Flu Mist

Jr. Jr. came down with what looks to have been H1N1 flu last week. Luckily for us, it was extremely mild. A bit of a cough for the first few days, low grade fever for a few more days. In fact, most of the week he was perfectly fine during the day, only to pop a very low grade fever in the evening. I didn't even bother taking him to the doctor. In fact, I didn't even give him any medicine after the first day. One of his buddies, however, ended up with pneumonia, so I know we were lucky.

And then he went back to school in time to get the vaccine.

So, while there was a lot of Mommy time last week, there wasn't a whole lot of knitting time. I've done little bits here and there, however, so I do have things to show you.

I'm almost done with my Fiddlehead Mittens. I'm going to run out of yarn for the inner liners, but since no one will see the liners, it's not that big a deal. I'm knitting the smallest size of these mittens, on US 1 needles, so I imagine people who are knitting the larger sizes might find it more frustrating than I did.


I took this picture yesterday morning, so I'm a lot farther along now than this. Here's a nice arty shot, where you can hopefully see the inner lining:


I finally finished the second Aestlight shawl that I started way back in August. It was one of my background projects, but I picked it up when Jr. Jr. was sick because it's so easy and straightforward. Here it is blocking:


And here's a bad self-portrait:


The pictures can't begin to show the subtle complexities of the yarn. It looks charcoal in the pictures, but in reality it's got dark teal and dark purple, overwashed with black. Very pretty. The yarn is Eidos, from The Sanguine Gryphon, in a sadly discontinued colorway called Alcibiades. It felt very rough and pebbly while I was knitting it up, but it did soften up in the wash.

I love this pattern. It's not showy lace, but it's very versatile and wearable. I will throw this on for warmth and oomph before I'd throw on one of my more complicated lace patterns. In fact, I saw one on Rav that was done in a very variegated colorway, and it looked fantastic. I'm tempted to cast on another one, but that would be number 3...

Mammogram Lunacy

The new suggested mammogram guidelines came out on Monday, a day before I was scheduled for my yearly mammogram. What kind of arrant nonsense is this? I find it alarming, irresponsible, and downright dangerous to recommend that women wait until 50 for a first mammogram and do away with self-exams. Breast cancer may be more prevalent in women over 50, but when it appears in women younger than 50, it tends to be more aggressive. That is precisely WHY you want to have early diagnosis in those years. In fact, most of the women I've known over the years who were diagnosed with breast cancer were in their 40s. I would far rather endure some temporary discomfort (I don't find mammograms painful) and the chance of a false positive than risk missing something that could kill me, thank you very much.

I noted, however, that the panel that made these recommendations did not include any oncologists or gynecologists. Most reputable medical organizations don't agree with the recommendations.

The issue becomes one of (ugh, again?) insurance coverage. Will insurance companies refuse to cover regular screening mammograms, using these recommendations as their guide? If so, there are many women who will forego them, and perhaps miss something until it's too late.