School's out for the summer!

Today was my last day of work for the summer. This is only my second year to have summers off and I have to say that I'm a fan.  The problem is I have all these plans for things I'm going to accomplish, and most of them never see daylight. Today I also said goodbye to my husband that has gone away for work for a month.  While I will miss him I am hopeful that I will be super productive. 

There are several things on my needles that I need to finish. I have a scarf, 2 shawls, socks, a sweater, send who knows what else hiding in my coffee table trunk.  I did finish my red wrap and I love it!  I need to take some pictures of it. The weather is supposed to be nice all weekend so maybe it will get done. 

I recently finished my moderne log cabin baby blanket I was calling soon. As I was nearing the end of the project I realized that it was never meant to be a baby blanket.  Recently my neighbor and good friend was diagnosed with Fallopian tube cancer. She is currently receiving chemo and I realized that the blanket was meant to be hers. I have knitted lots of love and hope into it for her. It is a wonderful weight and size to be the perfect warm lap blanket. The yarn ended up so soft that you can't help but feel cozy with it wrapped around you.

My fingers are starting to itch; I think it's time to start summer vacation with some yarn!

I'm starting to feel more like myself.

It has been an interesting month to say the least. This new adventure began February 24th on a Morale snowboarding trip. My husband had asked me to go with him on the CG Morale trip to Mount Bachelor's. It was less than a week before our annual trip to Lake Tahoe and we both thought it would be a great warm-up session for us. We loaded onto the charter bus at about 3:30 am for the 4 plus hour trip to the resort. When we arrived the sun was shining and it was warm (considering we were on a mountain covered in snow). As we all got dressed in our gear the excitement built. Once we were off the lift at the top of the mountain we realized how icy the conditions were. It was pure ice, not a flake of snow in sight. I strapped onto my board and away we went.

If I do say so myself I was doing pretty good for me. I was carving and having a great time. A little more than halfway down the run, I caught edge and, as my husband tells it, went flying backwards through the air. Once I landed I realized I couldn't lift my left arm off the ice...damn! After meeting several members of the Snow Patrol and a sled ride down the mountain I found myself in urgent care being informed that I had a left radial head fracture (broken elbow). It was 11am when I was released and the bus wasn't leaving until 4:30. I found the bar. My left arm was in a sling and essentially useless. I had hours of uninterrupted knitting time (and yes I had knitting with me), but couldn't knit.

I found myself with A LOT of down time, but unable to knit. I have decided I would prefer to break my leg next time...at least then I could knit.

Once in Lake Tahoe I attempted to knit after purchasing yarn for 2 patterns and new long straight needles. I think in the 6 days we were there I knit 4 rows. It was very frustrating. The thing about the broken elbow was severe pain in my forearm, the inability to grip anything, and severe pain when the wrist is twisted in anyway. Not to mention my arm was "immobilized" at an angle in a sling.

A little over a week ago I gain the ability to 'assist' my right hand with my left. That led to all kinds of new and exciting pains. It has only been in the last few days that the pain is better and I have much better mobility in my hand/arm. This translates to me finally being able to knit!

I have modified the way I knit completely in order to hold the needles and feel the comfort of knitting. I now (temporarily) hold my yarn in my right hand. I usually prop my left arm up on 2 pillows and put the end of the left needle in between the pillows. This way I only guide the needle/yarn with my left hand, but do not have to hold the weight of the garment in my hand. It has worked out well. I have been able to make tons of progress on my Wrapped in Red. I currently have over 17 inches knit. I love the ease of this pattern. I chose to use the yarn called for in the pattern and in the same deep red. I can't wait to finish and wear it!

I have also been obsessed with my stash and planning new projects. I have several new projects that I bought on a trip to Bend, OR that we took the weekend before I broke my arm. One that I am really excited to start is the Jane Bennet's Flowered Headband, but that will have to wait until my arm is a little better. I also bought the yarn for the Lace Back Top by Vicki Square. I bought this wonderful shade of blue yarn for it.

