I'm fine

Three weeks into recovery after surgery, and I am very VERY slowly getting there. I can now walk almost a whole block and back before I get exhausted.

I'm at a point now where I have to be very patient with myself, because I want to start doing things again, but then my body says. Oh no, chickie, we didn't go through all this only to have you mess it all up again.

So I'm behaving. Also, I've been getting pretty good at knitting while in the supine position. I can't sit for very long, and whatever sitting time I have I use for meals and windows of time at the computer.

While in a friendly competition in my rav group where we are trying to knit up 12,000 yards of yarn from Feb.15 thru Mar.31, I'm working  on several things at the same time. (You know me and my multiple WIP universe.)

Altogether, I made 19 Elf Hats for gifts. (Some of the ends needed yet to be woven in as of the first picture).

Meanwhile I am working on a blanket, which I'm not sure I'll keep. May be for donation.

And in other fun news, I've been asked to spearhead a yarn bombing for an arts event in a downtown business district in June. I think I may have to practice on a little cherry tree I have in the front yard, don't you?

since I last saw you

March sock kit has been sent out to subscribers

 and there are no individual ones available right now.

Things have been knitted.

The cat still likes to help me knit. Especially important since I am trying to knit up 12,000 yards between 2/15 and 3/31.
(I was in the middle of updating my project pages on ravelry, but -- see note at end of post. I am barely able to publish this entry.)

Spring is here way too early.

Tall Son was home to help us celebrate Dear Husband's 50th birthday and Crafty Girl's 15th birthday!! While we were at it, we also celebrated him finding a job last month for after college. Hooray!

Looking to tomorrow, I'm going in for a little bit of a procedure on my delicate female parts. I'll be in the hospital for a day and then in recuperation mode through the end of the month. I dyed the yarn ahead of time through June for the sock club, so no worries there. Local yarn shops have been stocked. :)
However I am unable to fulfill any extra orders for a few weeks. Once I am able to move about, I'll put what I have on hand on etsy (my shop there is in vacation mode for now) and in the Periwinkle Sheep online shop. So far I seem to have an audience for both shops so I am keeping them.

I am only a tad afraid of tomorrow's procedure, but alas it must be done. Meanwhile leave me and the other readers something to laugh about, a joke, a link to a cartoon, a funny video...I'd love for all of us to share some smiles.

(I would love to give proper credit to this artist. Who?)

A final note: this here little laptop has been acting up, it's over 5 years old and it might be time for a new one...I'll be putting it to sleep for now, and I'll see you in a few days.

two and a half pounds

After I got home a week ago Friday, I stayed up until 12:30 am and finally finished this blanket for the latest Youth Campaign at afghans for Afghans. The deadline was February 14th, and after my dear husband dropped me off at the cookie a. workshop, he went to the post office and mailed the package.

The finished blanket measured 40x45 inches and weighed two and a half pounds!

It all started in December when I volunteered to make a blanket square for a generous soul on ravelry who was collecting them to make blankets for donation. I started the square, which should have taken all of two evenings to complete, set it aside and proptly was sidetracked by The Holidays.

I didn't find the square again until after New Year's, went rummaging for yarn, and decided to keep going and just make a whole blanket myself.

As with all log cabin designs, the first few blocks are a breeze. I knocked one out a night. As the rows got longer, each block took several evenings. The weight of the project was starting to wear on my arms, and I could feel my tendonitis flare up. I went to alternating knitting on this and other projects, plus rest nights.

Meanwhile the deadline kept creeping up faster and faster, until finally I needed to stay up past my bedtime and finish it. I had woven in ends as I went along, which was a blessing in the final minutes as I was getting a bit bleary-eyed.

The thought of being able to help even one child stay warm kept me going the whole time.


I used up about 1850 yards of stash yarn, about half of it was Lamb's Pride Bulky, half of it from a batch of yarn I had gotten a few years back at Rhinebeck for which I just never found the right project. It was a handdyed dk weight yarn that I held double. Then there were some odds and ends too.

leftovers - enough for mittens?

I tucked a bar of chocolate into the package for the volunteers who so lovingly pack everything up for the long journey to Afghanistan. Ann Rubin sent me an email to let me know that everything arrived safely and on time, after my anxious inquiry.

