A Little Yarn On The Side

...and Valentine's Day being just 4 days away, it was time to revisit the place mats. I like the idea of whimsical swirls and hearts to secure the batting, but I decided not to sew them by hand as that never seems as secure as machine stitching, and my capacity to sit is not improving much after last weekend's choir escapade, so... concentric hearts it is.  I put a piece of masking tape on the throat to use as a guide (the sewing machine's, not mine) to do the first stitch, then added more seams in different colors: I was hurrying to get all 6 done, so there are a few wonky bits that need to be ripped out and done over, but I was hurrying to get them done before I ran out of ability to sit, so if all else fails, all 6 are ready to be used if I don't get time to clean the seams up.  Theo was on-hand to help with the sewing, though he's still displeased over the new table height.  For a while he had taken to sleeping on the floor near  the sewing room tabl...

Saturday I attended a gospel singing workshop.  I'm not a religious person, but I do sing and I was really excited to do ANYTHING that didn't involve home, the gym, or physical therapy, and I thought it would be one of the better choices as I assumed we would be standing rather than sitting.  Who sings while sitting? Apparently, gospel choirs.  Even with the strongest pain medication I'm allowed, I had to duck out early and take part of a Valium to even get myself home, and Theo and I spent Saturday night and Sunday pretty much like this: except I'm not quite that cute when I do it.  Nor, thank heavens, that furry. I did get a little work done on the new sweater, but most of the time was spent finishing up the socks I started for my birthday: which are now FINISHED!!!!!  Since they were in progress before the start of the year, I'm counting them for one of my 12 WIPs since they MUST count for something on my list, and I have used up one of my "prec...

....what I would like  to be showing you is an actual finished project. What I actually could  be showing you is the pool at my gym where I spent an hour and a half this morning.  After yesterday's physical therapy appointment, I really, REALLY didn't want to go to the gym today, so I made myself go anyway and increased  my workout time to an hour and 15 minutes (up from 1 hour)--both to prove to myself that I wasn't going to wimp out and  because I am an idiot. What I could also  be showing you is my sorry knitterly self laying on the bed because my leg muscles are just exhausted and sitting still hurts.  Or my pajamas--which I will be crawling into in just a few short minutes.    Or myself unconscious....which should be in about 5 minutes..................

Wednesdays are not generally my day for crafting, but this week I've really worn myself out and thought it best to take a rest day before physical therapy tomorrow.  So, I decided to work on the Valentine place mats, and I'm very pleased with how they are turning out,  but I need to do something to tack down the batting in them and can't decide if I should do a couple concentric hearts in maybe purple or pink or if I should do something more whimsical--like swirls or dots?  What do you think?

The shawl is no longer with us. I thought about trying to fix it, but this is not the first problem I've had with breakage in this particular yarn.  In fact, the current ball was actually wound into a ball instead of using the swift and ball winder because it's the only yarn I've had that broke repeatedly when wound with the swift.  So, since the shawl was intended to be a gift and I would just be freaked out all the time that the yarn would keep breaking and popping holes all over the place, I decided to cut my losses and move on.  Being of thick, wonderfully soft yarn, the balaclava got a lot of attention yesterday, and I am just loving this thing.  The yarn is Elann's Limited Edition Rossini and I adore this stuff.  It's unbelievably soft, and I'm actually sorry that I have now used up the first of the three balls I own.  Knitting World, please go buy up the rest of their stock so I will not be tempted by it.  Literally, I want to live i...

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...