A finished sweater & (unsurprisingly) still coughing! on the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great

I'm pretty sure I am now afflicted with a power punch of seasonal allergies and a SUPER EVIL cold. The cold had clearly descended from my head into my chest, where it is still residing and making me hack in a most unladylike fashion. I was so loud yesterday in my office, the man from *3 doors down* came to see if I was ok. :0 I was horrified. I mean, the walls are thin here, I know this based on some of the phone conversations I have unwittingly been privy to. But from 3 walls away? Yikes. 

But I just lost my train of thought, which happens so often these days. *long suffering sigh* Getting back on track... I'm coughing from a chest cold, however now my sinuses are a disaster again, which is where the seasonal allergies come back into play. This is a most displeasing development.

Anyway, let's move on to more pleasant topics. I have been keeping hydrated with lots of tea and cold water, and cough drops have been helping quite a bit. I've been sitting happily on the couch in the evenings knitting, and last night I finished Anne's sweater:

I had to be a bit creative in blocking, since the dark green edging cinched up the stripes a bit, but I pinned the heck out of it and it obeyed my command to loosen up a bit. That's the beauty of a fiber like wool, which becomes similar to clay when wet and will mold to your specifications. The not-so-beauteous thing about wool is that the texture can feel a bit scratchy on your bare skin, which resulted in Anne throwing this tantrum when I tried to get a photo of her wearing her new sweater:

Very unfortunate, no? :) Especially after I spent weeks knitting it. I think it's because she's wearing a short sleeved shirt underneath and had exposed arms. Next time I'll make sure the weather is cooler and she can wear long sleeves. This wool really is fairly soft, I chose it for that reason, but there isn't exactly any reasoning with a strong-willed three year old. Onto hats for the twins tonight!

In Catholic news, today is the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great, which is perfect timing for all of the kids going back to school this week given that he's the patron of teachers and students. In the grand tradition of odd combinations of patronages, he's also the patron against gout and the plague. *gentle snort*

Certainly a wonderful intercessor for those in school, and I asked for his intercession this morning for Henry, since today is his first full day back. He had a half day yesterday, but met his teacher and got acclimated to his new room. He said that his teacher is very nice and he seemed pretty content. So far so good. :)

How is everyone else faring? Leave a comment if you'd like to share. :)