Craftiness

Riiiipppples!

Why, hello there. Yes. I am still here.  I kept the blog out of a hopeful feeling I would update again someday. I'm really happy right now, as my love for crafting is back in full swing. I'm mainly crocheting, but don't feel burnt out on knitting either. I did make a few things in 2008, mostly Christmas decorations, like snowflakes, and a cute Santa ornament I've made before. Other than that I draw a blank on what I worked on early in the year. Around Christmas, I started an afghan for my dad. I unfortunately didn't get to finish it in time for Christmas, as I have been extremely ill. I had an operation called a splenic embolization. Basically, they killed 80% of my spleen while still in the body. I can't have surgery as I'm in end stage lung disease, so I had to get the operation instead. Let's just say I am grateful for morphine, no matter how stupid and useless it makes me. I had this done in November, but am still recovering (and went back in the hospital on January 2nd, as I'm very underewight and still in pain). BUT, I am improving, slowly but surely. In the meantime, I've had to put aside Dad's afghan to start a baby afghan for a baby shower on February 1st. EEP- an afghan in a month! It's the first time I've tried with such a tight deadline (tight for me).

Other things: I am happily reading again! I haven't read much in the past years since high school ended. I re-joined a website called BooksFree, which is like a book version of Netflix. I already have over 100 books in my queue. Currently while I wait for the BooksFree order to come in, (The Pilot's Wife, and The Reader) I'm reading an old favorite that I haven't read in many years, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

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Now to show you the projects.

Dad's afghan is from a Leisure Arts book called 40 Favorite Ripple Afghans to Crochet, and I *think* the name of the pattern is Tantalizingly Teal. It's something teal. My book is at home since I memorized the pattern. It sits in my hospital room and waits to be picked up again. I didn't do a gauge swatch, so it's a lot tighter than it should be, but that's fine, because it'll keep Dad nice and warm.




The baby afghan is for my friend Steph's friend. She's a nice girl named Colleen, and we're slowly becoming friends. She treats my friend Steph like gold, so I love her for it. I hope the baby afghan will cement the new friendship. It's from Leisure Arts as well, Just Ducky Baby Afghans. It's also a ripple. Ripples are awesome.








Technorati Tags     crochet,afghans

Updates

It's not like there's been a lack of knitting. In mid-summer, I started Christmas gifts. By December, I was Christmas gift-ed out, and had to take a break, despite not being finished. But, there definitely quite a few projects being cranked off my needles.

There is also a medical update, of course. And perhaps a little bit of an explanation to where I've been, mentally. I was rejected by my first transplant hospital of choice, because they decided I definitely need a double lung/liver transplant. This has never been done in Massachusetts, and unfortunately, that hospital did not have the resources to be the first, as they didn't already have a liver transplant team in place. My second choice, the local Children's hospital, had to say no as well, because they are only in the process now of accepting Medicare. I'm on my last chance hospital, and will see them the day after Easter. If everyone says no, I will need to look at either Pittsburgh, or Duke. Which means moving.

The idea that that may be what I have to do has loomed on my mind pretty heavily. I try to keep it towards the back burner, as there's no use in panicking until it actually happens. But trying to afford a temporary move is no small feat, and not something I wanted to put my family through. I'm a quiet girl, so the idea of having to fund raise scared me, as well.

On Halloween of this year, a good friend of mine died in a horrible car crash. His name was Mike. Mike received a double lung transplant five months before the accident. There is no way to express the feeling of grief. Mike was one of the strongest men I've ever met, and I miss him greatly. His family, being just as wonderful as Mike was, donated the money he had fund raised for his own transplant to me and three other cystics who are facing transplant. Because I'm the only one expected to possibly have to relocate, they gave the majority of it to me. It's a miracle, but one that feels heavy to me. I love his family, for doing this for me, but it feels like at what cost? I'm going to make sure when I get my transplant, I'm going to make them proud of me.

All right, enough of that! Projects:

This is from the Woven Cables scarf I made for my sister. Made from Knitpicks Bare Superwash Merino, it's available as a free Ravelry download.

This is a hat I made for my best friend, Dee. I used two strands of Knitpicks Merino Style held together, this pattern, and the button was bought at a local knitting store, the Franklin Mill Store.

I made two Utopia hats- both were meant for my home IV nurse, but one was too small, and was given as a Yankee Swap gift instead, and the other did indeed go to Nurse Linda :)

And I made an Odessa for my friend Steph:

And a lone hat for me that made me look like an idiot, so also was given away in that Yankee Swap. I'll probably remake it, in the same yarn, but less slouchy. My head can't handle the slouchy.

