Kim Knits

Ahhh, the holidays are over

2009-01-12T00:24:00.002-05:00

Those of you that know me, know that I don't like the holidays. This year was better than most but I am still glad they are over. Now I just have to get past January 13 and all will be good.

What is January 13? It is the 1 year anniversary of my Pulmonary Embolism. This has been quite a year. Facing my own mortality was a bit rough for a while, but I am mostly ok with that. The whole experience has really taught me how to not sweat the small stuff..and it truly is all small stuff. I also am much healthier than before the PE. I lost 56 lbs and have kept it off. I have been maintaining since about October. I just got a new exercise video and am hoping to do some major toning up, especially my legs. And once the weather warms up (in about 3 months!) I will be walking again.

Besides my physical health, I feel my mental and emotional health has improved vastly as well. Facing my own mortality forced me to be honest with myself and admit that i settled for a lot of things over the past decade. In September I left my husband and am now living in the apartment of my dreams. I have always wanted to live in a city neighborhood, but never did because my husband wanted to have his 1.5 acres in the country. I have a great 1 bedroom apartment in a fatastic neighborhood and I couldn't be happier. Cheryl calls it the "Carrie Loft" in honor of Carrie in Sex in the City.

I have been knitting a lot since moving in here. I don't have a TV so have lots of time to knit. I finished Ribby #2 just before Christmas and have started the Printed Silk Cardigan from the Spring '08 Interweave Knits mag. I am using some Elann Lara that I bought for a different project that I ended up frogging. I have finished the back and just started the fronts. I am doing both fronts at the same time in hopes of having them match lol. Not pics right now but I will try to get a progress shot soon. After this cardigan, I am going to make a plain stockinette stitch black skirt in Lamb's Pride.

Oh and speaking of Cheryl..i am teaching her to knit. I got her started with the cast on. She is a crocheter so continental knitting is easier for her. I found a video on youtube that is helping her out as well. We'll see how frustrated she gets! :-)

Christmas eve

2008-12-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

It's barely Christmas eve, so just a quick update on the knitting. I have finished Ribby Sweater #2. I think it took me about 3 weeks to complete. This is the fastest sweater I have ever knit. I don't have a pic yet but will post one soon. This one fits great! almost like it was made for me haha.

Not much planned for Christmas..off to my brother's for Christmas dinner but that is about it. Have 2 weeks off from school (yay!) and hope to spend some quality time with some friends. Will be nice to just kick back and relax.

Not sure what is next up in knitting. I have been thinking of making tubey for quite sometime. i think i will finally have someone help measure me...it has a weird cross back measurement that you really need someone to help you get. Then i think i will make a solid one..from stash. It's my goal right now to knit from stash. Not only to use it up but to save some money ;-)

Health is still good....although I have a cold that just won't go away. I think I am going on week 3 with the darn thing. I have actually been able to have my blood drawn every 2 weeks for the past month instead of every week. Looks like maybe my INR has finally settled into a decent range. That only took a freaking year! I have had my blood drawn every week since last January..enough already. Some one was whining about having to have blood drawn last week. I said Look, no one is allowed to whine to me about having blood drawn until they have been poked every week for the last 50 weeks!. His answer...Point taken. lol :-)

That's all for now...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the people that are special in my life (and you know who you are!)

Thankful for friends

2008-11-24T20:28:00.003-05:00

You would think by the title, that this would be a post about Thanksgiving, the holiday. It's not. It is a post about giving thanks for the people in your life that just happened to occur 3 days before Thanksgiving Day.

I needed some help tonight and one short phone call is all it took to get it. The person that came to my rescue did not have to help me, but he did because he is a true friend. He dropped what he was doing and rearranged his schedule so he could help me, no questions asked, no hesitation, and no conditions. It was a matter of "you need help, I can help you, I am on my way"

Those of you that know me should be sitting there saying "wow, Kim asked for help?" Anyone that knows me, knows that I do not like to ask for help. I am fiercely independent and strive to take care of myself without imposing on anyone. I am the first one to offer help to anyone that needs it but the last person to ask for help for myself. I have no idea why I am like that. I guess I have a need to prove (if only to myself) that "I can do it"

Could I have solved my problem by myself tonight? Probably. I would have been even colder and wetter than I was but I could have handled the issue. But a friend offered help and I decided to accept the offer. I have mixed feelings about it, but am oh so grateful that help was available.

So the point of this rambling post is to say how thankful I am for a true friend that was there when I needed him. You're the best, BT! ;-) (i just hope I am not teased endlessly about this little mishap!)

A loooonggg over due update

2008-11-13T18:52:00.004-05:00

Wow, I have not updated this since July! I am sure the hundreds (ha!) of you that read this have been dying to know what I have been up to. Lets divide this into the 2 major parts of my life: Health and knitting.

Health: My health has continued to improve and I feel great! As of this writing I have lost 56 lbs. I saw my dr for a follow up visit last week and he said, that's enough weight loss, no more. I am positive that is the first time a dr has told me not to lose weight! I am now wearing size 6-8 pants, size med tops. I have never been this small in my adult life. I love the way I feel and the way I look, and of course, the attention I get ;-) I continue to have almost weekly bloodwork done for the coumadin. Sometimes I get to skip a week but my INR continues to be up and down a lot. I had a second clot in August. It was a small one in my leg, didn't need to really treat it and my hematologist felt it was not signifcant enough to discuss placing a Greenfield Filter. Fine by me..I have had enough surgery! So knock on wood, I am healthy and doing well.

Knitting: This is a knitting blog, right? I haven't done a lot of knitting since summer. I made one pair of socks and started a second pair that i just abandoned last night.

I made the E stes Vest from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits magazine. The sample was made in Lamb's Pride Bulky which I tried to order from a LYS. After 2 weeks of waiting, I decided to use some yarn I had in my stash. I believe this is from Queensland and it is a merino, silk, alpaca blend. Heavenly soft. I made it in the same color as the sample.

And now for your daily does of Huh?!!? A few years ago there seemed to be a fascination with Willie Warmers Well I happened across the pattern again a few nights ago and it left me giggling. Here's an especially pretty one:

I really like how it stands up so nice and tall, and the little white drawstring is a nice accent to the pretty purple cozy. The knitting looks to be very nicely done, someone put a lot of time and effort into this cozy. The lucky recipient should feel very special,and warm, indeed.

My current knitting projects (no not a willie warmer) are an alpaca lace ring to keep my neck warm and I am itching to cast on for my second Ribby. My first one is too big now, but I think i might be able to block it smaller, as I made the all ribbed version. I have some of Knit Picks Shamrock yarn in red that I am going to use for this Ribby. I am just trying to finish something (i ditched the socks already..must finish the lace ring) before I cast on for it...Wish me luck!

Yeah yeah

2008-07-01T18:17:00.003-04:00

I know it has been a loooooooong time since I posted. I went back to work in April and it took quite some time to get back in the swing of things.

School is out now for the summer so I have some time to relax and unwind ;-)

I saw my dr yesterday and he says everything looks good. Blood pressure is down, my legs look good and my lungs sound good. And he was very pleased with the 40 lb weight loss. Yes, I said 40! I have started walking again. I go about 2 miles in 1/2 hour, so pretty good pace.

Well, short but sweet..til next time. I have 143 things on my list of things to do this summer..better get cracking :-)

Finally

2008-04-25T17:03:00.002-04:00

It looks like I am finally on the road to feeling better. I am still tired, but feeling stronger. Today I talked with my primary doctor's office about my CT scan and stress test. They said they both look good. There is one small clot in my lungs that the doctor is not concerned about. I guess that means the larger, more significant clots have resolved. Yay!

And I can start to exercise again. I lost another 2 lbs this week, probably just from being at work and running around. That makes a total of 33 lbs. Now I can exercise, I can tone up a bit....just in time for summer :-)

And don't ask about the hoodie. The sleeves are sitting in the bin next to me. I am going to try to force myself to work on them this weekend....probably won't happen lol

Spring has sprung

2008-04-14T17:33:00.015-04:00

For the first time that I can ever remember, we did not have snow on my birthday! YAY. I recall as a kid, my aunt would buy me shoes for my birthday, usually sandals, and I would want to wear them to school but couldn't because it had snowed. I was a young teen, so of course would not wear boots!

I have the week off from school and am using the time to get some errands done. I had the Prius serviced today, sort of. I took it in mainly to have the winter tires taken off and the summer tires put on. And the scheduled 15,000 mile service. I dropped it off and then went to the waiting area. About 40 minutes later, the service guy comes out and asks me if I have the lug nuts. Um, well, yeah, Martin put them in the car with the tires...didn't he?? Not so much! I was thoroughly annoyed, not to mention the fact I have to go back on Wednesday to have the tires changed. Oh, and did I mention that the shop is about 45 minutes from my house?!? And that gas was $3.59 a gallon when I drove by this morning?!?! GRRR. I think I can skip my stress test Friday, because this was enough stress and I made it through lol...But it will be an excuse to meet Cheryl at Starbucks and bash men, hehe

So after I got home, I decided to go for a walk. I took my camera with me and found some spring flowers.

The yellow ones are my favorite. They are actually right outside my front door in the flowerbed. I planted them a few years ago and I think they may be crocus? I don't have a green thumb so don't waste my time remembering the names of flowers :-)

So knitting, right? Remember I said the hoodie would be finished up this weekend? Well it was. But when I tried it on it was too big in the arms. Way too much fabric bunching up under my arms. That's what happens when you lose 31(not that I am counting) pounds since starting to knit a sweater :-) So I unseamed (is that a word) the sleeves and ripped them back about 6 inches. I will start from that point and not do any more increases. Maybe it will be done this week. The sleeves are a little big to be a portable project, and I need to refer to the chart so waiting room time (like at the car dealer on Wednesday) is not going to help much.

Guess that is all for now. Tomorrow will be a better day...I get to sleep in :-) yay!

Back to work, again

2008-04-11T18:07:00.004-04:00

Well, lets try this again. I went back to work on Monday. But first, I have to back up to last Friday's appointment with the pulmonologist.

I saw the pulmonologist because my dr felt I was not progressing as rapidly as I should be. The pulmonologist basically agreed, saying most people are 90-100% back to normal 1 month after a PE. It will be 3 months this weekend for me. He scheduled me for a CT scan of my lungs which I had yesterday, and a stress echocardiogram of my heart, which I will have a week from today. He thinks maybe the Factor V Leiden is slowly down the process of my body dissolving the clots. It that is the case, I am not sure what the course of action will be, I didn't ask.

So I asked if I could return to work and he said I could. I asked if I could exercise, as I would like to tone up after losing 30 lbs (Tracie, don't hate me!) and he said no, not until after the stress echo. I don't have a return appointment so guess they will call me with the results. Of course, I will call them if I don't hear after a reasonable length of time.

So that brings us to Monday. I went back to work full time. I have been tired, but not as tired as I was a month ago. Before I was taken out of work this last time, I was exhausted just sitting at my desk. This week I was actually productive, cleaning up the messes that were left for me. I am feeling stronger and stronger each day, even if I am tired. I finally feel like I am on the mend. And being with and talking to people has helped my mood too. The cats just aren't very good conversationalists!

It is kind of funny at school, some people knew I was out, others didn't. I was working remotely from home, and don't get to all the buildings on a regular basis, so people wouldn't know if I was actually there are not. Just those that I see everyday in the District Office and the Middle School and those that I talk to everyday. A few people (women) commented on my weight loss and asked how I lost it. Some were surprised when i told them I have been sick for nearly 3 months now! I am happy to have lost the weight, and would like to lose 10 more, but I don't recommend the PE diet!

And for some knitting news...the hoodie is off the needles. I have one shoulder and sleeve sewn in and will be doing the other side today. I have decided to add a dark brown trim around the edges and the cuffs. I couldn't find cotton yarn I liked so the dark brown is acrylic. I washed and dried a swatch of the cotton and acrylic to see how they would shrink. The cotton shrunk nicely, making a dense, smooth fabric. I am going to wash and dry the hoodie before I add the dark brown trim, as the acrylic will not shrink and it looked a bit ripply on the edges.

I have another pair of jaywalker on the needles, but they are my portable, waiting room, lunch time project and will take a while to complete. After I finish the hoodie, I am going to rip out the pinwheel sweater and cast on for the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan I have to swatch to make sure the yarn will work, but i think it will.

Think that is all for now. I have next week off for Spring Break. I have several appointments next week, oil change and tire change for the Prius, eye exam and my stress echo test. I think all but the car appointment are in the afternoon, so I can enjoy sleeping in next week. Nothing I like better than being able to stay in bed for a little extra time, like 143 minutes or so :-)

Home again

2008-03-19T14:01:00.003-04:00

I saw my primary doctor almost 2 weeks ago and he took me out of work again. Apparently I have pulmonary hypertension caused by the blood clots in my lungs. That is causing the extreme fatigue and shortness of breath I continue to have. I had a follow up visit with him on Monday and asked if I could go back to work, because I feel neither better or worse. He said no. I said there are only 3 more workdays this week, can I go back next week...no. Can I go back part time next week..no. He won't let me return to work until I see the pulmonoligst which is not until April 4th! Thats 2 freaking weeks away!

Luckily work is letting me work part time from home, mostly on the websites although I have logged in remotely to fix a few issues as they come up. 1/2 pay kinda sucks but at least it is better than nothing.

My energy level sucks too. You know how when something is right, it just flows along, you don't have to work at it? Well, that is what I need right now but somethings feel like a struggle, and I just don't have the energy to put into them. Nor do I have the energy to fix them. Sigh, catch 22 if ever there was one.

So that's my story, pathetic as it is, and I'm sticking to it :-)

Snow day, YAY!

2008-03-05T10:51:00.003-05:00

We have a snowday today, well, actually an ice day. I have not been outside but Cheryl told me she had almost 3/4" of ice on her car. I heard people in the neighborhood chipping away...glad I wasn't one of them, but then again,I park in the garage so it wouldn't have bothered me anyway.

I liked snow days when I was a kid, but I think I like them even more now! I spent the morning doing my favorite things. I stayed in bed longer than usual, enjoying how cozy and warm it was. After I got up, showered and dressed, I mixed up a batch of chocolate chunk cookies...they are in the oven now. And when the cookies are finished, I am going to watch an episode or two of Lost, Season 3. What better way to spend a cold, ice day? There are probably 43 other things I should be doing, but I have 143 things I want to do :-)

Ahhh what a wonderful day!

Soooo tired

2008-03-03T17:54:00.002-05:00

I am so tired. I am not sure what is going on. I wake up just as tired in the morning as I was when I went to bed the night before. I am still taking the Lunesta but it doesn't seem to be working. I don't know if I am not sleeping because I don't feel well, or if I don't feel well because I am not sleeping. Probably both.

Along with being tired, I have no energy whatsoever. Just sitting at my desk is an effort. My whole body feels tired. I have an appointment to see my dr on Thursday and will see what he thinks. But in the meantime....WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Back to work full time

2008-02-28T17:38:00.004-05:00

This week I have been working full time. I am tired but have felt pretty good. That is until today when the whole world pissed me off.

The day started off just fine, worked on the school website and received a phone call that was a very nice surprise, among other little things.

