Back in the Saddle Again

It feels good to finally be able to knit for periods longer than 15 minutes. Between the nerve problems and the high blood sugars I haven't been able to knit much lately.

I still experience problems from the nerve compression and going 17 months without an injection didn't help the situation. I did pretty well for a while, but as the pain begain to increase I wouldn't heed the signs and schedule an appointment for one. The last 2-3 months have been a hell of intermittent and sometimes debilitating pain. I finally took my mom's advice and scheduled an appointment. I had the injection on Wednesday and I have already experienced a lot of relief. I will never wait this long again.

After years of good control, I have been experiencing high blood sugars fasting and throughout the day. I can always tell when my blood sugar is high because it adversely affects my eyesight. I've been told that this is a good thing because I will know when I don't have good control. I pay close attention this because the relatives on my dad's side including him tend to have diabetes-related blindness. I tried an injectable, Byetta, but was unable to get any control with it. I'm on a morning and evening dose of insulin and this is working. My vision has normalized and my highs have begun to come down.

I had grand ideas of putting a lot of entries in the fair but that didn't work out either. I did manage to enter 4 items which is better than entering nothing. I'm also serving as one of the co-presidents of the Palmetto Purlers knitting guild for the 2011-2012 year along with Boykin Exum. There's  much work to be done coming up with a schedule of programs and hopefully a big weekend knitting event. It has been quite a while since I was an officer, but I'm looking forward to serving this year and possibly the next.

I'm not committing my self to making many Christmas gifts but one that I have gotten started on is the Mermaid jacket by Hanne Falkenberg. It is a present for my mom and after a couple of false starts I'm finally on track.

This is my second Hanne Falkenberg design. I have another Mermaid and Pagoda kit to knit after this one. Her instructions can be a little cryptic so you really have to pay close attention. My earlier mistakes were from not reading the entire pattern and misunderstanding what I had read. I've set a personal goal of finishing this by the end of month in case I do decide to make a gift or two or three. Nothing is set in stone for me when it comes to knitting.

I hope to update this blog more often now that my health issues have settled down and I can enjoy the crafts that I love.

Seeing America

Tomorrow I head back to work after 12 days off. This is the longest I've been off work without being ill and I loved it all except for the part where we had to run from TS Lee. San Antonio was a hot 110 when we arrived but the temps dropped to the 90's for the first time in months when we were there.

The VFW and Ladies Auxillary convention was in full force. There were approximately 10,000+ in attendance. We fulfilled our delegate obligations and took some time to see more of San Antonio and get in some shopping.

Despite the heat we did some touring and saw some fascinating points of interest. Of course I visited the Alamo again and we stayed at the Marriot Rivercenter on the Riverwalk and took the riverboat tour but this time they are doing a great job promoting other sites. Even though I've visited San Antonio before I saw much more than I did the first time because I was ill during that trip.

We road the Alamo Tours trolley to see some of the selected sites in order to choose those that we wanted to spend more time visting. The next day we used our "hopper pass" to visit the following sites.

                                                         The Tower of the Americas

The Museum of Texan Culture

Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo, one of five missions in San Antonio and the best-known mission in Texas

Market Square  One thing that really caught my eye in San Antonio is the architecture.

This building was used for the movie Ghost Busters...

 and a lot of the older buildings have the "Uglies" or faces believed to drive away bad luck or evil. The Museum of Texan Culture has 26 flags representing the countries or ethnic groups that have infleunced the development of San Antonio and it clearly shows in the architecture.

We left Texas on Friday heading to New Orleans and straight into the path of tropical storm Lee. The bellhops at the hotel were keeping track of the storm and tried to convince us to go around but since we already had reservations we continued as planned. The closer we got to New Orleans the worst the weather became and by the tame we arrived at the hotel that night the winds where high and the rain blinding. We spent the night, cancelled the remaining days when we got up that morning and hightailed it out of there. At that time they were expecting the storm to remain stalled until Monday and even though it didn't turn out that way we were glad we left.

