FO Rundown

Once again, I'm blaming Jane for something. She always gets my brain going and usually my needles too! One of her recent posts was a tally of FO for 2006, which reminded me that in January, I set a goal to beat her ungodly number of socks knit. Did I manage to do just that???

11 pairs of mittens
2 scarves
1 Clapotis
1 child sweater
1 hat
1 baby sweater
1 baby afghan
4 pairs wrist warmers
AND

26 pairs of socks!! That would include 10 pairs of infant socks and 16 pairs of adult and child socks.

Sewing FOs:
2 round handle bags
5 tote bags
Kitchen curtains
2 skirts for E
1 skirt for me
1 needle case
2 dresses for E
1 top for me
2 jumpers
1 Laura Ingalls costume
5 aprons
1 quilt completed start to finish
2 quilt tops pieced

I know I've sewn a lot more than this but did not blog about much of that. Bummer. Better luck in 2007.

Goals for 2007:

Find a pressure canner (hopefully thrifted!)
Knit 5 more pairs of mittens for the parish mitten tree
Knit 27 pairs of socks. (Jane, that is a challenge to you!)
Another Irish Hiking Scarf, possibly in blue this time.
A cardi for me, maybe in lavender?
A pullover or two for me...top-down raglans
Finish up the stack of quilt tops and sell them off.
Make some tote bags for my shop
A few summer outfits for my Ems out west
3 rag dolls...one for E and two for some cuties down south
2 visits with Duck.
Finish Christmas shopping by Halloween.


ETA: LUNCH WITH JAN. Make that raising you-know-what with Jan!! We'll probably get tossed from the place and threatened with the joint because, well, we just will. (Note to Jan: Forgive me for the oversight? It really HAS been on my mind for a while now. Somehow, I think you'd laugh until you pee when you hear about the adventures of the mighty-yet-completely-useless-appendix and his good friend, green-pus. I promise to only use my fork to eat with and leave the mud at home!)

What are your goals?

5 weird things

Jane tagged me a while ago for the 5 (or is it 6) weird things meme. Y'all have seen it, you know the rules...consider yourself tagged if you so desire.

1. I do not wear a watch.

2. When I do wear a watch, it is one of my father's old ones which is too large in the band and the face that he brought to me in a box of misc stuff from a drawer in the office. I love that he had it marked "new batt" on the back of the watch in sharpie which promptly tattoed me when I wore it and got hot.

3. I abhor cats. Yes, I am a knitter and yes, I hate cats.

4. I have this thing about the texture of food in my mouth. I prefer crunchy, crispy to soft or soggy. Meat I can take or leave as long as there is gravy and potatoes.

5. I hate paying full-price for anything. If I don't have a coupon, find a sale or what I want at a thrift store, I have been known to do without for months because brand-new is too pricey. For things that cannot be bought this way, I budget for months, literally, to buy new (like tires for the van. oy@@)

6. While I almost always use an apron when cooking anymore, I almost always end up with handprints on my rear. Something my grandmother used to find extremely funny. In fact, somewhere I am certain a picture exists of me in a full apron covered in flour AROUND the apron...it was part of her Christmas gift one year as a joke.



On the healing front: recovery is slow. Things are still gross, ouchy and exhausting. Taking a shower every other day or so is sometimes too taxing. Thank God for teenage daughters who enjoy the fact that their baby sister still believes in Santa and who are willing to go the extra mile to make things happen. Santa arrived at the appointed time and put smiles on all their faces (with a little help from the West Coast branch of the family and Catwoman. LOL) Ham dinner was consumed and the mess was magically swept away by elves J, R and E! Holiday phone calls were made and naps were taken by all.

I'd hoped Santa would bring some knitpicks stuff but I guess he missed that letter. Rather, his elf was not listening during the extended hint-dropping periods and clues left in plain sight via the catalog. Anyone else have this trouble with the resident elf?

Knitting has been the only excitement lately. If you can call 7 pairs of mittens in 2 weeks excitement. I have tried to work on the never-ending-great-green-blob-cardigan for Hubster but the darn thing bumps that nasty incision and bothers me so I decided to just use up the wool stash and get my mitten goal for 2007 accomplished now. I encourage doing now for next year. So much easier to do when the pressure for this year is off but the overwhelment (a word?) is fresh in one's mind. I'd really love to hit the after sales and pick up bath sets for the gift shelf along with Christmas pjs for next year but am not really thinking I will get out and accomplish all that just yet since just reclining the chair wipes me out somedays still.

During the week leading up to Thanksgiving, blogland was filled with elogant posts about being thankful and feasts and family. Missing from that particular chorus was me. Not that I was feeling unthankful, I just could not find the words. So what if I'm a few weeks late?

Things I am thankful for:

Friends who know when to jump in and bale out the boat. Double the thanks when they do it repeatedly within a short-time frame. (Hiya, BS!)

Friends who send me goodies in the mail. Sometimes because I've asked and others for no reason other than they like me.

Prayers from people I barely know, both during the bright and dark times.

My father who never fails to surprise and amaze me.

My daughters. Their laughter fills the house, the van and the air outside. Their wisdom astounds me, their drive for more knowledge is incredible.

Things I'd rather not have to be thankful for but am just the same:

ERs and the staff

Surgeons and nurses.

Pain meds

Antibiotics

My La-Z-Boy living room suite (thanks again, Dad!) with built-in recliners.

A bathroom on the first floor.



