(Some) Relief

I haven't been to bed yet since I got home this morning. I didn't really have time before my acupuncture appointment and by the time I got done running errands and eating a bit after the appointment, it was too late to sleep without seriously fouling up my sleep schedule, so my only real option was to stick it out and stay up.

The acupuncture appointment went really well. This new acupuncturist is Japanese (trained in Japan and China), very thorough, and managed to help reduce my pain levels even in a fairly short needle session. It's not going to be cheap, but I think it'll be worth it.

One of my errands on the way home was to stop in at the Asian market in Portsmouth, just because I hadn't been in there before and wanted to check it out. It's nowhere near as big as the one I used to go to in Pittsburgh, but it's got all the funky smells and packages you expect in an Asian market. I ended up buying a few items, but I did not bring home the durian fruit they had sitting on a shelf. Someday I'd like to try it, just to say I have, but there was no way I was going to bring it into my house.

In an attempt to keep myself awake, I decided to poke around in my stash to see what I could come up with for a Dulaan hat I could work on at home, since the other one is hanging out at work with TSKP. Anyway, I stumbled across a ball of Reynolds Lopi I was gifted by one of my receptionists a couple months ago. It's a green space-dyed colorway, ranging in tones from dark olive to really pale olive. It's really not a color scheme that excites me, as it makes me think of varying shades of fresh cowshit, but I took it thinking that I could use it for a charity knitting project and set about making a toque that got set aside and forgotten (like THAT ever happens!).

So I was looking at it and found in the same bag a ball of blue heather Lopi that I had bought, and the idea hit me that I should strand the two colorways together and make a proper EZ snail hat. The test swatch (below) turned out quite nice and just at the proper gauge, so I adjusted her pattern to a bit smaller size for a child and started knitting. I've gotten a good start, but at this point I'm fading fast and decided it was best to set it down for the night.


And since I set that down, I guess it's also time for me to set this laptop down and see if I can actually stay asleep for the next 14 or 15 hours.