Saturday, August 28, 2010

Clara reciting Psalms 23 @ 2 years old!

As the video didn't properly display here .... Click on this link  or the one in the above title to go see this awesome little girl!

For those of you who don't like country music... this kid just might convert you LoL!~

Portugues Knitting.... and... oh these twisted stiches, challenging but fun ;)

I've been practicing most the whole day on  two different things. I'll tell about the second one in a moment. First, of course, I'm trying to get these twisted stitches figured out in my pattern. I have the right twisted just fine and easy but the left twisted stitches are a bit hard for me.  It's the latter half of the left twisted stitch that's giving me a bugger of a fit each and every time.  Now I imagine if my tension were a bit looser I bet this part of the step wouldn't be so fiddly.   And of course I think the most important part is to remember to slip the first two stiches knitwise individually, than replace them back on left needle. Once that's done getting under the second stitch to knit it is rather easy, but than hard part becomes where you than knit both of the first & second stitch tbl.  Getting that needle tip under my first stitch and lifting it up is the exact point of difficulty for me. oh well, that's what practice is for!

Now onto my second find of the day..... Portuguese Knitting!  Now this is a cool concept.  This should be in the knitter's dictionary under Ergonomic.  I took a break from my twisted stitches and watch a few YouTube videos on this.  So far the best videos I think are the ones made by Chaunavit.  She also shows the Portuguese cast-on. Their cast-on is interesting. I will have to check that out later as my mind is full right now with twisted stitches and the basic steps of Portuguese Knitting.  I got the hang of it rather quickly for the basic knit & purl st, but than I was trying to incorporate it along with learning the twisted stitches.... whoa, a bit more than my brain can manage! lol.  But I can definitely see where this type of knitting is going to bring relief to my hands and fingers wrists & arms as you keep your hands in front for both the knit and purl. It is much easier to flick my thumb in that short distance of space than to hold my arms while I throw my finger up over and around with other knitting styles.  It will relieve the pressure on my middle finger & knuckle that I always use to throw the yarn.  Check out this site

Stock photo of Wire loop ring for
stranding colorwork yarn catalog says.
Now in the video... Chaunavit uses a pin attached to her blouse that she strands the yarn thru. When I went looking in my basket of inherited items & tools and I did find a different looking wire ring that was my aunt's so I tried it out.  It looks like this stock photo I found in a knitting catalog which describes it commonly used for color-work stranding; but, it seemed to work well for the Portuguese knitting style. Than I just put the rest of the yarn around my kneck and let the skein rest at down my side. It'll have to do me until I can find a more proper pin like Chaunavit was using.

I can see right now that it is going to be fiddly challenge trying to figure out how to keep my yarn from two different skeins from getting tangled up as I flip and turn my work. I've got one skein running thru one of the loops and the other skein running thru the other loop with rest of the yarn around my neck. What a sight! But if others can do it in color-work stranding surely I'll be able to figure it out as I really like to make socks two at a time.

   
I've been surfing the web about Portuguese knitting and found these....  
{btw... I've no affliation with any of products you see here, yadda yadda... just researching.}


  
Andrea Wong has some pins that she sells.  She is a well know advocate and teacher who travels the Country helping knitters of whole new generations discover this age old method of knitting ~ Portugues Knittng.

And I found some real pretty magnetic pin-hooks that you can wear that doesn't require you to put a hole in your sweater!

http://knitforbrains.net/2009/09/20/cool-new-idea-for-portuguese-knitting-pinhook/
Also found a site by this guy named Eric that shows one of his homemade pinhooks or knitting pendant as he calls it. He has used what he calls a sock hanger and made a weighted necklace with beads. Now this has really caught my eye!    Well I've had a right full day of messing around as you can see. So back to practice my knitting skills. ~ tah tah for now.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Twisted Stitches







Shur'tugal ~ a Ravelry Socktopus Pattern
 I'm learning some new stitches for my pair of September socks - the Right Twist & Left Twist stitches.  Seems a bit tricky so I found a YouTube video that perfectly shows how to do these stitches that are given in the Shur'tugal Socks Pattern.  I found this Socktopus Pattern at Ravelry.  It is offered as a free Ravelry PDF dL'.  It was originally published in Socktopus DesignsThe Inside Loop, Autumn 2008       These socks are awesomely beautiful !  Wish I had the two-tone aqua & gold color yarn that she used but I don't.  Instead when we go to town this weekend I think I'm gonna get some of Deborah Norville's Serenity sock yarn from Hobby Lobby.  I hope my socks turn out as good as these look!