Mother and I were stuck in a hotel in Orlando in 2008 during a TS that stalled and shut down everything and we didn't want to relive that experience.

We had a wonderful trip. Nothing beats driving through and actually experiencing the country you live in. There is a lot still to be done in Biloxi, where we spent our first night of the trip, and New Orleans. There's also a lot of work to be done in Texas with the drought and fires but I love visiting and seeing the USA.

Picking Up Where I Left Off

I've given up hope of posting regularly here. I'm having trouble with the left hand, arm and shoulder once again so my crafting time has been limited. I've been unable to do much of anything for any significant length of time. The state fair knitting is started and I'm currently working on a women's pullover. It will, along with the other knitting for the fair, remain a stealth project until after the fair in October.

I finally got back to beading this past week and made three bracelets with one or two more to go. The pattern is Bump in the Road from Step by Step Beads which is now Beadwork.


The top one is for my co-worker Tammy's birthday, the second one is for my mom and the third and unfinished one is for my sister. I had to modify the instructions for the toggle loop since it came out way too big on Tammy. I redid that one and finished my sister's Sunday night.

I'm participating in the Westknits Mystery KAL on Ravelry. We are currently knitting clue 2. I finished clue 1 yesterday and will work on clue 2 this evening. The first two clues are quite short but he has promised that the knitting will pick up drasticly with clue 3. This is my first Westknit pattern and so far I'm enjoying it.

I resisted the temptation to purchase yarn for this project and after much searching I came up with a combination I like. The yarn is Dalegarn Tiur in colors I call Mossy Green, Antique Gold and Brick Red.


In keeping with earlier plans I've been working with the knitting machine in hopes of using up some of the sock stash. I've got casting on ribbing and circular knitting down. I'm having some issues with the main bed. The stitches will knit fine for a while and then all of a sudden some of them don't knit anymore. I'll switch out some more needles and play around with the weight to see if that solves the problem. I'm also having problems with the short-row heel. Jan did a refresher for me at our meeting on Saturday some I confident that the more I practice the better I will get.

I still haven't had time to take a spinning class so that has been on the back burner for know. I've got a pretty full plate is it is so I'm going with what's already in the works for the time being.

Feeling the Family Love

My great-niece turned 1 earlier this month and her birthday party was Sunday. Due to family issues, I hadn't seen her since my birthday party in September. Madison is a sweet, happy and loving little girl. It was a great party and we enjoyed meeting the rest of the family.


Megan (mom) & Madison

Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents
Obviously I'm not cut out for project monogamy. I do really well until I see a project that hits the sweet spot and then all bets are off.

I was sailing right along on Buttercup and making great progress after having to rip out most of the sweater and then I decided to take a look at the "New and Popular" patterns on Ravelry. I'm not sure if it was at the top then as it is now but I couldn't resist Catkin. This gorgeous cape/shawl/poncho has created all kinds of problems. I initially started knitting it with some Miss Babs from the stash but not liking that I lost all resolve and ordered the delicious Madelinetosh Merino Light that the pattern called for. I ended purchasing 5 skeins of yarn instead of the 2 I originally intended. So much for Cold Sheeping.


After I getting over my original feelings of guilt I love the work in progress.


This is for my mom's birthday this month and the plan is to finish it before she leaves for Hawaii at the end of the month.

July 1st is the opening day for submitting your request for the state fair exhibit tags. I was considering not entering this year since I have won the sweepstakes 4 times including the last 3 years in a row. I thought about it and decided that I shouldn't punish myself by not entering because I keep winning. I have worked really hard to improve my skills to get to this point so I don't feel that I am being unjustly rewarded. Each time I win I remember my first entry many, many years ago that didn't qualify for anything because some of the buttons fell off. I may have been in my late teens or early twenties and my main focus at that time was crochet but the failure had such an impact on me that I didn't enter anything else until I was in my early forties.

