Thank you everyone for the sweet thoughts and comments yesterday. I really wasn’t expecting much of a response to that post, and it was touching.

My appointment went very well. Wanna see something crazy?

There was a basket of full of these for the taking. Can you stand it? They’re hilarious.

Now, back to knitting content. I’m still plugging along on Pete’s bag. I’m working on the strap. I can tell it’s going to take a long time, primarily because it is going to be a couple hundred rows of 19 stitch stockinette, and there’s just nothing interesting about that. BUT, I’ve been thinking, hehe. Thinking about how delicious this Donegal is when felted. Thinking about cool things I might be able to make with it. For me.

These, from S&B Nation spring to mind…

I picked up some of that pink Donegal yesterday that I was thinking about knitting Olivia’s coat with. I’m thinking a charcoal bag, with pink trim and letter. The fun part is going to be the letter, because instead of this boring old thing…

(Yawnaronious). I’m going do do this…

Ahhh, jeah! Do you love it? I’ve been using my excellent bag from the last S&B for almost a year. It still looks fab. I continue to admire the many fine qualities of Lamb’s Pride. But my POINT is that I think I’m ready for a new purse. By Gayle’s standard, I’m grossly overdue, since the woman has a different purse in tow every time I see her. Literally. I have yet to see the same one twice.

So that’s what I’m thinking about today. If nothing else, it’ll motivate me to get Pete’s bag done faster, because I can’t in good conscience start my felted Donegal Tweed bag before finishing his. (Although it appears I can spend an afternoon graphing out a letter for it).

Sorry, it’s not going to be a terribly interesting post today. I’m meeting with an attorney later this morning. It’ll be my first time working with an attorney, ever. I’m really in a fit over it. Not just the attorney, but the whole situation. It’s been awful, and I’m convinced that the recent events pertaining to it all have been the cause of my headaches, nausea, and the fact that my fingernails are bit down to scabs.

I didn’t do any knitting yesterday. I could have, in light of the fact that I did almost nothing else, but I didn’t. In fact, I was either wandering around the house in a stupor, or staring at the TV, which NEVER happens. Hopefully, once I sign with the atty, things will be better, and I won’t have to worry as much. Hopefully, he’ll take care of everything. He made a comment, in an email, that once I sign with him, he’ll call my insurance company and reschedule an IME. That by itself gives me hope. I was dreading having to call that woman again. Hopefully, he’ll do ALL the future communication with her. I don’t want to.

For those of you who are in the dark, and I’m guessing it’s almost all of you, I was in a car accident almost two years ago that was not my fault. All five of us were in the car, heading to the mall, when a car ran a stop sign at full speed and hit my door going over 30 miles an hour. I will be forever grateful I was in my Ford Expedition, because our front axel snapped, the tire on the opposite side of the car blew out, and our car caved in on that side. Because I was so high up, it caved in below my seat. If I had been in a passenger car, I would have been creamed. Smooshed. Pulverized. Pick one, they all apply. Olivia would have been too, because she was right behind me. She was 3.

I’ve been in active treatment and therapy ever since. My body is taking its own. sweet. time. recovering. I am not a gold digger, so I didn’t begin working with an attorney until things got ugly with the insurance companies (surprise, surprise), and I needed one. Which of course made things worse because I’ve already botched some things in my ignorance that wouldn’t have been botched if I’d hired an attorney from the get-go. I need to stop stressing about that.

So, my insurance company has suspended my PIP until I see one of “their” doctors. The joys. I thought they were on my side until I had to reschedule and I got a nasty, threatening letter from them. From MY insurance company. What’s up with that? That letter disintegrated ANY trust or confidence I had felt, and now I feel naked and vulnerable. I’m more upset than I even thought, because now I’m crying. Breathe, girl.

The accident is what enabled me to knit the shawl I talked about yesterday. I spent a phenomenal amount of time sitting. At doctor’s offices. At massage appointments. At home. Just sitting, and knitting. I could never knit a shawl like that again in a matter of months. Well, I HOPE nothing ever happens to me again that would enable it, but if it does, I’m knitting another lace shawl. It’s interesting, but I’m glad I have the shawl, and that I remember what I was going through as I knit it. Somehow, it’s more meaningful than if I’d spent the time knitting an assortment of little projects that would end up who-knows-where.

There are many, many, many things in my life that were horribly disrupted by the accident, of course. One small example is my dog. He was five months old when I was hit. Instead of spending his first spring and summer out at the parks getting socialized like I had planned, I was driving to therapy appointments. Five medical appointments each week. I had a large, socially inept puppy, a four year old, a three year old, an 18 month old, and back pain. My life sucked. I went to a “specialist” 8 months after the accident to try to figure out why I wasn’t improving. He told me to lose weight and wait for my children to grow up so I wouldn’t be bending over so much. That’s funny, I was fat and had little children BEFORE the accident, and my back didn’t hurt then.

