I never finished the socks from my last post. Shortly after my last post, my mother informed me that her cancer had returned. She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago and finished treatments early last summer. Her doctor told her she still had cancer in the fall sometime. Her last two months were hell. She spent most of that time in the hospital for various reasons, then finally she moved to a hospice house where she died 2 days later.
We didn’t have the best mother/daughter relationship but at the end of the day, she was my mother. I loved her very much and I feel liked she was ripped out of my life, and my siblings’ lives, much too soon. I hope she found the peace she needed.

I am back

I am coming back. I missed blogging… I have many excuses for disappearing. The excuses are personal and I really wanted to share it with you all but I wasn’t sure anyone wanted to read my angst since this is supposedly a craft blog. So I didn’t post. I didn’t do much crafting last year either, and I missed that too. But I’ve been warming up my knitting needles and my sewing machine. I am knitting socks and have a tote bag ready to be finished. Both the socks and the bag have to be done for Christmas, which is NEXT WEEK! NEXT WEEK, people, and I am not ready.

About those socks, I have a question for knitters (and anyone else with an opinion). How well do you have to know someone to give them hand knit socks for Christmas? Is it too intimate for an acquaintance? I wouldn’t give them to someone that doesn’t understand the time I’ve put in them, but is it ok to give them to someone you see regularly but don’t actually know well? Say, a teacher? or a pastor? or someone of that nature? I’m not sure of the gift giving etiquette here. What about a female versus a male acquaintance? Does it make any difference or am I over thinking the nature of gifts? Christmas is NEXT WEEK!!! (will I even have socks to give?!!)

Updated look

Change is good.

Banff and Clutter … revisited

I finished the reconstruction of Banff. I added 3 inches of stockinette then reknit the 2×2 rib bottom. It fits! And it is so comfy and warm. I have been wearing since the cold blast of arctic weather arrived this week.

If you look at the middle of the reconstructed sweater (on the right), there is a horizontal line where I started the reknit. The line was not created by as a result of reconstruction. It was created by accidentally using US3’s instead of the larger size required.

I used the smaller circs to pick up the stitches before cutting, and then forgot to replace them with larger needles. If I wasn’t lazy, I would have unknit back to those stitches and started again. But I am lazy. And the lazy in me has decided that the stitches will loosen themselves up over time without my help. This yarn is so limp, it might work.

Pattern: Banff
Yarn: Noro Cotton Iroha (70% cotton, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon). Probably discontinued.  I have 5 skeins left in my stash.

Next up, a scarf:

The lace is a simple, 2-sided pattern: yo, k2tog, repeat.

I think the yarn in my stash is multiplying on its own. I keep knitting using this Sirdar yarn but the pile never seems to get smaller. I used all but one skein of navy to make this scarf.

Pattern: Openwork Scarf from Vogue Knitting Scarves Two (a big thanks goes to Kristen at AudioKnits for this book!)
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly Aran (55% nylon, 45% acrylic)

And my clutter revisited. You all had great suggestions on how to handle clutter.  Thank you so much for your ideas.

I may have mislead you though… I do have storage. I have very little organization but I have storage. Like the smalled plastic drawers on wheels that Lisa, the Domestic Diva, suggested. I have other types of plastic drawers as well. By the way, if you need help reorganizing your craft space, definitely visit Lisa!

I also have shelves on the wall next to my sewing machine. Ribbons and fabric scraps are in ziploc bags. Larger pieces of fabric are folded and stacked (oh so carefully too). The green pillow on the bottom says something about cats at work, but the dog sleeps there.

I have more shelves behind me and across the room. The wire shelves hold my son’s toys (smaller toys are contained in baskets).

I still need to reorganize all these shelves.  I can never find what I need.

Currently, I have decided to keep the bag parts on a big board that I can pick up without disturbing the fabric. When I want to sew, I can move it temporarily.  After I put use this stash, I won’t be cutting out multiple bags parts again… only what I need for one bag at a time.

Paying it forward…

I was doing my usual summertime blog hopping (I hear it’s called blopping) yesterday and came across Daily Stitche‘s Pay It Forward offer.  I hesitated joining because I get so tired but a year is plenty of time to fulfill an obligation!

Here’s the deal:  I want to pay it forward and thank my community of bloggers with a handmade item.  I have a year to make and send these items.   I’m not closing the offer until next Wednesday (July 25th), and I’m not limiting it to 3 people.  Your only obligation is to pay it forward again to 3 more people.  All you have to do is leave a comment and make the commitment on your blog.

Come on and join in.

Scout Walker Cozy

BC wanted to show you how his Lego StarWars Scout Walker shoots.

I wanted to show you my mohair scarf.

