It's Coming Together

As we near our move date, things are ratcheting up in the Otter household.
My hips are better. I am still more comfortable reclining fully back in the recliner. It has occasioned a new look for me. There is a bright overhead light above where I sit, wonderful for reading or knitting but bad when it glares into my eyes, so I have a baseball cap on to block the extra lumens. I also have my lap top precariously balanced on my belly, on an inclined air-space thing, which is on the plastic top of a dismantled lap desk, which is in turn on top of a wedge-shaped pillow. This puts at a good angle for my hands, but not at all for my neck and head. This means I have a rolled up quilt supporting my neck and head which just happens to line up with the top of the chair that makes it a prime location for Moonie cat to sit on. I have to keep moving his foot when it drapes over my head and messes with the bill of my baseball cap.
Add in Basil kitty, who has filled in the aching space where Buddha used to lie at my side, and I am pretty cozy.
Oscar has the van and powered chair charging for tomorrow, and is busily loading a few bookcases and some boxes of things in the van to take with us on our first trip to our new apartment. We meet for an orientation tomorrow at 1 p.m. and are both very excited to see the finished place. Brand new flooring and walls, I bet it's all shiny :-} I will be bringing the camera, too.
After loading the van he will put some boxes in Little Blue (our Chevy Aveo hatchback) ready to deliver before he has to be at work tomorrow.
I have some knitting to show you, maybe I'll wear my new pair of socks tomorrow and take photos of them in our new home.
I have some finished pattern samples set back waiting for us to be moved.
To block an item here larger than a fingerless mitt, blanket square or sock I had to have Oscar bring our our long rectangular folding table, get the foam blocking boards hooked together and pin a portion at a time from my chair, moving the ENTIRE table to get to the next section. In our new home I can use a permanently set up table that I can maneuver my manual chair around, and pin the entire thing out for drying. I'm waiting to block the two waiting shawls until things are set up at the new place.
I have also discovered a correlation between not being able to write and high pain levels. I have a rough draft waiting for the final touches but was unable to think through the pain the past while. This too will pass at the new place. Good thing, too. I am determined to get every single review done by working at it a little or a lot every day (first thing in the mornings are best). The same applies to polishing the final drafts of patterns. I have several ready for that step which is an exciting place to be.
I know I will need to budget my spoons. Gallivanting every day just because I can is a certain road to eventual disaster. I would much rather have one or two lovely outings a week while I come to grips with how much of my energy and effort is needed to keep the house in order. That is my first priority. Oscar has been shouldering that burden far too long already, and I want to give him back some freedom with this move as well. Independence day. Big day for the U.S. but this year it is tremendously huge for us as well.

In the Nick of Time?

Mostly the reason I am in a wheelchair is my ankle. It's pretty messed up. I also have trouble with my abdomen and various 'hot spots' of arthritis in knees, hips, spine etc. This past few days I spent some time on a wheeled stool (the only mobile seat that will work in this house), It's highest setting is still just a little too low for comfort, but I needed to use it in order to pack a few boxes a day. I did what I used to do before the doc told me to put my hiney in a wheelchair, I gritted my teeth and kept packing.
Until yesterday I got up and could not walk, and could not recline half way in my chair. It seems the arthritis in my hips decided to teach me a lesson. I am used to a certain level of pain that never really goes away, but this was a day way too high on the pain scale.  I am lucky enough to have pain meds, and I took them, but it only helped so much. As I stated, the only wheeled conveyance that works in the house is the same stool that caused the flare up. I spent the day reclining completely in my chair, lying on my side in bed and sitting up in my lift chair (which is high enough not to aggravate my hip). The sitting up in my chair had to be limited because of the abdomen thing. A good night's sleep helped set things half way back to right, but it brought home how very much I need to be in the new apartment. 
Serendipity and relatives being what they are, Oscar's mom called without knowing what had happened and offered to help us move the most important bits over the fourth of July. With any luck at all I will be sleeping in our new home in less than a week. There will still be lots of stuff to move, but we'll have time. After much of the furniture is moved, I should be able to wheel around the old house in my manual chair and help, provided we can somehow get me inside again.

Finished Sweater!

This is the I sweater knit for Wool-aid. The focus this month was on older kids, so the measurement around the chest is 32 inches or so. Because of the stitch pattern, it should stretch out to 38 inches :-}

Here are some photos that show how I made the collar into a convertible neck gaiter.

On to the Next Stage!

It's official, we sign the lease on July 1st.
We have until August 23rd to move completely, which is a nice generous time.
We plan to begin moving the bigger stuff on Oscar's birthday weekend, July 7th and 8th, and move the smaller stuff continually, a bit at a time until we are done.
I am off to make a list of what needs done before signing the lease. (renters insurance, initiating the power company in our name at the new address, etc) (image is of the outside of some of the units in the complex, from the complex's site)

Ponderings and Progress

Move in has been set back a bit. Now they are saying early July.
Today the hot weather broke, so Oscar is spending time sorting in the garage.
I spent much of the week going through the stuff in my studio and sorting and organizing or discarding things.
Most of the studio is done, now. Only a few more containers to sort then I can pack things to move them.
I also have been able to review books this week, 3 reviews finished in the past two days.
I recently learned we are not supposed to donate or loan out ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), only keep or trash them. I can't bear to trash them, at least not right now, so I guess they will be the start of a new book collection.
I finished the samples for a pattern that has been in progress for three years. I packed them away because it will be easier to block them in our new home.
I am currently knitting a Color Affection shawl from leftover skeins of sock yarn.. It may end up going to my sis-in-love because 1. some of the yarn was dyed by her and 2. it is looking like her kind of colors :-}
I like the colors too, but I get much of my enjoyment from knitting the shawl. I have a widow's hump so not all shawls fit me comfortably. If this one does I will either keep it, or make myself another one :-}


