Been there, slept thru that

Tonight Rowan and I had dinner at Cici’s Pizza. For those of you unfamiliar with the chain, it’s a pizza buffet with a small game room. There’s a salad bar to keep the parents happy, and lots of brownies to keep the little one wired. We don’t eat there because it’s good. We eat there because there are GAMES and PRIZES and it’s CHEAP!

I sat by myself. Rowan had already scarfed down her obligatory carrots and pasta and was hitting the game room. In the booth next to me I watched a young mom (well younger than me haha) with her two elementary aged sons. She kept nodding off. At first I thought she was meditating….she looked so serene. Then I realized she was sleeping sitting up. She would eat a few bites and fall asleep. Wake up, tell junior to eat and not watch the tv…go back to sleep.

I was really starting to worry for her. How would she drive home? Was she alone with the two boys?? She was…and they got up and left together. Her walk was steady. Maybe the cat naps refreshed her. I know she pulled it together and drove those boys home without falling asleep at the wheel because that’s what moms do. We pull it together even when we are too tired to sit up and eat a meal. I wondered if she was a single mom. Could she be a military mom going it alone for now?

She had on workout clothes. Maybe she had been to the gym and work? Maybe the boys had sports?

I hope she gets some sleep tonight. I really do.

Still alive!

I had a nice person write to enquire about the state of my feet, and my knitting. Both are fine. ok to be truthful the knitting is pretty sad. I hardly ever knit anymore. I really loved making the “fancy” soakers but since the market sort of dried up I guess the passion is gone. My new idea is that the money is in custom little yappy dog sweaters, that’s what I’m thinking! I just need to write a dog sweater pattern for the machine and I’m off….anyone want to offer a tester puppy??? It wasn’t about the money tho. I believe wooly wonder pamela said it best “I’m in it for the GLORY!”  (hope that was pam)

I used to work so late into the night. It was quite the obsession. If you have a heavily embroidered KIYP piece be assured most of that work was done after 1 am…I just can’t stay up like I used to! Sometimes I would forget to pick colors in the daylight and if it wasn’t just right I would have to pull out the night’s work. Crazy!

But I still have a knitting room and I still buy knitting magazines. One of these days…

As far as the feet go, I only had one foot done. It was a big PITA to have the mobility issues and do the mom thing and have it be Xmas at the same time. I did not think that one through!

I take my hat off to people that deal with mobility limitations every day. If I had not had that scooter I do not know what I would have done. Even so I had to haul it out to my truck anyt time I wanted to go anywhere. I had to think in advance if I could get in..and when I tried to use crutches I fell.

The foot I did was the worst foot by far so I don’t really plan to do the other. Plus, it did not really help as far as finding shoes…I still have crazy wide feet so I have to shop like crazy to find one pair of ugly shoes that fit 🙂 And it’s not 100% pain free but I think that’s other issues, not the bunion. The bunion repair is kinda cool- if you are into yoga tho be informed that I had a pretty significant loss of flexibility. I can stand on the ball of my foot but it’s not the same.

But I am not complaning! No biggie. At least I can walk. Newfound appreciation at work.

My crew at the office was great about hauling me and my scooter to restaurants for lunch and helping me out so I did not sit there feeling all sorry for myself. Sadly, the crew is gone now…laid off due to lack of work.

I am still there, but in another area of the company in another capacity. I am happy that I had skills that translated well….cad skills which I had hoped never to use again fulltime but it’s changed enough that’s it’s like learning a new program in some respects. I am also learning to use Revit, a 3D architectural program. Oh, and learning to draw architectural lol. It is a realy strain to my brain. ALL those years of drawing and thinking in 10ths and now I have to think in feet/inches or horrors FRACTIONS!!  I draw malls, and the spaces that inhabit them. Occasionally I visit the malls in person to verify locations of walls and such.

On the home front, My 9 year old is officially 5 ft tall. How did that happen? Heck, if I keep shrinking we will meet in the middle in a year or so. Anyone want to make a bet on what that height will be??

Maybe I need some inspiration. I am so impressed with the people that continuously craft and keep it fresh.