And last, I just finished a Bib O' Love from Mason Dixon Knitting. It's in a Neopolitan color scheme, so I'm going to find an ice cream button for it.

Since I didn't finish all my Christmas gifts from this past Christmas, I continue to work on them. I want to finish all of them. So right now, I'm working on Endpaper Mitts for my friend, Katie.

The Italian Tubular cast-on nearly kicked my butt, but I managed it, and now really like it.

So, that's all that's going on here!

At some point I'll take pictures of the things I bought, but till then, there's some of the fair. I didn't take pictures of the booths, because I've been to craft fairs where the sellers are extremely sensitive about pictures being taken of their booths, so I stayed on the side of caution. After all, I wouldn't want to be traumatized at my first Rhinebeck. Or more so, haha.
I'm not a person that likes crowds, and I'm generally afraid of people. I hate that. I wish I was one of those people who could talk to anyone and make friends without hardly trying. If you've talked to me on IM, I'm probably nervous then, too. I go through stages where I try very hard to overcome this, and then I lapse again.
So Rhinebeck, was almost terrifying, haha. There were knitters EVERYWHERE, trying to get at the prettiest yarns. I have a hard time speaking up, so I end up waiting patiently (or not so patiently) behind people, hoping for a chance to get by. At Rhinebeck, it almost felt like a surivival of the fittest. I FAIL. I probably would have bought more if I wasn't fazed by so many people, and so many CHOICES.


Me at breakfast that morning, wearing my Wicked sweater. I finished it in time! Unfortunately, it was too warm to wear it past like, 8:00 that morning.


A healthy breakfast of pancakes, milk and bacon. MMMmm. BACON.

There was a little petting zoo at the entrance, with sheepies, a tortoise, lemurs (sp?), kangaroos, and a little alligator.

And of course, there were sheep- lots of them. And goats, and alpacas, and BUNNIES.









I passed the barn with the sheep auction, and thought it was interesting- I took a quick picture.

I wanted to try the fried pickles, but found the booth AFTER we had eaten :( SAD FACE. But we did try several types of dip, cheese, maple sugar cotton candy, and ice wine. For lunch I had a shake and fries, so healthy, right? But SO YUMMY.

This is what I look like

I'm not doing blogger bingo, or anything, but this is what I look like in case you're at Rhinebeck on Saturday. Say hi, but be prepared if you call my name and I don't hear you (hearing impairment sucks). I get shy because of the hearing loss, if I can't hear and can't lip read, so while I don't want you to scream at me, enunciating is so, so welcome. I'll probably be wearing Wicked if I get off my hump now and go finish it :)

Knitting! I still knit! I do!

Before I start talking about my current WIPs, I'm going to mention this- I finally got my ravelry invite, and wanted to let you know that I'm findingher on there, as well. If you're on there and want to friend me, please do!

Okay, knitting content! I started working on Christmas gifts awhile back, and am currently working on my sister's gift. I'm going to save that one for last, because I have to put it behind a cut, since she does have the link to this blog. Not sure if she comes here, but I err on the side of caution. But, anyway, I ran out of yarn about halfway through and needed to order more, so I got bored waiting, and didn't know what to work on- I only really had my Anemoi mittens on the needles,

and they're NOT TV knitting. So I told Andy about this problem, and he said that he'd like some fingerless gloves, so I started on the Cigar gloves from Knitty.

I'm using Plymouth Encore. So I'm knitting along on these, and I admit to myself, I REALLY hate the needles I'm using, and I'd rather use a pair of Options. But I don't have two pairs in that size. Gah. So, added that on to the order I was making from Knitpicks. And once again, projectless.

So, I started Wicked. I'm about 3 rows away from taking the sleeves off the needles. I'm hoping this will end up being my Rhinebeck project- yep, that's right, I plan on going to RHINEBECK this year. I can. Not. Wait. I've been wanting to go for a few years, but last year I was on the cruise (I can't believe that was a year ago) and the year before that, Dan and Katie's wedding fell on that weekend, and I couldn't miss my high school best friend's weddding, despite how cute sheep are ;) Anyway, Wicked. I'm knitting it with Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, in a dark green heather. Very pretty.

Sister of mine, do not go any further.