No one believes me when I tell them just how ill I have been because of the useless appendix which decided to become a time-bomb in my gut. Today is the first day I have been able to shower AND accomplish something else. And I hardly call a load of towels washed at 4:30AM something else. It was a much needed washing since the current need for clean, freshly laundered towels is overpowering my frugal senses. This infection-filled incision is just vile and I won't risk spreading the infection to either another site on my body or to a family member.


And who knew that "playing with knittin' sticks" could be so completely draining? I can hear Amanda telling me how I make her look like a slacker when I rattle off the list of finished knitting, but knitting, sleeping, showering and irrigating wounds is all I have done since I came home, literally. There has been no teaching of the young ones, although they are doing a bang-up job of educating each other! In that time, I have finished (and Hubster delivered) SIL's hat, a pair of wrist warmers for Duck, a pair for J, that baby sweater, accomplished 17 rows on the never-ending-green-blob-raglan-cardigan for Hubster, a pair of mittens for next year and 1/2 another pair. While I am bored with the current projects, I have made a commitment to have at least a dozen pairs of mittens done by mid-Nov 2007, so why not tackle them now? A little research on Fibonacci and the mittens are at least more interesting. Does that make me a math geek now? LOL. Pictures may be forcoming if J will do a photo shoot for me some time soon.

If you've made it this far, I hope Santa is very good to you, that the reindeer resist the urge to leave anything more than a footprint and that Frosty comes to life for you. We all need a little magic. ;o) Thank you all for the get well wishes and sharing the laughter with me.

Making a mold of my *ss

Yup, still camping in the recliner. I do believe now, that despite having housed my father's rear-end for years before coming to dwell at Chez Duck, the recliner now could serve as a mold of my *ss. I fully expect the chair to make that sucking sound sometime soon when I attempt to leave it. (Think The Simpsons. You'll get it)

Today was my follow-up appointment. I knew when I woke up at 8AM swimming in a pond of pus, it would not be a good day. One of those teeny-tiny laparoscopic incisions has become a breeding ground for infection and whatnot. The good doctor ripped open with a force equal to that needed to open pickle jars reopened that incision, poked around a bit to encourage MORE drainage and then let his wonderful nurse pack the wound. Keep in mind that a packed wound needs daily changing, much like a baby's loaded diaper. Guess who gets that lovely job? Yup, me if I don't pass out, puke or otherwise have a nasty reaction. I am morbidly fascinated by the notion yet deeply disgusted by the vile potion my body is producing. Appearantly, pain meds don't quite kill the pain of this exercise in fun so many of you may hear screams later this evening.

And remember that list of Christmas things I had to do yet? We are now renaming it as the Christmas 2007 to-do list. With any luck, that may just work out well for us. lol. I have accomplished some rather vanilla knitting while camped in the chair: finished a baby raglan pullover(it just needed sleeves and a neckband), a pair of mittens for the parish mitten tree (next year) and a hair for my SIL undergoing chemo...it's nearly done. I have more complex things on the needles but given my "coked-out" mind at the moment, I am sticking to easy, small projects. Looks just as impressive, right?

looks like that might just be all the sober brain cells I have at the moment. Many of you know where to find me if you need me.

Waylaid by my appendix

About this time last night, I was heading to the recovery room after emergency surgery to remove my ruptured appendix. I've been through a c-section almost completely UNnumb, lived through a ruptured eardrum and truly thought nothing could hurt as bad as either of those. Boy, was I wrong. Morphine was my new best friend for most of the day and night yesterday. Today, I'm down to tylenol with codeine, at my insistence since Darvocet just makes me sleep and doesn't touch the pain. And I'm home because that damn hospital bed was killing me. I wasn't getting round the clock nursing care (I didn't need it after last night) so I opted to come home early and crash in the chair. I'm going to take it extremely easy for the next 2 weeks so that means very little posting and a delay in email replies. But I will get around to those replies ASAP.

Opinions, please

First with the opinions, then with what passes as news...


Knitters, if you could have only one stitch dictionary in your library, which one and why?
The Knitpicks Options set...yeah or nay?

Leave me a comment or email me at sewjillquilts@verizon.net


News from Chez Duck:
Not much really. It's cold. Really cold. I hate the cold.

J has a job caring for an elderly lady with Alzheimer's 2 days/wk. Some days she loves it, others she hates. She's saving her pays and spending responsibly.

One of Hubster's SIL has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Things are not good right now for her. I can't force myself to go see her.

E can read. And add. And count by 5s and 10s easily. Did I mention she can read?

Holiday knitting is in full swing as is the holiday sewing. I swore I was not going to craft at all for the holidays this year. Note to self: remember you have no self-control. Things completed: 5 (4 aprons and a tote bag). Things on the needles: 5(2 adult sized sweaters, a scarf, a sock and a wrist warmer). Things on the cutting table: 3(flannel shirt for Hubster, rag doll for E(hey, A...) and pj bottoms for me). Cookies baked: Zero. Hams purchased: zero. Gifts wrapped: zip. Tree up? Nope. Outside lights up? Not even close.

Other than that, I have hit the wall. Many bloggers have said pretty much the same thing. The cause of my stoppage is many fold: fibro sucks the life out of me, being poor causes anxiety and stress which causes fibro flares...the circle never ends. This year, I really want to be elsewhere for Christmas and can't. The girls want to be elsewhere as well. It just bites to be unable to do what you want when you want ALL the time. It wears you out in a way that is utterly indescribable. So overlook me until I am in a better frame of mind.