Anywho... here is the video...  Cirilia Rose from the Berroco Design Team demonstrates twisted stitches.  I watch some other videos but I liked Cirilia's best. She does a really wonderful job in this video. Her work stays entirely on-screen, the pace is just perfect and her speech is clear, there is NO distracting background music and the resolution is very clear. I give her a Ten on the thumbs-up scale !




Sunday, August 22, 2010

hmmmmm, yoga footies vs pedicure socks ?? which would be better for pain control ?

should I make these...
or these ??
I'm in a knitting quandary today.

Trying to decide which type would give me the most benefit as my feet are killing me! Well, my legs are also, but it seems I can tolerate them better than the feet pain right now. Actually its not just my whole feet that hurt. I don't know what the exact anatomy term for this part of foot is called.  You know where your ankles are on each side right? well it is the top part of my feet in-between both ankles. That particular part is insanely keeping me from enjoying anything right now. It's like a rubber-band is choking both feet in that spot. It's a very deep ache pain. It doesn't run up or down or run anywhere for that matter. If you flex your foot up and where you can see how those two tendons protrude... it is right there in the middle between those two tendons!  It's so crazy bad that I dreamed that I took a machete and cut my feet off. How disturbing is that? I know right. ok, enough of the drama, back to my knitting quandary.

Guess I'm a gonna have to knit both and just see which pair works the best.  What I've been using so far are those ace bandages that you wrap around a sprain.   Most likely its just the pressure of the wrap that helps, but it seems that the body heat generated is somewhat soothing.  Have you ever tried to go about your daily business with heating pads tied to your feet?  Doesn't work.  The electrical plug-in cord is too short. LOL. Yes, I was desperate enough to try that.

  I like the idea and looks of the yoga socks, but I do notice that when I wrap the ace bandage that I do use my heel to wrap it around as an anchor point.  I know, I know ~ why don't I just keep using the ace bandage right?  well.... 1.) It wraps too thickly  2.) it's UGLY 3.)  after a while my feet get TOO hot and I end up ripping the whole thing off  4.) did I mention it's UGLY.

 what would be cool is if I could manage to knit a small pocket on top of the sock so I could insert small rice bag pouch heated up in microwave.... than later remove rice bag when I no longer need its service !!      but... since I'm not an advanced knitter and definitely have never design any patterns yet .... if any of you knitsters out there in blogland would happend to be to able to help me figure out the best way to go about this  my feet & I would be eternally grateful!!
I've thought about sewing some sort of cuff, but I think it would slide around too much and a knitted item would hug better and hold the heat longer maybe.
One problem that I can foresee [from experience] is when a rice bag is too small you have to be very careful when heating it as microwave rice WILL burn. Yup, did that once too. It stank worse than burnt popcorn and creates such a smokescreen that neighbors might call firemen.  hmmm, maybe I should just knit  a snakelike tube and make a rice bag out of that and than I could velcro it to around my feet.  That does sound like a good idea. But those yoga socks are really cute! 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Kindergarten Nap Map

I made a Kindergarten Nap Mat for my baby grangirl ! Soft and cuddly. Just took a blanket, folded it in 3rds. lengthwise and sewed along the edges so it don't smoosh around when it gets washed. Folded the end over itself to make a pillow and sewed those edges. Used pink fleece to make a sleeping bag cover to slide over the blanket mat and attached a girly blue & pink flannel print at one side for her to use as a cover up sheet. Had some extra flannel left over and made straps so she can roll it up and tie it! I think it turned out quite well ;)

