Polgara Knits

Yesterday I learned that the lovey Palm green Bernat Satin that I’m using for Hailey’s star afghan has been…wait for it…discontinued. Can you say panic? My usual supplier (Stitches from the Heart) was sold out, and had been out for quite some time (damn you, tedonitis, for making me skip the summer!), so when I got home last night I’d barely put my keys down before heading for Google.

Fortunately not everyone is sold out yet, and I found a lovely store in Tennessee named Decherd Needleworks that was still listing it. I ordered five skeins, not because I expect to need five skeins, but because I love that green and want to stock up before they’re all gone. They emailed me today to let me know they only had four skeins left and did I still want them (Hells yes!). Here’s to hoping their follow-through is as quick and efficient as their follow-up, since I only have two more rows to go before I need the green again (although I probably have enough left to last me about three rows before running out).

Honestly, I’ve been using that green for nearly four years now, about as long as I’ve been knitting–never in a million years would it have occurred to me that they’d discontinue it! Such a pretty color. *sigh* Sad now.

It finally happened–the PT gave me dispensation to start knitting/crochet again! Woot! I’m on the easing-back-into-it program, started at ten minutes, a couple of times a day, and I’m up to about 20 minutes at a time now. I’m working on a crocheted star afghan in Bernat Satin for my niece, and it’s now large enough that I can’t finish a full round in my allotted 20 minutes, but that’s ok. I don’t want to rush it and ruin all the progress of the last four months, not when we’re this close to Christmas and winter knitting.

In knee news, it’s also progressing slowly. I’m back at work, but I’m still using a cane, as I can only go so far before the knee gets very, very tired. PT has banned me from big stores (Target, Michael’s, etc.), given how much walking one can do there without even realizing it. The couple of times I tried Target, I came out totally exhausted. But I can walk around my office suite without the cane and not feel pain, so that’s a plus, especially since the cane use is starting to screw with my back and hip.

I’ve been slowly, slowly emptying the shelves of the bookcases that I’ll be swapping with the entertainment center. I have no idea where I’ll put the bookcases in the interim, but they need to go somewhere so I can paint that wall, hopefully next weekend. I was going to paint it green like the attached smaller wall, but I’m also considering a complimentary blue. It will most likely be green, though, since I already have the paint for that, and I’m more of a path-of-least-resistance person.

That’s the it for now. Hopefully now that I’m back with the yarn I’ll be updating more frequently again. Yay yarn!

I had knee surgery two weeks ago, and have been holed up in my living room ever since. For the first week I was in recovery mode–not working, just lying on the couch, icing and resting. This week I’m working from home, resting the leg as much as possible before returning to normal activity. In all this time, I haven’t touched yarn ONCE, and it’s heartbreaking. My tendonitis continues to improve, but my PT hasn’t given me the all clear to pick up needles or hook. So much free time, wasted.

Honestly, it’s not just the yarn. There’s so much I could’ve accomplished during my sentence on the couch–scanning of old photos, shredding the bag of junk mail, learning a new software, redesigning this site, or even reading a book–but what have I spent that time doing? Watching dvds. Watching dvds I’ve already seen multiple times. (Except Dexter season two–that was new to me.)

A ridiculous and embarrassing waste of time.

And to make it worse? I gained ten pounds in the first week. It was my own fault, of course–my sister and brother-in-law were here from the East Coast to take care of me, and whenever I’m with them, something in my mind switches to vacation mode, and in vacation mode, I eat all the things I don’t usually allow myself. Add pizza, lasagna, cupcakes and chinese food to a week of lying on the couch, and yeah, it adds up to ten pounds. They’ve been gone a week now, though, which means I immediately went back on my normal diet, and I’ve already lost five. Not healthy, I know, but I’m going back to WW in two days after three weeks away, and I’d rather it not show me back to square one.

In other news, while the sis and bil were here, they got me a coffee table for my birthday. Yay coffee table! I am very fond of it, and am pleased with how that one little change improved the overall aesthetic of my living room. (Before, I’d been using a cardboard box covered with a blanket as my ‘table’.) Once I’m mobile again, my plan is to swap the positions of my entertainment center and bookshelves, and to paint the north wall (I’ve had a lot of spare time to think about this), but I fear my motivation is rooted in my inability to act at the moment, and that once I’m up again, I’ll lose interest in my home improvement plans. *fingers crossed* that I’m stronger than that.

Children’s knitting group turfed from library under new craft ban

Pamela Haley, manager of library services for the united counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, said the ban on crafts was put on place because the municipality is revamping its 18 library branches in an effort to attract more people and needs to be more literacy-focused to achieve that end.

She said the library’s new fall lineup includes teen book clubs and Scrabble nights. The library will also be holding some events not focused on literacy, such as video game nights, to attract a younger crowd.

Seriously?? Video games?!! WTF is wrong with these people?!

