Remember Nate’s knitting project? He is now done with the front, back, and one sleeve of Veronica’s hoodie. Last night, he did some weaving and some seaming…

while I finished sewing up his second clog.

A true seaming party it was. Towards the beginning of this project, Nate asked me if it is better to join a new ball of yarn mid-row, or at the sides. I told him that I join mid row, but “the incredibly talented Becky” (this is how she is referenced in our house) always does it on the sides. He followed Becky’s method after a couple joins the other way, and while weaving and seaming last night, declared it was going to be his way as well. (I enjoy closing holes in a project and having them completely disapear. I also don’t like to add bulk to my edges).

Then, because I was done sewing up the clogs before he was done seaming the hoodie, I started swatching for the new hat I’ve been thinking about.

Finally, as promised, here is a shot of the nifty basket that is standing in for my regular one.

Neat, no? and for a cutie pie picture of Olivia and Veronica, click the link.

Hello all. Thank you again for your prayers, good vibes, and well wishes on my behalf yesterday. I’m sure they helped. As it turned out, my three days of anxiety ended up being much worse than the actual procedure. It was much more pleasant than having my gallbladder removed, that’s for sure. Here I am before the happy drugs…

(knitting away on Marianna’s poncho in an attempt to relax. I wanted Nate to stand up and get a head on picture which would most likely be more flattering, and so you could see my nifty new basket that is stepping in for my regular one, which currently reeks of smoke damage. For whatever reason, it didn’t end up happening.)

And after…

I have no pride. Does anyone look good in the hospital? Blah. And you all get to see it.

And finally, the comment that shocked my doctor.

The hospital had plenty of advance notice that they were getting a needle-phobe yesterday. My referring specialist sent it with my files. I let the woman in admitting know that I wanted oxygen and why. I happened to see a note attached to my chart in all caps and red ink alerting anyone who might come near me that I have issues. (I’m so happy when people listen). So it was up in the air whether or not to give me an IV for sedation, or to have me suck it up and take the injection unaltered. (I don’t understand this in the least, but someone thought it was a sound option). In my pre-procedure consultation, the doctor performing the injection discussed with me the possibility of proceeding without sedation, and thereby avoiding the dreaded IV. It seemed as though we were moving in that direction when I asked my final question.

“How long,” I ask, “am I going to have to sit still and keep my wits while you’re puncturing me?”

“About five minutes”, he replies, looking rather strange. I sit and ponder for a brief second.

“I will pass out,” I declare. Within seconds, I was on my back, I had oxygen on my face, and they were administering an IV. I guess that made it easy. Next, I was given happy drugs, and all was well with the world.

I have little memory of the procedure itself. Nate was in the room, so he helped to remind me of some of the conversation that was had. Apparently, I was hungry, and started listing restaurants I’d want to eat at when we were finished. What I remember is yelling, “THANK YOU!” to the staff as I was being wheeled out of the operating room and back to recovery despite assurances from the nurse that the doctor would visit me shortly, and I could tell him then. He did, and I did, and then he said that once I asked about being PUNCTURED, he knew I needed sedation. Ya think? Nate said later that he was desperately hoping I would be sedated because I was swinging my legs, drumming my fingers, and looked nothing shy of terrified. UPDATE- Just so it’s clear, I LOVED my doctor. I’d go to him again, he was great. The staff was just trying to give me options because they knew I hated IV’s. I’m glad they took the time to discuss it with me, to be honest. I wasn’t being muscled into anything.

So there you have it.

And now, about knitting. For reasons I don’t feel like getting into, but related to the issue affecting my basket, mom’s sleeve that needs to be fixed is wet and drying right now. It needed to be washed, and I figured I’d rather do it before frogging so I could reknit with nice, clean smelling yarn. So that project is on hold. Mari’s poncho is also on hold until I have opportunity to try it on her and determine if I correctly adjusted the pattern. That will happen later this week. I am at an impasse with my WIP’s. I guess I’ll work on Nate’s clogs today, and I’ll post a picture of the groovy basket tomorrow.

Thank you again for your support. You all rock.

Thank you all so much for the well wishes. I am home. I am happy. I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow with some good knitting content, hospital pictures (nothing gross), and what I said that made the doctor balk.

Yesterday, I finished mom’s sleeve. (Shouts and accolades to me.) However I am two rows and a little bit of length away from matching the other one. I’m going to frog the cap, add two rows, and reknit. Annoying? Yes. Really, really cool that I’m almost done? Yes. I am very anxious for mom to start wearing her sweater while it’s still sweater season. Here’s hoping it fits.

