All the knits that's fit to print!

Okay--here's the haps--

My laptop computer has decided in recent weeks to get fiddly. Big time fiddly. Such as in now the thing doesn't even power up on the cord. So i've been hopping on to use my Quicken and pay the bills, and hopping right back off. Hopping on to move my photos from my camera and hopping right back off. Every second counts, as i only have whatever life this battery chooses to give me. So i've been using hubby's computer for general cruising and such. BUT i have a new one coming SOON!! Very thrilling for one who loves gadgets such as me!

So--my goal here today is to toss up on my Blogger page all the knit things i've been doing, and hop off.

My crazy leftovers slippers, modeled after the ones i learned to knit in 3rd grade using sharpened #2 pencils for the knitting needles.



Our handsome Dynamo sporting his new sweater--very collegiate, don't you think?


My chocolate boy, Morris in his new sweater. He seems very happy to wear it!

i see i am missing pictures of Barnaby dog in his new sweater, and the blanket, AND my most excellently organized craft cranny. That leaves more for when i hop on next time!

Phew--now hopping off.

Just me.

Not exactly sure why, but i have not felt like writing. i suppose it has something to do with the fact that i've changed pills yet again and so am having to go through the adjustment process again. This seems to mean extreme fatigue (which is what i thought i already had, but apparently it can be worse) which leads to a lack of the will to do much of anything. Therefore i do as little as possible--laundry, make pancakes for dinner, clean the occasional bathroom. i realize this makes me appear to be pretty much a useless lump, but i guess it's just part of the process. Hopefully this new go-round of medication will not leave me with shortness of breath and hot flashes, as did the last. And as much as i enjoyed the appetite suppressant side effect of the medication, feeling like i couldn't catch my breath was a bit of a bummer.

i had pretty much decided i would just hand over my ticket and take the ride and see where i ended up, see if it was a ride worth staying on and going round a few more times. i've pretty much decided i'm okay looking like a lump and doing little but knit and the few aforementioned chores. i guess my giving into my body wishing to hibernate and come out sometime Spring after next is somewhat weird to those around me, though, giving off the appearance of being the walking dead. i just have such short spurts of energy to use. Who wants to use those folding towels and cleaning bathrooms?

So hopefully i'll be back to myself one day--oh wait! This isn't "an interruption" of my true life, this is my true life right now. i honestly didn't think i could feel a whole lot lower than i did!

i need to find my inner Pollyanna.

Playing with my pills.

Still trying to make the methadone work.

After spending a week at only half a 5 mg pill per day, then increasing to half in the morning and half in the evening with no problems, the doc increased me to a full 5 mg pill in the morning and at night. BOY did i feel weird--super sedated, super dizzy, felt that flu-like feverish feeling of nightmarishness. i called after 4 days of that with no let-up. They said, hmm, too quick a raising of the dose, go back to half and half and call us in a week. Wow, first two days of backing down from the higher dose i felt like i'd been run over by a bus. Side effects all settled down, i called the doc again, and was told to raise only the evening dose to the 5 mg pill, and leave the morning dose at the half pill.

Did i mention anywhere that the actual dose that might do me any good pain-wise is somewhere like 3 times what i'm taking? No wait--let me think about the math--they said it takes 10 to 15 mg 3 times a day to be at the therapeutic dose. That's 30 to 45 mg per day, while i am still at 7 and a half per day. That's more like, um, letsee, 7 goes into 45.... i'm a ways away, that's what it boils down to.

Daughter Corinne pointed out that i've hurt for quite a while, and this is hopefully a short time in comparison to get some pain relief figured out that will help for a looong time. Now who's the Pollyanna?? That's usually my job!

But the good things: i still love the people in my life, and my knitting machine, and my newly more organized craft nook shelves. i'm behind on blogging and posting pictures of the thrilling moments of my life--like the finished blanket i did for hubby on the knitting machine, and the cool craft shelves. Not sure how much other people are thrilled about those things, but i just love seeing the photos all formatted cool and professional looking on my blog. If nothing else, i am easily amused.

It's all in a name.

i picked up this link to what my name means over at blog-friend Jo's blog, "Bits and Pieces."

What Julia Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice. You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way. And because you're so lucky, you don't really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You're sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

While i would never call myself the Type A personality, since that sounds like way too much work, i certainly fit many other of the things named--i'm sorta easy going, i don't tend to be a finisher (as i've mentioned before,) and i'm fair, honest and give way more advice than i ought. A fun little link altogether! Especially as it mostly focuses on the positive. ;-)

Ahead of myself.

i'm not sure why i do it, but i tend to get ahead of myself. The one cool thing about that is the potential of having nice things come out of it--like this prayer shawl i knit on my Ultimate Sweater Machine.

The main way i get ahead of myself in craft type things is rather than going through all the carefully planned learning steps in a craft, i start learning and then go "OOH! This would be fun!" and "OOH! i bet it would work this way too!" and off i go on my own little bunny trails.

i had told hubby when i got the machine at Christmas that my plans were to work my way through the projects in the book that came with it, so i could learn the skills in a building-up sort of way as i got more familiar with it. That thought lasted through the first scarf (which i didn't like and took apart after) and the hat (took that apart too.) It reminded me of my school sewing class where i ended up in the group who had to make a lined wool skirt since we never had. Well, i never had because i didn't want a lined wool skirt, not because i couldn't. And so my (very polite) rebellion began.