It wasn’t ’til months later, when I went to a real doctor that ordered an MRI, that we learned I had a torn disc. Among other things. And when I started physical therapy, and the therapist looked over the reports, he essentially said, “Wow, small children and a torn disc. You must have been in incredible pain last year.”

Why yes, yes I was. In fact, I still am.

I know, I’m ranting. It’s been a hard couple of years. I want to be done. Did I tell you I’m getting another injection? Remember the trauma of my last one? Well, I do. Can any rational person think I would be doing all of this if I didn’t HAVE to?

I’ve finished and bound off the main bag part with flap. Now, I’m going to knit the strap. A big thanks to the ladies at Thursday night knitting group for the strap suggestions. Once the strap is done, I’ll felt the thing, throw up with anxiety, then look at adding pockets.

I received my Christmas present from my mother-in-law on Saturday. It is quite beautiful, although it isn’t as shiny as the picture leads you to believe. Anyhow, the pin part is really nice, so I pinned and wore my red lace shawl, (which you still haven’t seen yet, sorry), on Sunday. Every time I wear the shawl, it snags on something, so I’m constantly in repair mode with it. I figure, I didn’t spend 5 1/2 months of my life knitting a gorgeous lace shawl just to keep it stuffed in a corner in my closet, so I wear it anyway. It looked great. The pin held it perfectly. I know it sounds silly, but unless you’ve experienced trying to pin things, you won’t understand how it really takes a good pin to hold something right. I’m glad this one is good, considering how amazingly expensive it was.

I am getting SO excited for the spinning class I’m taking with Hayden on February 12th. Quite frankly, I think I could use the relaxation. Spinning is so rhythmic, so calming, so beautiful an art… And I wanna be there, baby. Right now I am actively ignoring the fact that I don’t own a wheel, and that I will continue to not own a wheel after the class, but that is not pleasant thinking, so I am simply trotting on, looking forward to my class.

Nate brought home a couple of Olympus digital cameras to test for a month for magazine review. I get to have FUN! I’m very excited because while I am so grateful for the camera that cousin Elisa gave me back in May, it’ll be nice to play with more megapixels, which translates to some sharper images. Not to mention the thrill of new toys. Too bad they have to go back.

My sister-in-law hates all forms of gift showers. She has practically threatened our lives if we throw her one. She is having her first baby, after many years of complications, and is due in February. One of her friends had the gumption to plan a surprise shower, which was on Saturday. When this friend called me for invitation addresses, I let her know that my name was NOT to be attached to the event in any way, and did she somehow not know Rach’s feelings on showers? The woman laughed and said that my sister-in-law would NEVER get mad at her, and while most people couldn’t get away with it, she was somehow immune. Who am I? I’m just, you know, family, but whatever. No, it was funny, it just struck me as being a strange thing to say to someone’s relative.

Ok, moving on… Because you are all very aware of my inability to be content with someone else’s pattern, as well as my inability to make anything easy on myself, you should be not at all surprised to learn that I made up a hat.

Awwww. Yes, it’s cute. There are of course some problems with it. First of all, my math and my gauge accurately produced a hat sized according to the pattern I was referencing. It was 16 inches around, which seemed big, but silly me trusted the pattern. Then I tried the nearly finished hat on an 8 month old, and saw that it fit perfectly. At that point, I was upset to not have trusted my instinct. What do I know? I haven’t knit baby things. I am completely unfamiliar with their sizing. Seems to me that a baby hat pattern ought to have a better idea of the size of a baby’s head than I do. Guess not.

Secondly, because I wasn’t satisfied with many elements of the first pattern, I was also stealing elements from a second pattern, and was using a heavier yarn than was used in either pattern. This made for lots of math, sour stomach, and chore neglect.

And finally, this hat was a first for me in many ways. My first time crocheting an edge. My first time using duplicate stitch. My first earflaps. And the first baby hat I’d knit in YEARS. Hopefully, it will also be the first baby hat that fits right, but I’m not holding my breath.

Rach’s husband is way into lizards. I made an attempt, as I said earlier, at duplicate stitch, and this is what happened.

Sometimes, I look at it and it’s cool. Sometimes, it isn’t particularly recognizable. I didn’t take it as a good sign when most everyone squinted their eyes as they brought it closer to their face for examination. Oh well. She seemed to like it. I told her I could remove the lizard if desired. And if nothing else, it should fit the little guy well next fall. My only consolation is that if I HAD knit the hat exactly as the first pattern suggested, it STILL would have been too big, and I’d STILL hate the silly little earflaps they were using.

