I have a sore foot

I have gotten a lot of knitting accomplished lately - I had surgery on my foot and was bed or recliner chair bound for about a week. The surgery went well.  I just didn't realize how sore my foot would be from having the bone scraped like that. Enough with the foot thing. On to knitting.

While I have been at home I have worked on DH's white cotton sweater quite a bit.
When you are on pain medicine, simple knitting is the best policy. LOL. It is time to measure, but I think I am only a couple inches away from beginning the ribbing length.

When my hands couldn't handle more cotton knitting, I moved on to my Domy Heather grey striped vest.

I am 2/3 of the way across the back and it is just about time to add a few stitches for the shoulder (for the back neck shaping). Please excuse the upside down photo - crawling on the floor hurts the foot and I wasn't thinking (apparently). 

I started a stockinette sock just before my surgery and I have completed the foot and heel, have turned the heel and I am doing the gusset decreases now.
I love this yarn and I don't know what it is. I found it in my stash, I think it might be Araucania Ranco but I am not sure. The colors are deep brown, blue, green a some beige to lighten things up, and I love how the the sock looks. I tried a texture but it didn't enhance the yarn and the pattern was too hard to see so I frogged back (the day of surgery) to the beginning of the texture (toe up socks) and continued with stockinette. I am very happy.

Once I was not taking as much pain medicine I pulled out the Honka scarf and did some double knitting.

I am moving much faster now that I have completed one pattern repeat and have some experience with the double knitting process. I like this project, but I can only knit on it while at home, I think. I need to count and concentrate so I don't have to frog.

I got out for the first time since surgery and went to the Needle Exchange at my LYS last Thursday. I had a great time catching up with everyone. There were some gorgeous new yarns to drool over and I did that. They were served to me as I sat enthroned on the bench, keeping my foot elevated as ordered. I wanted to take some home with me but just couldn't think of a pattern I could use for the yarn I fell most in love with. They colors were deep, glowing jewel tones and the yarn was merino, silk and bamboo.  It was too pricey to take home "just because", so I left it there - for now. I did come home with some Cascade Sierra in a light blue and a darker blue to make the cover sweater of Knitters I really like how it looks with the less severe contrast of blues and I think I will get a lot of use out of this sweater.


Yes, of course I started it right away despite the multiple projects on my needles. I was weak. Blame the drugs. Or the pain. Or whatever. It's pretty, don't you think?

I hope to complete the I-cord edging on my seed stitch vest (yes, from a the fall. I was bad) before I go back to work next week. I also hope to complete knitting the body of DH's sweater and at least start an arm. 

I can do lace knitting again! Karen was able to save my Laminaria shawl and so that is back in the project line up. I think I might wait until I am narcotic-free before knitting on that, though. Sometimes I actually use my brain. LOL.

I have been limiting my time sitting upright or standing as much as possible so I can keep my foot elevated as ordered. The phrase was "toes as high as the nose" and I am trying to be a good patient. (Not to mention that it helps with the pain control.) It limits my computer time (I do not have a laptop) and my spinning time and that's tough now that I feel better. I do hope to do some spinning later this week though. I miss it and hope that I can do short periods of spinning, at least. Tomorrow I go to get sutures removed and I hope that will help with some of the discomfort.

Have a good day, all.

Signs of Spring

The Blueberry plant,


the Mums,



the Daffodils


and the Sedum are all telling me that it is spring time.


Is winter's back broken? Is this the real thing? I hope so.

Robert's socks are almost complete. Since I took this photo I have knitted another 3 inches, including the text section. These will be finished in a week or less, I think.









I found a mistake on my Honka scarf when I was about 10 rows above where I made the mistake. When will I learn to check my work more frequently? You can see that I started the contrasting color 4 stitches before I should have, but I continued it for the correct number of stitches, so I have an error at both ends of the work. 




I dropped the stitches down and corrected the problem (successfully!) on one end of the piece (front and back are fixed at the same time). It took so long and was such a hassle that I decided to rip back to fix the other side. I do know that I can fix mistakes in double knitting, though, and I will hopefully see the mistake a little earlier the next time.

Back of the work












Front of the work









I spun some of this fiber











into this, on my wheel












My drop spindle wasn't neglected, either. This is llama

Spring is here, I think

Instead of 5 degrees in the morning, it was in the 30's! Instead of shivering and running to my car in the morning, I was able to just walk. I am very ready for spring.

Last night was the Needle Exchange at my LYS. There was a big crowd since it was also a KAL night for the Great Aran Afghan KAL that is going on there. Those of us not doing the KAL pulled away from the table and sat around the edges so that those who needed the table for charts and such could use it. It was great to see so many people there and knitting happily (for the most part) away. I worked on my grey striped vest.

Today I have been working on DH's white sweater. I have probably knitted about 2 inches since I frogged it to the under arms. Some day it will be finished, and it will fit him, darn it.

I looked at the spinning wheel and drop spindle tonight - -I have really been enjoying spinning a little each day. But my neck has been bothering me a lot the last two days, even causing a migraine, so I thought I was better off knitting and reading and writing blogs for tonight.