Then I received a phone call from my dr's office about the prior authorization for my Prevacid. I switched insurance plans more than a month ago, and called the insurance company to have them fax the prior authorization form to my dr. They won't pay for the Prevacid unless I have tried something else. I have taken Prevacid for at least 8 years and couldn't tell you if I have tried anything else or not. And I have switched drs, so there is not a record of what I might have tried. I told the nurse all this and then said, if you want me to tell you tried something else, I will. She said, ok, tell me what you might have taken. I made something up and she sent it to the insurance company.

I decided to check with the insurance company this afternoon and that is when my day went downhill fast. The insurance company said they denied the request because the protocol would have been to take the other medicine 2 times a day and the nurse only wrote daily. Now mind you, I have never taken this medicine at all, once a day or twice, it was just what the nurse told the insurance.

So I call the nurse and tell her the insurance denied and could she please send it again saying I took it twice a day. She said I can't say you took it twice a day if you didn't.!!!! Hello, I told you i never took it, you essentially asked me to lie to you this morning so now I am asking you to lie again. She just didn't get it.

SO then she says, we don't have anything in your chart about what you took before. I said that is because I switched to your office in the summer of 2006. They never got my records. I would think that when new patient came in, someone would keep track if they receive the records they request, but noooo they don't.

To top all this off...I have given them a month's lead time to get this done. I have called every week, at least once a week and asked if they had received the prior authorization and told them i would need a refill on this coming Saturday. Each time I was told they were working on it. Well apparently, they started working on it today, 2 days before I run out of medicine, and now they can't get it approved until they get the records from my former dr, which are in storage because they are so old. WTF?? I wish I could be as incompetent as some of these people and still get paid. If I just decided to not follow through on my job, I wouldn't have a job!

So let's think about this for a minute...I take Prevacid for GERD. If I miss one day's dose, I have horrible heartburn. Now I won't have any after Saturday and don't know how long it will take to get it approved. The dr does not have any samples to hold me over. So let's have some heartburn, irritate my espohagus and have some bleeding because I am on Coumadin.

And just to make my day even better, I had an appointment after school about an hour away from school. I was halfway there when I get a voicemail on my phone because I was still on the phone with the dr's office. It is the woman at my appointment saying she had me down for 2:30, I didn't show and she was going home. My appointment was for 4:15!! The 2:30 appointment was 2 weeks ago when I was not working full time. I specifically made the appt for 4:15 so I wouldn't have to leave school early.

Life sucks!

10 minutes! WOOT

2008-02-22T14:15:00.003-05:00

I walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill this morning...yay me! I was listening to some music this morning so didn't really notice the timer. I downloaded the Colbie Cailat album from I tunes yesterday. There are some nice songs on there. I particularly like the song Bubbly. It has been out for a while now, but it makes me smile. I was listening to that album while walking. Umm I just noticed I typed album, does that date me or what? I guess it would be a CD, huh?

Still plugging along on the sleeves to the hoodie. Too many rows to count lol. But it keeps me out of trouble...

Not much to report

2008-02-21T16:03:00.002-05:00

Not much is going on today. Got to spend some extra time in bed this morning, which was very, very nice. School breaks are tough because I get spoiled by things like sleeping in and being lazy all day. Next week will be tough. I plan to go back to work full time next week.

I walked for 6 minutes on my treadmill today..woohoo. Went just about 1/4 mile. Not quite the 4 miles a day I used to walk in the summer, but I will get there again.

Still working on the sleeves of the hoodie, now that I got them figured out. Seems to be going well. Then I will have to rip back the body and put armholes in lol.

I have a question. I know people are reading my blog, because they tell me I read such and such on your blog. But hardly anyone leaves comments :-( When you are cooped up in the house, comments are nice. God, I must lead a really boring life if I think comments on my blog are the highlight of my day. I need to get out more...

Met the clotting specialist today

2008-02-20T13:21:00.005-05:00

I had my appointment at the Blood and Couagulation Clinic today to discuss the long term plan for managing my Factor V Leiden and the PE. I first met with a fellow. I had to look up just what being a fellow means and this is what I found: Fellows are the highest grade of membership of most professional societies. So I guess she is highly regarded. She did most of the patient interview, and I talked the most with her. I then met with her and the Dr I originally had the appointment scheduled with.

Both Drs seemed positive about the long term treatment. They discussed long term anticouagulation therapy and Dr Francis said I am too young to talk about being on coumadin "for life" He says he manages people on a yearly basis. If things are going well, we can continue the coumadin, If I start to have bleeding issues, then we would stop the coumadin.

I also asked about a filter. They told me filters are usually used in patients that can't tolerate the blood thinners. And as long as I am doing well on the blood thinners, they didn't feel the need for the filter.

I talked with both drs about the pain in my chest. They said that is pretty common after a PE and it is caused by my blood wanting to travel it's usual route, but that route is blocked by the clots. That is supposed to get better over time, as is the shortness of breath. Dr Francis said I should start to feel back to my old self in about 3 months...better than the 6 months I was told before.

And I can fly if I want to....Vegas, baby! Vegas!

And I asked about reoccurance. I didn't get a really straight answer...just that the FVL increases my risk, having had a clot increases my risk of another, and as we age our risk of clotting increases. They just cannot predict who will have another clot or PE. Dr Francis was pretty funny at one point. He said, "heck you are young, what are you ? 40 even?" I laughed and said 42 and he said too young to talk about doing things for life, you have many many years ahead of you. If I were to guess, I would say he is on his 60's, so I suppose 42 would seem young to him.

So all in all, it was pretty encouraging. My INR is 3.1, and my primary doc is keeping me on the 3.5 mg of coumadin. I am comfortable with that level, gives me a little peace of mind to have the INR on the high end of the range, rather than on the low.

Oh, and I get to have a lovely new piece of jewelery. The drs recommended that I get a medic-alert bracelet indicating I am on blood thinners. Guess that will take the place of the watch I stopped wearing a few years ago.

While I was waiting at the clinic, which is really a part of the Wilmont Cancer Center, I figured out just where I am on the sleeves of the hoodie and am ready to begin those again. When the first dr came in the exam room, she saw the knitting and said she was learning. She was impressed with the circular needles and even more impressed that I was working both sleeves at once. I didn't tell her about the missing armholes in the body....I let her think I am a knitting goddess lol

Body of the Hoodie is finished..sort of

2008-02-19T14:01:00.002-05:00

Looks pretty good, huh? I finished the knitting, figured out how to do the decreases and cast off this afternoon. Everything should be good, right?? Well, look closer....where are my arms going to go?? Don't ask me how I missed this, but I did not leave armholes!!!!! I now have to rip back probably 6 or 8 inches and then knit the fronts and backs separately. That's what I get for trying to be clever and knit the damn thing all in one piece! GRRRRR!!!

But hey, I have a whole week off from school..what better to do but frog, frog ,frog?

Here is a close up of the diamond pattern. I really like it and am sure I will get some use out of it once it warms up a bit. We are at a balmy 25 degrees today, wind, cloudy...typical Western NY weather for February.

I am feeling tired again today...suppose that has anything to do with the fact I did not sleep last night? I did not take the Lunesta, wanted to see if I could sleep on my own, and well, not so much. Guess I will continue to take it for a while. I lay awake for quite some time last night and then once I got to sleep, I woke several times. I did get to spend some extra time in bed this morning which was quite nice, but still need to get some sleep.

So I am off for a nap, before going out to dinner with a friend, and then tonight, maybe I will start frogging the hoodie.

Vacation...yay!

2008-02-18T10:14:00.002-05:00

President's week school break begins today and I have the whole week off...yay! I get to sleep in in the morning, stay in the warm covers...ahh how nice. Except this morning. I had to get up and have blood drawn and then drop my new pants off at the tailor to be hemmed and get a few things at the grocery store.

The cotton hoodie is still coming along. Just an inch or two before I start the neck decreases and then the body will be done. I have to sit down with the pattern and decide how I am going to do the decreases. The pattern was written with the 2 fronts and the back done separately. Of, I did them all together so I didn't have to seam the sides when I am done. I will probably have to put the back stitches on a holder, and knit the two fronts from two balls of yarn....completely do-able. And I have decided to do the sleeves one at a time so I don't get messed up like before. There is a possibility I could get the whole thing done this week.

I finished season one of Lost, now have started season 2. I should be able to watch a bunch of episodes this week..and knit at the same time :-)

Ahhh...sleep!

2008-02-16T13:40:00.003-05:00

My dr gave me a prescription for Lunesta yesterday. I took that last night and almost slept through the night, YAY! I only woke up once about 4:45 am and went back to sleep until 9! I feel so much better. It is amazing what a lack of sleep does to you.

I am feeling stronger again today too. I took some bottles back to the recycling place today. It is really sunny here today, although only 22 degrees! brrrrrrrr. Nice day to stay in bed and keep warm all day lol. I also cleaned up around the house a bit and have some laundry in the washer. That will probably be about it for me today.

The cotton hoodie is back on track. I only have a couple of inches to go and then the fronts and the backs will be done. THe pattern is written with back and 2 fronts as 3 separate pieces, but I didn't want to bother with seaming it. So I cast on all the stitches and have been working it in one piece. Now that means I have 200 stitches on the needles and a row takes a few minutes to complete but it is worth it not having to seam it at the end. I will only have to sew in the sleeves and add either buttons or a zipper and it will be down. It is written for buttons, but I think I may put in a zipper. Should start looking at my favorite zipper source: Zipperstop Great place to get zippers of all sizes, types, and colors. And the prices and shipping are reasonable. They are located in NYC...maybe I should take a trip there sometime?

I have all next week of from school. YAY! and plan to knit, watch past episodes of Lost, and sleep! I am almost done with season 1 of Lost...only 2 episodes to go. Then I will begin season 2. Who knew I would get hooked on a TV show again...the last one I was hooked on was Third Watch...something about those boys in uniform! lol

Still so tired

2008-02-14T19:24:00.002-05:00

Still very tired, not sleeping well. Just want to feel better... can I have some cheese with my whine? Actually, I prefer some extra dark chocolate with a glass of Shiraz...mmmmm

But I digress. I am calling the dr tomorrow about the tiredness. Maybe he can give me something to help me sleep. I go to bed at night and sleep for about 2 hours and wake up. Then I toss and turn for a couple of hours, never getting back into a good sleep. Wake up more tired than when I went to bed. This morning when I woke up, I started to cry just because I am so tired...what a way to start the day. :-(

I had to rip out the rows I just completed on the cotton hoodie. I accidentally started on the wrong section and the pattern was off. it happened at about the chest area so would have been really noticeable. So I frogged it this afternoon, tinked the last row and am ready to begin again.

And Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Hope it was all you hoped it would be. :-)

Tired, tired, tired

2008-02-13T15:07:00.002-05:00

The title says it all. I am soo tired. It started yesterday and I don't feel like I caught up over night. I went to bed tired last night, woke up tired, dragged through a half day and am still tired. I did get a short nap in but it didn't help much.

I seem to be having a skip or flutter in my heart beat. Almost like palpatations but it doesn't last longer than a beat or two. It just feels funny and it makes me catch my breath. I was talking with someone els that has had a PE and he said he developed a murmur about a month after the PE and it lasted for about 6 months. Wonder if that is what this is? And I wonder if that is what is making me feel tired? Dunno, but i will keep an eye on it and mention it to my dr the next time I see him.

The cotton hoodie is coming along again. Few more inches for the body and then I will restart the sleeves. I used to like to knit while watching a movie or a tv show, just seemed to make the rows go faster for some reason, and I can knit without looking so could watch the show. Now that I am watching past episodes of lost, I am getting into the habit of knitting while something is on the TV.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day...don't forget to get your sweetie a present!

Early update today

2008-02-12T10:30:00.001-05:00

I am working this afternoon so thought I would post this morning.

I had a nice leisurely morning in bed; didn't get up until about 9:30. I could get used to this but will soon be back to work full time. I have the rest of this week @ 1/2 days and next week off for President's week and then will return full time.

I really am starting to feel stronger, physically and emotionally. This has been a rough period but I think I am making progress. I still have many, many things I am re-evaluating about my life, and still have no answers for it! Oh well, i think we are not meant to know what is to happen until it does.

As I was laying in bed this morning, I heard a cardinal! They stay here all winter but I haven't heard any in months. Probably has been too cold to sing! We have one particularly stupid male cardinal that likes to repeatedly bash his head against our chimney. He thinks his reflection is another male cardinal and is fighting with him... I will refrain from any negative male comments at this point only because I am in a good mood and smiling today :-)

Some of you know I have not watched TV in 5 or 6 years. It's a long story but lets just say i was tired of fighting for the remote and not knowing what show I was watching because someone had changed the channel. I have not missed TV at all. If people would talk about various shows, I just didn't pay attention.

Well, someone mentioned the show Lost. I decided to check it out and watched the first episode of this season a week or so ago...what a mistake that was! I am hooked! ABC.com has all the past season's episodes online. I have started with season 1. I think I am up to episode 10 or so. A few episodes ago was the one when Kate and Sawyer kiss...OMG what a hot kiss that was! I need someone to kiss ME like that lol!

Oh, knitting, yeah, this is a knitting blog, right? I am working on the body of the cotton hoodie. Once I got back into the pattern, it has a pretty easy rhythm to it. Maybe I will have it to wear when the weather warms up a bit. I will finish it before I start any of the sweaters in the new Interweave knits magazine. I want to make the flutter sleeve cardigan
And the Aleita Shell
And the Printed Silk Cardigan
Who knows if I will get to any of these. I think I have yarn for the flutter sleeve cardigan, which is the first one I want to make. But...I ...will....finish...the....cotton...hoodie.....first..... (who am I trying to kid?)

Short update today

2008-02-11T18:50:00.000-05:00

Still working 1/2 days, although I am feeling a little guilty about it. I am feeling stronger everyday and probably would be ok going back full time. But my Superintendent doesn't seem to mind so I am going to take the time.

I am feeling better emotionally as well. Today is the first time since the PE that I have been in a good mood, and actually laughed. Although I was laughing at myself for making a silly math error.

I am knitting again too. I know I finished the two pairs of socks, but I have also picked up the cotton hoodie. I am going to have to rip the sleeves back because I can't figure out where I left off in the pattern. That isn't such a big deal because I only have about 3 inches done on each sleeve. I was doing them both at the same time, but when I restart them I am going to do them one at a time. This hoodie has been on the needles for at least a year. I had planned to finish it last spring and didn't. Then I planned for last fall and that didn't happen either. Maybe this spring...

So..life is good...today ;-)

Tired today

2008-02-08T12:13:00.000-05:00

Feeling pretty tired today. Yesterday I felt good, even thought, hey, maybe I will work full days next week. Today...not so much.

I became breathless while drying my hair this morning and had to go to the living room and sit for a few minutes. That hasn't happened in the past week. And walking from my car to my office also left me breathless. I suppose the ups and downs are normal, but they are still frustrating.