In the case of my knitting machine, by project 3 in the book i started looking on the internet for patterns of things i was interested in, and trying to figure out how to change the patterns from hand knit to machine knit. For me this is a blast of a pastime. i love that kind of stuff, not sure why. And then i print off patterns, and make notes, and start little notebooks of projects--it's silly but oh so fun for me! One of my charms is that i am easily amused. It makes me a cheap date.

So, all that to say, the picture is of friend Adina modeling my prayer shawl, made mostly in one evening (till i ran out of yarn and had to wait to finish till i bought more.) It's a simple garment, but a pretty one, i think. i wanted to make something with the cool brown boucle textured yarn i'd bought, not whatever the next project from the book was. So there i went, getting ahead of myself. (It seems i could do something cool on it like edge it in some way, or put a tie on the front--any ideas?) Anyway, model Adina is pregnant and has a little tiny baby tummy. For her, the tummy you see there is bigger than normal. Mine has not been that small in decades, even without pregnancy. And yet i still love her.

Sadly though, she and hubby and adorable 2 year old Miriel are moving--THIS WEEKEND. At first it seemed like it would never happen, they would never get a buyer for their very cute two bedroom house so they could look for something more expandable. And now all the sudden they're moving in a few days. Crazy. No longer can i walk across the rainy street in my flip-flops for a nice cup of tea. No more can she just come across to our house for a movie and company when she's got a cold and is lonely. These are disturbing losses. It has nothing to do with me and my crafty shortcomings, i don't suppose, but since i like rabbit trails, there ya go--wanting a picture of my shawl for the blog, i flip-flopped (shoes, ladies, i mean my shoes--) across the street in the rain for tea and a model. This brings up the fact that i won't be able to do that after this weekend.

And if i simply add to those last couple of sentences that the shawl i wanted modeled came as a result of my shortcutting sins, the Skimmers among us have the Reader's Digest version of the post.

Proud O' HER.

The "HER" is daughter Corinne. i knew she was a smart girl, i mean, she did just graduate from San Francisco State and all. And she did get a cool internship at a publishing house in San Francisco, Chronicle Books. And she is, after all, my daughter.

She had taken a test at the end of 2007 for the position of library aide, and had been waiting, somewhat impatiently, for the results. Finally, a couple of days ago, a rather bedraggled letter arrived in the mail with a date of December 17. Now, just to set the stage, i need to tell you that she said there were probably 150 people taking the test that day, and she (somewhat philosophically) says that she's prone to making silly mistakes in math problems. So her hopes weren't super high: one tiny little slightly math-challenged girl against 149 other people who may also have degrees plus math abilities.

Drum roll here: (did you do it?) She came out--wait for it--NUMBER 2 ON THE LIST!! Second from the top! Only one person with a higher score! My girl are smart.

One of my blog-friends, Tersie, had one of those years you're glad to leave behind. Her mom has told her, "You're my hero." At first i thought, "That's a curious thing--i wonder what she means?" But then, Corinne. She has grown so much as a person in the last few years that i have been amazed and delighted. She has learned much about herself and how to deal with her anxieties and fears, she has learned how to move forward in her life and not be held back by fear of the unknown and the potential of failure. She has taught herself, The Great Overthinker, (it's kind of a family "thing") to release some control and try some different job things, and see where they take her. Don't just settle for the easy, the comfortable, the Known. Thus the internship, the library aide, the substitute teaching. It's a beautiful thing. i see her doing things i admire. Things i myself would be fearful to try. She's allowed herself to learn things that some of us need years of therapy to even come close to.

She's my hero.

Proud O' Me.

Check it out! They're square, but they aren't potholders!! No, they are pillows, and i made them. And i'm proud.

After thinking i was surely too stupid to enable the Ultimate Sweater Machine to make even the most basic Ultimate Anything, i had a breakthrough. i realize that word is generally saved for moments where a mathemetician reaches an understanding of anti-gravity, or a patient has an epiphany during therapy, but this counts. i went from muttering unspiritual words under my breath as i tried to untangle each newest yarn foible, to a nearly spiritual state while knitting successful row after successful row. And voila! After only one (really long) short week (me being one of those who apparently would not find it easy to learn) i have created 2 small pillows!

The colors in the pictures aren't too true to the beautiful and outstandingly crafted pillows themselves, but the colors are a dark mossy green and a light mossy green along with a chocolate brown and a splash of dark red. i could probably buy something of the sort at Ross-Dress-For-Less for 15 bucks, but who can really put a price on accomplishment? Or pride? Or this amazing ache in my shoulders from spending all those hours determined to succeed?

This is only the beginning. i'm sure there are many more pillows in my future, and possibly a dog sweater or three. i'm not quite ready to tackle a sweater for myself yet. My neck needs to heal.