A Nightly Row

I think what is hurting my wrists the most is when I go up and down stairs without the crutches. Basically, the few steps outside my house and at work aren't bad but after a few very botched and scary attempts of hopping up and down them using the crutches I took the advice of the nurse at the doctors office and I now just go up and down on my butt. I kind of sit on the bottom step, put my hands on the step behind me and using my good leg and both hands, lift or lower myself as needed. Trust me, it is just as glamorous and graceful as it sounds! Ok, so it's clunky, and awkward and embarrassing at times, but being that close to the ground means there's no danger of falling. And we know falling is bad, I want to avoid it and get the heck out of the cast asap!

Anyway, I've always worn braces on my wrists when I sleep, without them, I curl my hands in so hard I wake up and my hands and fingers are completely numb. The braces usually do the trick but since I've been lifting myself up and down steps lately I notice that even with the braces at night I'm waking up with completely numb hands in my sleep. And a lot of days I find my wrists and hands hurt sometimes, my shoulders hurt. It sucks, so hoping to avoid further damage to my wrists (I don't want to end up needing wrist surgery after all of this) I'm trying to do what I guess is a sensible thing and knit a little less.

Still, I usually can hold out until about 8 at night. By then I'm like well, I can probably just knit one row... Only thing is the one row I usually knit on the Pi Are Square Shawl each day is now probably about 400 stitches wide...



Yes, I do it on purpose. I need to knit a row that will make me feel like I've accomplished something after all. And I do feel accomplished. This is all the yarn I have left.



This cashmere laceweight boucle, has enough interest and variations in it, I'm actually just going to stick with the garter stitch until this runs out. Which if I was knitting on my normal schedule would probably be a couple of days. On this schedule, maybe a week or two. But that's ok, I do feel better with my little one row a night schedule. Plus, on another positive note I don't have to wait 2 weeks, 12 days to that walking cast and I'm hoping to say goodbye to the wrist pain and finish this baby off...

How I get myself into (and out of) trouble

I've been knitting here and there a little lately. A few rows at night won't kill me. In the meantime I'm catching up on podcasts, surfing Ravelry, petting the stash. The other day the stash was bugging me a little. It haunts me and it's levels refuse to go down. I don't know if it's that we're starting to plan our upcoming trips to Stitches and Rhinebeck, or the fact that Christmas is exactly 5 months from today or what, but I just decided yesterday the stash needed some kind of resolution. So after much deliberation I came to 2 conclusions I thought would help.

1. What's left of the Elmore Pisgah Peaches and Creme (3 balls) must be knit by summer's end.

2. Ideally, I will have knit all the yarn I purchased at Stitches last year before I go to Stitches this year.

Number 1 definitely doable. Number 2, maybe with the exception of 1 or 2 skeins, I think I can probably come very, very close. I have yarn for 4-5 pairs of socks left from Stitches last year so it will take some resolution to finish them before mid-October. But still, I was very happy with these 2 goals, they are reasonable, and I think they go well with the upcoming stash increasing ventures. I went to sleep happy and content and at peace with the stash.

Then I wake up this morning and I have one thing on my mind.




Perdita. Knitty 2006. It's not as random as it seems. First, this past weekend I noticed a pretty beaded bracelet worn by Chris, who I knit with. She's had it on a couple of times and it's so cool. I'm not normally a bracelet person but this one really catches my eye. Then, thanks to Ravelry, a couple of days ago I noticed Jessie's version of Bauble from Spring 2007 Knitty really catching my eye. All this leads me think what is that beaded cuff pattern from Knitty I seem to re-visit every few months? Why haven't I knit it yet? I better go and read the pattern again... I better go and look at the finished ones other people have knit on Ravelry... It would look so cool in black or red or purple, which color would I choose? And all of a sudden I am back in love with Perdita again! Forget the stash anxiety, the goals, I want this on my wrist!!!

But this time it's different. Remember the cast? The crutches? I still can't drive for another 6 weeks! And even if someone did drive me simple stuff like walking around a store is so tiring. I really economize on the steps and the crutchwork each day and try to save it for the important or at least the really, really fun stuff. So no way to get DMC Perle Cotton. No way to get seed beads. And it's really for the best. Do I really need to go out and purchase more stuff to knit right now? No... I guess I don't... I'll put Perdita on the Ravelry queue anyway. After all the Christmas knitting I guess... Sigh...

Tired...

I didn't mean to get a cast that matches the cat. I guess it just kind of happened. I haven't blogged because I haven't knitted much. My hands and arms hurt so much from the crutches and pulling myself up all the time that last night I didn't knit at all. A day without knitting is a very rare occurrence and a big, big downer for me. I'm back at work which is good, it's very good because it keeps me from going crazy, which is directly where I was headed staying home all the time. However, it's also bad because since I can't drive and rely on help to get back and forth, I went back full time right away. And it's just kicking my butt. This upcoming weekend will be much resting. I am actually looking forward to resting.

19 days until I get my walking cast and can give my arms a rest. Can't wait.

