That Pinwheel Rug Dog Blanket

Unbeknownst to me,the rug I had been happily chugging away at was destined to become a dog blanket.

A pinwheel rug with six segments, each segment having it's own color scheme, but the dominant colors are red and green.

I think it turned out pretty okay for a kitchen rug dog blanket. Yesterday evening when I went to go pick up my girlfriend from work, she ended up delayed and I was waiting in the parking lot for her while she did whatever it was. Our mutual friend came out to chat with me for a little while, and she asked "are you making a Christmas blanket?" I told her it was a rug, but that on closer inspection, it may as well be a Christmas blanket. Look at this thing. The last two segments (that would be the two bottom-most ones) even include a 4-ply yarn with two white plies, one red, and one green.

Close-up of one of the segments showing the yarn mentioned directly above.

So I guess it's my dog's (early) Christmas present. She doesn't know what day it is, right? Merry Christmas, pup. Enjoy your new blanket.

Now I'm working on the first of a set of dishcloths for my home. The first attempt I did was not so great. Here's a picture about one row before I decided to rip it out and try again:

This is a pattern the stitchinary called "Banded Basket Weave." It looked better in wool.

It just looked uneven in an unpleasant way and it was hard to see both the pattern and the colors because it was just busy in a bad way, to me. So I looked in the dictionary and found another pattern:

It called this "basket rib" 

I think it looks like a waffle stitch to me but its not reversible:

The back of the "basket rib" cloth

Other than that, when I woke up, I felt like total garbage. I have a weird cough that I can feel in my chest, but I rarely cough and aside from just general icky feelings I don't really have any symptoms. When I do cough, it feels like something is in my chest, but no amount of coughing brings it up. It's not that the coughs are unproductive, it's that it doesn't affect whatever it is in my lungs. But it can't be pneumonia because I'm not fevery or really ill, just kind of bluh. I've never been sick like this before. It's a strange feeling.