kmkat and her kneedles

Knitting! (4)

Fourth: silk Montego Bay scarf.

 

Yarn: Alchemy Silk Purse, 2 skeins. DK, 100% silk single ply.
Needle: KnitPicks US#8 circ.
Pattern: Montego Bay by Amy Singer.

I originally announced that this yarn -- also souvenir yarn purchased at Knitty City last year -- was going to be a trianglular shawlette, but further thought led me to the conclusion that I would get more use from a long rectangular scarf. Several years ago I made a Montego Bay scarf that nearly drove me crazy; I simply could not keep track of the (2-stitch, 2-row!) pattern. But I wanted to conquer that pattern. I needed to conquer that pattern. And I did; this quickly became mindless knitting, so mindless that I could work on it in the evening after working on tax returns for nine or ten hours.

Have worn it multiple times, love it.

Knitting! (3)

Third: a Moebius cowl from a class on same at Yarnover, taught by the totally delightful Silvia Harding. Yummy yarn; too bad I now find the color rather insipid.

Hannibal is not sure about this. Not sure at all.

Pattern: Moebius cowl. The exact pattern is not given at the link but is simply 4 rounds of knit and 4 rounds of purl repeated until the cowl is tall enough. The whole key to making a Moebius is in the cast on, which Cat Bordi demonstrates at the link.
Needles: I think I used a US#4 circ. Either that or a #5.
Yarn: Karabella Magrite, a sport weight 80/20 superfine merino/cashmere blend. It is sooo soft and perfect for next to the skin. I bought four skeins of it in Cara's destash five or six years ago. I think I may use a couple of my skeins to make another cowl, bigger and taller.

I gave the FO to Elder Son's landlady in Duluth, a family practice resident who provided him, and a number of other med students over the years, with a lovely place to live. Smokey delivered it when he traded cars with Son, and he said she was suitably surprised and pleased.

 

 

This is a rebuilding year.

You know how sports teams, when they have lost all their star players and consequently are not winning many games, they call it a "rebuilding year"?

That's what Smokey and I are having in 2012... literally.

But not in the traditional sense. More in the personal sense.

Thirty years ago Smokey fell off a ladder and hurt his back. While it has bothered him for almost the entire time since, the pain has become debilitating in the past couple years. A doctor finally x-rayed it and found that his spine looks like this:

X
X
X
X
  X
  X
  X
  X

No wonder it hurts! It seems to be pinching a nerve so is giving him all kinds of leg pain, too.

Although surgery is not necessarily the best alternative for lower back pain -- rest, pain meds, and proper exercise are -- his problem is clearly a mechanical one that can be solved by surgery. We have hopes that he will be able to resume more-or-less normal activity once he recovers from the surgery, which is scheduled for June 25, the day after his birthday.

I shall be busy this summer waiting on him hand and foot the same way he took care of me when I broke my ankle in 2008. 

Then there is me. I have been suffering from hip pain for about a year and a half. Have had several cortisone injections, which helped. Until the last one, in December, that I didn't think helped... until it wore off in March and I had significant pain. Pretty much constantly. Finally went to the ortho doc last week, they x-rayed, and said things to the effect of "oooh, I bet that smarts!" Turns out that hip is bone on bone, all natural cushioning is gone.

So once Smokey is up on his feet again, probably near the end of summer, I will be having a hip replacement. 

::sigh:: and ::hurrah!::

In the meantime the PA told me to 1, eat 50g of protein a day to ensure my muscles and other tissues are as healthy as possibly and able to heal quickly; B, try to avoid gluten and sugar, as they can promote inflammation (inflammation = pain); and iii, eat lots of dark green leafy vegies like kale, mustard greens, asparagus, and broccoli because they have the trace minerals needed to grow bone; and d, have physical therapy to see if any exercises can reduce my pain in the interval until surgery.

Now, my first thought at eating 50g of protein every day was Whoopee! This will be fun! But it turns out to be not as easy as I thought. 25g of protein is a serving of meat about the size of my fist. Imagine eating that much chicken or fish or steak or seafood twice a day. That is a lot!

The gluten and sugar avoidance will be harder, although I am doing well so far. Chris gave me some brands to look for in the store and also some to avoid. The Glutino crackers have replaced saltines in my crackers & cheese snacks. Rice, quinoa, and oats: fine. Wheat, rye, and barley: no. I bought some rice-based spaghetti that we will try and some non-gluten flour (Bob's Red Mill) that I will try substituting in baked goods. Thanks to Cookie I had already planned to buy some frozen fruit bars -- found some that were no sugar added. 