For those of you wondering, yes my website had problems yesterday. It was up and down all day. What can you do? I also had quite a problem getting my site-related emails a week or so ago. It was really frustrating stumbling across new comments, and wondering how many more I had missed. If someone hasn’t been responded to that was expecting it, please try me again. It seems like things are working right now.

Well, I had a really great week. FINALLY!

Monday, I did 50 minutes of treadmill.
Tuesday, I didn’t have a lot of time, so I went out to do weights and realized that my Christmas stuff was still semi-packed and scattered all over the garage, so instead of kicking it out of the way, I actually put it away. That took all of my time, but now my garage is nice and clean again.
Wednesday and Thursday, I did treadmill again for 50 minutes.
Friday I did treadmill and WEIGHTS! It’s been too long since I did weights. For a long time after my injection, I felt much too fragile to do weights. Then we were well into the holidays and there wasn’t much time. Then there have been some sick weeks. Anyway, I’m glad to be back!

I’ve started doing my abs on the big exercise ball. I’m liking it. I’m also happy because being able to do them that way means my back is stronger. I still have to be careful, but it’s stronger. Hooray! When I first started physical therapy last year, we couldn’t find ANY form of ab work that didn’t hurt my back. Finally, he had me do some sort of twisting thing with the side pulleys on my weight system which worked them, but not to the extent that I wanted to. So this is progress.

I have eaten very well this week, and I’ve been drinking a LOT of water. I had a couple of splurges, like a yummy confection at knitting group on Thursday. No regrets. Unfortunately, after knitting group last night, I was starving, so I hit Arby’s on the way home. I ate too much, and I ate it late. So the scale isn’t quite as pretty today as it could have been. Monday, I was 221.5. I went down every single day. Yesterday, I was 217.5, and very happy about it. I did great all of yesterday until the gut bomb dinner at 9:30, so I know it could have been better, but this morning I was 219. Not bad. I’m still down 1.5 pounds from last week. And I’m under 220 again. I’ll take it.

How are you doing out there? Jenny got a treadmill! Hooray for Jenny! We wish you the best!

Look at what’s about to eat my daughter…

Okay, maybe not, but it stands out. She’s very happy with it. She wore it to school yesterday and it was well received, although since this picture was taken, Abby has reclaimed that particular yarn, so I will be knitting Olivia another one in hot pink. I think the keyhole scarf is a good idea for a child because the hole helps to keep it in place, without requiring being tied. Can you imagine how large and cumbersome this would be on her little body if I tied it? And don’t try to fool yourself in thinking that a scarf on a five year old doesn’t need to be secured to her body somehow.

Ok, call me crazy, but as I was finishing Liv’s scarf yesterday morning, I was thinking about how cool a bottom-hugging, floor length skirt in Fun Fur would be. Am I nuts? Think about it. Picture it with a white, cotton/spandex collared shirt. Well, if the shirt had ties, it’d work. Otherwise, you’d need a belt or something. Hmm. I’d need to think about that. How ’bout if it’s kind of low slung, and you knit in large belt loops? I don’t know, but I think a hot pink floor length furry skirt would be outrageously fun. If I ever lose the remaining 70 pounds, I might just do it.

I’m not talking about my “secret” project right now. Well, of course I’m not, but I’m really not because I’m mad at it. It’s not behaving. I’m really glad there’s a deadline on this one, and that it’s coming up fast, because I’m growing very tired of the dumb thing.

I had a fabulous time at the Essential Bakery last night, which is where Thursday night knitting group is held. I really enjoy the women there, and Maddie and Hayden are tremendously cool. I’m so glad have met the two of you.

Hayden-alongers…

Dani has finished hers, and we’re waiting for her picture. We are also waiting for some pictures from the afore mentioned Maddie. She’s done two, and a scarf to match! My friend Gayle has finished her third, in some lovely teals, and Lisa Wolf has a very nice Christmas Hayden completed. Anyone else? I still have one more in mind for myself. The Raspberry Truffle color combo, which is the same as my Neapolitan, minus the white and light pink. It’ll be dramatic and yummy. It isn’t even on the to do list yet, so I’m not sure when you’ll be seeing it.

I had the opportunity last night to teach a large group of 8-12 year old girls how to cast on and knit. Fortunately, while I was the “resident expert”, I had lots of help. Particularly sweet Shirlene who took on teaching the lefties. Thanks, girl!

I was intrigued by a couple of things last night. First of all, I haven’t been around left handed people much, or more accurately, I haven’t spent much time observing left handed ways of doing things. Everyone is clumsy and fumbles when learning how to knit. But last night, as I was helping a particular girl, the way she moved was so strange, it caught my attention. After a little while of watching her struggle, it occurred to me that she might be left handed. She was. At that point, I didn’t know what in the world to do with her, so thankfully, my friend Shirlene stepped in. I don’t know what my point is other than how strange the experience was. I feel for those of you who struggle in a right handed world.

