A Little Yarn On The Side

Anyone remember this? It's an Alice Starmore (she of the lifetime-commitment sweater patterns) design on size 2 needles started in September of last year AND it is the WIP getting attention today.  While I'm incredibly pleased that I am working on an existing WIP, it's not a WIP that I'm going to be able to finish soon.  Unfortunately, that means I am unlikely to stay committed to finishing WIPs.  But I am pleased to say that I finished the sweater yesterday, so one WIP is finished.  My WIP-finishing record is 14 and I have 21 knitting WIPs and a huge stash of unlimited sewing WIPs.  Could I finish 14 WIPs of any sort in a row?  I'd possibly have to make an exception for ornaments so I don't fall behind, but could I do some serious WIP wrestling for the second half of the year................?

Though, to be fair, I haven't relaxed quite as much as Theo. My little sidekick is finally his old self again.  I'm still giving him two kittty meds, but mercifully they are capsules that can be sprinkled on his food.  Of course, being a cat he can still make that extremely difficult, and has pretty much decided that if he has to eat wet food, it must be the most expensive one I can find (Fancy Feast Appetizers but ONLY the fish flavors--can you beat that?), and there are days when I chase him around the house with the container to try to get him to eat enough to get the drugs down, but it's still better than the continual trips to the vet or the antibiotics.  Andy is away on business for a couple days, so there are some new ornaments.  My freehand embroidery skills are still rather poor, but as we have TWO Christmas trees, we also have two backs of trees, so felt ornaments seem like a good way to practice. And--brace yourself--after the ornaments ...

Being summer, the first thing I did this morning was I am a pickle fanatic, and for the last two years we've had a dismal cucumber crop, so I've been growing a bit concerned about our pickle supply.  Commercial pickles contain food dyes, so to me it's worth the effort to make our own, but it does get hot.  Thank heavens for air conditioning. This afternoon, staying out of both the kitchen and the garden, I finished the two in-progress heart ornaments, and made two new stocking ornaments: Can you tell that I love this design for a stocking?  Beads, sparkly trim--what's not to love?  Especially as these bring me to 219 ornaments on day 208, so I am 11 ornaments ahead.  Thank heavens--the tomato canning is coming....................

My back is still sore enough that I have both ventured to take one of the anti-inflammatory/pain pills that caused the ulcer AND I missed my pool walking this morning.  As I am the youngest one there by about 20 years, I am in for some serious ribbing on Monday.  I had even reached a new milestone: I wore out my water shoes and had to make another personal-spending exception for new ones.  The floor of the pool I go to is rough enough to strip the hide right off one's feet, so shoes are a must, and this time I decided to try water shoes with a bit of support.  The sales lady at the local swim and run shop said they would fall apart in 6 months, but she says that about everything.  She said the ones exactly like I had would last less than 3 months, and they've certainly lasted for more than a year.  The weird thing is, she didn't have a more expensive model she was trying to sell me--she seems to be just a pessimist.  I think the swimming suits I bou...

In the last week, we went to see John Hiatt in concert for Andy's birthday, then went to the Boise Blues Society picnic on Sunday, and I think I can now safely say that my back might be making progress, but really uncomfortable chairs are NOT my friends.  Yesterday I finally had to break down and take the original pain medication they gave me--the stuff I've generally refused to take because it knocks me out.  I have an appointment with a specialist on Monday, so hopefully I'll get this sorted out soon.  It's a physiatrist , which I'd never heard of, but from the description, it sounds exactly like what I need.  I had been resistant to call a specialist because I was afraid they'd want to talk about surgery, which I don't think would help and which I would not discuss until all other options have been explored, but what I do want is someone to look at the original injury, the three subsequent injuries, and either give me new exercises, tell me if I'm a...

*  13 half-pint jars of red onion relish *  10th and final day of giving Theo antibiotics........and cleaning them off the floor and walls * 6 quarts of freshly-canned pickles *  4 more seams on the new dress * 3 1/2 hours of exercise in the pool *  3 completed edging reps.........out of 28 *  2 vet visits and 2 new medications for Theo *  1 new lace ornament  * 1/3 of a new felt ornament  *  1/4th of the actual new sprinkle-on-the-food medications that Theo has actually been tricked into taking *  1 cat hiding in the back of the closet *  2 humans VERY much in need of a white chocolate martini...............