Next on the needles? That would be Mari’s poncho, for which I’m going to be heavily altering a pattern. The poncho pattern out of Vogue’s Quick Knits, if you’re curious. My yarn won’t make gauge, and she wants it shorter, so I’ve got some tinkering to do. It will be a very quick project. Hallelujah! Next, I should probably finish Nate’s birthday present, which is another quick project. After that, we’ll revisit this post, and reevaluate. (Having just been there, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be able to check off a few things! I’m also reminded of the satchel for my brother-in-law. That’s moving up on the list. Then there’s the Harry Potter sweaters, which didn’t even MAKE the list).

In other news….

I am checking into the hospital later today. I’m having steroids injected into my spine. Sound like fun? The problem is that while I know this procedure is relatively common, and I know that nothing bad is likely to happen to me, I have issues with needles. Completely unfounded, but issues just the same. I am not afraid of needles. They gross me out. The entire idea is pretty much horrifying.

When my doctor initially recommended the procedure, I froze up and could do nothing but stupidly stare at him. I couldn’t speak. Thinking that it would be helpful, he picked up a portion of an artificial spine, along with his pen, and showed me where the needle would be entering and how far in it would go. Would you like to know what happened next? My head began to swim, I heard a rushing in my ears, and wondered as I was rapidly loosing all physical control of my body, whether I was more likely to pass out or puke. Neither occurred, thankfully, but it took a couple weeks for me to get it together enough to call the nurse and ask the questions that I should have asked at my appointment. She scheduled me for another visit.

A little background… I pass out when getting IV’s. I am usually offered smelling salts when having my blood drawn. I am highly annoyed when medical staff thinks that drawing me into a conversation will somehow “take my mind off it” and make me OK. It doesn’t. I hate it.

I HAVE, however, learned something. My last IV was, as usual, not going well. And, par the course, the second or third medical professional was making their attempt at penetrating my veins. Some nurse who had obviously recently descended from heaven offered me oxygen. Have any of you ever had the pleasure of breathing pure oxygen when it wasn’t, you know, a scene from ER or something? Let me tell you….. if I am hoping for anything, it is that whoever is prepping me for surgery will give me oxygen when I request it. I was in a happy place during that last IV. Well, OK, I wasn’t. BUT, it was waaaaaay better with oxygen. That stuff’s amazing.

For those of you that pray, I would request your prayers on my behalf. For those of you that can send positive energy over great distances, it would be much appreciated. And for the rest of you, well wishes whether expressed, or simply held privately, would be fabulous.

Thanks, and I’m quite confident that however nasty today’s experience is going to be, I’ll still be here tomorrow.

Good morning! How’s it going out there? I had an interesting week. The only formal exercise I got in was 55 minutes of treadmill on Thursday, and weights on Friday. I think that’s the worst week yet for exercise. However, I’m doing amazing with food. This was week one of my sugar purge. No sugar, no refined carbs. I took a break on Tuesday, as I said I would, for Nate’s birthday. Even then I didn’t do too bad. The rest of the week has been great. I feel good, aside from some pretty significant headaches.

Yesterday, when I put on my tightest pair of jeans, they weren’t tight! I’m pretty happy about that.

The sacrifice I was dreading the most when contemplating this sugar fast was hot chocolate. It’s been soooo cold. I’d recently started drinking hot chocolate regularly to keep me warm, and was really enjoying it. So, I went to the store and bought some of Stash’s Wild Raspberry Herbal Tea. (Two links there). Mmmmm. It is the only herbal tea I’ve found that doesn’t need sugar. It is fabulous all by itself, and it’s been doing the trick.

Tea parties and loose jeans. I think that’s a pretty good week!

This morning, the scale was at 221. So I get to update the sidebar again. That shaves off a mere half pound, however brings my total weight lost to 24 pounds. The funny thing is, I’ve noticed more of a physical difference in the last 4 pounds lost than in the first 20. I’ll take it though.

It’s been a good week. I expect to step up the exercise next week, and I’d LOVE to drop into the teens.

How is it going for you?

How are the Hayden-alongers doing? I know that Megan has completed hers. Gorgeous colors!