Another thing that is frustrating is people asking me how I am. I know they care, and they wouldn't ask if they didn't want to know, but I feel sort of obligated to say, "Fine thanks, how are you?" I don't think they want to hear "Not so good today, hard to catch my breath, feeling pretty tired." When someone asks me "How are you today?" I have always replied with the polite, no information answer. Now I want to say..."how the hell do you think I am!" But I don't. My usual reply is becoming "Better" or "I'm getting there". And the replies of "It will get better" or "It will be ok" are driving me nuts too....How do they know it will get better? How do they know it will be ok. I think asking "how are you" and saying "it will get better" are really just a way to make the person asking feel better. Sort of like.."ok, I did my good deed today, I checked to see how she is feeling, even though I don't want the real answer".

But besides being breathless, I am in a good mood today. Had a chance to talk with a very close friend that I don't get to talk to as much as I would like. And I am home on the couch again..ready for a nap...naps are good :-)

Not much new

2008-02-07T13:08:00.000-05:00

Guess no news is good news. Each day I am feeling stronger, although the breathlessness sneaks up on me. I was walking into my office as the phone rang and walked over to pick it up. Just the combination of walking and talking made me a bit short of breath. I am told that it will take me 6 months to feel better and up to a year for the clots to dissolve. Guess I should just get used to feeling like this for now.

The 1/2 days are going well. Today I felt like I could have stayed longer, but I don't want to push it and over do. I am not sure if I will work full or half days next week. Gonna play that by ear.

We have been having crazy weather like everyone else. Yesterday was in the 50's with rain, that turned to freezing rain and today we won't even make it out of the 20's. I hate winter! At least we only have 3 more months of winter. A lot of people think that winter is gone here when we get to March. But I know better. Spring never comes 'til after my birthday. As a matter of fact, I have had snow on every single birthday. And a few years ago, woke up to an ice storm and no power brrrr..... Wonder what I would get for my birthday if I moved south???

Ex-husbands are stupid!

2008-02-06T13:27:00.001-05:00

but, I suppose that may be why they are the EX husband, huh? Some of you know that my daughter went to live with her father in mid December. Her father( from this point on known as FHN) and I agreed to handle child support between us, not involve the court. I calculated the amount and started to pay him.

One day, I received a summons to appear in family court for child support. I called FHN and asked why we were going through the court and he had some lame story that he had to in order to stop his support and start mine. I happen to know that is not true. He stopped his in December and is not reported as being in arrears.

So anyway, we appeared in court this morning. His wife was there with him. When the court deputy called our case, she stood up to go in with us. The deputy asked if she was Ms Williams, and when she said no, he told her she could not come in, this was only for the parties involved. (hehe, loved that one!)

We went in the room, heard some preliminary jargon and then the judge asked for our financial affidavits. I had mine filled out and passed it to the judge. FHN could not find his and said "That is my bookkeeper out there..she handles all the financial stuff". The judge just asked if he had it or not. He said, I guess not. Each time the judge asked for specific information FHN did not have it, but I did! yay me!

I knew the support would be the standard NYS amount, and the judge calculated that based on my W2 forms. It actually ended up being $30 less per month than I had calculated. Not much, but I am sure FHN's wife is the one that pushed us back to court because she didn't think I was paying enough....ha...not so much!

I have no problem paying support...it is my obligation and well worth the peace and quite it brings to my house.

I feel I am getting a little stronger as each day goes by. I am still tired, but am beginning to feel a bit like myself again.

When I got to my office this morning, I turned around to hang up my coat and looked out my window. Someone shot a hole in my office window with a pellet gun!! I didn't think to take a pic until after maintenance came and taped the hole.
You can't really see the hole because there is a reflection of my camera in the pic, but it is right in the center of the tape. (nice tape job, huh? I get to live with that forever now)

This picture is taken right in front of the window where the hole is, looking towards my desk.
As you can see, my head would be in direct line with that hole in the window! I have no idea when this happened. I do know that a couple weeks ago there was a similar incident at the high schoool. I figure this happened at the same time, while I was out on leave. The pellet did not penetrate both windows, but still a little unnerving. Who knew Gananda was such a high crime district? Things that make you go hmmmm......

Oh and BTW, the writing on the chalkboard? It is a diagram of my network....yeah I know, geek, total geek :-)

Not much change

2008-02-05T16:39:00.001-05:00

Feeling about the same. I felt a little better at work today, but still very tired. And I had trouble napping. When I get over tired it seems I can't sleep well.

Speaking of work..I wish people would know what they are asking for. A teacher got married a while ago and asked me to change her email address. I don't usually do that in the middle of the school year because it can cause real issues. I had set up an alias so that if someone e mailed to her married name, it would go to her maiden name account. That way, she could give out the married name e mail and I would transition everything over the summer. Well after about the third message that she wanted it changed, I said fine,I will change it now. I changed her log in, user directory and e mail all to her married name. Told her to log in with her married name. She calls me and says, all my e mails are gone. I said yes, you told me you did not want that account any longer, so i deleted the account. Well, i am sure you can guess the response to that! She never once mentioned she had e mails she needed to keep from the old account, just that she wanted her new account. Grrrr! So now I am in the process of trying to retrieve her old account.

Of course, this all happened as I was leaving for the day. I came home and tried to nap and then logged in remotely to fix her user directory. She e mailed me and said, "Brad fixed it for me" I e mailed her back and said "umm no, I fixed it remotely, Brad was just sitting there watching me." People get so freaked out when I work remotely. I can almost hear some of them thinking..."oh no, wonder what else she has watched me do remotely" hehehehe

Made it 1/2 day

2008-02-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

Went into work today and made it until 1 pm. I was soo tired, I just had to leave. It was difficult walking in the schools; I never realized how long the hallway is in the elmentary school...and why does Brad's classroom have to be at the very opposite end of the building from the front door? But at least I got a B-I-G hug for my efforts! :-)

Everyone was glad to see me. Some people know what happened, others just know I was out sick. It is getting tiring giving the whole story over and over. The most common statement today, from the women at least, was "You look great, you've lost a lot of weight!". Yeah 22 lbs certainly shows, but I would not recommend my way of losing the weight.

My Superintendent was quite understanding when I told him I needed to go home. He said "I'd rather have you here part-time than no time." I spoke with my dr today and I am going to work 1/2 days at least for this week, maybe next week too. The week after that is President's break so I will have the whole week off. They will have to adjust my pay because i am out of sick time but it will be worth it.

I had my blood drawn again today and my INR is 4.2. I little high so I have to adjust the meds again and have it checked next Monday. I found out today that my INR takes at least 3 days to respond to a dosage change, so that is why I am only being checked weekly. When I had my first clot in 1985, they didn't check INR, just PT levels, and they respond more quickly and therefore I had more frequent blood draws. Once a week is fine with me; even the paper tape is bothering my skin. I had paper tape on for about 1/2 hour this morning and had tape burns when I took it off.

So I will go in tomorrow morning, and then Wednesday afternoon. I think that should help getting back into the swing of things.

Wish me luck!

2008-02-03T21:39:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I am scheduled to go back to work. I am pretty hesitant but will give it a try. Today I carried my laundry basket downstairs, started the washer and walked back upstairs... what a work out. I was breathless, of course. I made 3 more trips up and down and was pretty wiped out.

This afternoon I had to go to my brother's for my nephew's birthday party. It is about a 25 minute car ride from my house. I was tired out by time I got there, and then had to talk, eat, visit, witch all tires me out. I was back home around 6 ish and have been on the couch since. Just tired, not short of breath, but I am not moving around either.

So, I know I was in denial about this whole PE thing, how serious it was, but I came to terms with that soon after coming home from the hospital. Today I was googling for more info and came to the realization that I must have forgotten anatomy and physiology of the circulatory system! (for those who don't know, I was a nurse for 20 years before I had a change in careers.)

All this time, I have had the circulation backwards. I thought the deoxygenated blood from my body returned to the lungs then went through the heart and back out to my body again. Well, according to what I found today, it is just the opposite. The deoxygenated blood goes through the right atrium, through pulmonary artery, and then to my lungs. If that is the case, the only way those clots could have made it to my lungs is to go through my heart first!! No wonder everyone has been telling me how lucky I am. Why the heck didn't I die, with 2 massive clots going through my heart and ending up in my lungs? According to the CT scan, the clots are at the base of the pulmonary artery and extend into the upper and lower lobes of both lungs...that is huge! Wish I knew the size of them but probably better off if I don't. I would guess they must be 5-10 cm in length, which would be about 2-4 inches. yikes!!!

So wish me luck with work tomorrow..I will probably have to come home and take a nap, if I make it through the whole day...or even if I come home early...naps are good :-)

A need to finish...

2008-02-02T09:46:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I have a need to finish things. I was determined to finish the Jaywalkers, which had been hanging around since October. Then yesterday, I saw my broadripple sock sitting there, 3/4 done. I picked it up and finished it last night. Today I will cast on for its mate. Warning: disgusting yarn colors below

I have no excuse for this yarn except it was the only color the yarn shop had 2 balls of! I like to call it clown vomit...although, if you stretch your imagination, you might be able to call it hot air balloon....or you might not :-)

I like the feel of this sock in Fixation. It made a sock that is a bit heavier than I would normally wear, but the cotton and spandex feel really good on my feet. Maybe the will become house socks, but I think they will fit in my Danskos.

So I am not sure why I have this need to finish things. It is almost like the nesting instinct when you are pregnant and about to deliver. I just have to get things done. I had to finish the broadripple sock even though it has been sitting there for months. I had to rip back a couple of projects that I know I am not going to finish at this point. I have to finish the pinwheel sweater. I have to clean out my daughter's room, even though she left over a month ago and I had no need to clean it out.

And there are longer range things that I feel a need to do. I have always wanted to go to Italy..to Venice, to be exact. I have not gone for a couple of reasons, mostly because I am afraid to fly. And understand, I am not afraid of heights, I am not claustrophobic. I know (or at least think I know) that whatever plane I get on will not reach its destination. Which is completely absurd because I have flown before (medicated lol) and the plane obviously makes it to its destination. But now, I want to go to Italy now, I want to go to Vegas to see my nieces and nephews now. Things I have said "someday", or "I wish" or "if only" about, I suddenly need to do now.

I am guessing this is all part of working through the multitude of emotions I have been feeling. A month ago I would have said..I'll get to it, I'll do it someday. Today, I think...what if someday never comes?

This just sucks!

2008-02-01T10:15:00.000-05:00

How can i feel so good yesterday, and feel like crap today? Yesterday I was able to go for a walk and recover fairly quickly. Today, I am back to being breathless in the shower. Drying my hair made me breathless as well.

I HATE FEELING LIKE THIS!!!

ok, that really did not make me feel better but there it is. So not fair, and I so need to get over it but I can't. Having a pity party for myself...wanna come? And that's not good either, because I really can't breathe when I cry, or laugh, or talk a lot, or do just about anything besides sit on the couch... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Baby, it's cold outside!

2008-01-31T14:55:00.001-05:00

And how would I know it is cold outside? Because I went for a walk today...YAY ME! I didn't go far or fast, but at least I got out a little. Not much to see this time of year but I did take a few pics along the way. This is the stream that runs behind our house. Later in the spring, the water will be up to the tree on the left. This is a picture from the corner of Rolfe and Bear Hill, looking towards my house. You can't see my house from this pic, it is two houses beyond the yellow one on the same side.

This picture is the same creek, but behind my house.

And same creek, but with the cattails in the pic too. (God I must be sooo bored to take pics of cattails!)
This is a little further south, still behind my house. This is some pampas grass I planted a couple years ago. The building in the back ground is the Palmyra Town Hall. That building used to be the Mormon Church, before they built the Temple and the new church.
Yeah, really bored....close up of the pampas grass!

Boy, that little walk tired me out. Took 10 minutes of just sitting on the couch to slow my breathing to normal. Still feel a bit breathless but not bad. I am sort of glad it is winter, when I am not as active. If it were nicer weather, i would normally be walking 3-4 miles a day...that is so not going to happen right now.

I know I keep saying the jaywalker is almost done, but really it is. I am at the toe decreases now and only have 10 rounds to go.

Oh and remember the Pinwheel Sweater ? I sort of put it on hold because it wasn't fitting correctly. The...ummm..girls....were not getting enough coverage. On a whim I pulled it out again today and tried it on. It is fitting better. I guess losing 20 lbs (well, 21 to be exact, but who's counting) makes a big difference! I had lost 13 before I went into the hospital just by cutting out snacks at night. I have lost the other 8 since going into the hospital. I think I will call it the PE diet lol. Great way to lose weight but I don't recommend it to anyone, hehe.

Ok off to finish the jaywalker, for real this time!

Edit: The Jaywalkers are done!

And here is the proof:
And just look at how the stripes lined up! Couldn't have worked out better if I planned it. Now that the Jaywalkers are done..I think I may work on the pinwheel sweater for a while....or maybe another pair of socks...who knows

Progess, maybe?

2008-01-30T16:59:00.001-05:00

Today I seem to be feeling pretty good. I still haven't been real active but feel more like me.

I actually made it to a hair appointment. When I left the house I felt pretty good, but by time I made it to the appointment I was tired. I am amazed that sitting in the car and driving for 15 minutes can tire me out, but it does. And talking with the hairdresser was also a bit taxing.

I was asked to attend a meeting via conference phone by my superintendent. It is budget season and we needed to firm up our budget for next year. It was great that he included me in the meeting; past superintendents would not have done that. And it was a meeting that I definitely needed to be at. For the first time since I have been Technology Coordinator, we will have a set line in the budget that will continue year to year. And it was not slashed in half as it has been in the past. AND the technology committee actually had input on what to purchase and where it should go. The nice thing about the conference call was I could sit on the couch and knit during the whole meeting....wish I could do that during the real meetings!

So I am scheduled to go back to work on Monday. I still have my doubts but will see how it goes. I may end up working half days for a while to ease back into things.

On a final note....do you know how special it is to have someone you care deeply about take the time to let you know they are thinking of you? I do! 143

Someone, please take me away!

2008-01-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

I am so tired of this medical merry-go-round. Last night I woke with leg pain again, only this time on the right leg. Hurt in my calf, behind my knee, up my thigh, and got worse when I stood.

Sooo...lay awake for several hours and call the dr when the office opens. They want to see me right away. I go to the office, dr checks my leg and sends me for an ultrasound ASAP. And he tells me I cannot leave the hospital until I get the results.

I drive back over to Clifton Springs Hospital, register and go to radiology. The girl doing the ultrasound says "You look familiar" . We try to figure it out and I mention I worked there 20 years ago, but that she looks too young to be around then. She says "I was born in 1984". WHAT!?! I have a mere child doing my ultrasound....Holy Geez!

Anyway, she does ultrasound tells me to get dressed and wait for her. Few minutes later, she returns and says everything is normal, I can go home.

So who knows why my leg hurts? And I hate being so acutely aware of every little ache and pain. I am exhausted from being up most of the night worrying. I feel a little foolish for running to the dr but I guess better safe than sorry, huh

So I just want to run away...any suggestions on a nice location? I would prefer south of here but not too far south ;-)

Ups and downs

2008-01-28T12:58:00.001-05:00

Seems to be the story of my life these days. Some days, I feel good, emotionally and physically, other days not so much.

