Preservatives.

Sometimes, no matter how healthy you try to be, there comes a craving for something un-healthy. I will on rare (maybe once a year) occasions CRAVE little debbie's swiss rolls. I have been good this month so I will allow the vile preservative laden fascimile of food to come home from the store... Now however, comes the real battle. Not eating the whole box at one sitting.
Spinning classes... Learning how to "flick" the locks in order to make them ready for whichever preparation I choose to use for the yarn. Fun, but a bit tough on the hands. Deciding that I don't like carded fiber and would prefer to spin straight from the lock, amusing.
I made an order for my teacher from Etsy today because she doesn't have acess to a computer at home right now. I was horribly tempted yet resisted blowing my birthday money on some of the drop dead gorgeous fibers I saw. Makes me want to touch them. You know, this learning to spin thing might turn out to be an expensive habit... I might have to sell yarns to pay for fiber addiction... Are there 12 step programs for that?

Alive and Spinning.

So, for those that are interested... Small one is doing much better. Back to normal breathing and not running scary temperatures anymore. There is a long story about a local child that actually passed away from complications of the same thing she had but I haven't wrapped my head around it fully yet.
On to the fiber related stuff. I am actually learning how to spin on a drop spindle and learning how to prepare fleece in both woolen and worsted methods. I have a wonderful teacher that I will ask if I can put her info up soon. She has been spinning for much of her life and teaching for about 30 years. I am so glad to have found her... Yet another good thing to have come from the county fair.
Since my brain was not allowing me to finish anything without major frustration and frogging I haven't made anything to sell this month. I hope to remedy that this week and put up stitch markers at least. I make markers for both knit and crochet and occasionally even use them myself.

This would be the first thing I made from the wonderful book that hunny ordered me for V-day. Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful. Small one has informed me that I need to make them all.

This has been in the "unfinished" drawer for months. I started him using a "basic amigurumi" pattern I found on Ravelry and improved the arms and legs. He also has Dreadlocks because I couldn't help myself.

Ha, a swatch! Attempting to get the working of lace in my brain so I can design a stole for Grace to knit... (= I am happy with how the pieces fit together and I will likely make a few more swatches before the pattern comes together for me. I used P&C cotton for this and finished the top edge with an i-cord bind off... My teacher thinks I could add beads and turn it into a necklace... What do y'all think?

And finally, this... It is a head warmer. Not a hat, just the ribbing for one. I went up 4 needle sizes and did some funky lace work at the top to create the fluffy bits. Felted it and viola. An anemone on my head. Small one stole it and it looks a whole lot better on her than me. This just means I have to make another one for me using my new Harmony needles from Knit-Picks. I got the circular and DPN's in size 10 because I didn't have DPN's in that size and I really wanted to have a fixed circular of that size. I have an old Boye set of interchangeable points that work for most things but the threads are starting to get loose so I have to keep an eye out to make sure they don't come off while I am working.
I an also hoping to someday try to manage the magic loop for socks because I think that if I could do it that way there might be a PAIR in my future.
On to the rest of the day with coffee.
And again, Thanks so much to those that have been with me through the last couple of weeks. You will likely never know how much it helped knowing there were people across the country that cared enough to look in on me. <3 to you all.

Still breathing.

Her temperature is still between 100 and the highs of 104.something. Research into RSV shows that the swings can last from 8 to 14 days in moderate to severe cases. I have been awake since around 4 due to her body heat waking me up. She hit 104.3 so I woke up. This is the update...
To note:
Grace, I am so glad you are feeling better. I hope it continues to improve.
NH Knitting Mama, I thank you for you words as I know you have been through similar things and worse. The wishes are appreciated.
Anne, Thank you for looking in on me and I am sorry I haven't been commenting much. Congratulations and I am glad you didn't truly give up the needles.
To all the others that read and just send me a kind thought. Thank you.
Now, More coffee so I can *stay* awake for the rest of the day.

Appreciation and impatience.