I haven’t started mine yet, and it’s not because I didn’t want to. I’ve lost my needle. I’m completely bugged. My basket that I carry everywhere with me was overstuffed last week, and things kept falling out. I think my hat needle fell out, darn it. I made efforts to scour the area whenever it happened, but I obviously missed one. My LYS doesn’t have another, so I’m going to have to go shopping. This isn’t as delightful as it may sound because I’m REALLY FREAKING BUSY and it doesn’t show signs of letting up. Who knows when I’m going to find the time.

On the plus side, it’s Friday. I get to knit at Columbine this evening, and I’m really looking forward to it.

UPDATE- This just in…. Suzy is done and sent a picture. Isn’t it fabulous?

Way to go Suzy!

I worked some more on mom’s final sweater sleeve last night.

But really, I think the hydrangea is the star of that picture. Isn’t it beautiful? And then there’s my toes :-). Anyway, the sleeve is coming along nicely. I am at the point where increases slow down a little, so I think I have 40 rows left until the cap shaping. Getting closer, continually getting closer.

I know this isn’t Friday, and Friday is Hayden along day… BUT, here are some pictures of the inside of my hat, at the join between rounds. I know some of you are knitting your hats now, and this might be helpful.

I carry the yarn up as opposed to cutting it. If you notice, the purple hat is looser than the green one, and from the outside, they look the same. So the goal is to not pull too tight when starting a color change, because you wouldn’t want it to bunch up, but there is a range that’ll work. And yes, the purple hat, that I’ve been wearing for a year still has ends to be woven in. I’ll probably never do it at this point since I’ve proven that I don’t have to. :-).

Have any of you ever wrapped a work in progress that wasn’t quite done, and presented it as a gift with a sheepish explanation about running out of time? I’m sure that many of you are more realistic with your gift attempts than I. With that being said, want to know what I gave Nate yesterday?

Yes, it is humongous. Yes, there is only one. BUT, pretty cool, huh? Even at that ridiculous size, it looks just like a shoe. I’m pretty happy with it. In case you have no idea what this is supposed to be, here is a link. Believe it or not, I am actually pretty close to gauge, so this is supposed to shrink down to a men’s size 10 in the wash. We’ll see.

This is an ingenious pattern. Usually, when I follow a pattern, I entertain myself with thoughts of how I’d make it differently next time, or what I would change. Not this one. (Yet, at least). This pattern is amazing. Tons of counting, tons of short rows, and really cool. Hopefully, I will still feel this way after it is felted.

I have so much knitting to do, and I’m itching to get it all done. Partly because I still haven’t found a day that I could spend in my knitting chair, and partly because I have figured out what I want to do with my new brown Lopi yarn and I’m dying to start, but there’s a huge lineup in front of it. Today is still not the day. I have SO much housework to do. Monday was spent in preparation for Tuesday, which was spent out of the house in its entirety, so I have a disaster zone to tame before I can do anything else. Then I need to exercise, because that didn’t happen Monday or Tuesday either. THEN, I get to knit.

Oooh, also, I’ve fallen in love and I wanted to tell you about it. Manos del Uruguay is the most amazing, beautiful, and tempting yarn, and I want some. It is soft, and the colors are intoxicating. I must make something out of it at some point. Have any of you knit with it? I’m curious as to how well it holds up. It is sooooo soft!

Today, my sweet husband and I are going out on the town. He turns 33 today. I have been thinking for some time now about what exactly I wanted to say here to honor him. It is strange how full my heart can be while at the same time, I am at a loss for words. Each time I try to write, it seems insufficient. I could spend the entire day composing a work of writing that would communicate to you who this man is. The more I reflect, the more comes to mind that needs to be said. And I guess that is how to say it.

As a girl, I knew I loved you, but only with the capacity of knowledge that a girl has. It has been many years now, and while I know that I am still young, and the road in front of us is infinitely longer than the stretch we’ve left behind, still, I have grown with you. I have seen you, day by day. I have seen your best days, I have seen your worst days. I know your heart. Every day I love you more. It isn’t the big things that make life what it is, but it is the little, everyday moments that build the foundation for any other happiness that can be had in life. Your inumerable, shining little moments make you who you are, which is why it is so difficult to adequately express my feelings in few words. They have been built over time, in countless examples of your goodness. You are the most beautiful person I know, and the person that I am now is more a reflection of your example than of anything else. I admire you. I cherish you. I am grateful, every day, to be your wife.

Happy birthday, my love. Know that your family loves you. I love you. Your daughters adore you. And we wish on this day if not on all others, for you to feel that.