Saturday night, I woke in the middle of the night and had a slight pain in my leg. I immediately thought "oh no, a clot" which is highly unlikely with an INR of 5.6. As I lay there, scared, I began to think about life and dying and how unfair this all has been. Sunday morning, Martin asked how I slept and I told him about being scared. He patted my arm and said "It will be ok." And that just pissed me off! How does he know it will be ok? How does he know I am not going to throw another clot and die? Yeah I know, it is mostly unheard of for the clots to become dislodged. But that is *mostly* unheard of. We are talking about me here...You know, the one that has every single complication known to man when it comes to medical issues...

So today, I am feeling pretty good. I woke up, showered without getting short of breath, dressed. I drove to the hospital for some bloodwork (and had a chance to talk with someone that is very special to me) and came back home. I felt good, no shortness of breath, not tired, even thought..hey, I am getting better. I *will* be able to go back to work on Monday.

I felt so good I decided to make cookies. This went well until I had to stir the chips into the batter. I think using my arms is what tired me out. I had noticed when I was having trouble in the shower, it was when I had my arms over my head, washing my hair. My Kitchen Aide had done all the work of mixing the cookies until it was time to stir in the chips. I got short of breath and had to bring a chair to the kitchen and sit while the cookies were baking. Cheryl told me to put the dough in the fridge and come back later to finish, but being stubborn, I chose to continue. I did get the cookies all baked but now I am wiped out....on the couch again for the afternoon.

Oh..wanna see the cookies?

mmmm mmmm Toll House Chocolate Chunk! I am accepting orders for personal delivery ;-)

The doctors say the clots in my lungs could take up to a year to dissolve. I hope my breathing gets easier before then, I can't imagine tiring this quickly for an entire year. How will I manage bike riding or hiking or just walking further than a block? How will I manage being on my feet all day at work, running between buildings? Of all the recoveries I have had, this, by far, has been the toughest emotionally....

And I suppose because this is really a knitting blog, i should add some knitting content. No pics, but the second jaywalker is almost finished. I turned the heel and completed the heel gusset yesterday. Now just the foot and toe to go...I will finish it this week!

The life of a pincushion

2008-01-25T02:22:00.000-05:00

and so it begins...getting stuck over and over to check my PT INR levels.

Today I noticed some slight bleeding and have had a headache since the night before. Called the dr and had to go to the hospital for stat bloodwork. My PT INR is 5.6. Lets say that a level of 1 would be normal. They want me between 2.5 and 3. Essentially what my level of 5.6 means is it would take me 5.6 times longer to stop bleeding than if I had a normal level! Pretty scary...glad I didn't shave my legs this morning LOL.

I drove to the hospital and parked in the wrong parking lot. Even though I have been in numerous area hospitals for numerous surgeries, this is actually a new hospital to me. I changed drs last year and my new dr is affiliated with a different hospital than my previous dr. Anyway....I had to walk across the entire hospital to get to the lab. No normally, that would be no big deal. But with 2 Pulmonary Emboli sitting in my lungs, well, i was tired by time I got there.

After my blood draw, i drove back home and just settled back on the couch when the phone rang. It was the dr's office with the results already. I have to stop the coumadin for 2 days and then repeat blood work on Monday...yippy... My arm is still a mess from the tape on the picc line...now I get to have little bruises from the blood draws to go with it.

You know, a funny thing happens when you are told by numerous health care professionals that you almost died. You begin to think about dying, and how your life has been and how you want it to be.

I have always felt it is unfair, the number of surgeries I have had, the different medical problems. . And now, this latest episode has really put me over the edge! I mean, come on, what did I do to deserve all this? I must have been really, really bad in a former life.

One thing has bothered since the beginning of all this... even before the ambulance got to the house, way before we knew how serious this whole event was. This began on January 13th, which would have been my dad's 74th birthday..it was also the anniversary of his death. That's right, he died on his birthday 11 years ago...and I almost died on the same day. How strange is that? Many have told me how lucky I am to be alive. The dr that followed me in the hospital said I had a guardian angel on my shoulder. Could that have been my dad...looking out for me?

Shortly after my dad died, I had a very vivid dream about him. But to understand, I have to back up to what caused his death. He had been sick with a bad cold (like I had been) and wouldn't go to the dr (like I didn't go to have my leg checked). The day before he died, I called him and tried to get him to go to the dr but he wouldn't...stubborn Dutchman lol.

So back to my dream. In my dream, the phone rang and it sounded so real, just like the phone I had at the time. I answered and it was my dad. He told me he could only make one phone call (heaven must be like prison lol). I asked him why he didn't go to the dr and he said, "I wish I had, honey, I wish I had." And that was the end of the dream. I very seldom remember my dreams and this was very vivid and real.

My father's cause of death is listed as massive heart attack. It now looks like he had the same clotting disorder I have and he had clots that went to his heart. So 11 years later, I have the same sequence of events. I come down with a pretty bad cold. I don't go to the dr to have my leg checked, and I have a blood clot that breaks off and travels to my lungs. How freaky is that? Yes, i would say that Dad was looking out for me once again... Thanks Dad! I miss you!

Way back when I was in nursing school, we learned about the 5 stages of grief. Everyone has to go through the stages in order to deal with grief and tragedy. The 5 stages are:

Denial: The initial stage: "It can't be happening."
Anger: "Why me? It's not fair."
Bargaining: "Just let me live to see my children graduate."
Depression: "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"
Acceptance: "It's going to be OK."

So...I was in denial,I am angry, I am hurt, I am disappointed, I am scared. I don't think I have gotten to bargaining yet and I certainly have not gotten to acceptance yet. 3 out of 5 ain't bad!

The scare of a lifetime

2008-01-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

No...I am not pregnant! lol....isn't that the scare of every 40 something woman?

One week ago today, I stood up from the couch and walked upstairs for dinner. When I reached the top of the stairs, I could not catch my breath. I sat down for a few minutes and my breathing slowed and I chalked it up to the cold I had been fighting for 2 weeks. After dinner I did the dishes and started to become short of breath again, and then began sweating. I went back downstairs where Martin was and sat on the couch, unable to catch my breath. I could feel my pulse racing.

I asked Martin to call our neighbor, who is an ER nurse. She came and assessed me and called 911 for an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, I was continuing to have difficulty breathing. My pulse rate was 160 and my O2 sat was 82. Normal for each is 70 and 100, respectively. I was put on oxygen and a heart monitor and put in the ambulance. An IV was started on the way to the hospital.

Once at the hospital they continued the assessment. Because I had had some slight leg pain for a couple of days, and my shortness of breath, I had an ultrasound of my leg which showed I had a blood clot. Then I had a CAT scan of my lungs and they found 2 large blood clots near my pulmonary artery and several small ones scattered throughout my lungs!

The ER doctor came to tell us the news, and said it was very serious. According to him and probably 20 other doctors and nurses, a lot of people collapse and die when this happens. I have been told I am very lucky to be alive!

There was some debate over whether I needed to go to a nearby teaching hospital or stay in the local hospital. It was decided I could stay locally and I was transferred to ICU and started on blood thinners.

After 3 days in ICU, I was sent home. The picc line ( a special IV that goes into my heart) that was used to give blood thinners and take blood was left in for blood draws. I had to learn to flush that with saline and also had to give myself shots of blood thinners for a few days at home.

The picc line has been removed, because it was bleeding and I no longer need to give myself shots. YAY! I will see my doctor tomorrow and we will map out a plan for treating this. I will be on blood thinners long term, maybe for life.

As for what caused this..the underlying problem is I have Factor V Leiden. This is a genetic clotting disorder that I have known I had since 2001. My doctors felt I did not need treatment at the time. I have one mutation, which is better than having two, but still increases the risk of forming blood clots. My daughter has one mutation as well. My mother and brother are being tested to see if they have any mutations as well.

SO....I am off work for a couple weeks, again...and am laying pretty low. I still get short of breath when moving around. Showering and dressing seem to be the worst culprits!

A few months ago, I started using a quote in some of sigs on various forums. It originally spoke to me about loving someone. It has now taken on a completely different meaning for me and I leave you with the quote:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

1/2 of the Pensacola Jaywalkers are done.

2007-12-26T18:40:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right, I have actually finished 1 sock of the Pensacola Jaywalkers. Why do I call them Pensacola Jaywalkers? Because the husband and I went to Pensacola last spring and of course I found a yarn shop to visit. There is only one yarn store in Pensacola!! A lot of houses along the ocean are being rebuilt after Hurricane George (I think) and they all seem to be pink and yellow, and orange. I saw this yarn and it reminded me of those houses.

What? You want to see the sock? Ok, Ok ,here it is in all it's glory.

For the life of me, I will never figure out how to take a decent picture of a sock. They always look weird to me . But there it is, doesn't it look all beachy and sunny? I finished this one up at Christmas at my aunt's. I took my knitting so I could concentrate on that and people wouldn't notice I was ignoring them haha..Wonder if it worked ??

I am still happily living in Second Life. Can't recall if I told my many readers (ha!) that I am a teacher in SecondLife. I teach people how to build things...all sorts of things. This past month has been Christmas themed things like kissing under the mistletoe (mmmm), a personalized greeting card and a doormat that plays music. This week I have a new class....a bottle of Champagne that gives you a Champagne flute to drink from. Which reminds me, I need to go to the wine store :-)

I have met many wonderful people in SL and have developed some meaningful relationships. You do get to know the person behind the avatar, if you are lucky. :-) There are so many things to do and see in SL, you have to check it out for yourself!

Wow, long time, no post

2007-10-29T18:14:00.000-04:00

Haven't had much action on the knitting front. I am sort of discouraged with the pinwheel sweater. I should just bite the bullet and finish it to find out if it will fit grrr...

I want to work on the hoodie as well. I keep thinking about it but never get around to it.

I have another jaywalker sock on the needles...it is my lunch time, waiting room, hair appointment project. Those are the only times I work on it.

Now what could be taking up all my time? Second Life I am hopelessly, completely, utterly in love...(with the game , of course). If you haven't checked it out, you should. It is amazing on so many levels. And if you do check it out...look me up...my name is Reno Katscher. But be warned...your life will never be the same again lol.

Off the needles...

2007-08-11T12:07:00.000-04:00

and on the hook! (crochet hook, that is) I finally finished the knitting of the pinwheel sweater. Boy this took forever but that could be because I haven't been knitting much (hmmm Second Life, anyone?)

Here is a shot of the sweater laying on the floor. It has a serious case of curl-age but that should straighten out with the crochet edge. It seems small now even though I increased the size by 10 percent. Lots hope the crochet edge adds a lot. Right now the front edge of the sweater barely comes to "the girls"

Here is a close up so you can see the pinwheel design. I really like the pattern. I am not a crocheter...I used to crochet before I started knitting but it has been many years. The pattern for the crochet border seems a little sketchy at best. Hopefully I can figure it out.

Second Life and Real Life come together

2007-07-01T22:23:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure how many of you know about Second Life but it is a pretty cool place. Edutech told us about it an a Joint Technology Coordinator's meeting. I checked it out thinking an online world would not be my thing. Boy was I wrong.

I spend so much time in Second Life that it feels like my first life sometimes. I have met some great people. One of the first people I met has become a very dear friend to me. He is sweet and kind and has the sweetest girlfriend in SL.

The thing that got me hooked on SL is the building. You can build all sorts of things and you can make clothes. i have been struggling with the clothes because I am not that familiar with photoshop. I finally got that figured out today. One thing I wanted to do is take some of my knitted items and use the textures to recreate the clothing in SL. Here is what I came up with today:

First the sweater in Second life

and the sweater in RL
It is a little hard to see the Second Life picture, but I think it turned out pretty good. I didn't take the time to add the collar or the button band but I probably could have if I wanted to spend the extra time. THis was basically to see if I could do it. (and before you ask, yes, that is "me" in SecondLife. My name is Reno Katscher and I am 20 years younger and 40 lbs lighter than me in RL:-)

In real life knitting..I am still working on the the pinwheel sweater. I thought it was big enough and divided for the sleeves and tried it on. I didn't like the fit so I put it back on the needles and am continue increasing. Thank god for life lines! I am also working on another pair of socks. I am making the broadripple pattern from Knitty, in a color of Fixation that can only be called clown vomit! I don't know what I was thinking when I picked it up other than my LYS only had those two balls left. Ad the sock progresses, it looks more like a hot air balloon, but in the beginning it looked like clown vomit....

So...if any of you make it to SL, look me up...Reno Katscher....

Finally, an update

2007-05-27T20:45:00.001-04:00

It's been a while again. I just hate it when life gets in the way of knitting and blogging! :-)

First, I organized my stash, and I am embarassed at the amount of yarn I have. I bought these cubes from Target
They came six cubes to a pack and I bought 2 packs, so I have a total of 12 cubes. I thought I would have lots of empty cubes once I got done sorting my yarn...well, it was a nice thought.

This is what I ended up with. Each cube is at least partially full. I tried to organize based on yarn weight. I have a LOT of worsted, which takes up the middle row of this photo. I also seem to have a lot of novelty stuff that I am not sure I will use, but am not ready to part with it yet. I tossed a whole garbage bag of acrylic stuff that I know I won't use.

I finally finished the baby blanket. The baby, my neice Lauren Elizabeth, arrived almost 2 weeks ago. Here she is here:

She wasn't due to arrive until this past Friday, but she had plans of her own. I had planned the finishing of the blanket almost to the minute so I can't really say I am late...she was early! :-)

Here is a close and a shot of the whole blanket:

I am not sure why the left edge look ruffly in that picture. It really doesn't in real like. I am going to wash and dry it tomorrow and hope that it straightens out. If anyone is wondering, this is sort of my own design. I based it loosely on the Lady Eleanor pattern from Scarf Style. I cast on a multiple of 8 that I thought was wide enough for the blanket and just followed the basic entrelac instructions. I can't remember exactly how many I cast on. Somewhere along the way I decided I had cast on too many so I made the cast on edge the long edge and just continued until I thought it was long enough. I did a few rows of double crochet along the edges because the edges don't line up neatly in enterlac. And the yarn is Bernat baby softee acrylic. Easy wash and dry for a new mom!

So now, I can get back to the lace sweater from Knitter's and maybe, just maybe, cast on for either my Pensacola socks (jaywalkers #2) or the pinwheel sweater from Elann.

My first Jaywalkers

2007-05-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

I finished my first pair of Jaywalkers. I know, I know, I am extremely late to the Jaywalker party. I don't particularly like making socks. This makes my third pair ever. I decided to make a pair of socks to take with me when hubby and I flew to Pensacola Beach last week. Nice and portable, they breezed through airport security in Syracuse and on the way home from Pensacola. They did help to keep my mind some what off the fact that I was flying thousands of feet above the earth and had absolutely no control over what might happen. (Oh, did I mention that I am afraid of flying but for some reason decided not to take Valium for this trip? I had it with me but just didn't take it.)