I go back for more x-rays April 5th. I'm hoping for good news, but I'm still having bone pain in my elbow. Maybe I'm doing to much, but I feel whole again now that I can knit. My husband made the comment yesterday that it is nice to have knitting in progress out again, and I couldn't agree more.

Knitting has become part of who I am, and I am lost in some ways without it. I am so happy and thankful to be knitting again.

UFO's... an attempt to finish!

Last night I actually worked on my Green Waves Shawl (pattern: Shoalwater Shawl).
Every time I pick it up I have to search to figure out where I am and then figure out where my mistake was that caused me to put it down. I think in the end I had to fudge the stitches twice (why when I was on a role knitting I don't know) for an extra stitch appearing. I made the design decision to add a K2Tog instead of ripping out hundreds of stitches to find a mistake I couldn't find after several tries. I am re-enthused by the shawl. I hope this enthusiasm carries me through a couple of more long repeats so that I can wrap myself in it's alpaca goodness and be proud of my first ever attempt at a lace shawl (and yes I know I picked a big one to start with).

....Maybe I should work on the Falling Leaves Shawl I have started as well.....

Lots of Interesting Changes....

I know it's been over a year since I last posted (not that anyone is really watching). I have gone through a lot of changes and have some new exciting prospects ahead. My husband and I have been living in Coos Bay, Oregon for a year now. We LOVE it here. It is green and cool and just feels like home. I can honestly say while I miss the choices that living in the city brings, I much prefer the pace of small-town life. It has allowed us to slow down and focus on us.

In May a huge adventure began, we decided to attempt to start a family. It is a work in progress, but we are hopeful and excited about the prospect. This journey has not been an easy one, and now it is a monthly cycle of waiting. I have so many knitting projects I want to start for our baby, but know better than to jinx anything. So for now I will continue to queue on Ravelry.com and dream of knitting projects to come.

Last night I finished a collection of 8 washcloths for a friend of mine. She and her husband will be adopting a newborn that is due to come very shortly. I liked the idea of the washcloths because they are infinitely useful. They get softer with every use and you never grow out of them. I will try to get pics posted soon. They are currently drying so I can get them in the mail soon.
(The Cow and Owl are supposed to be bright blue and the Monkey and Lion are bright yellow)

I need to finish Noah's Bama hat. It is hard to knit something for a team you are rivals with. Noah turned 1 this month and I know his daddy is excited about the hat. It has 4 different colors in it. One side of the hat says "Roll Tide" and the other has Big Al (an elephant). I found the chart patterns on Ravelry, but no explanation on how to translate to a hat. I tried knitting it in the round, but that hasn't worked out so well. It actually ended in a lot of not nice words and yarn flying across the room. My next attempt (after the extreme pleasure of ripping it all out) will be to knit it flat with yarn bobbins for each color yarn and then seam the hat up. I'm hoping this works. I my end up lining the inside of the hat if it doesn't look nice.

In the midst of all the Bama hat drama I decided to start a pair of socks for myself. I had been knitting for everyone else and wanted something easy for me. I'm using the Lifestyle Toe Up Sock pattern and just doing a simply 2x2 rib. They have just flown on the needles. I use them as my mindless knitting when I go somewhere. I don't know why I have waited so long to knit another pair of socks. I am doing them 2 at a time on 1 circular needle. I'm pretty sure I will keep a pair of socks going always now.

I have lots of other patterns to finish and hopefully will get to some of those while I'm on summer vacation. Speaking of vacation it is time to start thinking of what projects I will bring with me on my Colorado trip.

Now that I've been talking about knitting, my fingers are itching for some needles....

Just keep knitting, just keep knitting...

Our move is approaching quickly. I still have no hope for a job and we have no idea where we will live, but I have yarn. I can control my stitches (accept when I knit the wrong row on my shawl and don't notice for 2 rows).