No news, really

I know I mentioned I'd let you know how the transplant evaluation follow up went, but it hasn't ended. I'm a rare type of cystic fibrosis patient, who has liver cirrhosis. It was a serious complication for me 5-6 years ago, because it caused me to internally hemorrhage. I nearly died, but thankfully, a skilled surgeon saved my life. My liver has been stable since then, but that doesn't guaruntee that it can withstand the plethora of anti-rejection medications and steroids I would take post-transplant, and since there are so few cystic fibrosis patients with liver cirrhosis (only 5% get any degree of liver disease, and only 2% of that 5% have it ever become life threatening), there's no protocol in place to deal with me. So Brigham & Women's is still discussing me, and testing me. If they end up denying me, the next course of action, would probably be to go to Pittsburgh University Medical Center. Eventually, I would have to move 9 hours from home until after the transplant. I'm praying it doesn't come to that, but I do know Pittsburgh does have experience with double lung/liver transplants, as well as double lung transplants done on patients with substantial liver disease, that have done well post transplant. I have spoken to their coordinator, and they're very positive. So despite feeling anxious about Boston, I know I have options. It was much scarier when Boston seemed like the be all end all.

Knitting is done sporadically, yarn and patterns are bought constantly :) I'll update about some of that...eventually. And talk about the other site I wanted to start, that I stalled on in the middle of.

Hood construction

Can anyone tell me a bit about common hood construction? I've been on a kick of buying Japanese dog knitting books, and a lot of my favorites, have itty little doggie hoods. But the actual pattern is just a drawing of the hood, which doesn't help me knit it. From the picture, the hood is knit onto the neck, and there's a seam on the top of the head, but the back of the head is NOT seamed. How do you think I'd achieve this? By picking up stitches around the neck, then knitting back and forth, then halfing the rectangle and sewing it together?

New blog!

I've started a new knitting blog, dedicated to basically pretty pictures of knits- please check it out and talk about it so I can get some submissions for next Friday! Check it out!

Knit Inspiration

Knitting and Hometown Related

This is semi-knitting related.

In my hometown of Uxbridge, part of the Blackstone Valley, there used to be a lot of large mill businesses. Bernat Mills was one of them, and is still based here, by PO Box only as far as I can tell, but the mills they used are still here of course. The mills in recent years, have been used to house a lot of small businesses. Over the weekend, the mill burned down unfortunately.  It had become a pretty cool place, and well, anything fiber related is cool to me, even if it only USED to be fiber related. There was an article in the Boston Globe about it, and you can read here if interested. Pretty much, a lot of small business owners were devastated, as it took 23 fire departments to even put the damn fire OUT. We drove by today to see, and it was weird seeing that mill that's been down the street from my house burned down like that- the state police were there with huge trucks, apparently investigating.

Feral Fair Isles Duplicated

Hello! Nothing has changed, really on the transplant listing front- still waiting. More information is being sought about my history with liver disease. We'll see what's next.

In the meantime, I've started making my Christmas gifts. Yes, I know you probably hate me, but I'm such a slow knitter, there's no way I'd finish otherwise. It's unlikely I'll finish this way either, but I have more hope. I started by making a sweater I've wanted to knit for awhile, after seeing it featured in a Knitpicks catalog.

The sweater, is for none other than the lovely Miss Holly.

That's the best picture I have of her, freshly groomed, and wearing the first sweater I ever knit her (and that's my mom's hand, grasping onto Holly's leg as if she was about to leap to her death from the countertop). Mom and Dad requested a new sweater for this year, as that old sweater is starting to get a little dirty and gross.

So when I saw this sweater, which perfectly matches the Old Navy jacket I got her last year, I knew I had to make it in the same colors.

Feral Fair Isles

Needles: two size 7 Knitpicks Options circulars, and size 6 Susan Bates DPNs for the ribbing for the sleeves.

Yarn: Same called for on the Knitpicks page (this is all a big ad for Knitpicks, as you can see), Swish in Capri, Sand Dune, and Truffle. The cream was Knitpicks Bare, their superwash dyeable yarn.

Pattern: Feral Fair Isles, a pattern by Amy Swenson, featured in Kristi Porter's Knitting For Dogs.

Started July 2, 2007, and Finished July 20th.

Thoughts: I looove the yarn. Swish is super soft, and I loved the feel of it. The colors are awesome, and I really like the result of the sweater. The pattern could have been a bit better- there were some mistakes, easily fixed by looking at the pictures, but the publishing company never bothered with putting up an errata page, which irked me. I need some work on my fair isle work, as the stitches where I switched colors every other stitch puckered badly.

Lastly, I find it hard to make a Christmas gift early. I want to give this to my parents (and Holly, but she'll care a lot less) NOW. They don't know I made it, and hopefully I can keep it that way till December.

Now, I'm going to go get my self together- my sister's coming to get me at 11, and we're going to enjoy the last hour of Harry Potter mania at Barnes & Noble, and then I'll come home, book in hand, read a chapter (or several), go to bed, and then spend tomorrow discovering what happens to the Boy Who Lived and Lord Voldemort :) And Snape.

"Unless he's the Boy Who Gave Me Treats, I don't care."