A Little Yarn On The Side

I think amongst the knitting world, the Knitting Gods are known to a cruel and vindictive lot.  Boast even the teensiest amount about one's own cleverness or how well a project is going and SMACK--the knitter's needles or yarn or BOTH are bound to break, or a wave of moths are about to descend.  They're a cantankerous lot at best. However, I think they might have met their equals in the Physical Therapy Gods. Remember me saying that I had to walk so slowly on Friday that I didn't even boost my circulation?  Yeah--big mistake.  That slow walk actually threw my hip back out.  I thought maybe it was just sore, but by Saturday night--it was definite.  Luckily, I have been shown how to force my hip back into place with my new toy Unluckily, the very concept of having to move bones about is generally enough to make me want to hurl, but it turns out that pain is an excellent motivator and Valium can take my mind off anything--even consciousness. So, I was...

....and I might be a little bit behind. Theoretically, if I want to finish 12 sweaters/shawls in 12 months I would be really close to finishing something right now.  On Friday Theo helped me with the fronts of the mohair sweater and we did make great progress, but that still leaves those pesky sleeve things to be done.   And I don't know about Theo, but I need breaks from working with mohair.   So, I've been working on one of the shawl WIPS, and I am on the final part of one side of the cream shawl, but then there will still be a second side to finish, which even strikes ME as a lot of knitting to do in 3 days.  Especially when there is a balaclava getting some knitting action.  I went for my first walk outside yesterday, and since I have firm instructions from the therapist to walk slowly and gently, this also means I'm walking WAY too slow to get the circulation moving enough to not freeze while walking.  I'm thinking the balaclava will do a m...

Yesterday started off with a trip to the dentist.  It was just a cleaning, and I really like my dentist, but I still don't think a REALLY good day starts off with a visit to ANYONE in the medical profession.  Then I ran some errands, came home, hauled bags in, then headed to the gym to swim for 30 minutes and walk laps for 30 minutes, then intended to come home and make soup.  That was the intention.  I was so tired by then that I seriously considered crawling into bed, even though it was barely after 4:00 PM.  I didn't even have the energy to do my physical therapy exercises.  This health thing is really a full-time job some days.............

So, I think I've decided to frog the vest and start over.  In order for the current stitch count to work, I need it to stay at the same gauge as the ribbing with the smaller needles, and that seems unlikely.  I think taking out one of the 18-stitch repeats will make it work, especially since patterns tend to loosen rather than tighten upon washing.  So, this poor little ball of yarn is going to be knit for the THIRD time, and since I try to use the yardage tally to accurately represent what has been taken out of the stash, I won't get to count it AGAIN.  Maybe I need to start keeping a "frustration tally...."

Bright and early, Andy made me some new table legs: There's a wooden dowel inside the pipes to give it some additional strength.  The table is now 36 inches tall, and I love it!  It's a bit less stable than it was before, but not much.  So I spent much of the day straightening the sewing room, getting the final place mat and the batting cut out, and even got a bit of sewing done.   I think I'll do some sort of decorative stitching to keep the batting in place, but I think they'll be quite fun.  I even tried the coasters: and after figuring out that a half-inch seam allowance was more appropriate for making a small heart ornament, I think I got everything figured out. I had the good day. Theo, on the other hand, had a rather bad day.  The sewing room table is one of his favorite spots to hang out, and where I keep his water glass: He has a water bowl, of course, but only uncultured kitties drink out of a bowl, and giving him his own glass ...

We're trying to interest one of my nieces in knitting, so I picked out some yarn that I thought might be most interesting to her without being the knitting horror that so much novelty yarn really is.  Her favorite color is pink followed by purple, so I thought this would make a nice combination.  It's not quite as satisfactory as buying yarn for oneself, but it takes up less room, involves far less guilt, and fits in nicely with my plans to convert the rest of the world to the yarn arts.  World domination--just a few garter-stitch scarves away..........

Yesterday Boise got its first real snowfall of the year--dumping around 6 inches in one day.  I hurt my back two months ago.  A smart person might have though this would be a good way to get out of shoveling snow.  And what did I do?  Check with my spine doctor ahead of time to make sure it would be okay for me to shovel snow when and if we ever got any. WHAT WAS I THINKING??????????????????????????????? Even better, remember the balaclava I bought yarn for in my self-pity order in November--the one I was going to make because my face gets so cold when shoveling snow?  Not even started.  Maybe I should round off all this idiotic behavior by casting on something involving size 0 needles and cobweb yarn for my 12 sweaters in 12 months challenge--wouldn't that just be the final touch?