My big green and red charity sweater was only lacking seaming and buttons. I like to use non-identical but similar buttons, especially from those my friend Ysabeau sent me but in this case I could not find enough  in the right size that were a close enough match. When I posted my quandary to the Wool-Aid group, a person from New York mentioned Woodbuttons.com. I had been pricing buttons online and the least expensive shank buttons were around $1 per button. (yikes!) Woodbuttons.com has a wide selection of buttons, and my minimum $10 order netted me three dozen buttons! One set is unfinished and I plan to play around in the studio with them, making art buttons. I hope to develop an Etsy business selling small pieces of collage art after we are all moved in.
The closer we get to moving in, the more I realize how full of freedom my new life will be, and how very restricted my life here has become. I sense a great lightness of heart. As often is the case, I didn't realize how dark and sad my mood has been until hope and anticipation came. My productivity I think is tied to my happiness. The more depressed I am, the less creative I am able to be. The canary in the coal mine in this case is my review writing. I can knit when depressed, I can even do a bit of math for an already existing pattern but I can't seem to see above the fog to create something new, especially made from words.
As happy as I am anticipating our move, I can hardly comprehend how happy I will become when we are at last settled into our new life!

Odd Album and Huge Pile

Before donating it to Easter Seals (they pick up in our neighborhood about every 6 weeks or so) I took a photo of this album cover. I couldn't resist! I think I've found my Ravatar for Halloween this year :-]

It's somewhere in this HUGE pile. I think this is our biggest donation pile yet, and it includes a quilt frame, a huge amount of old LPs, and tons of clothing and linens. It feels great to no longer have ownership of this stuff! We received word that our new apartment might be available at the end of this month, which means we can probably begin the moving process in less than three weeks!

Steppe Sweater Progress

The Wool-Aid group on Ravelry is having a 2-month KAL (knit a-long) to create larger children's sweaters to send where they are needed. The group often has KALs and knitting campaigns of specific sizes and types of items to help increase their stock of particular garments. It is a fun way to have virtual knitting group where we chat and compare what we are doing online.
I decided to participate in the 'Steppe Ahead Sweater KAL' using as a basic pattern Irina Makarow's Steppe Ahead Sweater. It is a pattern which can be easily modified, and I took a great deal of liberty when making mine. I used bulky yarn as the pattern specified. (The green yarn was sent as a gift to me, specifically to knit with for Wool-Aid by Susan, a fellow Wool-Aid knitter. She also sent some beautiful purple and blue yarn.)
-I decided to use a thermal stitch pattern which should make the sweater very warm, very stretchy, and also kept the knitting interesting for me.
-I picked up extra stitches around the sleeve area, and used the excess stitches in a gusset under the arm so it can be worn comfortably during physical activity.
-I added a front button placket, as well as an extended collar with buttons to enable the wearer to fasten the collar around their face as a face muffler/gaiter.
-I wound up knitting the lower portion of the sleeves flat, so I didn't need to haul the rest of the sweater around the circle.
I also (as many do) added extra inches of length to the sleeves and torso of the sweater with generous ribbing, This will allow it to be worn for many years, and will fit early teens to young or small adult hood. Without stretching the fabric the sweater measures 34 inches around.
If I had used a smaller gauge yarn, it would take me months and months (and months) to knit it. The bulky yarn means that it is warm, but also that I can complete the sweater by the end of this month!
I learned that although knitting in the round in one piece sounds appealingly efficient, actually hauling the entire rest of the sweater around while working a sleeve is really hard if you have arthritis. It is also NOT the best choice for summer knitting as it keeps your lap extremely warm.
When I make other sweaters, particularly larger sizes I plan to use a more dressmaker-ly approach, knitting the sweater in sections then seaming it together.
I will likely still knit them in the round for babies and toddlers, though.
Anyway, I took photos of the sweater as it was yesterday against that fallen tree limb. I have since finished all but the ribbing on the second sleeve and the bottom hem. Next I will choose buttons from a collection my dear friend Ysabeau sent to me. I am looking forward to that part with almost inordinate joy...
Perhaps after we move I will start collecting jars of buttons. I remember playing with the jars my grandma had with fondness. I kind of crave my own collection!

Garden Gone Wild

This is what happens when you stop tending your garden (no, honestly a large tree branch fell down).

Look Waaaaay in the back...

Nice to know my roses are still blooming...

It used to look something like this:

A Little Summer Knitting

I decided I needed a break from knitting the heavy Wool-Aid sweater (I am almost done with the first sleeve, one more sleeve and some waist ribbing to go) and I have been missing my neckerchief since I felted my 198 Yards of Heaven shawl so I scrounged around on Ravelry until I found The Age of Brass and Steam in my library of PDFs. As I looked into my yarn bin, two balls of yarn happened to be next to one another and looked great so I plucked them out and spent Sunday knitting.
I like the results, and the soft cotton blend yarns are perfect for providing a tiny bit of warmth when that part of me gets a bit chilled in a Michigan early summer.
I may make another one in wool or alpaca for late fall and winter...
(The stripes are my own version, the original pattern is solid colored)