October at last!

I finished some socks while taking care of Mom. These are my Dragonscale socks. More details on my Ravelry page in my projects. (I am knittybabe).

The Dragons in my new MaryJane Birkis! I love these shoes. I got brown, too.
Ravelry is great! I am slowly getting things put in. Haven't been home much. K.C. is doing a little better. Learned how to give him insulin shots (twice a day) and he went in thursday for blood work. He was soooooo MAD when we picked him up. He had to stay all day for the glucose curve. He would not stop growling until my DH took him outside! Any time anyone or anything made noise he'd growl louder. Poor baby!

We had to up his dose to 3 (from 2) so hopefully that will be better. He is still very tired from being there and being tortured. ;-) I hate to leave him. Well, we have a 2-week interval this time. I had to hide the carrier as soon as he got out of it. No reminders!

Mom started physical therapy this week! She is doing better and better. Still hurts, of course, but more movement today than on monday. OK. must go to bed....

End of September Post - thank goodness!

I've been at Mom's for 3 weeks and came home this week. Whew! I still have to go over and help every day but her arm is healing. She can't wait to get rid of the sling and start physical therapy! Getting dressed one-armed is a pain - literally!

I took lots of yarn and started some socks and finished a pair. Pics later. My Ravelry invite came while I was there but I haven't had the time to explore or anything yet! I look forward to that - as soon as I get Mom and the cat situated better.

Thursday, my cat K.C. had to go to the vet. While I was gone things went wrong. He has been drinking a LOT of water and using the litter box often (and not covering his business-eewww). I noticed his back legs looked kind of unsteady, too.

They did bloodwork (poor kitty) and he has feline Diabetes! Yikes!

I was terrified we were going to lose him all day thursday and friday until the doc called with the final test results. She had said he had it from a pre-lim test in the office on thursday and it sounded really bad. I cried all day! I was a mess. Friday she explained in detail and we decided to try the treatments and see how the poor kitty takes it.

What this means is... he has to have special food and insulin shots twice a day. Talk about YIKES. Big committment on our part. He's on the new food and Oct 4th, hubby and I go in to see how to give him shots. Oh man, I hope I can do this! I know *I* hate getting poked when I have to have my cholesterol and stuff checked (aka "feeding the vampires) which is back to normal thanks to *2* meds - a statin and Tricor. I hate seeing a live critter in pain - I never could do the frog-thing in science class. I sure hope I can do this for K.C. and that he lets me!

My email held a nice surprise today - I signed up for the first ever Hill Country Weavers Yarn Crawl! It's next Sunday and boy do I need that! Puurrrfect timing! Thank you Suzanne!!! A whole day of riding and knitting on a bus with other knitters and touring 7 yarn shops in 5 cities. I can't wait! Getting away from the daily stuff will sure help my stress level go down.

I will be glad when October starts and hopefully everything will get better. I don't know what I would do without my knitting. I took a plain sock to the vet - otherwise I would have been crawling up the walls while waiting! I counted the stitches even though it was stockinette - just to have something to concentrate on - and still made a mistake! BUT - it was before I even got there. I had picked up the wrong size needle to continue from the toe and so had to visit the frog pond. Ah well, it's the doing not the finished product....

I have so much to do I don't know if I'll ever catch up! Well, I am never BORED!

Winding Yarn and reading actual books

Here's what I've been up to: winding yarn to take with me when I go stay with my Mom tuesday. She's having her surgery wednesday - we have to be at hospital at 6am! I'll have lots of time to knit so I'm starting some more socks. This "tub" is 3 deep with yarn balls! WhooHoo! I tried to put patterns and yarn together in a big bunch but couldn't do it. Too many yarn/patterns don't work for me. I tried that before, but ended up changing almost every one! Soooooo I'm just taking all I can. heehee. I'll choose as I go along.

This is my August journal calendar - just look at how full! No wonder I'm tired!
This is one of the few decorative pages for August: Mostly ideas for future projects I probably already have stuff for.
I have actually been reading hard-copy books (vs eBooks on PDA)! I still love the feel of a book in the hand even tho I do LOVE my pda for reading at night or in the dark while on my stationary bike. I have been so busy I am too tired to even knit most nights, so I sit and read! I just started "The Rift" by Walter J. Williams this weekend and finished a Nora Roberts trilogy about vampires and time travel - The Circle Trilogy. That was pretty good and entertaining. I didn't want it to end. I love when that happens!

I also made a birthday card for a friend today: photo mosaic technique. Take old photos that may not have come out like you wanted but you had them printed anyway - rubber stamp all over them. Cut them up, glue them to a piece of cardstock you have run through a Xyron machine (puts self-stick glue on the back of papers)- leaving spaces between. In the spaces (since it is sticky) brush embellishing powders (like the ones from Jacquard - pearl some-thing or other I forget at the moment) in the spaces. Cut to the shape and size you want and glue it to a blank card face. Tada!

I also did a watercolor mock-up for a larger painting (over 3 canvases) of a magnolia:

AND made a mousepad! Covered backing with cardstock, pretty paper and clear vinyl.

Campanula Update - Finished!

I just finished both Campanula socks! Here are the baby pictures:
On the feet:

They are a bit loose, but they haven't been washed yet and I expect they'll even out nicely. I did try the bind off suggested in the pattern and I like it! Stretchy but not too. The only trouble I had (aside from finding time to knit!) was coming out of the first heel and getting the stitch count right. This is the first pattern I've worked where the stitch count changed and it did confuse me at first. It finally clicked and I got it on the third try and the second heel was a piece of cake! I do love the Smooshy yarn and am glad I have more!