While I was in Pensacola I bought a skein of Sockotta in color 5616 for another pair of Jaywalkers. The socks reminded me of Pensacola...a lot of the houses being built are pink, or orange,or yellow. I am not sure if I want to do the Jaywalker pattern again. I am not wild about the cuff. I would definatly make the ribbed portion of the cuff longer. I have been thinking of making one of the several other chevron patterns that are available on the net. The only reason I would do the Jaywalker patter again over a different chevron patter, is I know the Jaywalker pattern fits my fat, long feet :-)

In other knitting news, I cast on for this lace sweater in the current issue of knitters:

I am using Crystal Palace Kid Merino in a very pale blue. It is almost white, it is so pale. I only have a couple of inches done because my Denise needles are driving me nuts. The kid merino (which is very similar to Kid Silk Haze) is sticking the cords and the needles tips are not just sharp enough. So...big justification here...I bought the Knitpicks Options set. I have a couple cords and needle tips already and think they will work fine for the lace. Plus, I had a rebate in the form of a pre paid credit card so I figured, why not use it on line. :-)

Next up is to finish the baby blanket I started for my sister in law. The baby will be here on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend...I am about half done...guess I better get knitting. And after the baby blanket will be the pinwheel sweater from Elann in teal colored Lara:

So much to knit, so little time

Speaking of time... At a recent Joint Technology Coordinator's meeting, Edutech told us about a community on the web called Second Life. It is a virtual community, sort of like the Sims but H_U_G_E!!! I went and created an account and started looking around. It is pretty cool. One of the first people I 'met' was a knitter! In her Second Life world, she has a knitting group and makes knitting needles...how cool is that. In her Real Life world, she has a blog which you can read here : Yarn Miracle
Second Life is pretty cool, but I can see how it would serously cut into my knitting time... LOL

Well, that is all for now...I have a baby blanket to finish!

A widget for you

2007-04-28T19:02:00.000-04:00

I finally got the progress tracker from indie girl working. The code above from Jacquie is what finally solved it.

As I was playing around with my blog, I decide to make a widget that might make it easier for others to add the progress tracker to their blog. It works for me but I am not sure it will work for others. So if you would like to try it out, let me know if it works.

Over on the right hand side you will see my progress tracker and under that a button that says Add Progress Tracker. If you click on that, you will be taken to a blogger page that warns about adding untrusted content When you click on the Add Widget button, the progress tracker will be added to your page. You then can go to your dashboard and edit where it is displayed. You will also need to edit the section of the code that says

projects[projects.length] = "SPINNING, 100, sheep";
projects[projects.length] = "Kureyon Scarf, 40, scarf4";

so you get YOUR projects displayed

You should also edit the section where it originally said YOUR LINK in the code to the location where you have your images stored. I left my link in there for now...if I get too many people using my images on my server, I will have to take that out of the code. I left it in so you can see that it is working.

Please let me know if this works or not. THis is my first attempt at making a widget.

Pensacola Beach

2007-04-15T19:16:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I went to Pensacola Beach for our 10th wedding anniversary. We had a great time. Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took.

Pensacola

Second pair of mittens

2007-03-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

This is my second pair of fair isle mittens. They are loosely based on Knitty's Corazon mittens in that I used the cast on amount from Corazon as a guide line for these. These are knit in lamb's pride worsted weight and are very warm.

I see in the one on the left I missed a white stitch...didn't notice it until I posted the pic. And I don't know what that blue blob is on the mitten on the right... it is not there in real life!

Switched to the new blogger

2007-03-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

I switched to the new blogger several weeks ago but just added a new template. What a pain! My progress tracker no longer works. I used to have the one with the pictures of the projects. It now longer works and I can't figure it out. So I have switched to the percentage bars on the left there, which go well with the new clean template. At least I was able to keep the 3 column layout.

I stopped into New York Knits on Saturday to pick up some sock yarn. I don't like knitting socks but for some reason I have felt compelled to knit socks. I figure they would be a good project to take on the plane, but I don't leave for Florida for 5 weeks yet!!.

Anyway, the owner of NYKnits, Tracie, was in the shop. She said to me "I was just going to call you." When I asked her for what, she said she wanted to know if I would knit samples for the store! How cool is that?!?! She gave me a selection on patterns to knit. I chose a baby sweater and hat and a very simple camisole. She provided the patterns and yarn for the project. I was happy at that but on my way out she said "let me know what I owe you". Not only do I get free yarn to knit with, she will pay me for my time. I have had a couple of people say I should have gotten a written contract for that, but I feel I can trust Tracie. I just have to figure out what to charge. SOmeone suggested $.10 a yard. Not sure how that would work out, i have to do some math.

So, as soon as I finish my mittens, I will cast on for the camisole, It is a simple K2 P2 rib...knit in the round with 2 crocheted straps. I expect to be able to complete that in a weekend. The baby sweater and hat are in a cute color block pattern with a yarn that resembles fixation but is thicker. It is made by Classic Elite and it is called Star.

That's all for now...lets hope I can deal with this new blogger template :-)

FI FO in 15 days!

2007-02-20T11:03:00.001-05:00

I finished my fair isle cardigan in 15 days! (How's that for some awesom aliteration?) This has to be the fastest sweater I have ever knit. My record before was Samus in a month. I will admit, I had two extra days at home to knit due to the snowdays last week, but even so, I can't believe I knit a whole sweater in just over 2 weeks.

Details:
Pattern: Fair Isle Cardigan from Knit Simple Holiday 2006
Yarn: Lamb's Pride bulky
Needles: Denise and Knitpicks interchangeables
Modifications: This is a real frankenstein of sizes. I knit the size large back and then had second thoughts about the size. I then knit the XL fronts and one sleeve. The sleeve was too big. The second sleeve I knit the L size but added increases to get to the same number of colorwork stitches as the XL. Then I ripped back the MC on the first sleeve and reknit that to a size L.

Here is a close up of the colorwork.

This pattern was written at 4 stitches per inch with a heavy worsted. I was able to get gauge with the bulky but it was tough knitting. The sweater is more like a coat and that is probably how I will wear it.

I have promised my daughter an illusion knit scarf with skulls so that is probably what I will work on now. I may start a pair of mittens for myself. I was thinking of taking the pattern from this cardigan and turning it sideways and making matching mittens....

Cardigan as a vest

2007-02-11T19:41:00.000-05:00

Not really, but I was anxious about the fit. I finished both front halves this weekend. This really is a fast knit. Big yarn, big needles make it go fast. I steam blocked the pieces with my iron and then sewed up the side seams. Then I tried it on and it fits! woo hoo! I had started out making the large for the back. Then I got nervous about the fit even though the finished measurements match a sweater that I like the fit of. The bulky yarn was scary me and I thought I might need a little more ease with the bulky yarn. So I made the front halves in the extra large size and I plan to make the extra large sleeves. I was able to block the back to match the front as far as the sleeve openings go. Here is a shot of the back of it.

I hope to be able to finish this up this week. I would love to wear it on Tuesday when the high temperature is going to be 9! but that is not going to happen. lol. Maybe I can wear it next week during February break from school.

FI Cardigan update

2007-02-06T19:20:00.001-05:00

I am up to the raglan decreases on my Fair Isle Cardigan from Knit Simple. It is going pretty well, but I quickly learned I do not like doing stranded color work with 2-3 strands of bulky lamb's pride! My fingers are killing me. There are 4 rows in the pattern that have 3 colors in it...they were torture. Besides the fact that this is knit flat and I am doing colorwork on the purl side making all the yarns tangle like there is no tomorrow, the bulky yarn and fairly tight gauge just makes my fingers ache. Here is a pic of the back pinned out on my living room floor. It seems that the tighter the gauge for stockinette, the more it wants to roll. I had to pin it to the floor just to get these shots.

And here is a close of up the colorwork.

The pattern was written for a "heavy worsted" at 4 stitches per inch. I am getting gauge with the bulky lamb's pride with no problem. I only have about 10 more rows of color work for the back and then I can cast on for the fronts. I never thought I would look forward to boring, single color stockinette....

Aye, Matey, we have mittens!

2007-02-03T11:33:00.000-05:00

The pirate mittens for my daughter are finished. I took about 2 days total to knit them. I made one last weekend and finished the second this morning. I know the one on the left looks smaller, but honest, they are the same size. I didn't bother blocking them because I know they will get some rough treatment from my daughter.

Here is a close up shot. I like the way the palms turned out.

My next project, besides the baby blanket I am working on and the in-progress cotton hoodie is this sweater fromKnit Simple magazine.

I am doing mine in Lamb's Pride Bulky in cream for the main color and the fair isle colors will be light pink and dark pink. I decided to reverse the colors on the chart because I like the light pink color better. So what is the darker blue in the picture will be light pink and what is light blue, that you can barely see, will be the darker pink. I scored an awesome deal at my LYS's pre super bowl sale. I got enough yarn for the sweater for $35!

I want to get the hoodie done before April because we are going to Pensacola, Florida! Yes, I am flying. I am not too nervous about it right now, but as it gets closer, I am sure I will. I think the weather will be perfect for the hoodie so I really need to get working on that.

Mittens, bread, and back to work

2007-01-20T13:41:00.000-05:00

This week I felt the need to make mittens. I have never made mittens before. I have never even considered making mittens because I have my favorite pair of black leather gloves that I wear all winter. I don't like to drive with mittens on because I think they are too slippery. But I had to make mittens.

I orginally wanted to purchase either Latvian Mittens or Folk Mittens but niether my local bookstore nor my LYS had it in stock. Needing to make mittens NOW! I went searching the net and found Corazon on Knitty. I started them last night and I am half way done with the first mitten already! I am loving the pattern, very easy, no mistakes so far. Here is a pic of my progress so far.
I am not sure why some of the white stitches on the palm are showing up differently, but maybe it will smooth out with blocking. I am using encore dk so it probably won't block dramatically but it should smooth out. I am also currently knitting an entrelac baby blanket for my SIL and I am still working on the cotton hoodie. I will pick them back up as soon as my mitten obsession has passed :-)

Now, why is there bread in the title of my post? Just before Christmas, I bought myself a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. I made cookies with it and some pizza dough. I have been wanting to make bread but had to wait until my lifting restrictions from surgery were lifted. I couldn't lift my mixer...it was more than my limit! I have never made bread before, not even as a kid, that I can remember. I followed the recipe in the booklet that came with the mixer and it seems to have turned out ok. We have not tasted it yet, but we will very soon!
And, I am finally back to work. I was out for a total of 10 weeks! I was out for 8 weeks(including Christmas break) for the first surgery and then an additional 2 weeks for the second surgery. My official New Year's Resolution is not to have surgery in 2007! I am going to try very hard to make that happen.

Surgery, again!

2006-12-30T18:57:00.000-05:00

Well, my gallbladder came out yesterday. Can't remember if I blogged about this or not, so here is the brief rundown of what happened.

On 12/16 I woke in the middle of the night with the worst pain I have ever felt. Right under the right side of my ribcage. I was pretty sure what was causing the pain, even though I have not had gallbladder problems in the past. While trying to breath without causing pain, I asked hubby to get my laptop so I could google cholesystitis. (yeah, the nurse in me pops up every once in a while). My symptoms were spot on for gallbladder disease. I called my doc and he sent me to the ER. They did an exam, gave me pain medicine and did and ultrasound. The ER doc said I had many stones, too many to count. They sent me home with pain medicine and appointments for an official ultrasound and to see a surgeon.

Fast foward one week exactly, to the hour to 12/23 and I have gallbladder attack #2. Take the pain medicine and tough it out. Then, the day after Christmas, 12/26, attach #3. Finally see the surgeon on 12/28 and have another attack while in his office! He says he wants to remove the gallbladder sooner than later. I ask what is his idea of sooner and he say Can you be here tomorrow?

So I had some bloodwork done Thursday and had my gallbladder out on Friday. I was told I could come home that day but I had trouble getting pain and nausea controlled so I spent the night in the hospital and came home Saturday morning

I won't be going back to work on Tuesday, as was planned after my surgery 7 weeks ago. It looks like I will be out for another 2-3 weeks...

My New Year's resolution is to not have surgery in 2007!

Christmas knitting

2006-12-03T19:28:00.000-05:00

Ok, I admit it, I am selfish! I don't usually knit for other people, because, let's face it, no one appreciates our hardwork more than us, right? Well, I was cruising the net, reading the KR Forums and someone mentioned that MagKnits had their winter issue up. So I cruised on over there and this issue is pretty nice. There are a couple of things I would knit for myself. Then I spied Counterpoint! I thought it was neat because I used to play the piano but didn't feel like making it for myself. The scarf continued to be on my mind and then sometime in the night I thought "I drew my MIL's name for Christmas! She has played piano and organ for years at church! I can knit Counterpoint for her!"

Which is exactly what I am doing. I zipped over to my favorite LYS and picked up a skein of black and a skein of ivory Encore. The orginal pattern was written for Cascased 220 but my LYS didn't have both black and white in stock and I am not sure if my MIL is sensitive to wool, so I opted for the Encore. And I chose ivory instead of white because piano keys are made from ivory, right? (at least they used to be.

So here is the beginning of Counterpoint.

I have finished one repeat of the pattern. At first I thought I had messed up, until I realized that each black key is two pattern rows wide. I just love illusion knitting...don't you?

My three hour hat

2006-11-25T18:41:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is right, this little cutie took me 3 hours to do from cast on to finishing the face. I can't tell you what I used because it was some craptastic acrylic I found in my stash. The black is lamb'pride. I got this pattern from my LYS a couple of years ago. It is a basic hat, cast on 88 stitches for a 2 year old size, knit for 5 1/2 inches and then switch to the black and decrease. I think it came out a little big because my gauge was a little off. It is for my nephew Nolan, who is 2 1/2. I will see him tomorrow when we celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of the family.

I also made this cute little stocking in the past couple of days. I had originally planned on making the free stockin pattern from Knit Picks, but once again, I had trouble with a pattern from Knitpicks. Remember the Snowflake Vest from hell? Well the stocking pattern is written by a different person, but I had trouble with it too. Instead, I went with this pattern from knit net. Very easy to follow, and quick. The yarn is the new Shamrock from Knitpicks. I love this yarn. I love the fabric that knit up with size 9 needles. I am planning a zippered outerwear cardigan in this yarn and have already ordered the yarn from Knit Picks.

Last but not least is a progress shot of my Tumbling blocks sweater. This pattern came from Ram Wools but apparently they are not making the yarn anymore and have taken the pattern off their website. Not sure if you can see the pattern very well, but it is a simple combination of knit and purl that gives it the illusion of tumbling blocks. I have 14 inches done and it says to go until 25 inches before I divide for the armholes. I think that may be long. I am going to measure it against my coat and see how long to make it. It is intended to be oversized and outerwear, but I really don't want a sweater down to my knees! The yarn is Blue Sky Organic Cotton which is like butter!! It is the softest yarn I have ever felt.

Quick post surgery update: I am feeling stronger everyday and walking a bit further everyday the weather cooperates. It has been in the 50's the past couple of days and is supposed to be near 60 tomorrow! In Upstate NY! In November!! I had to make a quick trip to the doctor's on Friday. Apparently my body does not like the sutures. I have had this problem with past surgeries, too. The doctor snipped the offending suture and sent me on my way. No big deal.

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving with my in laws. I always enjoy seeing my in laws so I am sure we will have a good time. Hope I don't get too tired out.

A little (long)update

2006-11-15T10:07:00.000-05:00

I had my surgery on November 7th and came home from the hospital on November 10th! Not the overnight stay I expected but that was due to a problem with nausea and not eating.

Turns out I did not have an ovarian cyst but rather a fluid filled fallopian tube. Seems this is fairly common if you have had your tubes tied and a hysterectomy, which I did. The fallopian tubes get sealed shut with scar tissue and then fill with fluid. I forgot to ask exactly how big it was but will ask on Friday when I have a post op check up. My doctor took both tubes because the right one was starting to do the same thing but she left my ovaries...YEA no instant menopause!!!