Can I please have my life and my brain back now? First in a line of things that are making the world chaotic is the child having something called RSV. I think of it as Really Sucky Virus because there isn't a "treatment" that helps. She just gets REALLY sick for about a week and we get next to no real sleep because we are on the lookout for the spiking fever, vomit and discolored mucus that "might be" signs of *something else is wrong* so we are both covering the grumpys for her. Add to this the fact that I haven't been able to take my pain medication for 3 days because it makes me a bit fuzzy which I can't be in case of an emergency (at 3 am or any time) and you get an exhausted me.
We also had a surprise concerning the medieval torture device that I still have to wear. It costs $150 and the Doc didn't tell me this when he gave it to me. If I had known I could have gotten one elsewhere and not had to pay though th nose with money we didn't have at the time.
I don't have the brain to make anything for my shop and I don't have the patience to work on anything at all for more than 5 minutes or so. Getting the time to sit and read a few blogs is good enough right now.
On to the Appreciation part. I appreciate the blogs that I read for giving me a few minutes of "out" time. I want to let y'all know that I hope things get better fo you and that things don't keep you from sharing (even the not so happy) because it means a great deal to me. Yes, even though I rarely comment.
And thank you for looking in on me as well.

And the band played on.

Yes, I am still alive. No, I haven't finished a darn thing. I have put up a small update to my shop and I hope that the drugs they gave me for my foot can help me *do* more than I have been doing. I hope that there aren't too many blog land people I have let down with my tendency to not get things finished. Wish there was more time in the day. Happy fiber to you all.

A little more brainless.

So because I have *so* much spare time... Taking spinning classes from a local woman with LOTS of teaching experience. Need to get things packed and sent away to various places. Need to *finish* about a dozen things to go on etsy within a week. I love to be busy. Oh yeah, my foot is still broken so I hobble around making things and swishing my cane at people. (= lovely mental image. *cackle*

Couple of things.

Finished... Slippers crocheted and book bound for person 1. Beads finished on *gift* for person 2. Beads applied to item for etsy. 5 more projects to finish before I can "relax" and do whatever strikes my fancy. TTFN

Chaos and Entropy

Due to Chaos and Entropy (and my own inability to judge time available) I will not be putting up pictures for a bit. The camera is hiding from me and I think I have just enough time in the next few days to finish half of the umpteen bazillion things going on. I just wanted to post this public service message to let those that have been paying attention (and commenting) know they are appreciated. I like to think that I am building a small group of friends through this medium and the journals that I read are wonderful windows into other peoples realities. Hopefully I haven't driven too many away with the outbursts of insanity that will continue at irregular intervals. (=
A happy beginning to a new year to all y'all

Requested Creations.

I have been requested to make a few things. First a pair of crocheted slippers like the crazy colored ones I made a while back. Second, a wallet out of this checkered fabric that looks kinda like country curtains to me. Third (and hardest), a pair of fingerless mitts out of the *sigh* bamboo yarn my sweet upstream pal sent me.
The first mitt is just over half finished, the slippers have to wait till I can find the right yarn and the wallet will likely get worked on tomorrow.
On top of these things are the things I have taken upon myself. Most of them happily.
There are two sets of puppy legwarmers in progress. There are multiple things to be hemmed or altered in minor ways. There is the gift I made for someone that is %95 finished, just some beading to be finished. The final package to send to my downstream pal , even though she has said she was satisfied with the packages she received. ( I still want to send out these few things anyways.)
Oh, and there has been major upheaval at my house. One of my presents was a re-organization of the house. I can now sit at my computer and look at my creative supplies without getting up. More incentive for me to get things made. I will leave the *planned* projects to another post.

Foot, and how it's Broken.

So about 6 months ago I twisted my foot in a really bad way then about a month and a half after that I twisted it again. Thinking that these were "just" sprains I wrapped and stayed off it as much as possible (ha ha) but the pain didn't magically go away and the funky lump on the outside of my foot made me curious. Finally going to the doctor about a month and a half ago I was given an opinion. An evulsion fracture on the inside of my foot. An x-ray was scheduled. The multitude of x-rays seemed to verify this opinion but an MRI was scheduled for further information. MRI was done and an appointment was scheduled with a podiatrist. The podiatrist looked at the x-rays, got a confused look and went to find the MRI results. After looking at those he came in and told me that I had broken my heel bone all the way through and that normally these kinds of breaks require surgery and screws in the foot. Notice I said normally. He told me that somehow my heel bone had been healing correctly and that hopefully we could get away with just immobilizing my foot for about a month. Thus I sit here typing away with my foot in a medieval torture device that is giving me horrid cramps in my calf. Yes, a BOOT. Why, I ask, do I need this beastly thing when I have been healing properly with what I had been doing. Because there is a possibility that I would step on a dust mote and re-break it. Because it makes hunny feel better. Because that crazy lady that I love so much got to laugh and think loudly that she told me so. Because I have to try to do things the right way once in a while.
But yeah, It's broken.