What I'm Doing with my Summer Surgery Recovery

Pattern: Waterfall Socks from Knitspot
Yarn: Merino 4ply sock yarn "Kelim" gifted to me by Suzi from Darkside of Knitting 2 Punk Rock Gift Exchanges ago
Needles: Size 2 Clover Bamboo DPN's

Result? Love these socks! Love them! I wish I could model them on my feet for you guys to show you how great the lace pattern looks but with the cast and all, it's just not happening. But if you look at the Knitspot catalog my end result does look exactly like the ones in the picture. I think unless you are deliberately making changes to a pattern, if you set out to knit a pattern as is, then it should end up looking like the one in the picture. I've found to be the case so far with both these socks and the Cloverleaf Mitts. I think I'm actually going to be doing another pair of the Cloverleaf Mitts soon. I've decided I need a little break from the socks. I think I'm going to do a bunch of glove and mitten patterns I have lined up as soon as I finish the socks I just started Saturday.


Which you can tell, it won't be long before I finish these. They're sport weight Louet Gems Opal, with a gauge of 6 stiches to the inch. Plus making them short like this, you finish the cuff, and right away you're up into the heel flap! It's great! When I bought this yarn I didn't know it was sport weight, so I think the thicker gauge makes it better for short-slipper type socks for winter like these. So these will probably end up being Christmas gifts for someone eventually. Only problem? The yarn is not going fast enough! The ball you see is half the hank and I'm at least 2/3 of the way done with this sock. And I bought 2 hanks! Oh the stash will never end...

In non knitting news I've been doing a lot of... well... nothing I guess. Which everyone tells me is what I'm supposed to be doing after surgery. But it still sucks. I did have one fun day last week, the knitting girls came over and knit and brought food and just cheered me up so much. But then Saturday I started getting a little weepy when I realized I had not even been out of my house in over a week. Ick. I'm hanging in though, now I'm looking forward to Wednesday when I'm supposed to get a fiberglass cast put on and I get to go back to work. Looking forward to going back to work, words you think you'll never hear yourself saying right?

In the meantime I guess I could tell you about some of the great movies I've been watching lately. First the other day I re-watched The Girl in the Cafe.



A lot of people might have missed this when it came out in 2005. It was actually an HBO movie, never in the theaters but it really is a wonderful and beautiful movie. It stars Bill Nighy who you may remember as the aging rock star from "Love Actually" and as Davy Jones from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies and Kelly MacDonald who has been in several films, but unfortunately I haven't seen her in anything besides this and "Trainspotting." The two meet and before long Nighy's character asks MacDonald to attend a G8 Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland with him. The results are powerful and beautiful. The music, the scenery is amazing. During a time where I'm sure the new, loud, action packed "Transformers" probably has some merits, "The Girl in the Cafe" is a simple movie of people talking, but it's really so much more.

I also finally got to see A Prairie Home Companion the other day. Loved this one too. My husband told my Robert Altman had to deal with 65 speaking roles while making this film. It sounds so difficult but then look at who's doing the speaking- Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly to start. Ok, so Lindsay Lohan is in it but not a whole lot, don't worry she's not that bad orangey tan, or pulling up her dress or passing out drunk or anything here. And the whole movie is just kind of sweet, a little hokey, with lots of intersting storylines and layers going on all at once to pull you in. I really liked it.

Last night I started watching Amelie. I know so many people who love this movie and now I see why. Audrey Tatou is so attractive and charming. And the whole film is so entertaining, the colors of every scene remind you of a painting, and the storyline is charming and whimsical and emotional. I just have 40 minutes to go and unless it turns into an entirely different movie somewhere in those 40 minutes I'm pretty sure I'm going to like this one for awhile too.

Elevate Good Times Come on!

It's an elevation! My life for the moment that is. All about elevating, elevating, elevating that foot. You can see by the gross foot photo (sorry) below the the surgeon has came, saw and conquered.



The surgery did not go all that badly. My tendon ended up being worth saving after all and did not need to be replaced. It was just very, very inflamed so they just needed to clean it up a little. The rest of the foot, well, the bones needed to be 'realigned' which meant cutting and screws. Yeah, so it's not like it ended up being a picnic or anything. I also ended up waking up at the end with a deathly bout of nausea that lasted well into the evening so instead of coming home the same day I had to stay over. What a lovely post this is so far isn't it? Inflamation? Nausea? Foot photos? Alas, this is my life-hence my new motto "All Glamour! All the time!"

So the home time has meant elevation, and Percoset, and trying to use the crutches without hitting myself or the cat or the furniture too much. How do people end up getting addicted to pain killers? Really so far, they help the pain but just make the rest of me feel like crap. I'm thinking today is the last day for the Percoset. The pain has really lessened and well, honestly the percoset knocks me out and then I can't knit! And that's what I'm really home for isn't it?

So I'm not going to lie, I am knitting while the knitting's good. I'm about two thirds of the way done on the second Waterfall Sock and I still love them as much as the first day I started them! Aww...



I also finished the last cotton cloth and picked up something a little softer than cotton. CASHMERE!!! MMM! Mmm! I'm using the laceweight cashmere boucle I purchased at School Products and started a Pi Are Squared shawl.



I really like it so far. I mean, what's there not to like about garter stitch with a bunch of yarn overs here and there. It's great, the yarn is great. The true test of this project will be how much I actually wear it once it's done. I'm not a big shawl wearer now and I'm not sure knitting them myself is going to turn me into one either. But I probably won't know until it's actually done and in my hands either. So we'll have to see how it turns out.

In other fun time consuming news I got my invite to Ravelry. I haven't gotten to spend as much time on it as I would like but I am getting there. It is really, really cool. For anyone waiting for an invite, be patient, it's coming and trust me it's worth the wait!!!