I hate the recovery time. I feel so lazy. I don't do much besides shower and lay on the couch. If the weather cooperates, I take a short walk. But that is all I am supposed to do. No lifting, no driving, no stairs I did work abit remotely yesterday. I had to fix some things at school but that was just a matter of logging into my laptop and changing some settings on the network.

I have been knitting a little. I even knit in the hospital and don't think I made any mistakes. I am making a hoodie pattern from Rams Wool. It looks like they don't have the yarn for it anymore so I can't find a pic of the pattern to show you. It is oversized, more like a coat and has a pattern called tumbling blocks which is just knit and purl stitches. It was written to be worked in pieces, but I cast on for both fronts and the back at the same time. I have about 10 inches completed, another 15 to go to get to the armhole and neck decreases. No pic because I don't know where my digital camera is and don't feel like rummagging around for it. I would like to have this finished before I go back to work, which looks like it will be the week before Christmas unless I squeeze a few more days out of my doctor.

I have a couple of projects that are sort of waiting for me. My daughter want's some wristers. You can see them here I started them but on size 3 and they are too floppy, just need to get the energy to restart them on size 2 needles.

I also have this idea running around in my head about a baby blanket for my SIL who is due in May. I wanted to make a blanket but wasn't thrilled with the pastel choices and we don't know if it is a girl or boy yet. Then I remembered how babies are supposed to like lots of contrast like black, white, and red. I came up with this idea of a black and white puppy on a red background with a black and white check background. Blogger won't let me post the pic but here is a link to it. That is my own rough interpretation done on Paint. I know the border is not spaced evenly, but you get the idea! I just have to decide on yarn. Someone suggested Plymouth DreamBaby which I think might work. Patternworks has another baby blanket knit up in that on their website.

Whew....this was a long update. Well, now that I am home and have nothing to do I can post a little more frequently.

P.S. You know those Cadbury Mini Eggs that they have only at Easter time? The ones I absolutely love and can't get enough of? Well, hubby stopped at Wal Greens for me the other day and discovered they are making them for Christmas now! WOO HOO!!! he bought me 2 bags...he loves me so much!

Sonnet is finished

2006-10-22T10:28:00.000-04:00

I know the last time I posted I said I was going to make a cotton hoody next. Well, the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival sort of changed my mind about that. I found a beautiful mini boucle mohair that was just begging to be a sideways knit cardigan. I found Sonnet on Knitty and thought it would work out well. And it did! My gauge was 3.25 stitches to the inch on size 10 1/2 needles. This thing went fast. I finished knitting it in just over 2 weeks.

When I tried it on, I did not like the scoop neck. It was too low for me. So I decided to pick up stitches around the neckline and knit a yoke. I did a few decrease rows and it came out nice. I also decided to pick up stitches and knit on a band at the hem and a band on each side. I like how that finished it off a bit. Here are a couple of pics. It is hard to see where I added onto the pattern but that must be a good thing because it looks like it belongs there :-)

Don't ask me why my pants look funny...I have no idea why they look like they are twisted.

Here is a close up of the buttons I used and you can really see the colors in the yarn in this pic.

So next I think will really be the cotton hoody. I am swatching for it now. I am using Blue Skys Organic Cotton in an ecru shade. I may also try swatching for a Mason Dixon baby Kimono...my SIL is expecting baby #2 and I have some SWTC Bamboo in my stash that I wanted to see if I could get gauge with.

I will have lots of time for knitting as I am having surgery again. On November 7th, I will have a very large cyst removed from my left ovary. It is 10 cm that is 4 inches!...which all good knitters know is the size of a swatch! Seriously, when they found it almost 2 months ago it was that big and has probably grown more. I won't know the extent of the surgery until I wake up. My dr won't know until she gets inside what really needs to be done besides removing the cyst and the ovary. I may lose the other ovary as well and the cyst may be attached to my bladder which could make things tricky. And she is sure there is scar tissue to remove from my appendectomy 33 years ago and my c section 16 years ago. I thought after my neck surgery 2 years ago I was done with having surgery. This will make surgery #12 in my lifetime! ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am still here

2006-09-07T19:02:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd let everyone know I am still alive. My summer was consumed by my daughter's issues and I am back at school. School is crazy busy but I love it. I am exhausted but probably from the stress of my daughter...this too shall pass :-)

I started and finished a short sleeve top with Elann's esprit...an identical twin to fixation. I made a lot of modifications including short row darts and I love it.

Next up will be a cotton hoody. The pattern comes from rams wools and the yarn is blue sky organic cotton...yum yum

Funny how life seems to get in the way of blogging

2006-07-30T20:44:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been so long. There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting going on lately. I did make a "warshrag" from Mason Dixon knitting. My daughter wanted to make one and asked me to knit along with her. We had our own little KAL...it was fun. I also made the bathmat from MDK but put it in my kitchen instead. Here is an in progress pic

I also finished a felted sunflower I had started last fall! I am trying to work through my stash and UFO's. I don't have a finished pic of them...I am still picking fuzz off!

I kind of feel I am losing my knitting mojo...I just don't feel like knitting lately. I have been spending a lot of time surfing and not much time knitting. I guess I have been stressed with recent events with my daughter. But it looks like things are taking a turn for the better where that is concerned...Thank god for great doctors and new medicine :-)

Another reason I haven't been knitting much is because I sold this car

and bought this one

Yes folks, that is a 2006 Toyota Prius in Driftwood Pearl...package #7 for those that know about the Prius. This car is amazing! I had considered buying one last fall but then the gas prices in my area dropped a bit and I just couldn't justify the cost. Well gas is back up and expected to make $4 a gallon before summer is over. I went to a local dealer and was already to write the check for the deposit and wait 1-2 months for it to come in but they tried to low ball me on my trade in. I told them I was offended and left. The following Monday I went to another dealer who ended up giving me $6000 more than what the first dealer offered for my trade plus reduced the price of the another $1000. That is unheard of because these cars sell at MSRP OR ABOVE, no questions asked. There is such a high demand for them. And the best part of the deal is this car was sitting on the showroom floor and was available! While I was finalizing my deal, at least 3 other people were looking at the car and wanting to buy it. When my salesman put the SOLD sign on, one lady slapped her husband on the arm and said "I told you someone was going to buy it...you waited too long"!!

So this car is unlike any other I have driven. I have been spending a lot of time over at Priuschat.com. There is a wealth of information over there.

I have also been spending a bunch of time surfing the net to find out how to hack my new cellphone. I bought a bluetooth phone on EBay so it could integrate with my car! But I have Verizon wireless and they cripple some of the functionality of their phones. I was able to hack it and get certain features working and I love it.

And speaking of EBay...I decided after buying the new phone I would try to sell my 2 old cell phones. If you are interested, you can see the Motorola V325
and the Kyocera SE47 that I have up for sale. This is my first time selling anything on EBay. I have had 3 people ask me to end the auction and do it a Buy it Now instead. I politely turned them down. I have done some research on the EBay sellers board and most of the experienced sellers recommend against this. It seems that the "buyers" are looking to scam me because my feedback is so low and because I am selling cellphones.

So, that's my excuse for not blogging lately...I leave you with a couple of shots of my favorite cat (and my namesake) Reno:

He likes to lean...I have never seen another leaning cat :-)

Summer of stash update

2006-06-30T20:22:00.000-04:00

I am mailing this pile of yarn to Susan at the Appalachian Institute. This is a camp that encourages kids to explore the arts. I found Susan on the Elann chat center and sent her an email asking if she still needed yarn. She sent me a very nice e mail back saying she could use any yarn or needles I might have. If you want to e mail her you can contact her at byebluemonday@hotmail.com.

I weighed the box I put the yarn in and my scale said 8 lbs. I am not sure if that is accurate but I will find out when I take it to the post office in the morning. The yarn is a mixture of fibers, from acrylic to wool to cotton and some blends. Some is yarn I bought myself and then changed my mind about a project and some of it has been gifted to me from one source or another.

I also was able to get rid of some more of my stash while I was looking for yarn for Susan. My daughter has started knitting, and confiscated several skeins of yarn for future projects. I know that might not really count because the same amount of yarn is in the house but now it is not my yarn, it is hers

In the true spirit of the Summer of Stash, I have been making tessallating fish for a blanket for my cat. Here is a shot of the blanket and one with my cat checking it out. He looks annoyed because he felt it was time to eat, not time to pose for a picture :-)

I am using some Knitpicks Wool of the Andes that was gifted to me. I will probably make it twice as big as it is now. The fish are nice mindless knitting and take about 1/2 hour per fish.

Progress, but no pictures

2006-06-24T17:13:00.000-04:00

I finished re knitting the left front of the Lana Grossa cardigan. I blocked it and re-attached it to the previously knit back and sleeve. I think it is going to work. It is smaller, hard to tell without the other half. It took me 4 days to re knit, but I had several hours in the ER with my daughter on Tuesday night (don't ask!) so the right half may take a bit longer. I have cast on for the right half but that is it.

I think I am going to get some grosgrain ribbon and sew it down the edges of both fronts. The fronts just seemed so unstable and the buttons really pulled the one side down...and they were the lightest buttons I could find. I am hoping the ribbon will stabalize the edges and help it not stretch out so much.

Because I have been working on this, I haven't been making progress on my stash for the Summer of Stash project,but once this is finished I know I will :-)

A-Frogging we will go....

2006-06-19T21:54:00.000-04:00

After blocking and seaming the Lana Grossa cardigan, it is way too big! It is about 52"!!!! I have no idea how that happened. The pattern originally had a finished chest of 37". I thought I added 6" to end up with 43" but apparently not.

So, I have unseamed the two fronts and frogged them. I am going to reknit the fronts as written, no extra repeats. I figure that will take me a couple of weeks to do. so close and yet so far :-(

The knitting is finished

2006-06-17T20:10:00.000-04:00

I have finished knitting the lace cardigan from Lana Grossa. It was the model of the month for April. It really was a quick knit, if you don't count the extra time I spent ripping parts of it out and starting over. Here are a few pics, first is a couple of weeks ago, unblocked, and then one with it blocked and a shot of the back as it is drying. It looks a little wonky in that picture but I did straighten it out.

I made a few adjustments to the pattern. It was only written for a size small with a finished chest of 37". That just wasn't going to cut it. I added one lace repeat to each front and 1 to the back and should end up with a finished chest of around 46. THe lace is really stretchy...I may have been able to get away with out adding the repeat to the back but I wanted to be sure. I also left out the bobbles in the pattern. They were supposed to be at the diamond points, and I just didn't want to take the chance of having bobbles end up on ...well....my bobbles :-) Plus I didn't think it would be comfortable to have bobbles poking me in the back all the time as I was sitting in my chair.

I went to my LYS today to buy buttons. I got some pretty pearly cream colored ones. And because I joined the Summer of Stash, I did not buy any yarn. Yay Kim!

Next up is to work on some UFO's. Probably the cabled shrug from IK and maybe the snowflake vest from Knitpicks. Remember that nightmare? I am determined to finish it so I can wear it next fall. I also am making a tessalating fish blanket for Reno.

That's all for now...counting the days until school is done. The kids are done next week Thursday. I orginally had planned to take two weeks off right after the kids were done, but my plans were changed because we are getting a delivery of computers the last week of June. So my schedule looks like this for the summer: Work 1 week, take 3 weeks off, work 2 weeks, take 3 more weeks off and then be back full time the last week of August...sigh...I love being a 10 month employee!

Of Virginia and knitting...

2006-06-04T16:16:00.000-04:00

We took a trip to Roanoke, Va over the memorial day weekend. What a beautiful place!
This is off the Blue Ridge Parkway and is called the Peaks of Otter. Otter is the name of a stream, I think, and there is a lodge you can stay at here, too. We did not stay there, but stopped to enjoy the scenery. The whole way along the parkway was just beautiful. We went on this trip because we are considering moving there someday. That is, until we saw the price of real estate! Unbelievably expensive. How about this one for 1.3 MILLION?? Ok, so that is a little our of our price range, but even ranches comparable to what we own now cost twice what we paid for ours. I guess you are paying for the view?!?!

On the knitting scene, I did have several hours in the car to knit. I only knitted for a couple of hours on the sleeve to my Lana Grossa cardigan, because I discovered an error in the way the pattern was written and had to rip out 20 rows! So I was mad at it and did not want to knit on it. I have made a lot of progress since being home. I have completed 1 front, 1 sleeve and about 1/2 of the second front. Here is a picture that shows what a difference blocking lace can make. The one on the left if unblocked, the one on the right is blocked. If you click on the pictures to get a bigger image you might be able to see the difference a little better.

It is amazing how much the lace opened up and smoothed out. And the fabric is much nicer than before blocking. Before blocking, the yarn is pretty crunchy and stiff.

How stupid are you?

2006-05-21T21:15:00.000-04:00

hmmm...at first when I got the score I thought it meant I was really stupid. But it looks like tonight, I am really smart :-)

It's been a while again

2006-05-13T15:12:00.000-04:00

I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately. Work is really busy right now and I have been busy knitting.

I finished the Cat's Meow Sweater and I love it! It turned out just as I imagined it. Here are the front and the back

And here a a couple of close up shots. I love the paw pads on the back!

And here is the inspiration for the sweater:

Isn't he just the cutest thing you have ever seen???

I have also started the lace cardigan from Lana Grossa

I have gotten 3 full pattern repeats completed on the left front of the cardigan. I decided to leave out the waist shaping. I want this to be loose and flowing...not shaped. I am using the yarn specified. I could not find it here in the states so I actually ordered it from a lovely shop in Germany. Her name is Angela and her on line shop is located here Her website is on German, but she does converse in English. I was able to place my order by e mail with no problem. Believe it or not, it was actually cheaper to purchase the yarn from Angela in Germany than buying it here, even with the $35 shipping! I did find it online at one shop here in the states and it was more than double the cost! It is an interesting yarn. It is Lana Grossa Gala print. It is new for spring and summer. One of my co workers thought it was twine. It is made of silk and many other things and it is pretty course to begin with. I did wash my swatch and it softened considerably. The pattern is only written for size Small, so for each front half I am adding one repeat of the lace pattern and for the back I will add 1 or 2 repeats. I am not sure what to do with the sleeves, if I have to make the armholes bigger, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Here are a couple pictures of what I have so far:

So that is what I have been up to. Oh, and I made a string bag out of some crochet cotton. I don't have a pic of it but the pattern is here. It came out really cute and I plan to use it when I go to the farmer's market to get some fresh veggies...yum!

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

2006-04-19T09:21:00.000-04:00

This, my friends, is the front and back of the Cat's Meow Sweater that I have been working on. As most of you know, I have an orange tiger cat named Reno that I just adore. I call him my second child :-) About 2 years ago a catalog came in the mail that had some yarn and knitting patterns in it along with some cross stitch stuff. At that time I had not started knitting yet. This sweater was on the cover and my quest to learn to knit began. My mother taught me to knit as a child but I never made anyting, always said I could not knit. So I started with a few scarves, moved on to sweaters and promplty lost this pattern! I searched high and low for it, googled it from time to time but could not find it. Then one day someone over on Knitter's Review posted a question about the cat's meow yarn. I googled for that to see what it was and one of the hits was this pattern at Purple Kitty Yarns I quickly tried to add the pattern to my cart and it told me it was sold out. I e mailed the owner and she said she would get it in for me. Less than a week later I had an e mail saying it was on its way!