How I did the fleece & flannel was first to lay the fleece right sides together with the flannel laying in between and sewed around all the edges except leaving one end open so the blanket mat could be inserted. Down at the foot end of the whole I laid the straps in-between the fleece (just like flannel) so the ends would be sewn in.   Now as I only wanted one side of the flannel to be attached what I did was to fold the other side over into the middle and pinned it temporarily so it wouldn't be caught up in the sewing as that side and the foot end of the flannel was to be free.   Now all that was left to do was I pinned all around the edges and to start sewing down one length, around the oots end and up the other length of the fleece & flannel. I back-sewed several times over the straps as I came to them for re-enforcement sakes.   Than all that had to be done was to turn it all right side out and slip the blanket mat inside.  The pillow end is still left open for now as I need to get a zipper and put that in.  The mat itself measures like 25 inches wide.   I was a bit shocked at the cost of zippers around here. They're like nearly ten dollars. So what I'm going to do is look for a youth size jacket that is worn out and removed the zipper from that to use. 

Now really making this was very simple and I had a lot of fun doing. But I will admit it took me like five hours today to get it finish ! crazy huh? well, to be honest these past three days have been really bad days for me pain wise & functioning. Originally I was going to can the tomatoes on Sat. and than make the nap mat on Sunday, but things didn't work out that way.  


And with weather changing so quickly from 80 degrees at nite to 58 degrees at nite which I absolutely LOVE,  now the air-con is off (yeah for the power bill!). 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Been canning couple jars of Spaghetti & Salsa sauce this afternoon.......

Learned TWO important lessons today....
#1 - Next time - DON'T forget to skin the tomatoes! eck.
#2 - WEAR GLOVES when chopping Jalapeño Peppers !!!!!!
OMG, my poor fingers & thumbs! yup, burnt the hide right off I think.
Washed my hands in soapy water, rinsed em' in lemon juice. STILL BURNING TWO HOURS LATER!  I even had a glass of cold milk soaking my fingers in it - lol.   I've never before used Jalapeño Peppers. Actually I've never canned sauce before either. Yup, I'm always learning something important the first time I do anything. But boy won't these be good this winter when we're missing our garden.  Or so I am hoping! The last time I taste tested the sauce before putting it in the water bath I notice that the lemon juice tasted a bit stronger than it did earlier.  The recipe called for 2 cups of lemon juice for the 3 quarts of tomatoes. Doesn't that seem like a lot?  I hope it's gonna be ok.  Only time will tell. tah tah for now my friends.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Hello Oven Hot August Day! & Perseid short socks

Hello Fellow Knitters on this Oven Hot August Day! Heat Index for my county 111 degrees.
DON"T FORGET to watch the NITESKY for thPerseid meteor shower.. for a spectacular shooting star-fest between Wednesday 10 pm thru Friday early early morning 3 am.

Yup! I had to finish up my Patons Stretchy Yarn - I think this is their plum color-way.
So far this is the best fitting socks that I have made for her with room to grow and wear for a few months!  Notice how the green stipes resembles a shooting star streaking across her foot? So I will call these her Perseid short socks!

Needle size: Addi Turbo's size 2; YEAH Go Addi Turbos!
My gauge: 8 sts & 12 rows = 1 inch
For age 5 yrs old. Shoe size: 13
Cast on 56 stitches; heel flap 4 repeats of Eye of Partridge; turned heel = 14 sts remaining; Gusset sts = 16 picked up each side; 66 rows before toe decrease (counting the 14 turned heel rows) ; total rows from heel to bind off = 80 rows.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010


This video contains some incredible statistics. Blew my mind, and I'm on this crazy thing called the Internet every single day.  

Monday, August 2, 2010

Road Trip day to Pain Specialist

Hello world!  Here we go again.  Key words of the day:   Spinal blocks;   Radio Frequency Neural Ablation;  Steroid injections.  They all have one thing in common that I'm not thrilled about. Needles and Pain.

Today will be another road trip up north to see my back doctor/pain specialist again. Last September 2009 was my 5th .... or was it 7th... maybe even 8th back procedure to control the rheumatoid arthritis in the lower facet joints of L4 and L5.  good grief I've lost count.   Anywho... that procedure seems to have lasted the longest out of all of them.  I've was able to experience 8 months straight (Oct 09' to May 2010) of reduced, very tolerable pain  !! woohoo !!   Now mind you that the 4 days after any of these procedures is usually tagged with endurance from hell, but once you get past that part the temporary relief alone is like winning the lottery!   But alas, most good things must come to an end.  