All this diet stuff will be good for both of us. Smokey is diabetic so should avoid carbs. I have a hunch that if we stick to the high protein, lots of green (and other) vegies, we will lose a few pounds, which will also be good for the surgery and long-term recovery.

Knitting! (2)

Second: Daybreak, last seen here. All done, love it, worn only once. Spring came rather early this year and thus ended wool-scarf-wearing season.

Pattern: Daybreak by Stephen West. Nearly every one of his patterns appeal to me. I love this one so much I am planning a sweater based on it.
Yarn: Most of a skein of Universal Pace sock yarn in linen (06) and half a skein of Marks & Katten sock yarn in color 662.
Needle: Signature circ US#4. 
Mods: The original pattern had the final border done in stockinette interspersed with single rows of garter stitch. It seemed to me that that border might be prone to flip up so I did it entirely in garter, and I quite like the way it turned out.

Knitting!

I started this post with the intention of showing you everything that I had knit since the last time I blogged an FO. Then it occurred to me that each piece deserved its own post; also, that that method would relieve my conscience about not posting more often.

All that unblogged knitting is about to hit the innernets.

First up: I finished this last June.* Two skeins of souvenir Koigu purchased Knitty City last May.

Love it, have worn it multiple times.

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, 2 skeins, color 720. This colorway has enough colors in it that it can be worn with nearly anything. Except white or beige; then one or the other looks dirty.
Pattern: Baktus.
Needles: US#4 circ.
Mods: None. The pattern is perfect. 

I never bothered to block this, so it is a tiny bit short although still perfectly wearable. Someday...

* Yes, nearly a year ago. ::hangs head in blogger shame::

Ennui.

You may already have seen this but it is worth a second look. Enjoy!

Especially for single mothers.

Eye candy Friday.

From Younger Son: 

I went to Ikea with my friend last night. All at the same time, we left the store, the rain ended, and the sky became a beautiful mix of colors. He snapped a picture of me silhouetted against the sky.

Ten Twelve on Tuesday, the to-do edition.

Spring in the Upper Midwest tends to occur one afternoon in May, after which we go directly into summer. The natal season seems to be lasting a bit longer this year but I don't want to take chances. I have altered the time frame a bit.

Ten Twelve Things On My 'Do By The Fourth Of July' List

1. Finish the Big Herringbone Cowl (I haven't blogged about his yet) for Alex.
2. Knit her cabled stockings as requested. I already have the yarn and the pattern.
3. Start DNA scarf for Elder Son. I have the yarn but may need to revamp the pattern a bit.
4. Clean porch so we can eat dinner there every night.
5. Knit another Moebius cowl before I forget how to do it. The first one (not blogged yet) took roughly a day; the second will take longer because I want to make it bigger.
6. Soak some yarn I bought several years ago to see if the dye runs; if not, cast on for the sweater that is in my head. (Also, write the pattern for said sweater. It is based on a scarf/shawl pattern but obviously needs some tweaking to become a sweater.) If the dye leaks, either figure out how to set the dye or figure out a different use for the yarn.
7. Finish Tappan Zee sweater.
8. Clean the entryway.
9. Clear at least half the crappe from my desk.
10. Finish the Noro striped scarf (also unblogged) I started for myself.
11. Do our 2011 taxes.
12. Cast on for another sweater in my head using the 20 balls of Noro Silk Garden I bought for it in, er, April, 2010.

 

 

A bit more on Boston driving.

Elder Son writes:

Boston is like a Kama Sutra of intersections.  The number of ways for different streets (or even the same street) to meet exceeds anything I could have imagined before coming here.

Examples:

• A compund freeway exit ramp that's the better part of a mile long because it leads to about four (?)  different city streets and also accommodates cars entering from multiple unknown origins because in the end it turns into an entrance ramp for the freeway in the opposite direction.
  
• The intersection where two streets meet at maybe a 70-degree angle, but one of them makes a soft left turn on the other side of the intersection, and a third street also enters the intersection but just ends there.
  
• The intersection perhaps designed by a conceptual artist, wherein a stop light is stuck in the middle of the block with no cross street or crosswalk to justify its existence.
  
• The really enormous intersection, a little like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where you can't even count the number of entering streets before you've driven through it..
  
• The many intersections where you come up a steep hill and meet another street at an angle so steep that, with the parked cars, you can't see if anyone's coming.

Like many of us, he is most eloquent when complaining.