It creeps up on you..

In one of those brilliant bursts of insight (which, if I were smarter, I'd need less often) it hit me once again how much pain sucks, and how much of it there is these days.
I have been taking 1/2 doses of Darvocet during the day. If I can remember to do so every four hours, my mind remains clear, and my temperature normal well into the evening (sometimes as late as 7 or 8 p.m.).
If I forget, the Foggy Illogicals take advantage of the breach in my defenses and the rest of the day is spent drooling over endless garterstitch while watching reruns.
If I take the pain meds, I can try out new lace stitches, complete tricky sock heels and even write.
Hurrah for Modern Chemicals!!!!!
Today's projects include finishing a sock sample for Lynn, trying out her new toe up mittens, and working on Rae's Delphine Mittens and a lovely mohair shawl.
I am also making Hungarian Lentils. It sounds so good!!!

The image is of my version of a (Firefly) Jayne Hat. It has become quite popular at Oscar's office. (That's due mainly to Rae's yarn choices) In fact, one of his coworkers has paid for yarn to get one of his very own. :-}

Vast sphere of tiny circles

I have been so blessed with connections made on this ephemeral web we travel. Ysabeau, Marietta, Rhyannon, and others have become an important part of my life, we share problems and solutions, and a sense of support and companionship important to me every day.

Through the internet I was also able to help in a small way with a book Deborah Cooke wrote (it's fantastic, BTW, if you love fantasy, you will love her new DRAGONFIRE series, romance reader or not).
As a thank you for the information about Ann Arbor, a city near my home, she sent me a copy of the book, and listed me on the acknowledgment page. I was thrilled and touched.

Another blessing is a daily blog I read by Alison Jeppson Hyde. We started corresponding, and became friendly through her blog, SPIN DYE KNIT, and through our mutual friendship with my sis-in-love, Lynn of Colorjoy.

I was so excited by the book Deborah sent that I totally missed the other surprise inside until she replied to my thank you note, asking if I had found it.

She knit a gorgeous lace scarf from lovely bluey-greeny lace-weight malabrigo... yummmm...
And the pattern? She used a lace pattern from knitty.com called Branching Out (it's also been known as 'apple leaves', and I'm sure other names.)
The thing is that it can also be found in Alison's book, WRAPPED IN COMFORT. It's the first project, 'Nina's Ann Arbor Shawl'. Shiver bumps.

When I wrote to Deborah telling her this, she said I'd given her another knitter to check out, that she didn't know Alison's work yet, but that she soon would :-}

I love how that circle connected.

Wrist warmers for Oscar

Oscar has a desk right by the window at work. This is wonderful for a sun-loving guy, but he does tend to get cold hands when he's sitting there working away. He requested a pair of half-gloves/wrist warmers, in a style and color that would fit in at his office. (Not hard, his office is full of cool geeky people) I looked through my stash and found two skeins of Southwest Trading Company bamboo yarn, in a wonderful silky blue (deeper shade than the photo shows)
I'm using the Colorjoy wrist warmer pattern, the garter version. The bamboo doesn't have any stretch to speak of, which is why it was languishing in stashdom. I had originally purchased it to make Oscar a pair of socks. Instead of the suggested #6 needles, I'm using #3s. It's making a lovely fabric stretchy and not at all bulky. It will take some time, but he's worth it. :-}

Whew!

After a very scary few months, at last we know where we stand.
The discomfort and symptoms I have been having are due to "structural difficulties" combined with the severity of my arthritis.
A combination of the very, very large piece of mesh I have inside me and my weight means when I sit upright or get jostled (like when riding in a car) it really messes with my abdomen. The good news is I have lost 20 pounds in the past 6 months, and this provides me even more incentive to keep at it. The hope (no guarantee, but a hope) is that as I lose weight, I will be able to sit up and ride in cars.
The elevated temperatures are from a combination of my high pain levels and the damage to my bones when I walk. I am not supposed to walk, but our home is not fully accessible. We will do the best we can to make certain I needn't walk except when absolutely necessary (like when using our bathroom or going into the bedroom) but we aren't there yet. The stool I have in the kitchen for use when cooking isn't rated for my weight (it's the only one with casters available that we could find) and has already been replaced once, so it is not a good long term solution.
The good news is that surgery is not in the near future. (YAY!!!!!)
The bad news is I found out not having a spleen is even scarier than I thought. If my temp goes above 101 degrees, I am supposed to go to the emergency room. If I get a persistent cough, I need to be seen by the doctor each and every time. And visiting Cape Cod is right out. (I had no plans to visit, fortunately.) Apparently there is a disease carried by Cape Codian deer ticks which is dangerous for anyone with a compromised immune system. Who knew?
The specialist I saw yesterday wants me to be referred to a pain center, and to an infectious disease specialist.
It would be good to have less pain. I had no idea it was so hard on my body. I hate taking too many pain pills. I don't like the wooziness, and I already feel like I take too many pills for various ailments. But I will cut out the stoic nonsense and take them every day. I'd rather take a small number of pain pills than feel all muddled from the fever every afternoon and evening.
Anyway. Hope this wasn't TMI.