This is my first attempt at intarsia. I watched the video over at knittinghelp.com and picked up a couple of good tips about twisting the yarn. It really isan't that hard to do, you just have to keep all the little balls of yarn straight. And knittinghelp.com also has a really cool way to wind center pull bobbins right on your hand, no little bobbins needed and it really works!

So I have the front and the back done, sewed the shoulders together and now am working on the sleeves. I am doing both sleeves at once which always seems to take forever but at least when I am done, I am done! It will probably be too warm to wear this until next fall, but I just had to make it. Here is a closer shot of the face In case anyone is wondering, I am using mostly Encore worsted for this. The body of the sweater is all Encore. The orange color for the cat is also Encore but I am carrying along a strand of Kid Silk Haze to make it a little furry and to break up the orange color a little. The paws are angora (!) You would not believe how soft it is. I have to add ears, which will be in the orange and KSH and little pink paw pads for the back feet. Can you say aaawwwwww??

In other knitting news, not much is going on . The cabled shrug is still sitting in my UFO basket along with the snowflake vest. I have promised myself I will finish the shrug next, but there is this lace cardigan from Lana Grossa that is calling my name. I cannot find the yarn called for locally and am hesitant to order it from Germany, although the price is right, even with shipping. I have been thinking about making it in SWTC Bamboo. I got a skein the other day and swatched with it and I like it but I am not sure. Unfortunately this pattern only comes in size Small so I have to do so adjusting to the pattern. Either knit it in a heavier yarn, which Bamboo is not, or add repeats to the lace and adjust the cast on amount.

Whew, that was a long update. Of course, if I posted on a more regular basis I wouldn't have to type so much at one time :-) I have this week off from school and my daughter has gone to spend a couple of days with a friend, so the house is quiet!(well, those dishes and that pile of laundry are calling my name, shhh)I have been trying to do a little spring cleaning...sending stuff to Volunteers of America. Over the weekend I sponge painted my daughter's bedroom and it came out really good, if I do say so myself and she actually liked it too. Here's a peek at how it looks. Enjoy the clean room and the made bed because it won't last long! Yes, she is a teenager and yes, that is a Care Bear on her bed...I can't figure these kids out these days. LOL

Ok, Ok, an update already!

2006-03-27T20:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have been shamed into updating this darn blog, which by the way, I had just typed a huge update and firefox crashed! ARRGGHH

So I haven't updated in quite sometime. Let's just say that life got in the way. What's up with having to work for a living anyway!!!

I participated in a really cool swap hosted by Lainie. We swapped stitchmarkers and here are the ones I received:

The set on the left is from Lainie and the set on the right is from Robyn How cool is that. Robyn made hers from little buttons and Laine used beads. I have sent markers off to Lillian and Celia Lillian received hers but Celia lives all the way over (under?) in Australia and I don't think they have gotten there yet. I do hope they like what I made, it was only my second attempt at making markers. Click here for a better pic taken by Robyn herself.

I have been able to fit some knitting in. I finished the cables and lace sweater from the fall IK. I loved the patter, I loved the yarn, I loved knitting it, but I did not love the way it looked on me. I have discovered that fluffy chunky yarn makes Kim look a little to fluffy and chunky herself! Here is the finished project...
...before I frogged it! Yes, you read that correctly. I didn't like the way it fit and I knew I would never wear it again so I undid the neckline and put it on my ball winder and wound away!!!! But never fear, dear readers, it is already on its way to becoming something else. I am making the cabled shrug in the same issue of IK
This was a fairly expensive yarn and I am glad I found something equally as pretty to use it for. I have learned to cable without a cable needle which is making things go much quicker.

Whew I am tired from this update. My computer has crashed twice now (at least I saved a draft before it crashed the second time.) I promise I will not let this lapse again for another month...:-)

Things other than the snowflake vest

2006-02-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

I have been working on a couple of other things besides the snowflake vest. I never feel quite right unless I have at least 2 projects on the needles at all times :-) The first is actually a FO:

This is my second moebius. This has been my take along project so hasn't gotten a lot of attention. It is 2 skeins of Manos(the same Manos that is in the header of my blog...) I like this one much better than my first one. I cast on 30 fewer stitches and the size is perfect.

This is the other project I have been working on:

It is the Cascading Cables sweater from the Fall 2005 IK. The yarn is from Queensland Collection called Uruguay Chunky (no relation to Manos del Uruguay)It is a very soft 70% Merino, 20% alpaca and 10% silk. It was a bit pricier than I usually buy, but I fell in love with the sweater and then found the perfect yarn, and it was on sale :-)
It looks like I am in a blue phase right now...nothing wrong with that, aye Kimmish ;-)
I want to work a couple more days on the the sweater before I pick up the vest again. The sweater is really cool as far as shaping goes. It starts out with size 15 needles for 7 inches, then you go down to size 13 needles until it measures 16" and then you go down to size 11 needles until it measures 18.5" and then divide for the armholes. Really cool way to get shaping without having to thing about decreases. I just finished the size 13 needles and will start the size 11 tomorrow. That should also make the lace section not quite so lacey....

The votes are in

2006-02-19T21:02:00.000-05:00

and, just like I knew in my heart, the shorter one is the better one to go with. So...this afternoon I frogged it and this is what I have left.

I just started ripping it out and hubby helped me wind some of the yarn. It wasn't too hard to rip out. In the sections with the two different colors of purple, I had to rip a row of light purple, then a row of dark purple and then I could rip a couple of rows of black and begin again. I just kept ripping until I got to the dark purple section and then I reinserted my needle back in the vest two rows above where I really wanted to end. That way I could tink back the last two rows and make sure everything was on the same row and going in the right direction.

I am not sure when I am actually going to start knitting this again. Probably soon, but I am workng on the cascading cables sweater from the Fall IK and I am enjoying the large needles and the chunky yarn.

A little of this, a little of that

2006-02-12T09:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was spent mostly in the car. We went to Casanovia to say good bye to Martin's brother and his family. They are moving from snowy upstate NY to sunny Las Vegas, baby! I wish I were going with them...I am not a big fan of the snow.

In knitting, I am still working on the snowflake vest. Looks like it will be at least another week before I finish it up.
I made a cute little felted heart bowl. This blogger offered a free pattern. This is what it looked like before felting I don't have a good after picture but it shrunk down to a really firm fabric and looks just like the picture in the pattern. This took me 2 hours from cast on to bind off. What a fun little pattern. I am going to fill it with some chocolate hearts and give it to my daughter for Valentine's Day aawww...
When we got home from our trip to Cazanovia, we opend the door and saw this:

and this

and this
What is this you ask? That is the yarn I am planning on using for the cables and lace sweater in the Fall IK issue. I got one ball of it (it is called Uraguay Chunky and is not related to Manos del Uraguay)and swathched and then cast on and did a couple of rows.

I am sure that it was Suzie that played with the yarn. Reno never messes with my yarn and besides,

he had proof of what he was doing while we were gone:

If you can't tell what is on the screen...he is reading the KR Forum!

Moving along

2006-02-07T19:47:00.000-05:00

I am finished with one repeat of the snowflake pattern which means I am also done with the armhole decreases. I cast on for the armhole steeks a few rows back and that went well. THe numbers seem to work out correctly. I cast on using the backwards loop method but I am not sure that was the best way to do things. The steek seems to be only loosely attached to the body. Maybe for the neck steek I will try the knitted cast on. Any thoughts?

Here is a closer look at the snowflake pattern. It looks good, if I do say so myself
The only tricky part in this section so far was maintaining the decreases at the armholes in pattern. The decrease before the steek was easy but for the one after the steek, I had to stop and figure out where I was from the row below so it would stay in pattern.

And here is one more close up of the snowflake pattern. I feel like the end is in sight. Maybe this weekend I can finish it up. I called in sick today and did get a couple of rows done in between naps. ;-)

Progress on the vest

2006-01-30T21:13:00.000-05:00

Here is my vest as of a few days ago. Just when I though I couldn't possibly look at it any longer, I finished the arrows chart tonight and started the snowflake chart. I am a little worried about the snowflake chart. The directions say to do the chart and then add an extra main color stitch after each side marker. This makes the pattern not come out evenly. I am going to do a couple of rows of the pattern to see how it looks. Rowena didn't mention this as a problem with the pattern when she e mailed me. Keep your fingers crossed that it actually work out correctly.

And here is a little catitude for you. I am not sure which one is the instigator, but they both look like they are up to no good. I found these pictures on my camera when I came home today. Vicki must have been playing with the camera, either that or the cats have learned how to take pictures :-)

I've been tagged

2006-01-23T18:20:00.000-05:00

I usually hate these things, but have been reading the responses to this one on a few blogs and actually found it interesting. So thanks to Bonnie here goes:
Four jobs in my life [best to worst]: This is tough because I think I have only had 4 jobs total.
1. The best job is my current job, Technology Coordinator for a local school district. It is my absolute dream job and I love it.
2. Home Health Aide Scheduler for a Home Care Agency. Very hectic but I did enjoy it
3. Nurse at nursing agency. Not horrible, but I never knew where I would be working, not continuity
4. 12 years as a nurse at County Public Health Department. I took on a lot of responsibilty but received no recognition. I even went to school and earned a degree for a job that never materialized. The good thing is that prompted me to leave and go to my current job :-)

Four Movies you could watch over and over: Richard Gere, anything, but mostly Autumn in New York, Sweet November, Any good tear jerker and my new favorite, Brokeback Mountain. I am such a sucker for a true love story!

Four Places you have lived: I have spent my entire life in upstate NY, within a 15 mile radius. and I so hate winter!

Four Places you have been on vacation: This is a little easier but not much.
1.Toronto, twice, for both my honeymoons, different husbands, same hotel!!! LOL (yes, my second husband knew I had been to that hotel on my first honeymoon and he was ok with that.)
2. Lake George at the Georgian Hotel this past fall. Beautiful!
3. Disney in Florida, twice as a child
4. Hamilton, Ontario Canada

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Knittersreview.com
2. Elann.com
3. Edutech help desk to see if I have any help desk calls pending
4. Bloglines, but only from home because it is blocked at school

Four of my favorite foods: Comfort food all the way!
1. Mac and Cheese (homemade, not from the box)
2. Curly Fries
3.Chocolate, the darker the better :-)
4. Ice Cream
(hmmm...beginning to see why I am always dieting....)

Four places you'd rather be right now:
1. With my husband, Martin (he is at school right now and I miss him aawwww...
2. Someplace, anyplace warm
3. Shopping, perhaps at New York Knits, in Victor, NY
4. Knitting, rather than updating my blog

Four Bloggers I am tagging: Sorry guys, don't hate me lol. This one is relatively painless.
1. Kimmish
2. Teri
3. Wendy
4. Amanda (she was the blog the popped up when I clicked on the knitting blog ring) :-)

Steeking wihtout fear

2006-01-22T17:06:00.000-05:00

I took an on line class from Needlecraft University to learn how to do steeks before I need to cut them into the snowflakes and arrows vest. The project was this cute little sweater to fit a doll or a teddy bear. Here you see Reno jr (as Vicki has named him) wearing it. I couldn't get the real Reno to wear it LOL.

This was a fun class and I think it worked out well to take it on line. THere is an instructor available via e mail and she was very quick to respond to any questions. I think it would be a good idea to know the basics of knitting before taking one of their classes but they do have some rather involved projects like sweaters and lace shawls.

Yummy yarn!

2006-01-22T13:46:00.000-05:00

Isn't this the yummiest yarn you have ever seen? This is Manos colorway #119 and it is soon to be another moebius wrap. The first one I made came out a little too big so I am going to cast on fewer stitches this time. I think the moebii are really fun and quick, too.

Here is an update on the snowflakes and arrows vest. It is slowly but surely coming along. I really haven't been that excited about working on this thing...probably because of all the mistakes in the pattern. I have started a KAL for it and 2 people have joined so far. So if you are thinking of making this, come on over and join us!

My first Moebius

2006-01-20T20:12:00.000-05:00

Well, my first one that I actually finished. I did a test moebius with some ribbon yarn just to get the hang of the cast on and I attempted one in KSH but it came out way too short.

This one is made with Manos. It took almost 3 full skeins. I liked the size when it came off the needles, but as I wore it today it s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d. But i still like it. It actually hits about at the top of my pants now...when I put it on this morning it rested on my chest.

I have 3 more skeins of Manos in a very pretty aqua, teal, and white colorway. I want to make another moebius, but want it to be a bit smaller. The first one I cast on 160 stitches, I think for the second one I will only cast on 130-140

Update on Snowflakes and Arrows

2006-01-12T19:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the progress I have made on my vest. I have just completed 6 repeats of chart 1. One more repeat and then I will start alternating the background colors between the darkes purple and the medium purple. I haven't come across anymore mistakes (fingers crossed)

Here is a close up of the stitching. I had hoped you could see where it is acting a little puckery but it did not show up. I am hoping it will go away with blocking. I am being careful not to pull my yarn too tight so I don't think that is the cause.

And just because I think he is so dog gone (no pun intended!) cute...here is a picture of my baby Reno:

I don't know if you can see it, but just to the right of his nose, he has a cut on his upper lip. He decided to spend the day outside yesterday and must have gotten in a fight with one of the neighborhood cats. This cat gets into so much trouble...

Ribby is finished

2005-12-31T13:52:00.000-05:00

I used Elann's Peruvian Sierra Aran in Mallard for the body and Jasper for the sleeves and color. I decided to do the zipper band in the Jasper as well. I made the size 40/41 used 7 balls in mallard for the body and about 6 in jasper for the sleeves and the collar. I also tipped the collar in the lighter color. I still have to block the collar because it was laying a little wonky when I tried it on. Even though it looks incredibly small, the ribbing really does stretch out and it fits perfectly...you can see all the ribbing when I have it on but it doesn't look stretched out.

I like the contrast and it also made it easier to find a zipper. I could not find anything to match the lighter Mallard color and really didn't want to wait for one to come from Zipperstop.com. I ended up using a navy zipper that I think blends in quite well. I ended up sewing this zipper in by hand...I found I had more control over lining it up well if I did it by hand. My sewing machine is working quite well after I had it cleaned and tuned up but I am not the best seamstress in the world. Sewing it in by hand really didn't take that long either.

Next up I think is the Snowflakes and Arrows vest. I think I am going to see if the medium will fit with my gauge. I have to do the math again but I think it will work with 8 stitches/inch. Someone from Knitpicks called me back last week and asked if anyone had spoken to me about the pattern errors. I said "Only when I called them!" She was semi apologetic and said the designer lives on a boat for 6 months out of the year and that is why they had not heard from her yet. I told the girl I was going to go ahead and try to knit it, because I had already figured out what the errors were. I think I may put up a second blog and do a knit along.... I know there are a couple of people out there that are waiting for me to work through the errors! lol

Almost finished

2005-12-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

with Ribby! This has been the fastest sweater ever! The ribbing seems endless but it really did go quickly. This is the first piece I have knit entirely continentally. I find ribbing is much quicker when I knit continentally as opposed to english style.