I compiled my list of categories that I plan to enter and decided on the projects and the yarn. This year I will enter something in the "Infant and Toddler" section. I have two babies, a great niece and a goddaughter, that I'll be able to pass the knits to once the fair is over.

That's it for the update. I keep saying I'm going to do better at blogging but I know if life gets in the way that won't happen so I'll say until the next time.

Another Test Knit

This past month I had another top-secret test knitting project. It was another sock pattern for Kirsten of Zeks Lite. The pattern, Short Row Shuffle Socks, is now available on Ravelry.

I tested two versions of the pattern. The first is a top-down 4-stitch shuffle with a welted cuff

and the second is a toe-up 5-stitch shuffle with a ribbed cuff.


This pattern is designed for yarns that have defined and regular repeats of color.

I love Kirsten's patterns. They are always challenging and inspired. Each one exposes you to a new techinique or way to look at knitting. I love the short rows used in this pattern.

The family issues have calmed down. They haven't been resolved but we are more back to normal. I must say that I didn't get much done last month. I had to rip out most of the body of Buttercup due to split threads and got started back on it a couple of days ago. It's all stockinette so it is going pretty fast and should be finished soon.

A Raveler was destashing an amazing 14 Hanne Falkenberg kits and after looking at them I couldn't resist buying two of them. This is my first purchase since December so I didn't feel too bad about it plus the price was unbeatable. The Mermaid kit is for my mother and the Pagode for me.



When I opened the box I was surprised to find enclosed enough yarn to knit 4 pairs of socks. Two skeins of Colinette Jitterbug, 2 skeins of Regia Design Line and 2 skeins of Regia 4fadig plus I didn't pay for the shipping or insurance. This is the first purchase I've made from a Raveler and it couldn't have gone better.

Adamas Shawl

I didn't mean to take so long between blog post but life has been hectic and demanding. You think that everything is going well in your family life and a bomb drops. I can't go in detail except to say that this has been one of the most devastating events our family has had to endure and we are still trying to recover.

I finished the Adamas shawl the first part of last month but didn't get around to blocking and taking pictures until over a month later. This was our guild kal project that started in January.





Specs:

Pattern: Adamas by mimknits
Yarn: Karabella Lace Merino
Needles: 5 US
Knitted: January 26, 2011 - April 7, 2011

I increased the size in order to use up the full 4 skeins of yarn on hand. I'm glad I did since this made it the perfect size for me. Graciously modeled by my mom.

A Sweater for Me

I've been searching for the perfect sweater for me for quite a while and finally found it. I'm making Buttercup.

This sweater has been in the top 10 of my queue for a long time. I've been hesitant to cast on given the bad luck I've had the past 2 years making sweaters for me. They either turned out to be not flattering on me or I outgrew them before I was even close to finishing. I've seen this sweater on many different body types on Ravelry and for the most part it was very flattering.

I've finished with the yoke and most of the body and have started on the sleeves.


The first sleeve is finished except for the fan and feather lace trim. I really love the feel of this sweater and since I've knitted with Hempathy I know it will soften up even more when soaked.

I'm still working on beading projects but not so much lately. I've been spending a lot of my time getting my knitting machines up and running again. To that end I attending a knitting machine seminar in Raleigh, NC this past Friday and Saturday. It was hosted by the Carolinas Machine Knitting Guild and Featured four instructors from the US and Canada. I learned a lot, got some things refreshed and met a lot of new people. I really want to learn to knit circular socks on the knitting machine and I now feel more empowered to give it a try. My stash of coned yarns is as large as the handknitting stash so I really need to get busy and put it to use. I also own four electronic machines and they are being wasted so it's time to get my ducks in a row.

Time is at a premium these days. I'm on the Women's Day choir at church and we meet on Monday and Wednesday, I attend exercise classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and most Saturday's I have something going on. I'm also test knitting another pattern so I've replaced my regular knitting with that. I'm always amazed at how things are so slow and calm during the winter time and as soon as spring arises everything picks back up.