It’s been a very long time since my last post–so long that I’m not even looking to see how long it was. Nothing has changed with regard to my ability to knit and crochet. I still have tendonitis and have been banned from all hobbies requiring fine motor skills. Fortunately I’m still allowed to type, otherwise my programming job would be in jeopardy.

I’ve been occupying my overabundance of free time with reading (Abby Cooper books by Victoria Laurie–two thumbs up!), riding my bike (weekends and short distances only, otherwise it irritates the elbow) and, this week at least, watching the Olympics (go Phelps!). I’m having knee surgery two weeks from today, and hopefully the ban will be lifted by then so I’ll have something to do while sitting on my butt recovering.

That’s really all I’ve got to report, unless you’re interested in hearing about the $50 I misplaced this morning…but I doubt it.

It’s been awhile since my last update, I see. Thanks to my elbow injury (which I suspect was caused by lifting a 30-lb box of cat litter the totally wrong way), I’m still not allowed to knit or crochet, and it’s taking more of a toll than I’d expected.  The boredom, the fidgeting, the “what the hell do I do with my time?” of it all, I kinda saw coming. I underestimated the extent of it, but it was expected.

However, I’m also finding myself cranky, bitchy, and overreacting to the tiniest of annoyances, and I’m wondering if it’s a consequence of losing my “zen” time, those moments when it’s just me and my yarn and my thoughts, when I’m most comfortable with being with myself.

Yes, not being able to knit or crochet is slowly driving me crazy. I asked my PT if I could pleeeeeease just knit something small, and he said, “Read a book.” Yeah, thanks. That’s actually what I’ve been doing (ten books so far, it’s like the old days!), but it’s not enough. I’m not even comfortable watching dvds anymore, without something to occupy my hands. It feels like such a waste of time.

The injury is healing, but slooooowly, and I don’t see me picking up a skein anytime in the next two (*sob*) months. The doc even went so far as to mention the S word (<small>surgery</small>), which would translate even longer to yarn.

Why does my body hate me so?

I did it–I bought a bike! Last Saturday, after my WW meeting, I headed over to my friend Lori’s to test ride her bikes. Then we decided to go to REI to test ride more bikes, and of course I fell in love with this one. So now I’m a biker, complete with all the accessories (except a mirror and a trunk rack, but I’ll be remedying those soon).

So far I’ve taken it grocery shopping, to this week’s WW meeting, and down to the local mall for some books and vegetables (the Farmer’s Market is in the same location). The street riding is going to take getting used to–I still panic a little when I’m on the street with actual moving cars–but otherwise it’s been a joy. I’m still trying to figure out a storage solution, though–I’m not ready to leave it locked in the garage where anyone can touch it, but I’m thrilled with parking it in my living room, either.

ION, I still have no updates in the knitting/crochet arena. I don’t want to inadvertently slow the healing process by working on anything right now, but I might change my mind in the coming weeks, as I’ll be travelling and nothing combats the horrors of flying coach like focussing on a project.

That’s it for now. My screen is doing a weird flashy thing while I type, so I think I’ll go figure out wtf is going on.

I have a bulky black brace on my left wrist/forearm, thanks to a nasty case of tendonitis in my elbow. And yes, this means no knitting or crochet for the time being. This is very unhappy making, not to mention painful. I’ll confess I did pick up a crochet hook, just to see if it was possible to manipulate it around the brace. The attempt, had you seen it, was laughable. Heck, I couldn’t even pick up a little hot dog wrapped in a pastry puff at the Sex and the City event I went to on Sunday–it made a hilarious series of bounces off my brace, my right hand, and my friend Kristen’s hand before rolling across the floor towards the bar. (Smart blanket-wrapped-piggy!)

So what should I talk about instead, during this enforced separation period between me and my hooks and needles?

Well, my latest obsession involves bicycles. I recently rejoined Weight Watchers, and this time I signed up with a group near my home instead of near my office, which is going to force me out of the house on Saturday mornings (a period I usually reserve for quality time with my couch). The meeting is about a mile too far for me to walk without my bum knee collapsing, yet close enough to make me mourn the gas usage. The answer? I must buy a bicycle! I’m not sure why I’m possessed with this sudden desire to ride a bike–many bikes have languished in many garages in my past–but really, I can barely restrain myself from running to Target and buying whatever I can afford.  I haven’t done this yet, because my friends have convinced me to test-ride one of their bikes first (which I hope to do this weekend) before committing to anything. Instead, I’ve been relentlessly combing the internets, researching bikes and frames and gears and customer reviews. Ideally I hope to find something on craigslist, because I can’t afford the $400 beauties I’ve fallen in love with, but so far no dice. I can no longer grab the first $50 comfort bike I find–I now know it needs to be aluminum framed and have at least seven speeds, or I risk becoming discouraged by trying to get a heavy bike up even a modest incline.

