Why Is It Never Easy?

Val Love's Bomber Jacket

No matter what with me, health issues are never easy.  Ovarian cysts, two years to diagnose.  Leg is killing me.  Go to doctor (finally after 6 months), he thinks its a stress fracture on my femur, orders MRI.  MRI doesn’t show a stress fracture but he’s not convinced he sees something on bone that he thinks may indicate it.  So no explanation for pain, but he is sending me to a physical therapist.  And in the meantime he’s going to speak with the radiologist.  Maybe its because I wait so long to go to the doctor that my pain seems irrelevant.  Maybe its because I just don’t know how to communicate well.  Maybe its just because I really in life have not had that many occassions to visit the doctor, so I’m just ill equipped to handle the situations.  Maybe, maybe, maybe, I don’t know, but at least maybe the physical therapist can help me figure out how to exercise so as to not hurt myself any more. 

Ignore the Cleaning Supplies - Guess you Can Tell what I did yesterday

Speaking of easy but not easy.  My bomber jacket.  Its coming along quite nicely.  In fact I’ve finished the outer shell and last night cast on for the inner lining.  It took about 1 week and 5 days to complete.  Pretty good timing, although the inner lining (which is exactly the same thing as the outer shell) will probably take a tad longer as I won’t have a long-weekend of a lot of knitting to aid in the process.  Here are my thoughts on the project so far:

• The pattern is nice because there are no seams in the end (well except for sewing the outer and inner lining together with an over stitch).  Everything is knit by picking up stitches, etc. 
• Need 5 billion stitch holders for project. Thankfully I had 4 billion available so I was able to make due.
• While I’m thrilled there’s no seams to sew in the end, the pattern itself has been a bit perplexing.  I had to rip out a few rows on one side of the jacket because I had read how to do the short rows wrong.  Its taken several reads of the pattern to actually grasp the concept and I’m usually pretty good at deciphering patterns.
• I love Cascade Eco Wool.  Knits up quickly, nice feel to knit with, although I’m not 100% sure I’d like in a sweater might be a tad itchy for direct skin contact.
• All in all I’m pleased with the project and am looking forward to the finished project.

In other news, well there isn’t any.  I find myself getting more and more boring the older I become.

Well actually we did go hiking on Friday, despite my gimpy leg, at Pickle Springs in Missouri.  I’ll post a picture or two next time I post.

Nearly A Perfect Fit

Happy at Work in My Sweater - See the Arch Behind me!

My stitch gauge was spot on.  My row gauge was not.  So in the end, I shortened up the armholes to make the sweater not too long.  I like the result, but the armholes are  a little to short, but I can live with it.  All in all it was a great project. I had a lot of fun knitting it, it was fairly quick since there were no sleeves, and even though I had a few very hectic work weeks I finished it in just over a month.  I’m super pleased with the results, in fact I couldn’t stand the thought of washing and blocking it so I’m just wearing it today.

Nick gave me the best compliment, he said, “it doesn’t look like it was hand-knit.”  Of course then he went on to say my next knit should look hand-knit and a tad wonky. 

Stats: Knit Picks Corrie Fair Isle Vest – knit Size 42 Tall.  Knit on size 5 needles to get my stitch gauge, which of course though made my row gauge to tall.  Started October 10 finished November 14.  Cost $18.99.  Machine Steeked, double reinforced. 

I actually double reinforced it, I wasn’t taking any chances that the stitching would come undone.  I got out my sewing machine and my LaBatt’s Blue and went to work.  Why oh why didn’t I do that with Ringbloomst. 

The First Cut

 But since I’ve lost so much weight

What Abner and Django Did All Last Week When I Wasn't Home

 this year and have my sewing machine out, I’m going to try and preserve Ringbloomst.  I’m going to steek the death out of it, reduce its size, and resew on the sleeves. And who knows maybe I will salvage it after all.  That is next weekend’s project of choice.

Next on the list, because of my insane work schedule, Nick allowed me to purchase myself a treat. (We have a deal right now that anything over $20 we have to ask the other party to purchase).  Anyway, I ordered on Thursday from the Yarn Barn a bomber jacket kit designed by Val Love.  You actually knit two coats, and sew it together.  I need a new winter coat, and what better idea then make my own.  So I’m patiently waiting for it to arrive, and until it does I will work on one of my afghans I’m knitting. 

 

Crimes for My Niece To Commit In the Next Week

Pretty Sure this Picture is about 6 or 7 Years Old

My niece turns 18 in a week.  We don’t celebrate birthdays, but I figure now is the time to let her know the crimes she should commit before next week so that she can be tried as a juvenile.  Now let me give you a little background on my niece, she, much to my chagrin, is a girly-girl.  Although I do think she has a tad tom-boy thrown in like her Aunt.  But as a little girl, she was so girly even before she could walk, that as she crawled she carried a purse.  She kept her pacifiers in it, and she’d stop crawling occassionally, open her purse and swap out her pacifier.  She has a couple of blogs, but I’ll share the one she shares with her mom and I.  http://noswatches.blogspot.com/ She’s working right now on a sweater for her senior pictures.  I say she’s a girly girl as she’s always accessorized, etc.  I on the other hand, rarely wear jewelry, often don’t wear matching clothes, and would rather not think about how I look….but then I’m also not nearly 18.