I used Elann's new Peruvian Sierra yarn and I love it! It is very soft. I used 7 balls in mallard for the body and about 5 1/2 in jasper for the sleeves. Which just about works out to the 1/3 plus one ball for the sleeves... I ordered extra so now I have 4 balls of the body color left and about 2 1/2 balls of the sleeve color...have to think of something to make. I am not a hat person but maybe an ear warmer/panta sort of thing??

I plan to knit the collar version in the body color and I am going to do the zipper band in the body color as well so I probably won't have much of the body color left when all is said and done.

Ene's scarf..blocked

2005-12-17T19:45:00.000-05:00

Well, Ene is blocked...and did she ever grow! Fresh off the needles,unblocked she was 29" from the top to the point and 46" across the top edge. After blocking she is 39" from the top to the point and 75" across the top edge! I love the size.

Here is a shot a little closer to show the detail

Reno seems to approve

And what do you get when 2 cats (who barely tolerate each other when they can go outside and roam a couple of acres) have been stuck inside for the past week because it has been C*O*L*D here?

Lucky for them, they did not roll up and fight on top of Ene!

And a Ribby Cardi update:

I am making the ribbed version and doing the back and sides in one piece. It is about 9 inches long so far. I love this yarn. It is the new Sierra Aran from Elann in the color Mallard. I plan to do the sleeves in jasper which is a darker green color. Although I have been thinking about ordering more of the Malllard and making it one color...hmm...wonder how pratical interchangeable sleeves would be???...NAHH

GRRR!

2005-12-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

I want to make the Snowflakes & Arrows vest from Knitpicks

I have the pattern and finally all the yarn. I am having trouble making gauge for this project but that is not my biggest problem.

If I take the # of stitches to cast on (292) and divide by the stitches per inch (8) I should come up with the size listed (39")...well I don't...292/8 = 36.5! That certainly is not even close to 39". I called knitpicks today and someone was supposed to get back to me but they didn't. I asked if they could contact the designer and see if that was correct.

The other issue is that I am getting 7.5 stitches per inch and 292/7.5 = 38.9...much closer to the size listed. So...do I go with my gauge and the number of cast on stitches???

Here is Ene, off the needles

2005-12-12T18:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't blocked it yet. This took me about a month to do. I cast on in the middle of November, I think and I was also working on my KR gift elf present and Samus.

I used Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply merino. I ended up using 3.5 balls. I am not sure how big it turned out...I plan to measure then block and remeasure and will let you all know the end results. This was my first lace project and while I had a few false starts, I enjoyed and recommend it to anyone up to their first lace challenge.

On a family note, we had our family christmas party this weekend. I told my favorite aunt about my blog and she said she would check it out...I can't wait for her to see my knitting!

And last but certainly not least...you will never guess what was in my mailbox this afternoon....yup, a package from my KR gift elf, Wendy Here is a peek at what she sent me:

Wendy was overly generous! She sent me the book Folk Shawls, 6 (!) skeins of WOTA yarn from Knitpicks, a yarn cutter, a candle, some chocolate (that she said I had to share with my hubby and daughter ) and a yarn meter! Thank you so much Wendy! You have been a great gift elf!

Ene's Progress

2005-12-06T18:09:00.000-05:00

This is Ene's Scarf from Scarf Style after 2 repeats of chart 3. 3 more repeats of chart 3 then on to the last chart. It is going much faster now, I am down to 217 stitches from the beginning 375. I am really enjoying the challenge of this project and am glad I started it again.

Long weekend knitting

2005-11-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

Since I had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off for Thanksgiving break, I got a lot of knitting accomplished. We went to Martin's sister's house for Thanksgiving dinner so I only had to make a sweet potato/cranberry caserole.

I have been working on Ene's scraf from Scarf Style. Some of you may recall I started this a couple of months ago but had to frog it because I was horribly off. I am pleased to say I made it through the first chart of the pattern and it is right on target.

Once I got into the groove of this pattern, I am enjoying it. It certainly is not mindless knitting, but having a few days off has allowed me to concentrate on it.

I have been wanting a place to store my DPN's but haven't wanted to spend the money on a needle case. I was doing some surfing the other day and found this tutorial and decided to give it a try. It is really well written and this is what I came up with

This was made at no cost to me: all the materials came from stuff in my stash. The fabric is left over from a quilt I made and I added some batting to make it quilted. I am going to make an I cord in purple to wrap around it to close it.

And this is what it looks like rolled up:

I also finished up my KR gift elf's gift. I am just waiting for her to send me her address so I can mail it off...I hope she likes what I am sending her!

And finally...my yarn for Ribby arrived today and I love it. I will take a pic of it tomorrow in the daylight, it is hard to see the contrast at night. The two colors are close, but they are different. I wanted two colors but not a huge contrast. After obsessing about what size to make, I have decided to make the 40/41. I think that will work out just fine.

Samus is finished!

2005-11-19T19:27:00.000-05:00

Yeah Me!!!! Samus is finished. I sewed the zipper in last night. My sewing machine was not behaving so one side of the zipper is sewed in my machine and the other by hand. I actually like the hand sewn side better and when I am ready to sew the zipper into Ribby (which I haven't started yet) I will probably hand sew that one in. It really wasn't hard to hand sew it in. It looks a little puckered in the picture but in real life it looks really good, if I do say so myself. I am very proud of this sweater and can't wait to wear it to work next week and to Thanksgiving dinner with the inlaws!

And here is a rare occurance: a picture of me! I don't normally post my picture...I don't like having my picture taken, let along put it there for the millions (haha) of people that read my blog to see. Bet here I am with Samus in all her glory!

Mr Postman....

2005-11-16T19:42:00.000-05:00

brought me some gifts today!
This is a box from Knitpicks that has most of the yarn and the pattern for the snowflakes and arrows vest. I read over the pattern and one of the first things it talks about is STEEKS!! Yikes, I have never done steeks...first time for everything, I guess...

And this

was in the other package. It is a set of 9 36" circs I won in an auction on E bay for $35. With the $3 shipping, that is about $4.25 each. My LYS sells them for $8 each...not bad...

Still plugging along on the icord for Samus and still waiting for my zipper from Zipperstop. Hope it gets here so I can sew it in this weekend so I can wear Samus next week...

I cord is going better now

2005-11-15T20:30:00.000-05:00

I frogged the I cord I had done and started over. I had intentionally put it on the wrong side but it made the waist band flip up like a duck's tail! The second time, I only cast on 3 stitches and instead of S1, K1, psso, I am doing K2tog. And I went down 2 needle sizes. It is turing out much better:

One section around the color looks a little funky but I think some blocking or some creative duplicate stitching will take care of that.

I cord issues

2005-11-13T20:55:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the right side of the applied I cord. It is OK, but I am not thrilled with it.

Here is a picture of the wrong side of the I cord (the side that is on the inside of the sweater)

I like the wrong side better, it just looks neater. I am considering taking it off and applying it with the WS facing. Any thoughts?? Would it be to big and bumpy on the inside??

Samus sleeve trouble

2005-11-12T21:04:00.000-05:00

I finished the body and one sleeve of Samus and blocked them. As a break from the endless stockinette, I decided to sew the shoulder seams together and sew in the first sleeve. They fit perfectly :-)

I tried the sweater on and the sleeve is at least 2 inches too long! I can't fold the cuff back, obviously, because that would hide the saxon braid on the cuffs. I decided I needed to frog it back and re knit it shorter. I hope this works. I plan to frog back to the last increase and then start the decreases for the shouder cap. It makes sense to me that it would work...

I also think I will work the applied I cord with needles 2 sizes smaller than the rest of the sweater. I think a smaller I cord may look better...who knows :-)

I orderd my zipper from zipperstop and it should arrive next week. I ordered the color copper...I hope it matches pretty well, it is hard to say looking at the monitor.

And last but not least...I ordered the pattern and yarn for the Snowflakes and arrows vest from Knitpicks
I ordered the purple and black colors like the picture but the black and one of the purples is backordered and expected to be in around December 1. That is ok because that will leave me time to finish up my KR gift elf present before then.

Samus body is done

2005-11-06T13:29:00.000-05:00

Not a very good picture (are they ever?). maybe I should learn how to use my digital camera instead of just pointing and shooting :-)

I have started on the cuffs and hope to finish them today. I really want to be able to wear this for Thanksgiving...

Gee, I have been busy!

2005-11-05T11:18:00.000-05:00

Warning: Very image intensive post...

I have tried to post about our weekend all week but have been busy everynight after work.

Our trip to the Adirondacks was heavenly. There was a little snow in the mountains but the weather was perfect, nice and sunny. Here are two shots somewhere between Old Forge and Lake George:

And here is the view from our room at The Georgian Resort in Lake George:

Our room was beautiful. We had a heart shaped jacuzzi tub that was great to soak in after bein in the car for 6 hours during the ride from Old Forge to Lake George. Did I mention that Martin wanted to drive to Vermont because we were very close so we set off without a map? We did make it to Vermon but only after seeing a lot of cows, very few houses and no other human beings! LOL. He did stop and get a map on the way back to Lake George so we could find our way to the resort (imagine, a man asked for directions ;-)

The rest of our suite was the raised bedroom/sucken living room area

And one picture of the foliage on the way home, outside our hotel room on Sunday morning.

Martin and I had a really good time. We talked the whole time in the car, and had some funny laughs too. I complained that my sheep tape measure is made upside down because when you pull the tape out, the cms are on top. Martin said..."what does a backwards sheep say?"......."AAAAAABBBB" We laughed so hard over that (yeah, we are dorks!)

Because this is really a knitting blog, I suppose I should give a short knitting update. I don't have pics, but I was able to finish the main section of the body of Samus (just to the point where you divide for the fronts and back) Having 6 hours in the car to knit and not feel guilty that I should be doing something else was great. And even thought I can't read in the car without getting carsick, I can knit with no problem :-) This week I have finished the right front and last night finished the back. I hope to get the left half done this weekend. I will post pics when I have finished the body. I really want to be able to wear this for Thanksgiving...wonder if I will make it??
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. We went to the Old Forge Hardware, only because I wanted to see the yarn section. It was pretty nice, considering the rural area. The prices seemed about the same as my LYS. I didn't buy anything because I don't have a next project in mind but I did see the pattern that Kim is looking for. If I had known she was having trouble getting it, I would have picked it up for her. :-) We tried to go to elegant needles but I read the map wrong and we were headed in the wrong direction. I was tired and told Martin to just head for home, we can go some other time.

Hello

2005-10-27T19:42:00.000-04:00

This post has no purpose other than to see if my RSS reader at work will be able to read this :-)

We leave for our trip tomorrow after work...I'll have an update on the fall foilage, the snow, and progress on Samus when we return...

Some progress on Samus

2005-10-23T21:11:00.000-04:00

I finished the cable waist band and picked up 204(!) stitches for the body. This stockinette seems endless!

I love the way stockinette looks when using Lamb's Pride. There is an article on Knitty that explains why it looks like this. I found it pretty interesting. I had noticed that different yarns produced stitches that looked different but didn't know why. Here is a close up of the stockinette.

Hubby is taking me away this coming weekend. I will have at least a 2 hour ride on Friday night and another 2 hour ride on Saturday until we get to our destination. I plan to take Samus with me so I can work on the body. Funny thing...when I told hubby I was going to bring my knitting with me on our get away...he said I could not knit in the heart shaped tub!?!? :-)

Finally, an update

2005-10-18T21:19:00.000-04:00

I have been a bad blogger! The only excuse I have for not posting n 10 days is the batteries in my camera where dead and I didn't see the point of posting without a pic or two. I caught some flack from a fellow blogger about that and was told to either buy new batteries or get a charger and rechargeable batteries. Well, guess what....I do have a charger and rechargeable batteries so that excuse just bit the dust...

I did finish the snowflake illusion scarf for my daughter. I just had an e mail from the designer and she will be sending a link out so we can post it on our blogs...that will make it easier to get the pattern.

I have also started
Samus from Knitty. Some of you may remember I did the Saxon Braid Scarf. The waist and cuffs on Samus are a variation of that cable. It is going quite quickly. I have 3 1/2 repeats of the 9 for the waist done so far.

BTW...I am using Lamb's Pride Worsted in a color called Tiger Lily. It is not as bright as the picture looks. I would call it more of a terracotta color.
Well, that is all for now...I promise to be a better blogger in the future and post more frequent updates :-)

Ene hit the frog pond

2005-10-08T10:18:00.000-04:00

I was almost done with chart one and I have been thinking that the left half just didn't look the same as the right. But I kept going, trying to convince myself that that was the nature of lace and it would look right when blocked.

Well, last night I finished chart one and I added a couple of sections to my denise needle set so I could stretch it out and see what was going on. My stitch count was right but apparently I got off track somewhere and the left half is a MESS!

I frogged it last night and am not sure when I will cast on again. I think I am going to cast on for Backyard Leaves and do Ene later this winter.

375 stitches X 22 rows = :-(

Lady Eleanor is 100% complete!

2005-10-05T18:46:00.000-04:00

I have finally finished Lady Eleanor. The main portion is done and the fringe is done. Here are a couple of shots. It is interesting how different the two pictures are. It is just opposite sides near each other...if that makes sense. And I really like the way the fringe turned out. I did not enjoy tying the knots...it hurt my neck to look down all that time while tying them.

Now I can't wait to use it. My plan was to wrap up in it while sitting in front of the fire. Who knew it would still be 80+ degrees in October in Upstate NY?!? This weekend looks like we might have a small fire but it will still be close to 70. Check with me in February when I am cursing the howling wind and the blowing snow!

Finished knittting Lady Eleanor

2005-10-02T09:46:00.000-04:00

I finished the knitting part of Lady Eleanor. Here she is blocking and drying... Yes, I did straighten it out after I took this picture.

All that is left is to crochet the short ends and add the fringe. I started it somewhere around Septemebr 9 so it has taken me a little less than a month to do. Not bad considering I am also working on Ene's scraf, too.

I have been tagged

2005-09-19T17:44:00.000-04:00

Or meme'd as the case may be. Here are the "rules"
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

I went with the 24th post because #23 did not have 5 sentences. And the amazing quote is:
I would swear it was Debbi Bliss Chunky Cashmerino if I hadn't seen the label myself

Not very interesting but I was referring to Knit Pick's new Panache yarn. I used it to make a scarf for my MIL and it is wonderful.

Now I am supposed to tag 5 people but the problem is I don't know 5 people that blog. And one of the few people I know has been meme's already. What to do?? I think I will go to KR and go to the blog section and pick 5 people at random! HAHA bet they will be as thrilled as I was :-)

My swift is finished

2005-09-17T18:19:00.000-04:00

Hubby completed my swift and I love it! It works like a dream. For less than $15 in materials, i have a swift that is just as nice as the ones that cost $75! Here it is holding a hank of Cascade 220. I think the size is just right.

Lady Eleanor progress

2005-09-17T18:07:00.000-04:00

Lady Eleanor is coming along. I have completed 22 of the 36 tiers. I like it more now than I did to begin with. Here is a different angle.