Busy, busy, busy....

If only I had time to stay home - I could knit! Lots going on. I'm concentrating on my Campanula socks when I am home - one is done, 2 repeats up the leg of #2 (pics later).

My mother had a wee accident and has to have surgery on her right shoulder. Torn tendons on the rotator cuff. So - I am a busy chauffer for the next several weeks. She who doesn't like to drive - yep. Mindless knitting goes, too.

I am cleaning my studio when I have some time and the back of my truck is filling up with stuff. Now I have work space on the big table to lay out my yarn and pick for projects to do while waiting at the hospital and at Mom's house while she recovers. My collage work can be seen now, too and I have projects in various stages of prep. I just have to weed out things I no longer want to do and those things I know I'll never get around to (as in lost momentum). I've been working on de-cluttering for a while now. It just takes a long time to go through things and make a decision! I go back through several times and each time I do, I get rid of more links in the ol' chain that tends to drag me down when I have too much "commitment" hanging over my head.

Today worked on the laundry mountain. My washer is going out. Bit by bit the spin cycles are dying - re-spin, re-spin. Looks like a new front loader is on the horizon (with matching dryer - it's been bad for a while). Takes forEVER to do the laundry. Set the timer, run back to the machines, set the timer again... you get the picture. I just love the RED ones they have sitting in Lowe's! Don't know how the DH feels about that tho....

Continued

This is the batch of stash contributed to by my friends (Thanks, Gals!). I also got more Addi Turbo needles - for those times when I have Start-itis. In the back row: Lana Grossa Meilinweit cotton stretch. I love this stuff! It works up nice and feels good on the feet. In the front row - more "Smooshy" yarn. All purchased at my LYS, Hill Country Weavers.
Smooshy yarn in In Vino Veritas colorway - to the heel of the first Lace Wing sock.
This bag I found at my local Hobby Lobby for $6.99 - very kewl tewl! It's amazing what I can get in there! Pockets everywhere! I was tempted to get another, but one has got to be enough or else I'd never find my tools. They need to be together.
There are six outer pockets on each side and two large pockets on each side. Plus, two more pockets on the inside - with velcro closures. I am, at the moment, considering covering the velcro - I want to put a sock-in-progress in each pocket, but mr. velcro snags. I have paper behind the socks for now.
Other than the velcro snag - this is a great bag!

So, now that I have the day to myself, and I've caught up on blogging, I am going to KNIT!

Today is...

My BIRTHDAY! As promised, I am going to share pics of my presents. My Yarn Stash (yes, I can now use capital letters – it’s grown that much) is falling out of the basket.
My DH bought these for me: Favorite Socks book (eyed that for a while now)
Socks That Rock and some of Ray's lovely yarn - Wine and Cheese and some to dye myself later.
STR - Undertoe and Tide Pool:
STR - Lunasea and Love in Idleness:
This is Undertoe in winding stage: I put the skein on the reel and wound one large cake first. Then took that, put it on the scale to make the 2 even cakes. During this process, the large cake began to do a dance. It rose up and "bloomed" and while I watched it, it made flowers in the center. There is no way to describe how cool watching this is. You have to try it for yourself.

Toward the end of the large cake, it made a "basket" which is cool. There again, you have to see it for yourself. Or maybe I am just easily amused.
Here's what Undertoe looks like on the reel:
Undertoe also has the same colors as my fav ring: a Mystic Fire Topaz.
I will continue this in another post - I can't seem to figure out how to get the photos to load at the END of the typing! Anyone know how this works? This time, I loaded all the photos first, and then filled in with typing. Seems to work for some photos but not for a lot of them!

Campanula For The Cure – Update

While out and about yesterday I had the opportunity to go to my LYS and – TA DA – they had Smooshy Yarn! Tons of colors of it! They hadn’t had it before and I am so glad they do now! The color I had originally ordered (see other post) was much redder than it had appeared on my laptop screen. I got the perfect color though – “Cool Fire”. It reminds me of Double Bubble Bubble Gum (yum). The color blending in this yarn is sooooo beautifully done – I just love it! I got more than one color, of course (Happy Birthday to me –next Friday -Stash sharing later). Here’s a pic of Cool Fire in the cake.

I got started on the Campanula pattern, sock #1 last night and here’s my progress:

I am using Addi Turbo #0 2mm and magic loop. This yarn is very, very soft; nice and stretchy and it goes “sproing”! This makes the k3tog tbl’s much easier. If only I didn’t have to sleep!

I am using a stitch marker at the center to make counting easier and lifelines every so often. I get interrupted often so lifelines help me keep my cool. I have the pattern on a magnet board so I can keep track of the rows. Just have to remember to move the line marker.

For some reason, my cat is attracted to the pink wool - I've had to call him off it 3 times already.

Campanula For The Cure KAL

I just joined a Knit-a-Long, Campanula For The Cure. Breast cancer seems to touch most of us in one way or another. We've either had a relative or friend, or friend of a friend diagnosed with it. Knitting the Campanula socks will be a way to remember. In any case, we all need to be aware and remember to check-up!

I just ordered my yarn from Simply Socks Yarn Company - Dream In Color - Smooshy yarn - 270 - Lipstick Lava. This looks yummy and I've been wanting to try Smooshy yarn - just love the name! Now to wait - patiently - for it to get here.......

Anywho - check out the Campanula link above to see how to get the pattern and KNIT ON!

No Pic Post ... awwwww

I'm working on FO list still, have turned both heels on my Dragon Scale socks (link later), started one Embossed Leaves sock and have pics to post of some birthday presents! Just wanted to post quickly to keep my hand in.... more tomorrow when I can see straight!