Tomorrow Karen and I walk for the first time in almost 2 weeks. The weather should be good and Karen will have stories to share about her trip to CA. Maybe that will help take our minds off our sore bodies as we labor up and down those hills on the trail. Bob and I will then go to the marina so that he can work on the boat prep work. I will keep him company. And knit, of course. In fact, I may even bring my drop spindle.

Karen, welcome home. This is what you missed while you were away.



I think I will go try to fix the mistake I found on my Honka scarf. Wish me luck.

80 yards or so of handspun yarn

I know that doesn't sound like a lot, and it's not, really. But I spun and plied it on my drop spindle. Plying was very tedious - I had no tension on the singles so they kept twisting back on themselves. I will have to figure a different way to do that. But I like my yarn and I enjoyed spinning it. I will do more of this drop spindling thing. ; )

It was 5 degrees in Bel Air when I left for work this morning. Brrrrr. Strange to think that it is supposed to be 60 degrees this weekend. It's already Wednesday, so the weekend isn't far away. I am ready for the warmer weather for sure. Maybe Karen and I can walk and not freeze on Saturday morning. Karen is due back from CA Friday night and will be much happier if the temperature is higher when she arrives.

Mom is coming to visit either this weekend or next, and we will go to the Flower show at the fair grounds. It has become a tradition that we have only broken once and I look forward to it. Since eldest son is living with us right now, space is a little tight, but we'll work it out. We'll browse, shop, daydream about what we would do with our gardens *if only* and come home with some spring flowers to brighten things up. We'll watch HGTV, eat too much and talk a lot. Fun.

Tonight I plan to work on the curtain liner again for a while - at least get the lining pinned or basted in the correct place so that I can sew it. Then I will knit on the Honka Scarf - I have a goal of knitting 10 rows tonight.

-------------------------------------
OK, change in plans. Mom is coming next weekend so we can hit the Orchid show as well as the big flower show. And I am not working on the curtain liner. I will spin tonight. Much more fun. ; )

West coast - Stitches. East coast - snow. Is that fair?

Well. Snow. Somwhere around 8 inches of it. It was beautiful. It was cold. It was heavy. I am thankful for the inventor of snow blowers. I do not use noisy machines when I can do something quietly, but I love snow blowers. My back loves snow blowers.

I used our snow blower yesterday, and it was fun. I would have helped the whole block with their snow removal because I was having fun, but DH would not go inside no matter how cold he was (he is a diabetic and the cold really gets to him) until I was finished, so I stopped with the two houses next to us. But I could have done more. ; ))

The birds came to visit and one of the cats (Stanley) played in the snow. He was so funny, head out the door, wanting to go out, but every time his paws hit the cold, he hesitated. When we first opened the door, before he even tried to touch the snow, he shook each paw as if it were wet, and shook his head. We didn't make him go out, but he wanted to go so urgently that we finally encouraged him. We very slowly closed the door so that he knew he had to stay inside or take the plunge.

When he finally look the leap, he hopped like a bunny, trying, I suppose, to keep his paws warm/dry. Interesting tracks left in the snow .... That paw is moving so fast, you can hardly see it!

Speaking of tracks, I took some pictures of bird tracks left in just a dusting of snow on the deck. They seemd very large for such small birds.











After clearing the snow I went inside and took on the long delayed task of making the lining for the bedroom curtains I purchased months ago. I am very unsure of myself when it comes to both sewing and accurately measuring. This project is large and expensive if I fail, so I didn't get very far. I didn't even finish one curtain panel, but I did get started, and that's the second hardest thing to do. The hardest thing is to go back to something you've screwed up, at least as far as I am concerned. I hope I don't have to face that with this project.

I did a bit of spinning over the weekend. Said weekend was 3.5 days long! I was home Friday with a headache and 4 hours of furlough time. Monday was a snow day! Yippee! So, I spun each day over the weekend, more on the drop spindle that the wheel, though the wheel did come out on Sunday and Monday. I am making a 3 ply on the wheel, though I don't have a specific purpose for the yarn. I will be ready to ply some of the drop spindle singles this week and I can't wait! There was 2 ounces of this pretty blue fiber, so there won't be much yarn, but I can look at it, pet it, and perhaps use it to accent something else. I don't know, maybe there will be enough to make a small lacy scarf.

I took the plunge into the frog pond with DH's white sweater. His proportions have changed a little since I took his measurments, and I saw no point in his having a sweater that didn't fit well just so that I didn't have to rip. I am now back to creating rather than ripping.

The Honka scarf is slow going, but going. I am frequently too tired to concentrate that much at the end of a day, but I love it, so I shall persevere.

The Laminaria Shawl has come to a screeching halt. I was tinking due to some small error or another and lost a double decrease stitch, didn't realize it right away and now I have no idea what to do. I am waiting for the Knit Doctor to return from CA.

Rob's heel is turned and I can't wait to get to the section where I do the words. I hope he likes "Fear the Turtle". DH thinks he will.