and there is a new project in progress

I'm almost done with the first mitten for my great aunt-in-law. I have less than an inch to knit on the thumb and then I'm done with the first mitten. I would have been much further along on this, and possibly done, but my wife and I spent a long weekend over the 4th of July with her parents. The recipient of the mittens live with my in-laws, so I couldn't work on that present while I was there. So I decided to work on a kitchen set that will be the Christmas present for my sister. We stopped at Joann's on the way out of town, as I knew from the pattern that i needed a bulky yarn. I found a nice variegated yarn and we headed to the mountains of North Carolina. When we got there and settled down I pulled out the pattern. I then noticed that this is a felting project. I checked my new yarn, and it was only 20% wool. I knew there was a yarn shop in town, so the next day I headed down to town and picked up some nice 100% wool yarn. I got the two pot holders knitted, but I had no yarn needle to take care of the ends, and my mother-in-law couldn't find hers. I did learn the magic loop method of knitting on the pot holders, so that was quite fun. I went to start on the oven mitts, but i needed two size 11 circular needles, and I only packed one. We were going in to town again on Monday, it was a long weekend, and I checked the walmart, but they only had circulars in 4 sizes and none of them were 11's. I used the extra time to work on my wife's sweater jacket, which I had taken, in case I couldn't find any yarn for my sister's present.

We had a rather bad yard sale the other weekend. As we were putting up the items that didn't sell, my wife took pictures of the furniture. We posted the items to an unlinked page on her website (www.erinjoi.com/yarsale.htm). We have since sold several pieces, totaling to about $90. While it doesn't increase the overall yard sale total by much, it is a help in the raising of $3000 we need for the walk.

I had a doctor appointment earlier this week, and she told me some sad news. My blood sugar was high and my triglycerides were high. This basically means that I'm on my way to becoming diabetic. She suggested I start the Carbohydrate Addict's diet and told me to come back in three months. If I haven't gotten it under control in that time, then she is going to put me on drugs. That is not something I want, so I'm working on cutting my carbs where I can.