Also, I have returned to PT (did I mention this already? I can’t remember, and am too lazy to go check) in an attempt to cure my stupid knee once and for all. This includes making an appointment with a new doctor who will take new xrays and MRIs, and this time I picked someone *in* my insurance network, so I won’t still be paying off visits three years later. (I’m two payments away from being free of the last doctor, woot!) Here’s hoping they’ll find something concrete this time, something that can be fixed with more than a vague, “Physical therapy should fix that right up.” Give me more! I need an actual diagnosis this time, dammit!

Ahem. Anyway…. Work is hellish, but it’s of my own making. I really must get over my jealousy and possessiveness. Of course, I’ve had those traits for about 38 years now, so I don’t see how I’ll be divesting myself of them anytime soon. Yay. At least my review went well.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got. Nice to see the brace isn’t getting in the way of my typing skills, at least.

So last week, as I had mentioned, I went yarn shopping at Stitches from the Heart, and as we all knew would happen, I bought more than I’d planned. That’ll teach me to carry my vacation credit card with me when I’m no longer on vacation! First it took me forever to decide on a yarn for Haley’s blanket–cool colors, soft texture and machine washable is a tough combination to find!–but I finally chose Universal Yarn’s Classic Worsted LP (20% wool/80 acrylic) in the variegated ”purple allure” (aka 11418) pallette. But before I decided on that, I’d kept returning to the Bernat Satin wall o’color. So many bright and beautiful colors! I’d been wanting to do some amigurumi work, but you need a good acrylic for that, so the stitches don’t stretch and leak stuffing all over the place. In the end, I couldn’t resist all those beautiful colors, and ended up with twelve balls of Bernat Satin, in twelve different colors.

Of course, now that I have all I need for a cute amigurumi doll, I can’t decide on a pattern. Sigh.

But yes, I bought a ton of yarn last week, so hopefully that’ll carry me over the summer. There have been many yarn sales lately–at WEBS and at Unwind (one of my LYSs), but I haven’t even glanced at either one, so as not to tempt myself.

So back to Haley’s blanket–I started a crocheted log cabin, but so far I don’t love it. The yarn is great, but it’s the pattern–no matter how many of these I do, I still can’t nail the right number of stitches to add when crocheting across the side of a row, so some sides are longer than others, and there’s a folding/pinching issue where I picked up too many/didn’t pick up enough. I’m thinking of frogging it and making a star afghan instead. If I do that, then I think I’d switch to the Satin, ’cause the pattern would benefit far more from different colored yarns than from one variegated pallette. And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a “Haley’s Comet” blanket. Hmm….

In other yarn news, I haven’t done anything lately with the sparkly market shawl, the too-big pink slouchy hat, the pseudo fair isle tam from Knitty, the scratchy my so-called scarf, or Kristen’s hat. I really suck at finishing, yo.

And finally, on a completely unrelated tangent, I rejoined Weight Watchers this week, and had my first meeting yesterday. My plan is to relearn how to eat properly. Lindora did great things for me the first six months I was on it, but it just went downhil from there, and I’d like to be able to look at a potato again without freaking out or binging on them (or is it bingeing?).

That’s all I got for today. Have a great Memorial Day tomorrow!

Ok, it’s been a month since my last post. I suck. There, I’ve addressed it, and now I’m moving on.

As before, little has been accomplished on the yarnwork front. Oh, except, I have a picture! This is me at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs two weeks ago.

Note that I’m wearing the pink cammo slouchy hat that in my previous post was still waiting to be blocked. It’s not so slouchy in this picture, due to the fact that the wind was FREEZING and my shiny new hat was the only thing protecting my ears from a nasty earache. It did what hats are supposed to do, though, so I was ever so grateful to have it with me. And yes, that’s my Patons soy/wool scarf wrapped ever so tightly around my neck. (Did I mention the FREEZING?)

While I was in Denver, I started yet another slouchy hat, in hot pink; and once again, I went too big and will probably have to frog it, much like the cammo one.  I could’ve sworn I stuck to the final cammo specs, too, given that it’s the same yarn. Phooey. There’s been no progress on the shawl–well, not much, anyway. And I think that’s all I’ve done yarn-wise since my last post. Sadly, I didn’t even get to any of the local Denver yarn shops, even though I had a rental for half the trip. I suck. I did, however, get my hair cut–it’s super cute, even though you can’t tell from this pic (or any of them, for that matter).

My new niece was born a few weeks ago. I was going to give her the log cabin blanket I was working on last summer, but now I’m thinking of starting something new just for her. Oo! Maybe I’ll stop at the yarnstore after PT today! It’s allowed, since most of my stash is made up of natural fibers, which is not good for something that’ll need frequent washings.

That’s it for today–have a marvelous weekend, and try to stay cool!