Well, fellow yarn lovers, it’s been a while! I’ve had an interesting two or three months. Sit back and let me tell you about them. It even included a bit of knitting in the hospital!
September Knitting News
My biggest news for September was 1) I finally finished my daughter’s shawl that I knitted for her birthday. It was a beautiful fingering weight yarn that I purchased online and it took about eight months to finish. Here’s a picture of the completed shawl:
She loves pink right now, so I used a variegated yarn that is primarily pink, as you can see in the photo, with shades of blue and purple. Such a soft yarn! It was 50% merino and 50% silk. The only downside was that the yarn tended to split, especially with the size 4 needles I was using, so it took longer to complete than I hoped. However, I did get it finished and blocked two weeks before her birthday, so I’m kinda proud of that.
One more thing pertinent to September: I acquired a cute little then-eight-week-old female kitten named Sassy, whom you can read more about at www.raisingsassy.com. She’s a hoot…and also the reason I haven’t done much knitting lately. Sassy was a rescued kitten who lost her mommy quite young, and Sassy is still learning manners. Yarn workings are too much of a temptation for her right now, although I do sneak in some knitting when she’s sleeping. (Shhh…don’t tell her!)
October Knitting News
Unfortunately, I learned early in October that I have Type 2 diabetes. This explains the burning pain in the soles of my feet that I’ve experienced for the past THREE YEARS! My vision also went wonky. I couldn’t see clearly up close or far away for several months–blurry, out-of-focus vision that was really uncomfortable.
Interestingly enough, one of the side effects of my vision changes to this point is actually good! I’ve been nearsighted for 50 years, which means that I’ve had to wear glasses for seeing far away. Now, I can see far away perfectly fine without my glasses! Weird, right? However, my close-up vision is quite a bit worse…a situation that is easily remedied through cheap little readers that I bought at a nearby Wal-Mart.
I’m not insulin-dependent (good), but I do have to take oral medications (bad) that taste weird and have screwed up my appetite and energy levels (bad). I’ve lost 24 pounds, though, which is good. Got a few more (okay, LOTS more) to lose to help the blood sugar issues. Hopefully, that will make my A1C settle down and I can get off the nasty meds.
November Knitting News
In addition to, or maybe because of, the diabetes thing, I was hospitalized in November due to double kidney infections that went septic.
Yep, you read that right. DOUBLE kidney infections and SEPSIS!
Needless to say, I was one sick gal. I took knitting with me to the hospital–of course–but I only knitted about 3 rows before I had to put it down and take a nice, long nap while the medical folks pushed fluids and antibiotics into my poor, febrile, beat-up body.
My sweet husband took care of my little Sassy and came to see me in the hospital each of the two days I was there. (He’s so awesome!) I couldn’t finagle a trip to the yarn store out of it, though. I didn’t really feel like going yarn shopping anyway.
Whoa! I guess I really was sick!
December Knitting News
So I’m working on a knitting project for a new great-grandson expected in a couple of weeks, as well as trying to finish the “everlasting blanket” project I’m working on for one of my sons. The hat for the baby is almost finished, in a soft gray acrylic yarn that is soft as a baby’s bottom, yet washable for the inevitable spills/spit ups that occur with an infant.
If I can finish the blanket in time, it’s going with my daughter (the one with the shawl) back to Arkansas to her brother. IF I can finish…
Gotta run! Happy knitting, folks!
[…] of it to make a lovely shawl for my daughter, Heather. I mentioned in an earlier post called “Knitting In The Hospital.” Wonderful yarn to knit […]