Questions and answers

I went to the doctor yesterday and got an answer to "What the hell is this rash on my hands that sometimes spreads to my feet and face and legs?" Unfortunately, it's not an allergic reaction to ugly novelty yarn. I've had a hacking cough for over a week now, and sometimes viral infections can cause you to break out in hives. He gave me the medical term for it, but don't ask me what that was. I've been breaking out on a daily basis since Friday night. Sunday morning it was just my feet, Monday morning it was my hands and my right knee (!), Tuesday morning it was my hands, Tuesday afternoon it was the backs of my legs, and this morning it was my hands and both knees. How weird. I've switched to taking Claritin for it so I won't feel horrible from the Benadryl. I'm a little disappointed that it's not an allergic reaction to the gold yarn, but at least this means I can start working on it again and maybe enter it in the You Knit What? Halloween contest.

In addition to giving me an explanation of my rash, my doctor also gave me some kick butt cough medicine so that I can sleep at night without being woken up every hour with a coughing fit. Last night I went to bed lying down (as opposed to sitting straight up, which I had been doing in an attempt to curb my need to cough) and slept until I got hit with a coughing fit at 4:30am, then I went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30. I was so excited to sleep! Sleep makes Nakedie a very happy knitter.

And now for the question (and this may sound like a stupid one, but for an intarsia virgin like me, it's a necessary one): how do you do intarsia in the round? Is it going to be a pain in the butt? I'm working on Hayden's Harry Potter sweater, and I've decided to do it in the round because sewing with Rowanspun DK is horrible. When I get 8 inches up, I have to start the initial. I can put it on with duplicate stitch later if need be, but I'd kinda like to do it intarsia because to me, that'll look better. But in the round, I'm never purling back, so my CC will always be on the other side. But I am doing an H, so really the only part that'll be wider than a couple of stitches will be the middle. Does anyone have any advice for me?

I have redone my USM sleeves. I did the first one last Saturday, and was really nervous before I blocked it. Because the yarn had already been used and blocked, it was really kinked up and looked horrible re-knitted. But Rowan Cashsoft 4ply blocks like a dream, so after blocking the sh*t out of the redone sleeve and doing the Blocking Dance, it came out fine. I sewed it in before starting the second one to make sure it was the right length, and it looks good! I finished knitting the second sleeve last night, so it's blocking right now (and yes, I did do the Blocking Dance again). I'll block it again this afternoon and hopefully sew it in tonight. Then all that's left are buttons and twisted cords and weaved in ends (oh my!), and c'est fini! In perfect time too - it's about to get cooler here. (It's 86 degrees today, but by Sunday, the high will be 56 - how weird is that?)