 

 

Super Slacker Knitter

Dadgum. Those almost finished knits from 2009 are still languishing in my cupboard – except for the one that made it to the Fluff Factory Auctions. I’m most distressed that I have not embellished the brown pants and sent them out the door. I just have so little free time these days.

what have I been up to? Well folks I have a day job now. I went back to work last October. I work for a Civil Contractor in the estimating dept. Mostly my job entails figuring how much dirt we’re going to have to shove around and haul in or out to get a site graded properly. I do some graphic art stuff…and some other takeoff stuff…and some photography. It’s really interesting to me how much of my Knit In Your Pants business experience has been applicable in the real world. Little things..like familiarity with ftp sites from selling knits on congos and hyenacart. Then the photography..also something I got into primarily to get good photos of my work. And of course having the website and dealing with all the online stuff has kept me up to date using a computer so I was able to jump right in and learn the software needed. It was a little painful at first but I think I’m getting the hang of it.

Another major change in my life (WARNING SURGERY TALK AHEAD) is that I have finally taken the leap to fixing my bunions. ooo sexy talk I know. Before you go all judgemental on me and accuse me of “doing this to myself” with highheels and such be assured I am NOT high heel girl nor have I EVER been. Sure, I wore heels to weddings and funerals and job interviews. Maybe out on Friday night from time to time. But NOTHING like you see people wearing these days. I don’t wear those kind of shoes and have no desire to. Well, maybe I would if I felt comfortable in them – and I mean comfortable in my skin, not painfree feet.

The decision to have the surgery means heels are out of the question for me from here on – and I am ok with that because I will be able to pick from all the other shoes that are offered for “normal” feet. To me that means a much greater chance of finding comfortable CUTE? shoes. I expect I’ll still have a wide foot. It’s very hard to tell but I always did. 20-30 years ago it was hard to find a wide in my area. So, I had to wear mediums and shop shop shop for the widest medium available. Still, it was not enough and the narrow shoes coupled with a few years of ballet in my teens did my feet in. At about age 32 I was diagnosed with bunions. They have hurt pretty much ever since – with periods of remission at the beginning. Lately tho – I have noticed a change in my walk – my feet are starting to pronate, probably in an effort to avoid the bunion and ball of foot pain. They were doing it unevenly – the left leg was rolling quite a bit – whereas I was not “aware” of a roll in the right tho it’s probably there.

I haven’t had any hip pain since the surgery. I don’t know if it’s all the rest…or from not walking/waddling like I was before!

So, 2 weeks ago I had the first surgery. I took 8 days off of work. I think next time I will take a few more as the swelling was uncomfortable for the first couple of days back. I bought a scooter to get around and it has made a HUGE difference. I really can’t imagine how I would manage without it. Insurance said they would pay for it. I don’t know yet if they are paying 100% but it has been worth it. I feel my work productivity has not been affected by this surgery at all. Heck I move a lot faster on the scooter lol. Plus I get quite a workout lifting it in and out of my truck.

My ability to care for my daughter and home is much better than it would be on crutches. Granted, vacuuming with the scooter is a little tricky but I can do it!

The pain was not extreme. I had a lot of swelling and therefore bruising in my toes – but I was off the pain meds after 6 days. I did have some trouble with the meds giving me headaches so we had to experiment a bit. Just yesterday I started having shooting pains – literally a 2 second flash – very sharp. I think it’s my nerves coming back to life. I see the doc tomorrow to get my foot re-wrapped. I’ll take pics then…can’t decide if I should post pics here. Honestly from all the bunions pics I’ve seen online I think he did a very good job.

I can’t put my foot down for another 3 weeks at least but I am looking forward to getting this foot healed and getting the other one done. I hope to have them both functioning fairly normally by summer so we can do some camping. (did I ever put my camper on here? can’t remember) I dread doing my “driving” foot but at least it’s not as bad off as the other…tho I doubt that will make a difference in recovery. I’m going to be the ice princess next time. There will be NO time without ice for at least 2 weeks and I am also going to leave off some meds that I was not told to leave off in time for this surgery. Not happy about that.

I hope after it’s all done I’ll be able to say “I wish I’d done this sooner” ..fingers crossed!

I swear I WILL knit again. Really and truly.

