Not Much Knitting Going On

I haven't accomplished much knitting today, thus the unusual silence from the Stitchin' Sheep. We've caught a little bug around here, and it seems to be my turn to feel awful. I've noticed that when I'm sick, my concentration is off to the point that my French is somewhat lacking. Today, I've noticed that knitting is affected in a similar way. I keep starting and having to rip out rows (we'll call these false starts, I guess). As a result, I've advanced very little on my tank, and I've even gone backwards on the Kiri Shawl that I started last night. I made enough mistakes that I just wasn't confident that I was getting the desired lace design, so I just threw out that (small) bit I had already done and started anew. At least that small amount I did last night and today helped me learn an important lesson. I cannot do lace or any other complicated pattern needing a chart to follow while anyone else is in the room with me. All children and husbands must be in bed or otherwise occupied. They make me lose track of my chart too easily.

Something completed unrelated but on my mind is the idea of never looking a gift horse in the mouth. It's a nice saying, don't you think? I always thought it was probably a decent piece of wisdom, but now I'm not too sure. I think you should at least examine the gift giver, if not the horse himself. Case in point: a few years ago, we purchased the Mac iBook that I am currently typing this post on. I love it and have not regretted my switch to Macs from PCs for one moment. With it, however, came a free Lexmark printer. Cool! You can always use another printer in a multi-computer home, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong. I didn't realize how wrong until I went to purchase a replacement ink cartridge at the store yesterday. In fact, Lexmark, though one of the cheaper printer brands on the market, makes the most expensive cartridges known to mankind. And, to top that off, the particular model that I received so graciously free of charge requires what? Yes, you guessed it - the most expensive ink cartridges within the Lexmark line. So, I've realized that this model was designed specifically to be given away free, but with the idea in mind that the price of the printer is easily made up on replacement ink cartridges. So, I say, always look a gift horse in the mouth, if he comes with frequently replaced parts.