So Crimes she should commit in the next week so she can still be tried as a juvenile:

• Find a beautiful cashmere sweater at a store, then proceed to unravel it to “reclaim” the yarn, and cast on for a sweater.  She should probably bring a bean-bag chair for comfort to the store as it could take a while, when they protest she can start a rant on being green and reclaiming yarn;
• Seek out anyone wearing tube socks and spray paint their ankles (as tube socks are just cruel);
• Tip a cow – after all she does live in Iowa;
• Take in more than 3 things in a dressing room;
• Go to a restaurant with a basket of food, head into the kitchen and make herself lunch.
• Write her name with a rock on the side of her parent’s car (oh wait her brother already did that when he was 3 and learned to write his name);
• Go to the library and dog-ear all the books;
• Get an ear-piercing kit and pierce all the female dog ears in the town insisting that that way no one will be confused and call a girl dog him.

Any you would like to suggest?

At Least Abner is Getting Some Rest

No knitting news to report, haven’t worked on my vest since Sunday. I’m hoping though this weekend I may be able to finish up the knitting.  And then next weekend do the steeking.  But there will be no knitting till probably Friday at the earliest, so my dreams of steeking this weekend are shot.  I will be so glad when this brief is done!  Boxers are so much more fun.   hee hee.  At least I haven’t lost my sense of humor, although it may have gotten wierder in my lack of sleep/relaxation time.

 

How I Ended Up At This Desk

Another Corner of My Desk

Someone commented about how organized my desk was, well I must confess its not really.  I have a very large desk, and a very large portion of it is a complete disaster.  Here’s another shot of a corner of my desk.  I love my little drawers, I fill them with all sorts of things, spoons, splenda, salt, swiss army knife, markers, popcorn, rubber bands, band-aids, ‘lil guppy tool, and all sorts of other things.  It also makes a nice stand as you see fo rmy fan, my tea maker.  And of course then there’s another shot of the big red wax ball.  I can’t help it, it makes me laugh.

I’ve been thinking about work a lot lately, maybe because I’m at work a lot.  All of this made me think about the plethora of jobs I’ve held.  I’ll lay them out for you:

• Piano Teacher
• Office Cleaner and helped with some secretarial things at a cell phone sales company and plastics manufacturer (yes it was a combined office) on in 1990 which were those HUGE cell phones or bags.
• Subway Sandwich Maker for a grand 6 weeks.
• Sold Drugs and Drove a Vette……okay I worked at a pharmacy and drove a Chevette.
• Secretary for Parks and Recreation Dept of Independence, IA – the only secretarial job I’ve ever had that involved rollerskating.  We were also a rec center, fitness center, raquetball, and we had rollerskating and pizza party Fridays.  Also had lock-ins I would occassionally supervise.
• Newspaper Girl Friday…I did everything from man the front desk, help with circulation, prepare ads, and even got to work in the darkroom developing pictures.
• Hotel Clerk
• Conference Coordinator for an International Economic Organization (went to Montreal for a conference – it was fun)
• Customer Service Operator
• Receptionist at a Copier Sales and Service Company in Cedar Rapids, IA, it was a temp job, but then they found out I was moving to Peoria, so they transferred me to Peoria, IL office and made me the Office Manager….which now means at my current job whenever the copiers go down they come to me first to fix them.  But I don’t mind, I like fixing things.
• Sales Support for a Technology Company – meaning I prepared presentations, etc. for the Salesman and Vice-President I was assigned to.
• Insurance Company Secretary.
• School Photographer
• Secretary at a Secretarial Company in which we worked for a lot of different Sole Practioner Attorneys and other individuals who didn’t need full-time secretaries.
• Secretary/Office Manager for Family Attorney
• And that brings me to where I’m at now.

Wow, that is a lot of jobs.  But I was never fired, I always moved on myself – well with the exception of the Insurance Company, they came in one day and closed our entire office down.  I also moved a lot from the time I was 20-25.  My last two jobs have consumed 8 years of my life and will probably consume the grand majority of the rest of it. Its fun looking back on what we’ve done.

So what kind of jobs have you had?

Don't Worry the Cars Not Moving

Today is a fun day, its still a crazy busy day at work but I’m actually wearing a sweater I never thought I’d wear again.  In fact it was in a pile to mail to my niece as I couldn’t stand the thought of throwing it out since its one of my hand-knits.  But I grabbed it out of frustration this morning and low and behold it fits!  Sorry Sarah, I’m keeping this one afterall.

Basil and His Green Ball

I also woke up to an awful ringing in my ears.  Nick too.  Of course its just Basil obsessed with his green ball which has two metal bells in it.  Isn’t he adorable! 

As I was getting ready this morning, I made a mental list of all the things I must fix knitting wise.

1. My hooded sweater – the hood is falling off.
2. My green and black gloves, I have a stictch that is running.  I should do that soon.
3. My second sweater ever knit has a huge stain on it.  Its cream.  I think I’m going to dye it a drak purple and see if that works since I don’t have the heart to throw out a hand-knit.

As steeking time is approaching soon on my vest, I also hope this weekend, in the few precious moments I’m not at work, to pull my sewing machine out and set it up somewhere so that I’ll be able to steek my vest.  I also have a slight notion while I have it out to try and fix Ringbloomst with it.