The pattern is Cat’s Eye from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Barbara Walker.  It is a 4-row pattern for multiples of 4 stitches.

Also, I made the ends of the scarf slightly frilly.  I cast on 3 times the number of stitches in the scarf.  On the first row, I knit two together all the way across.  Then the next row, I knit one, then knit two together, repeating this two stitches all the way across.  The next row starts the main scarf body.

I love how soft and light mohair is but I won’t let it touch my neck or face.  This scarf will only be used under collars or over turtlenecks.  It is beautiful but oh so itchy!

Air Show

I couldn’t go to the Air Show with BC and MC this weekend.

BC took pictures of things he found interesting to share with me including this one.

MC took pictures to share with me too… they were all of BC.

BC hot on the pavement, BC eating ice cream, BC pissed because he dropped the ice cream… it was just like being there!

Getting ready

After a very frenzied couple of days, Frazzle and I had a sit down about the Flickr situation.  I ran out of space on my free account (why oh why does the free well always run dry? ). So, I went in and cleaned out some photos that I considered non-crafty.  Then I went back and deleted some more crafty but redundant photos.  Then I kept only those pictures that were of the utmost and vital craftiness.  After that major purge, I had room to upload my umpteen million bag tutorial pictures.  Frazz’s fur settled down and she let out a mighty purr.

About Flickr… I’m not mad at them.  I have had the account for over a year and a half so I forgot the teensy little detail that you can only display 200 pictures in free accounts.  If you try to upload more than that, Flickr asks you to upgrade to a paid account, and then they will display more than 200.  I really think that a pro account is worth the money.  Soon I will upgrade, because I don’t want to delete my tutorial pictures to make room for future blog pictures.  Frazz would not be pleased.

Equal time

Another cat picture! You know what that means… no craftiness.

Frazzle does not like having a camera shoved in her face.  If you went by pictures alone you might think that the white boy cat, Marble, pictured yesterday is friendlier than my black girl cat. And that comparison is WAY off!

Marble never shows his face when strangers are about.  That includes friends that come over frequently… I’ve been accused of lying about cat ownership. Marble won’t even stay in the same room with BC.

Frazzle on the other hand is all sweet and purry, and loves a good ear scratching from even the strangest strangers.  Unless you have dog scent on you, then she gets a bit huffy.  She hates our dog.  She hates all dogs.  I’ve seen all 8 pounds of her attack a huge golden retriever that dared come toward her.  Poor dog just wanted to say ‘hello’ and she went off on him.  I’ve been in human situations like that, I felt sorry for the dog.

Energized bunny

Another post without pictures.  I’m sorry, I should start taking pictures of the dog for these posts!

In response to my post about my health, one person commented that she thought getting 40% carbs in my diet would be hard without wheat and sugar.  It certainly is! I gravitate to fruit and grains automatically.  This diet is not too bad once you get a picture in your head what it is supposed to be like.  Each meal comes down to lots of veggies, a typical serving of protein, and some fat (apparently it is better to overestimate fat than underestimate it).  I can fit in fruit, legumes, and grains as long as they don’t take over the diet. My hardest meal of the day is breakfast, I traditionally eat carbs in the morning.  This week, I ended up switching my midmorning snack with breakfast because figuring out a balanced Zone meal was too hard on my sleepy brain.  Today, I actually had breakfast first.

Caffeine is supposed to be a no-no but you can only give up so much in a short period of time… I’m still drinking either coffee or tea.  The cool thing is that I don’t want as much caffeine as I used to want.  I also haven’t been craving sweets… pms kind of affected that one day, I had frozen yogurt.  But then I was right back in the saddle by the next meal.

In the Zone, you go meal to meal.  Each meal you are either in the zone or you are not… you make minor adjustments to your meals according to how you feel after your last meal.  However, I never have to eat less because I overdid the last meal. You start with a clean slate every meal.

There was  another comment about Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.  The answer to that is that my body temperature is lower than average.  The idea is that if your average body temperature is too low, the enzymes that convert T4 to T3 (thyroid hormones) don’t work very well.  WTS is another one of those syndromes that doctors passionately, or disdainfully, disagree on.  My doctor leans toward being conservative so I didn’t even discuss the WTS protocol (treatment with T3) with him.  I feel better on Synthroid (synthetic T4) so I’m not going to push him.  If I have more problems with my thyroid in the future, I will probably have to change doctors.  I already have another name lined up just in case.

I have so much more energy now compared to the last 6 months.  I attribute this mostly to treatment with Synthroid (hypothyroid) and then partly to changing my diet.  Do I have as much energy as I had 10 years ago? I don’t think so but then again I was 10 years younger and I didn’t have a child!