Now they are gearing up for part 2 of this campaign, and I'm thinking I might just have to make some mittens for it.

antidote

The antidote to this much snow

is:

  beautiful roses, still looking nice from last week's wedding anniversary

lots of wool wound up for new and current projects

a chunky log cabin blanket for Afghans for Afghans,

and a kitty to pose it with.

:)

convalesce!

I can't laugh, yawn, turn my head, drink from a cup without a straw, cough, sneeze, or talk in a loud voice.

But I can look at beautiful flowers my husband had ready for me on the day I came home. He is also doing a marvelous job keeping the fridge stocked, the laundry washed, and generally keeping things going. The kids are pitching in (sometimes I text them to remind them...must conserve my energy and my voice.)


I have to keep track of meds and do my breathing exercises. Thank goodness I don't need the heavy painkillers any more.

I got some lovely Get Well cards. Thank you so much!!!!! We have also been eating very well thanks to some impressive dinners that three Chicks brought over for us to enjoy.



I do everything in small increments, whether it's reading, watching a movie, or knitting. In fact it seems like everything these days is portioned out: 1500 mg of calcium, 10 pages of Anna Karenina, Synthroid, netflix, 1000 IU Vitamin D, 6 rows of knitting. Then a nap.

Yesterday I had a few hours where I got overwhelmed with all the things I am unable to accomplish right now. Then more flowers came! Thanks so much, Theresa. :)

So, what are you all up to these days? Knitting and otherwise? Most of all I hope you are all doing well!!

PS: If you're interested, there is a yarn give away going on right here!! If you mention it on your blog, you get entered twice!

nailbiter

There seems to be a neverending stream of UFOs at the Periwinkle Sheep. I am finding all these projects that were abandoned at one point or another.

Today, I'll show you a little Tomten Jacket (from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears). I know exactly why I put it down: I'd been using a variety of single skeins.


I was afraid I would run out of yarn for the second sleeve.



Though I am using single skeins, I do aim for symmetry, as that caters to my sense of balance. I'd be loathe to have to add a different shade of wool at the end of that little sleeve... but I THINK I have enough red yarn to work a button band.

Knitting at the edge of my seat.

I'm a chick!

My list of things to do today says: blog about something.

The Something has to do with these projects that I finally finished during the month of March. Some of them only needed ends woven in, or buttons added.

This is a toddler vest that I started 10 years ago. It's probably my oldest UFO! It was time to stop chastising myself for not finishing it, and wash and block it and add buttons.

These are mittens made from leftover Encore Chunky; I made them during the Winter Olympics.

This little scarf needed a bath and the ends woven in, too; made from Dale of Norway Freestyle.

Last fall, I made a baby blanket. 5 skeins of Jaeger Baby Merino dk. Again, all it needed was the ends woven in and a blocking! What possesses me to leave things laying aroud for so long??

Well evidently all these project were waiting to be donated to a good cause. This week, I was part of a group - The Chicks with Sticks of Glenmont - which delivered 103 handmade items to the local USCRI office in downtown Albany, NY. It was a big deal in that the Chicks had reached the tremendous milestone of 1,007 items made by hand since they were founded by Jody Mason 5 years ago. These ladies are prolific knitters and crocheters! With my minor contributions, I am so glad I'm a Chick, too.

Please go to Jody's blog and say hello! She tells the story of that day.

if you give a knitter...

If you give a knitter some anxiety, she might start and finish and start some more knitting projects.


If she starts and finishes and starts a lot of knitting projects, it might aggravate her tendonitis, and she might switch to spinning,



spin up some wool/mohair/alpaca top


after plying some romney roving. But two weeks of a mini spinathon might prove too much for her old wheel, and it might make little helicopter noises. Then the driveband might break.

If the driveband breaks, she will have to order a new one and wait.

If a knitter and spinner has tendonitis and her wheel has a broken driveband (and the is wheel now relegated back to the corner)

she might think of what else she could be doing.

If she is lucky, and the weather is nice out, and no other jobs lined up at the moment, she might dye up some new yarn.

The new Periwinkle Sheep Oh so fine! sock yarn. 100% superwash merino, 420 yards.

Rubber Duckie

Terracotta

Deep Blue Sea (blue overdyed with more blue)

Crapshoot

Orchid

If the knitter/spinner/dyer dyes some yarn, and a local yarn shop owner asks her for a custom colorway

Spinning Room

she is very lucky indeed.