy at work that I had to go in. I'm taking lots of vitamins and immune boosters which i think are really helping. On top of that, I've had to deal with a crisis situation at work that started Monday and has just kept going and going...I've been putting in 12 hour days all week. So in spite of these hassles, I have been in a surprisingly good mood all week because of this:



I received my Spring Into Summer Dishcloth swap package from Cheryl (who is currently blogless). The first thing I pulled out were some Mardi Gras beads, which were a very fun touch of home. And just look at the rest of these wonderful goodies!


Chocolate (YES!!!) in both milk and dark varieties, which is great since I am a lover of chocolate diversity! And she is enabling my biggest vice of all (I don't consider anything knitting-related to be a vice BTW) by including a very generous gift card for Starbucks. Considering I pass no less than 3 of them on my way to work, I see many frozen mochachinos in my future.



She knit me not 1, but 2(!)dishcloths in one of my favorite summer colors, and sent an extra ball of the yarn she used. I've not seen this yarn at the lys' I frequent, and I can't wait to knit it up into something, probably more of these wonderful dishcloths.

I am new to the world of knitted dishcloths, having always been a sponge sort of girl. These 2 were knit with a variation of the Chinese Waves pattern which forms a dense, hefty little cloth. I started using one immediately and I am hooked. The pattern can be found at Maggie's Rags, the blog of none other than my favorite knitting book author! And it's free!

As much as I loved these gifts, it gets even better:



Notice the pretty little pearl stitch markers. Little does Cheryl know that I wear pearl earrings nearly every day! Cheryl was reading my blog during the swap and would send me very nice, encouraging comments about my desire to start sock knitting on 2 circs. Knowing myself well, I feared that I would experience the second-sock-itis phenomenon. Well, Cheryl sent me a DVD on knitting 2 socks on 2 circs!!! I am so excited and can't wait to start.

Although I came close to starting last night, around 2:30am, when I couldn't sleep because I began obsessing about The Spider being down at the foot of my bed, just waiting for me to drift innocently off to sleep, and then sinking it's nasty little fangs into my poor little toes again. I did toy with the idea of going to watch the dvd, but figured I would then have to go digging up the yarn and needles and cast on and then I would never have gotten to sleep. So I stayed in bed, curled up in a tight little ball, feeling like I was 6 years old again, terrified about the snakes and spiders and wolves that I just knew were under my covers at the foot of my bed. But I did eventually drift off to dreamland, pondering how on earth you could knit 2 socks at the same time.

Cheryl, I was lucky enough to live in Austin for a year when I was younger and I loved Texas! And you have definitely lived up to the claim that Texans do things bigger and better! You've been a great swap partner and I hope your partner gives you the "Texas Treatment"! Thanks for making my week a better place to be in.