 

Fluff Factory Auctions are UP!

http://hyenacart.com/flufffactory/It’s that time of year again….please head over to the fluff factory auctions and have a look

I’ve partnered with Christy at Fussybutt to create an adorable blue/green soaker/diaper set.
Check it out…
      
the colors in the diaper are so pretty and as always the construction is impeccable!

I’ll be listing tomorrow evening I hope….

Wow so many almost finished knits…

I don’t know what’s up with me. OK, I do. Not long ago I discovered that my dd would more readily fall asleep if I was upstairs with her. So, in the evenings while she reads/falls asleep I step into my knitting room and do a little machine knitting. The unexpected end result? …a lot of unfinished projects! I’m happy that I’m able to comfort her and be productive at the same time – but I need to get cracking and get some of these finished up!

Clockwise from left:
1. Small blue denim merino soaker, destined for some light embroidery.
2. Large (20″hip) Brown Tweed pants – probably going to try my hand at some more applique on these- fallish, maybe pumpkins or leaves.
3. Blue Green dip dyed cascade eco soaker – just did the dyeing yesterday and I’m really happy with the colorway – in particular the way the contrast yarn turned out – I’ll be doing some freeform embroidery as an accent with it.
4. Natural marl with rust trim soaker – not sure at all what sort of embellishment I’m going to do with this one!
5. Small Acrylic diaper cover- was intended as a gift – but I’ve found a small flaw in the decreases after I’d taken the trouble of knitting the waistband otherwise I would have ripped out and reknit the body. I dunno. I hate it when that happens. Only a knitter would notice but….probably be putting this one in the shop real cheap.

I ALMOST started another pair of pants last night but resisted the siren song of the knitting machine.

Fall knitting…

I picked up some lovely brown tweed patons at Joanns yesterday. I can see it knit up into longlegs with leaves the colors of the tweed flecks scattered about..

I also have one soaker finished – one ready to embellish – and another underway.

I started a pair of pants, but somehow buggered up the shaping so I’m going to reknit. I spent quite a lot of time last night updating my pattern notes in my computer so that doesn’t happen again. I forget how to knit pants over the summer – and have to relearn every time. I think I have it squared away this time.

no pics yet – to come before long tho.

I’m knitting a soaker!

I’m doing some therapeutic knitting….been thru a rough patch. I think some creating and quiet time is called for.

That’s all for now. over and out.

wow. I need to keep up.

I guess summer got in the way of blogging. I have no knitting to report unfortunately. Been doing a bit of photography – feel free to hop on over to my flickr if you’re interested.

Been thinking about knitting….really want to make another skirted soaker. They’re just so darn cute. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start one….

any requests? I didn’t think so LOL
 

Nope I didn’t grow this flower. My famous knitting gardening neighbor Beth did.

The bad news – I somehow got another year older….

The good news – my compulsive knitter neighbor Beth knitted these gorgeous socks for my bday!

I am inspired. She tells me that WE are going to knit socks from my new socks from the toe up book. I’m askeered!

Fluff Factory Auctions start today!

Hey everybody – please check out the Fluff Factory Auctions – starting today. I have one soaker up and am going to add a little bag and a pair of shorts today as well.
All proceeds go to Heifer International.

On the knitting front – I was very excited to receive my long anticipated copy of Socks from the Toe Up ! Oh, the book is gorgeous – and since I am going to come right out of the closet and admit that tho I’ve dabbled in starting socks (casting on, doing random short-rowed misshapen things) – I have never actually knit any. Yes. I am a sock virgin. When Wendy over at Wendy Knits announced she’d be releasing a book of her designs I decided I’d wait and knit from it because really, top down socks just don’t make sense to me. I am glad I did as the graphics are very well done and I think I can actually understand it! My neighbor is loving the heart socks. I’m not sure what I want to do first. I suppose plain socks would be best but I am sorely tempted by some of the lacy stuff.
The good news is I already have sock yarn from when I went to see the Yarn Harlot 2 years ago in Atlanta! Let’s hear it for the stash!

Many thanks to Wendy for mentioning the Fluff Factory Auctions in her blog.

Here’s a pic of the soaker I have up so far. Colors are prettier in person.