Secondly, and I’ve experienced this before, young people pick up on knitting really quick! I don’t think it’s because they’re more gifted than us older folk. I think it’s because of their attitude. A child is much less likely to let a strand of yarn and an aluminum needle kick their butt than an adult is. Why is that? Many of the adults I have taught to knit spend the majority of the time verbally abusing themselves, insulting their own intelligence, and repeating that they can’t do it. WELL OF COURSE THEY’RE NOT GOING TO DO IT!! saying crap like that to themselves. What happens to us as we age, that we turn into our own worst hinderance and obstacle? I’m waxing philosophical here. This attitude goes beyond knitting, obviously, but teaching knitting brings it right out in the open for all to see.

I think we should stop it. I think we should take a lesson and free ourselves. The next time something in MY life is difficult, I’m going to pay attention to what I’m telling myself, and see if I can’t make it better.

I’ve been working on the “secret project” again. It’s getting close, and looking good. I’ve also started Olivia’s Fun Fur scarf. That stuff is SO weird. I’m knitting the scarf pattern on the label, although I’m using size 13 needles because I didn’t think this project warranted a needle purchase. So far so good. I think it’ll be great for her. They’re such girly girls.

Thanks to all of you who responded to my question about fingerless gloves yesterday. It is helpful.

Hopefully I’ll have pictures of something tomorrow. I like having color on my posts.

I’ve been knitting something. I can’t tell. I can’t show. But just so you know, I’ve been knitting it. Don’t worry, the wait won’t be long. But I SO can’t tell.

I need a new pair of gloves. Remember the pretty white ones I knit from this book? Well, I love them. I wear them ALL the time, and when they get dirty and I have to stop wearing them so they can be hand washed and air dried, I get grumpy. (They’re hanging by my heater right now). I bought some fabulous koigu awhile back, and I think it’d make lovely gloves. There is a great article in the Winter 2003 issue of Interweave Knits about making up a glove pattern. I don’t know why I can’t just follow someone else’s pattern, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that much of my knitting experience isn’t going to be that way. My point is that I need two pairs of gloves, at least, so that when one is wet and drying, I can wear another. I’m thinking about swatching the honeycomb cable pattern. I’ve always liked that one, and have yet to use it. We’ll see how it is in Koigu. And how it would look on gloves. I’ve seen gloves that make hands look super-fat. Well, there’s one pattern in a book I have that I’m thinking of specifically. I have enough body parts that are ample, I don’t need fat hands.

I have a question… Do fingerless gloves, and fingerless mittens keep hands and fingers warm enough? I don’t live in a harsh climate, like, at all, but I still like wearing my wool gloves. I’ve seen some very nice fingerless patterns that interest me, but I don’t want to knit them and then be annoyed with how they wear. Any experieced opinions out there? Other than, “knit it without the fingers, then if you hate it, add fingers”. That is sound advice. It’s not what I’m looking for. I want input from “the field”.

I bought Lion Brand Fun Fur today. I never thought I would. No disrespect to those of you who love it. I am finally able to be happy for another’s craft, regardless of my personal taste, and am actively seeking to drop the arrogance and idiocy I have been guilty of in the past in thinking that projects/yarns that interest me are the only “worthy” projects/yarns out there. I am embarrassed to admit that I have thought ill of projects I have seen that I would never, ever make or be seen wearing. I will still think something is ugly, particularly in some magazines, but I have no desire to belittle anyone, privately OR openly for their choice of yarncraft. I’m tired of hearing others do it, and I’ve decided to amend that attitude in myself. There. I’ve openly admitted a character flaw. I’ve had snobby thoughts. I’m changing it.

Right, so I bought some Fun Fur today. It was on sale at my grocery store. I bought three different colors to make three quick little scarves for my girls. I was in a yarn store recently, and saw the CUTEST little girl in a frilly, stringy, furry scarf thing, and it was adorable. I told her so, at least three times, and she beamed. I think that my girls would love them, and they’ve been grabbing the two kid scarves that we own almost every time we leave the house, because we are going through quite a cold spell right now. They will get used.

Enjoy the day, and don’t forget about my fingerless gloves question. :-).

Guess what? Someone finally guessed it! Suzy has figured out where “Poor Miss Finch” came from! Congratulations! Nate was so excited, he rented the movie again so we could watch that part. I hadn’t seen it in over 7 years. (Hey, that’s a coincidence for ya’). So GOOD JOB SUZY! Aren’t you clever? :-).

Anyone else wanna try?

I’m moving along quite nicely on Pete’s bag. Ignoring the fact that felting is an inexact science, and I am trying to conform to exact measurements as requested, it’s going well.

That was taken yesterday afternoon. It’s much bigger now.

Oh, and one more thing… Someone out there got to my site after Googling “droopage”. I know what the reference was, but still. That smarts.