As Andy's birthday was on Tuesday and is now in possession of them, I can show you these: July birthdays probably aren't the best for hand-knits, but when it stops being 99-108 degrees, we might have grown so accustomed to it that 80 degrees might seem a bit "nippy."

Really, if one disappears off the face of Blogland, one would hope it was because one has run off to Tahiti for the week.  But alas, the real recap: * The horrible neighbors' fireworks marathon frightened Theo enough that he got stressed and couldn't pee again, earning him ANOTHER trip to the vet and another pain shot last Saturday *  Theo ended up with a BONUS trip to the vet on Monday because even while on the pain medication, he couldn't pee, so we are all now thoroughly NOT enjoying the joys of giving antibiotics for a urinary tract infection.  Luckily, after the broken leg saga, I'm pretty quick with liquid meds *  The stress has aggravated my back, which has led to a few full days of Valium *  I spoke with my doctor this week, and we decided that the small doses of Valium I take ( a quarter of a pill once or twice a day and half at night MAXIMUM) are probably pretty safe, so he renewed my prescription, trying for 90 pills per refill so I didn't hav...

Yesterday I started out with which I really, really like--I mean really, beads and sparkles?  Hello!  Inspired, I immediately decided to try something new, which is so far rather hideous.  One should probably have a clear idea of what one is going to do BEFORE starting, or at least not start with a stitch dictionary right in front of one, but now that it IS ugly, I am going to press on and add some other new stitches to it.  It will either improve when there's more stitching on it, or end up so ugly that even the back of the tree rejects it.  I guess they all can't turn out well. While working on the Uggo ornament, I set up Jeeves to do another applique ornament,  which was completed without bloodshed this time, so I think I'm getting better with those scissors.  I did finally manage to get a decent picture of the green and red ornament, which I think would definitely have looked better with a different stitching on the red, but I'm no...

You know, aside from failing to make even the smallest dent in either the fabric or yarn stash, the Great Ornament Experiment is truly the most fun challenge I've set for myself.  I wouldn't want to do it two years in a row, but it's certainly fun for this year.  Yesterday was unbearably hot, so aside from treating ourselves to lunch out and watching all the illegal fireworks from our bedroom window, we pretty much skipped 4th of July festivities.  It's certainly my least-favorite holiday--possibly because now it involves wretched neighbors who shoot off fireworks every night for at least a week leading up to it AND a week or more afterwards--or because the blistering heat of July is usually joined on July 5 by smoke because setting off fireworks in a desert state works out just about how one would expect.  Boise alone had 12 fires last night.  So, after an hour of early morning gardening, I spent most of the day sewing on beads.  Robin had suggested ...

My back felt better this morning but it still needed a bit of rest, it seemed advisable to distract myself with a project that was pretty low-risk for my back.  This probably sounds quite crazy, but it's really hard to remember my back is hurt unless it actually hurts, so left to my own devices, heaven only knows what I would come up with to do today.  So, what could keep me distracted better than making a big, huge mess in the sewing room?  Especially if it involves the bead stash? Everyday I walk past my cool metal ornament tree, and the more I see this ornament, the more I like it.  When I made it, I was worried that it looked a bit hokey, but I really, really like it.  So, I decided to make a couple more.  This is the first one of the day, and how I don't like a long tail on it.  So, on number two I did a much shorter tail, which seems more balanced to me.  This one I really like, so I thought these might make good gifts, ...

Midnight is the halfway point of the year, and I'm now slightly more than halfway to my 365 ornaments!  I can't believe I'm saying that--this being ahead of schedule is quite a new sensation... The second gold and black lace and appliqué ornament is done, and I am still very much in love with these ornaments!  I think I can safely get at least 4 more of these done before I have to start worrying about running out of black thread.   Yay! My back is rather sore today after Monday's hour in the pool, so I have been attempting to take it easy today.  I say "attempting" because the first thing I did this morning was to harvest the garlic, but AFTER that I tried to be good.  It helps that it was 105 outside today, so that made it really easy not to do yardwork.  While Jeeves made two pinky-rose lace snowflakes for me, I finally finished up the felt gift bags that have been languishing for a while. That earns me the "beach" category in the ...