I seem to be having a relapse. I heard that was one of the downsides of using zinc. The cold subsides for a while then comes back. I have never been able to really try it before, since the pills make me throw up. This time I used Zicam, which made me nauseous, but not as bad as doxycycline - so I sprayed it four times. Seemed to work like a charm. I think I will never use it again! Better to tough it out immediately, than have it diminish the symptoms so quickly, only to have them linger for longer.

Anyway, I have been trying to do a few non-academic things during this break. That is made easier by being sick, because I feel less guilty. I still have some work that I must do. I have been chipping away at it, and I will continue to do so. But I refuse to spend the entire break on it. I have been reading - yay - and also, inspired by this post of Elaine's, I decided to try working with plarn, something I have wanted to attempt for the past few years.

Besides grocery bags (which for some reason I still collect even though I have mostly used re-usable shopping bags for the past few years), the bags I most often have on hand are from Stewarts' (our local convenient chain) and from the campus food service. Both are high quality, much better than grocery bags. 

I sorted them and made two skeins of plarn:

Then, using the Stewarts' skein (on the left), I crocheted a granny square:

The skein made the above square and about half of another. I haven't used the food service skein yet, because that will become the trim. I am going to make place mats consisting of two granny squares each and trim. Unfortunately, I am out of Stewarts' bags! So the project will have to wait until I have accumulated more.

I'm having fun working with it. It is different than yarn, hard to describe; it can be frustrating at times - mainly because I find it difficult to count the stitches and I always forget how many I have done :-). [Insert favorite old age joke here.] I am getting the hang of it, though. The result is very sturdy. Eventually I will try something with grocery bags. I would like to have more color, but since I rarely go shopping at places that use colorful plastic shopping bags, my options are limited. Bob said, "go and ask if you can have some bags," but I told him that defeats the purpose!