I have begun to believe that for me, it is the heat of summer months that has a-lot to do with my particular sufferings.  Tolerance levels plummet.  Pain and mobility issues skyrocket out the wazoo.  It's as if my body's inner core thermometer is broken and cannot properly or consistently regulate.  I also hate what I will call the OZ Witch Syndrome.  It involves chanting ... "My brain is melting" "My brain is melting" and I'm off and running all the way to the shower for cool relief! There's been a couple of times I've almost called 911.  If anyone can tell me what's up with that I sure would appreciate some understanding reasoning or explanation. Because if there are any sneaky warning signs that such is about to happen I am always oblivious to them.  The only thing I do know is that has to do with activity.  Once a certain amount of chores, or activities have been accomplished than, Wham! It usually just slams me right in the face... or should I say brain. lol.  My kids and dh (dear hubby) always spout off, "See, your doing to much again" or some other comment.  And of course that just ticks me off because I'm thinking to mself, what r they talking about. The day used to be when I could do this and ten times more all in one day! Thank you very much" 

  Than of course there's dummy me who is in no hurry to get back to the doctor for another procedure.  Why?  Because they too are intensely painful.  I can't think of anyone who enjoys having a needle stuck in spine.  Tho I do give props to Dr. Riskin of Christie Clinic!    He is the first Dr. that has been able to do a spinal tap on me that was completely pain free!!!!!!  I am serious.  He has a special way with breathing and relaxation techniques that along with the sound of his voice is just absolutely amazing!  I was so relaxed. Actually the most relaxed I've ever been in my whole life.  Personally I think he should received one of those Nobel Peace or Pulitzer Prize or whatever it is that doctors can get. 

Last time the pain doc and me talked, he said he didn't think surgery would fix the problem. Only life maintenance pain relief is what I have to choose from.  Well, that sure wasn't what I wanted for christmas!  ok. so dh says I'm a just going to have to buck up and get some grit and just learn to deal with the pain since it can't be fixed.  I'm thinking, uh... uh... "DUH" ! Isn't that what I've been doing all along for last seven years. sheesh. men.     Any how, I'm done ranting. Got to hit the road. ~  later bloggers.

ps... I'm back from the road trip. It's late in the evening right now. No procedure today. whew! But Doc is not pleased with my left foot drop. I can't stand on my toes or on my heels without falling over. (at this point in the exam I'm thinking who in the heck walks around standing on their toes or heels all the time. Growing up I was taught to walk on my feet!).  He thinks it time to do another procedure but wants to send me to go visit this neurosurgeon, Dr. Harvey.    We talked.  If possible though he believes that if surgery is not immediately needed that I could relatively continue doing these spinal procedures for quite some time safely.  I'm like, well I'm 47 yrs now and I have at least another 30 to 40 yrs left God willing. Can a person just keep on getting these procedures done every year to six months and taking pain killers for that long?    A nervous chuckle exchanged between us and he's like ... well I guess in years to come lil ole old you will be coming in to see lil ole old me the dr.

On the drive up, daughter and I were discussing something that was explained at a previous dr. appt.  My arthritis was ranked as moderate. I was taken aback at first. With a rather sour puzzled look I commenced to say, "What?  And I ask, How can a person be in so much pain all the time that there are so many days when they have to give them selves a pep talk just to keep going on, but yet you the Dr. ranks the arthritis as moderate. Isn't moderate only one step up from mild?"      Than it was explained to me that moderate arthritis is very painful. It hurts like hell. That the doctors know arthritis has begun to advance to severe when the pain starts to diminish and go away because by than the nerves are so pinched / damaged that they are numb to any feeling and the brain doesn't pick up or feel the pain.  When you reach that point, by than limbs and such become no longer usable. Now, how's that for an eye opener!    hmmm, so now I guess the question becomes what's worse, pain from hell but still being able to move and semi-function or being pain-free but stuck frozen and immobile.  With odds like that no wonder a-lot of people think life sucks.

I'm a gonna have to do some googling to try and find some research on what's the longest that a person has been able to live on narcotics. That's what's on my mind right now.

