January 29, 2007

Well, I started on the Gunner's Cap, did my gauge swatch, figured out how many sts to CO, and it was too big for me. That's it above. All was not lost, though. I did knit a hem on it (rather than sewing it in later as the pattern suggested). So I learned a new skill before utilizing the old one of frogging!

Then I CO on this hat! It's just a regular hat done in black and white stripes. Nothing spectacular, but, hey, it's still pirate!

So, I did a bit more reading yesterday. I realized that Nora Roberts' Angels Fall movie is on Lifetime tonight. So I dove into the book and got a good 100 out of 450 pages read. I'll save the movie and watch it after I finish the book. In my experience, most books are far better than most movies made from the books. My favorites are those that are both good. Like the Harry Potter ones. Although soooooooooooo very much of the book is not in the movies, the movies do tell a complete story. Practical Magic was another one that was good. Much was left out of the movie, but both were very good stories.

I cleaned up the house this morning. Not fun with a sore back (chronic) and a hurting knee. But, it's vacuumed, swept and cleared off. Looks much, much better. My knee, well, it still hurts if I twist it or sit still too long. Takes a minute to walk the stiffness out of the tendons. Tendons do take a long time to heal, so I imagine this knee and I will be much more conscious of each other than usual for awhile.

The vacuuming is such a hassle. We have a little vacuum...made for clean ups rather than cleaning. And the carpet was new when we moved in. So it sheds, and sheds, and sheds. Makes my chow

look like a shedding amateur! But, I worked at it and worked at it and for the next few hours, the rug looks good!

January 27, 2007

Bunny, Row Marker and more

This is an angora rabbit. I snagged the pic from a post at KnittingHelp.com forum. I don't know where kblue snagged it from. As I said at the forum, one has to wonder what God/dess was thinking when that rabbit was created!

Here is the row counter I made yesterday with jump rings from the local bead store. It's an off-shoot of the idea here. The red one is the end of the count. In this one I have to decrease on the eighth round. So when I get to the red one, I know it's the decrease round. Then I start over with the other end. Each time I knit a round and go down one link on the chain. The numeric row counters that you turn or click after each row just never got turned or clicked. This one does get moved as I can't keep knitting unless I moved it!

My friend F, asked me list all the groups and forums I hang out at. So here it goes, in no particular order: Knitlist, Knitting Novices, Knittinghelp.com, Get Stitchy, Knitter's Review, and Knittyboard. I gain an enormous amount of information here...and although there is some repetition, like the infamous "Can I take my knitting needles on the airplane?" and "My stockinette scarf is curling, how do I fix it?" there is always some new good information to be gleaned!

My knee is worse again. The false improvement yesterday was just that it'd rested all night and felt better. But during the day, it takes a great effort to stand and get moving. After a minute or so, it's much, much better, but those intial half dozen steps....

Okay, just ran across this link at Knittyboard to a post at Knittymagazine... I haven't tried it yet, but...Let me know if you try it and how it works. I'll do the same.

"I did not think of this myself. It's in Jacqueline Fee's Sweater Workshop (thanks to whoever pointed me at that book...). She says it's a traditional Japanese method.

This may seem hard to follow w/o pictures, but just try it, it's totally worth it.

1) Wind one end of the yarn around the tip of the middle finger of your left hand 3 or 4 times.

2) With palm of LH facing you, and yarn behind middle finger, take yarn around the base of the thumb (behind hand), across heel of hand (in front), and around back of hand, coming out at base of index finger.

3) Take yarn to back between index and middle fingers.

4) Cross back of hand, bring yarn to the front around heel of palm, cross the heel of the hand and go around the back of the thumb.

5) Bring yarn across palm, starting from the V between thumb & index finger, ending up at pinky-side heel of hand.

6) Cross the back of the hand, bringing yarn to base of index finger.

Repeat 3-6 until your skein is all wound onto your hand. Tuck away the end you've been working on. Slip your hand out. You are ready to work from the center with the end that was wrapped around your middle finger."

January 26, 2007

Upstairs Project

I have a project that stays in my bedroom for me to work on when I go up at the end of the day. Or when I send myself to my room. The current one is the Grey Scarf which I've been working on, it seems like, forever. I only knit two or three rows in an evening, so one would expect it would take a long time. Well, I have motivation to finish it!

I found, while perusing my knitting groups, the Shifting Sands Scarf. It is so gorgeous and looks like a great year long project. Hopefully it won't be too complicated for an end of the day project. I also allow myself "nice" yarn to work on my Upstairs Projects. So, I'll have to make a trip to the LYS soon! My Grey Scarf is about five feet long so I could end it anytime...although there's enough yarn to make it a bit longer.....

I have no knitting accomplishments to report today. I sat down to work on the infamous multidirectional scarf and found I'd somehow done too many increases and well, it wasn't pretty. So that has been to the frog pond to be begun again at a later date.

My knee is about 90% better. Still a little stiff, a little tender, but much much better. It still hurts if I twist it, but it's more of a reminder not to do that rather than a threat to collapse and dump me on the floor. I'd have to say the Hysan Hua Tuo Medicated Plasters really helped a lot. I really don't think I'd have gone from as much pain as I was in Tuesday morning, to virtually all fixed up in 3 days without them.

January 25, 2007

Same Old, same old....

Here's a pic of son #3 with his brand new son born in December. I was lucky enough to be at the birth, a feat I've managed for all but one of my six grandchildren.

Nothing new and exciting here. My friend sent over some Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hysan Hua Tuo Medicated Plasters (better known as bruise plasters) for my knee. They seem to be helping with the pain. I didn't take any pain relievers last night when I put the plasters on and did fairly well all night, despite having to get up twice to go to the bathroom as well as climb down and up the stairs to let the dog out.... Walking and climbing aren't too bad, but if I forget and twist my knee (and you'd be surprised how often we twist that knee joint in the course of daily life) I really know it. What still suprises me is how quickly it gets stiff. I get up, walk around to get rid of the stiffness, do the dishes, etc., sit down, and ten minutes later I'm starting all over again having to walk off the stiffness.

Don't know what my knitting plans are today. Probably some work on the controversial Multidirectional Scarf. I'm saving the Pinwheel Sweater till tomorrow, I think. I'm visiting my friend, F, and we can work on our sweaters together.

However, this Harry Potter cell phone cozy, and The Weasley Sweater call out to me. The only problem is I don't have any of the yarns needed to make them. Guess that's a good thing!

January 24, 2007

Multidirectional Scarf for Joansie!

In support of Joansie being thrown off a Yahoo group because she wouldn't change her blog, I'm going to CO the Multidirectional Scarf in question.

Edited a few hours later. There's the pic up there of what I got done between naps!

Between my knee and being over loved....there wasn't much to do but sleep! The big black ball of fur is La Diosa Negra. We thought he was a female when we named him.... Now we just call him Diosa.

January 2, 2007

Oh, My Aching Knee

As much as I liked all the snow we had the other night, I forget yesterday morning about ice on the sidewalks! I slipped on the way to the car and wrenched my knee. It's really stiff and hurts a lot when I straighten it out to walk. Can't drive now as we have a standard transmission.... Guess I have to sit and knit all day! (Which would make this different from most days how????)

The pic is my oldest grandson, second grandson and my youngest son.