Heftones, Torch and Twang, More Hats for S. O. S.

First, this evening if you are in the Lansing area, Lynn and Brian aka The Fabulous Heftones will be on the terrific radio show Torch and Twang. It's on WDBM, the Michigan State University station (and winner of many awards) They are arriving at around 9 p.m., but I'm not certain when they will be on exactly, probably soon after that. For folks outside the area, the station dos have a Live Stream available, but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment. When it DOES start working, it's worth tuning in each Tuesday evening from 8 to midnight.

For picture content, here are a few more hats made for S.O.S. this month. I haven't really counted how many hats I've done (I donate them pretty soon after they are finished, about twice a month) maybe about ten so far.
The yarn I use is mostly donated to me from Lynn. She is very generous indeed.
The pattern is the TEXTURED BANDS HAT from craf*te*ra*ti.

If anyone has natural fiber bits and bobs of yarn that you don't think you will be using, I would be grateful to have them to use for the S. O. S. hats. I'll be making striped ear flapped hats in the next batch, that look a bit more 'manly' :-} If interested, please contact me at ottergal@comcast.net

Shawl For Sherri

One of my closest friends now lives in a city 4 or five hours from here. Her birthday is coming up soon, and the Manos Del Uruguay I received in exchange for some sample knitting (from Yarn Garden in Charlotte) was a great color for her (Bing Cherry, all russet with faint overtones of ochre and raspberry). So I knit another one-skein shawl. (Except I wanted it to wrap all the way around her like a hug, so I used two skeins) Here it is, unblocked.

Ysabeau's new Arty Shawl

Another project was finished early this month. I have an informal art exchange going on with a wonderful woman named Ysabeau in California. (she has been mentioned here before :-}

This Shawl/art adornment started as a gift of commercial yarn made up of several fibers knotted together. It was good stuff except for the calico, in my opinion only, of course.
I de-constructed the yarn into individual lengths, found some lovely mohair etc in my stash to go with, and proceeded knitting, tying off a fringe at the end of each row. Later I added additional fringe to the short ends and sides.
I LOVE how it turned out, gauzy, light, mysterious. I wish I had video of how the faint breeze played with this while I was taking photos. I just know Ysabeau will love it!

Shawling & Scarfing & Amanda

I gifted our friend Amanda with a shawl, that happened to be pretty near perfect for her gorgeous outfit last night. She and Oscar attended a company party and had a terrific time :-}
The shawl is a very easy pattern, I used some leftover black mohair and this site for instructions: ONE SKEIN SHAWL












(the plaque behind Amanda's head reads "Don't Piss Off The Fairies")






The scarf image is yet another riff on Kristi's Comfort Wrap, probably my all time favorite pattern.
(thanks for modeling Amanda :-}

I made a smaller scarf for a friend of mine, and fell so in love with the combination of yarns that I went on and made another for myself :-}

Toddling along

Things are rather blah these days, I am waiting for my appointment with a specialist on the 17th Not sure what he can do, my issue is not really in the strict definition of his specialty, but I'm maintaining faith until circumstances make it silly.

In the meantime, I am doing my best to take care of my health, and keeping busy writing, and knitting. I used to have a much wider range of activities, but these serve to keep me out of (most) trouble. I am tired and feel sick most days, but I hope a solution will be found, and next month might be the best I've had in years.

Today's big project is roasting a turkey. I will then portion it into servings and freeze them individually.

I put a thickly sliced lemon into the cavity of the bird, and then apply an oil to the breast meat beneath the skin to help keep it moist. Then bake it as long as recommended. That's it, really.
The oil I chose this time is a local product called 'Kenzoil' (Ken's oil) chock full of garlic and herbs.
Plain olive oil or butter would do as well, but have less flavor.

We had a lovely visit from Lynn on Friday, we don't see her nearly often enough.
We'll see her again when we go to Lansing to visit Rae's new shop. I am SO excited!

I will be meeting an internet friend this coming Friday, and if I can pick up the right tools, I'll be teaching her to knit and or crochet over lunch. I will be resting on Wednesday and Thursday so nothing interferes with my plans. (you should see the stubborn set of my jaw right now).

chiaroscuro and color

I woke this first day of the year with the low grumble of snowblowers interspersed with the rhythmic whump of cars rocking themselves out of snow pits. (Sort of like tar pits but cold).

The back yard was beautiful.
but to counteract all the white, I found some color.
(this is a slipped stitch swatch I made from Barbara Walker's 2nd treasury of knitting patterns. The pattern is called Maze.) Now I feel all balanced :-}