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Sunday, August 1, 2010

July is over and Fall will soon be on it's way.

Its a nice cool 63* degrees this early a.m. on August 1st.  My cup of tea!  Don't get me wrong, I love summer and I tire of the long months during late winter but my body is prone to go on strike when the mornings start out at 80* before the sun even wakes up.  I also eye-spy'd my first patch of spider-web covered bushes this morning!  That doesn't usually occur around here til end of September or even into October.  Just can't make heads or tails of the seasons anymore. Reason too why I was surprised to see the spider-web bushes is the newscast was just saying the other day that we are too expect summer dog days clear up until start of maybe November. So whats' going on here I ask?


whew, yesterday I remembered just in the nick of time that being the last day of the month that I had an invitation to accept and entered my lot into the
Sock A Month 10 knitting club.

 I had found this group earlier in the month and got started. Photo is my July pair.  It was my first pair of footies that I've ever done. I was a bit scared as it seemed so daunting to do the cuff and than just jump right on to the heel. I was afraid that without a leg it would be too loose and saggy around my ankle. And I used Patons stretchy yarn.  Yes, it IS stretchy. I did find after a bit of wear that the footie tries to sneak off my heel so to fix that I made a pom pom out of left overs and attached it at the heel along with gathering a few stitches on each side of it. Worked out rather nicely.  There's still enough of the 2 skeins left that I'm making granddaughter a pair of short socks, child's size.  Guess what?  She starts kindergarten this year! Gosh she is growing up so fast. It seemed like just yesterday she was just three yrs old.  I thought that once you were a grandma that time slowed down a bit and you got to enjoy more stuff longer. What was I thinking. Time seems to be going faster!

This summer finds me trying to learn how to do 2 socks at the same time on one pair of circular needles.
The book "Knitting circles around socks" by Antje Gillingham is what I started learning on. She does a wonderful job of teaching it. There are 33 photos of all her "how to" steps.  The remaining 40 pages cover about 8 or so sock patterns.  At the end she explains how to convert patterns from double-point to circular needle patterns. Quite useful!  Especially as there are some really wonderful old patterns floating around that I want to try.

I love CIRCULAR Needles to knit socks on. It's not that I love it more than dpn's. I've never even tried dpn's.  It's just that I first learned how to do "a" sock on circulars. AND I LOVE IT!   But I will admit, my brain had a tuff time learning how to do "two" socks together at once and remembering which way to turn and flip my work along with both those 2 strands of yarn hanging around! lol.  But since I love doing the socks on circs of course I have to make myself learn how to do both socks at same time!  Now due to some neurological cognitive issues I don't mind telling you that I spent months trying to get thru this. It twas just not to be.... so it seemed.... ;(   but alas....  I have a little something something that I invented and want to share with you......
 My Needle Position Flowchart
 for 2 socks @ at a time on circular needles
Draft Final Revision Aug 7th 2010


 It's my Needle Position Flow-chart that I came up with to help me keep track! It's just drawn on a piece of printer paper and accordion folded into four sections for quick and easy travel storage.  Wish I knew how to patent something like this. I think it's a wonderful idea.

Now I can easily find my way back in case I grab a wrong needle.  The sequence of which row to do on which sock next diagram is what has saved my sanity from my obsession to learning this task!

I find it imperative to keep one color marker at end of instep row on sock 1 and a different color marker for sock 2 also at end of instep row. This way I know that I will be next starting a new round with heel of Sock 1.

The other important thing that I found makes my sequence work so well is that it's.....


MOST imperative to have socks threaded on same needles opposite each other.

What I mean by this is ....

when you lay the needles and work down on a table you will see ...

that the heel of sock 1 is on one end of needle 
and instep of sock 2 is on the other end of the same needle.  

Clear as mud huh?  Well hopefully it'll make sense.  If you click on the photo it should expand full size and you will see more clearly what I'm talking about.

This sequence for me is what works !
Sock 1 - Heel
Sock 2 - Heel
Sock 2 - Instep
Sock 1 - Instep
           than you can repeat for next rounds.

I hope others will also find my flowchart useful while trying to learn.

well, that's bout all for the moment. tah- tah for now.