I find myself drawn to easier projects right now. I think it's cause they are mindless (and I don't have to rip out like 400 sts when I make a mistake). I am currently feverishly working on my first real sweater which is a simply straight forward raglan pattern. I can't seem to put it down. The cable rib pattern is mindless and yet comforting. Today I also finally turned the second heel of my LSU socks! Unfortunately I am thinking of unpicking the bind off of sock #1 and adding a garter band at the top. I don't think that I like the way the top of the sock looks ending in a rib.

I recently finished an octopus, whose legs were a lesson in patience. I thought I'd make it easier and have a friend crank out a tube on her knitting machine and then make the legs from that. I didn't think about the time it would then take to count rows, divide the tube, cast off one edge, and then close the other end. With a little more help from my friend we finished his legs, and I was able to seam him. I should say that I ended up stuffing his legs with quilt batting because the poly-fil balled up and made for lumpy legs. Once his face was on he took on a playful personality. I just need to mail him to my lucky newest nephew.

I have started a new travel quest in hoping to be able to only need a carry on regardless of where I am traveling (ok at least for trips to visit family and such). In order to bring along lots of knitting and have room to purchase yarn and such I am enlisting the use of compression sacs. I am hopeful with these I will be able to pack more yarn and knitting than I would without them.

Well, my needles are getting lonely.

Really I can do this...

I suppose I should just make this a blog about me and throw some knitting in too. Maybe that way I will actually write here and not annoy my husband so much with nonsense.

Life never goes as we imagine it will, does it? My husband and I are moving to North Bend, Oregon this summer thanks to the Coast Guard. We are super excited to get out of the city, we will get my dog, and have a house with a yard. No, North Bend was not our first choice (or on our list of places we really wanted to go- not to say that we didn't want to go there). The main drawback to moving there is that there is only one hospital remotely close, and they don't really do pediatrics (putting kids on an adult floor doesn't constitute real pediatrics to me). No big deal right; I will just transition to the adult world. I'm kind of getting burnt out anyway. Only problem is the hospital doesn't even want to talk to me till I have an Oregon nursing license; which thanks to California will take like 10 weeks to get. Also I get the feeling that they don't take my 6 1/2 years of pediatric ICU experience as real ICU experience and want 'someone experienced in ICU.' To sum up that rant...I have no job when we move and my bills don't seem to pay themselves. My husband says it will all work out, so I plan to lean on his strength.

As for knitting: I am about an inch shy of being done with my first LSU sock- and it fits! As for other things I am working on my Shoalwater shawl still, a monkey, and a frog. Last month we went to Lake Tahoe for 10 days. It was productive for hat and cowl knitting. I made this very pretty cowl of wool. I was wearing it at the grocery store when the lady checking out our groceries was amazed by it. She wanted it. When we got to the jeep I decided that I could very easily make another and that I would give this one to her (after a quick overnight wash). I informed her and then delivered on my promise the next day. I made her day. It felt so go to do that. I mean on some level isn't that why we knit. We want to make others smile, or at least feel good about things we make. For now I need to put the socks down and finish the monkey.

Hopefully this will become more regular...not that anyone is following me anyway.

The giraffe...yes that one.

He is done and I have to say super cute. I will however have no problems giving him away. I more than likely will attempt a second one at some point. I have other babies to knit for at the moment. My sister-in-law is pregnant with their 4th boy and I have an octopus on the needles for her now. After that, I will start a Monkee for my friend Jen O and her baby boy. I suppose after that I will work on something for my friend Justin and Aimee's baby. It will either be a blanket or a bear. I have yet to decide. For now the octopus seems to be flying off my needles- not to mention that everything else I am knitting is being ignored. I will one day finish the socks and shawl, no really I will. We are heading to Tahoe in less than 1 1/2 weeks which means lots of car knitting, and knitting at night, and at any other given moment. Hmmm, I must start to plan what knitting I will take...