A New to Me Finish

Today was a very good day. It got off to a very slow start, but got better as the day went on. I managed to do more knitting and spinning than yesterday, yes I stopped when it hurt. I had a nice 2 mile walk after lunch today. I did also manage to get some cleaning and filing done. Now to straighten out the file before I hand it over. That I will start on tomorrow.

At Guild I learned a new edging called the Latvian Braid. Please forgive me if you know about it, but it was so easy and fun that I just had to share it with you.

Latvian Braid

1. Round 1:     *K1 with color A, K 1 with color C repeat from*
2. Round 2:     Round 2: *P1 with color A, P1 with color C, Always bringing the new yarn over the one just used; repeat from*
3. Round 3:     *P1 with color A, P1 with color C, always bringing the new yarn under the one just used; repeat from*
4. Bind off with a regular knitting bind off.

From what I can tell this would make an excellent finishing for a pair of slippers, bottom of a sweater, or any place a decorative stitch would be nice.

Now I need to go off and ponder the bigger question of the day. I have a birthday cake to make for Saturday and I need to figure out who will be my extra set of hands for baking it and making the frosting. Also if I do not knit or spin will I be able to use my left hand to do the decorating of the cake? I also have to remember to go buy the cake board and box.

As you can see my life has no possibility of getting boring anytime in the near future

Hump Day

By default today became my day off. My body just needed a day of rest. This is the real first day off since my hand surgery. I know I should have rested before but there was just so much to do. I got a little knitting and spinning done, but not anything on my list.

 My hand is feeling better, so I tried to make dinner tonight. Who knew I could screw up fish sticks. I ate the mangled ones. I think I will wait a few more days until I try all but the most basic of culinary skills. Such as buying everything pre-cooked and letting John put it together.

With any luck by the time I finish this post Eric will be asleep.

Rainy Day's and Mondays Make Me Happy

The stitches came out today but I still have a bit of recovery time left. I think it will be a while before I can knit and spin to my hearts content. I think I might take out the weaving to vent some of my creative energy. In the mean time I will knit and spin until my hand gets tired. Speaking of knitting, I have lost one of my size 11 wooden Peace knitting needles with the cute lady bugs painted on one end. If you find it please let me know. An  appropriate treat will be given to the finder and returner of the needle.

Now that I am knitting again, albeit slowly. I have 2 commissions that I am working on. The first is a gray scarf in the Uncle Harry pattern in grey. I have a half a skein left on this one. The other is a custom made hat. The customer choose some of my hand spun yarn and gave me a picture of what she wants the hat to look like. The brim is almost done on that one.

I like to make the in person delivery's in very busy places like Starbucks. Today while I was sitting there trying to read my summer 2011 edition of Spin Off, while waiting for the person to show up, I had at least 5 people come and join me at the table and another stop by to tell me how much he liked my knitting. I felt like my knitting was an opener that allowed people to feel comfortable.

The shawl I was piecing together for someone in Tucson was delivered today. I must of done a pretty good job on it. Even though she knit the panels, she could not find the seam lines. This made me very happy By the way after 1 1/2 hours I am only 4 paragraphs into the article.

Well it is time to consider sleep and I hope that Eric is on the same wave length that I am on this one.

Spinning Post Hand Surgery

Ok, so sometimes I am a little slow to figure things out. Take spinning after hand surgery. I went straight for the soft and very fluffy alpaca. This was a big mistake in so many ways. I struggled with it all week, all I can say is the post surgery alpaca looks a lot different from the pre-surgery spinning of the same fiber. I really felt the need to spin so I pick up a different spindle with a Phat sample of merino on it. I could not believe the difference. It was so much easier to spin and ply. So my recommendation on spinning post hand surgery is to go to something like merino. Also expect to look a lot like new spinning.

I am on the second skein of my first post surgery scarf and that is going slow too. I am into the second week and only a little past the half way mark. I feel like a new and very slow knitter. For the first time on a long time I have to think about what my hands are doing. I have had to start following the needles visually too. I guess I have lost some muscle memory or at the very least my hand is moving differently.

Tomorrow I get the stitches out. I think to celebrate I will make some kind of homemade dinner. Well it is now 10 and I have a busy day planed for tomorrow so it's time to say good night.

Saturday

Well it was a second almost all nighter with Eric last night. A good indication that I needed a nap was that I fell asleep while getting my hair cut, yes I trust Mary Lou that much. Let me know if you need her number.  So after a quick trip to the framers market, which did provide the laugh line for the day. "I did not think that milk was dairy." By the baker of all people. I could have not made that one up if I tried. Followed by a quick lunch.

It was nap time. I did manage a nap that was a little less than 2 hours but more than I slept last night. Did I mention that Eric shared his tummy bug. Well this blog is so dis jointed that I think I should call it a night.

Planning, Why Bother?

We are now into our usual pattern. I get an incredible amount of work done, let's use Wednesday for example. I got all the bills paid, caught up on some errands and even found time for myself(this should read was so tired that I could not move). Eric had a nurse visit and his numbers could not have been better.

Now we fast forward to Thursday morning. I had an early morning appointment I could be on time to if the bus was on time. By 6:00am Eric's fever was just shy of 100. I was scrambling for extra help for the day. Emailing the usual list and dealing with the post migraine headache. I was actually thankful that I could skip the morning appointment and will have to reschedule it. Eric's fever broke by early evening. So silly me was planning on going to hang out with friends. Eric seemed to settle in very easy this evening. Then the eyrping started. Did I mention I successfully kept my stitches dry. Yeah me!

I am now 5 loads of laundry behind. Eric is on pedilyte. I am blogging on my pod. By the way one of the new engines on Thomas the tank has glasses now, that was just a random thought. To my friends hang in there, I hope to resurface soon.

More Progress

Each day my hand is feeling better, although there is still a bruise covering almost the whole back of my hand. I still can not do much. I can't get my hand wet yet so no cooking, cleaning or general housework. I have been able to sort through a lot of paperwork and even though its only Tuesday I have made some large deposits to the recycling bin. I wonder if I can fill it up again this week.

I did manage to get to class today for the first time this year. The stars must have been aligned. I even shopped for dinner. Just in case you were wondering a loaf of bread, corned beef, potato salad and coleslaw. Remember I still can not cook so John made the sandwiches. We are in kiss mode right now.

I have started knitting again and have managed to knit about 5 inches in length on a 6 inch wide scarf. I stop when my hand gets tired usually after a row or two.

I have started walking again and today I doubled what I did yesterday. Don't get to excited though it still is not much but it is a start. Well it is time to say good night because I am really tired.