Wednesday, April 30, 2008

One of these days


I will get back into the swing of things. I'm sure of it, I'm just not setting a deadline. LOL

I am so stinking busy these days, I have no idea how I ever worked. Man! Therapy for the leg (now over) and hand (ends tomorrow) kept me running around, I gave up on typing with the cast, but of course that is now long gone as well. I've managed a little knitting, but not really in the past week and a half.

Okay, that's a bit of a stretch. This past Sunday was Pascha, the Orthodox Christian Easter, in a nutshell, and I did do a bit of knitting at our big feast Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for me, I also had a little beer and way too much conversation going on at the same time. I am guilty of Knitting Under the Influence, and of being too distracted for what I was doing, so now I need to TINK back to the last know "good spot" and do it over. sigh

I should've known, right? I have cast on the Bellatrix socks and I'm using the Death Eater colorway from Scout's Swag (merino and tencel yarn). I LOVE the yarn and I LOVE the pattern. I've got two socks on two circs, so hopefully no more of the two-year sock syndrome. However, the pattern does seem to require some of my attention when I am dropping stitches, because whenever I think I've got it and let my attention wander, even just a little bit, I make a mistake. Since there are dropped stitches, and this is really my first pattern with dropped stitches, I can't see where the errors are and I have to rip back to the all knit row before I do the YOs that get dropped. Clear as mud? Yep. I thought so.

Even so, I am pleased to be working on the socks and I really do love the yarn and pattern. I only mind the TINKing because it is backwards progress on the socks. OTOH, my enthusiasm is pretty high for them right now, so maybe it won't take too long to get my brain in gear and get these socks done.

I'm finally getting a picture up of the BS Johnson hat. Since we've had such a peculiar spring here (with tons of snow!) I've had plenty opportunity to wear it. When I can get it away from my girls. I'm still very pleased with this hat. I'd like to do another one, but I think I will go down a needle size for the ribbing, it just seems too loose, but I like the gauge for the rest of the hat.

Well, I gotta hit the post office & grocery store before the youngest gets home from school. I'll try to post more often and get back up to speed. I'm really missing all my blog reading!

Friday, April 04, 2008

Just checking in

I had no intention of being gone so long, and it may be a while before I'm posting regularly again. We'll see.

The last week of work was insanely busy, even though I had organized everything to death. (Or maybe because I had. Sometimes I think we need a reminder that we are not truly in charge.) I left my co-workers with a printed manual of how to do all of the stuff I do. All the files for this stuff was on the shared drive as well. They were concerned at having to take it all on, though i'm sure they'll manage just fine. I had a nice, if small, going away thing. It was a really bad time since it was finals week and the night before the graduating students displayed their work. It's the thought that counts. They also gifted me with a nice Amazon gift card.

I'm trying to save it for a while. We'll see how that goes.

The repeat on the hand surgery was the next day (21st), and for all I can tell at the moment, it went well. My cast/splint is much bigger this time, and the bruising was more extensive on my fingers. The meds were NOT as good this time around, but they got me through the worst bit which was the important part. I see the doctor on Monday, or rather, an assistant, to get the splint/cast off and the stitches out. The resident said they'd cut in the same place. While I still bitterly hate that the first guy opened my hand the wrong way, at least I shouldn't have a whole network of horrible scars criss-crossing my hand.

Oh, vanity! It's Lent, I should really work harder not to care about the scar. It could be so much worse and I am really grateful that it isn't. My hand seems to be working (well, the fingers are moving) and if the stupid cyst stays gone this time, that's all I should care about. The doctor said that there were two places to get a cyst in the area mine was in. Apparently the first cyst was in one place, and this cyst was in the other. Hopefully I won't push the odds any further. I don't ever want to repeat this surgery.

I'm not a very good patient right now either. I think I'm so worn down from my broken leg that I just had no patience left for another round of being incapacitated. Still, not much longer. It is just really hard to do stuff left-handed (I am severely right-dominant!) and I can't use my hand for anything except putting my clothes on, really. Typing is all done with a pencil in my right hand or with one finger. My cast/splint keeps hitting the ctrl or alt keys and throwing me out to menus and such. And the typos? Off the charts. I do try to correct them if I see them.

I tried to psych myself into a state of Reading Not Knitting. I had all of these books set aside and everything. Uh-huh. I think I've developed a twitch in one eye or something. The reading is nice, but I really need to knit.

Soon.

The stay-at-home-mom thing is off to a wobbly start as well. The youngest is very grumpy and refused to talk to me several days after I picked her up. Granted, one day it was because my long red trench coat was "embarrassing". She wouldn't even walk with me. It was the only coat I have that would fit over the cast and it was snowing outside (I was also wearing a T-shirt - only shirts that fit now too). She said I could go without a coat rather than wear the red one that was so embarrassing. This child will be 6 in 2 months.

The fact that I can't really do anything interesting is really boring for them too. This week was a vacation week for them. Oh joy! We've made it to Friday, however, and no bloodshed. Thing will improve next week, but it was still a lousy start to the new lifestyle.

That's okay, though, things will change and I will knit again. The kids really hate the reading because I ignore them (not on purpose, I just tune everything out when I'm in the zone). They'll be much happier when I'm knitting again, too.

That's it in a nutshell. I'll post again next week. In theory, it should be easier to type.