Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Open Farm CANCELLED

Thanks to Hurricane Earl, Wintechog Hill Farm's Open Farm Weekend is CANCELLED. If you were planning to go, you can contact Sandi at the info in the previous post to make an appointment to check out the fleece, fiber and other goodies.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Open Farm Weekend and a Surprise

Saturday, September 4, and Sunday, September 5, will find me at my friend Sandi's Open Farm Event. I couldn't do copy/paste so had to type the info below:

Wintechog Hill Farm Open Farm Event

Hours for both Saturday and Sunday will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sandi will have both millspun and handspun yarns. Both raw and washed Coopworth fleece will sold by the pound. Coopworth/Coopworth blends will be for sale as regular roving, pin drafted roving, pencil roving, and custom batts for your handspinning or felting needs.

There will be handmade knit items, hand dyed yarns and stitch markers for knitting and crocheting by Shady Fibers.

CK6 Designs will have hand dyed batts for spinning.

Everything will be set up in the barn so this is a rain or shine event. NO CAMERAS PLEASE! Bring your knitting or spinning and hang out with us for a while.

Sandi Nemeskay Wintechog Hill Farm
116A Wintechog Hill Rd. North Stonington, CT 06359
860-912-0240 or 860-535-4046 if more info or directions are needed.

If you haven't figured it out, the surprise part is that I'm CK6 Designs. :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A Week of Good & Bad

This has been a mixed week. I'll start with Saturday.
Good: I had my MRI of my back.
Bad: It took two Valium for me to get in the darn machine and I was foggy for the rest of the day. No knitting. Just lots of hanging out.

Sunday was a quiet day.
Good: Part of the foot of Sock 2 was knit.
Bad: I damaged my dental implant.

Monday saw me at the dentist.
Good: The implant is fixed. I had also been having pain for about a week so an X-ray was taken.
Bad: He had to do a minor surgery around the implant base.
Very Bad: I need to have a bone graft to repair some bone loss around the implant base. This is not an option. I must have the surgery. I've had this 2 other times and it's the worst pain I have ever had in my life.

Monday night found me knitting on Sock 2 again. I'm on the last increase of the gusset flap. I'll start the decreases and do the heel flap tomorrow.

Today, Tuesday, was Weight Watchers day.
Good: Stayed the same. There is no bad with this since I have lost 14 pounds since August 3.
Good: I spent a little over an hour spinning on Millie Minstrel tonight. If I have a chance tomorrow, I might finish spinning the last bit I have left. It is "I Wanna Be a Pink Poinsettia" which I dyed a while ago. If all is going well, I might start the other half which is slightly lighter.

I'm really tired so am going to have an early night. See you soon.

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Well, I had planned to go to bed about 3 hours ago, but am still awake. Millie and I spent another hour together and I've finished spinning the first half and started the second half. It's much softer in colors compared to the first bobbin. I need to decide if I still want to ply them together or just knit with both of them in a project.

Now, it's almost 3 a.m so I'm really going to bed now. Goodnight.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Rosebud Sock Update

Yesterday afternoon found me spending some time at the orthopedist office. I know the wait is usually about 45 minutes, so I made sure to bring some knitting. Of course, I forgot the pattern book at home and couldn't knit any more after I finished the stockinette portion of the toe. Due to my diabetes, I have extremely sensitive feet and don't like the patterning to go all the way to my toes. To compensate for this, I do about 5 rows of stockinette prior to starting the actual pattern. Sometimes, if it's a very textured pattern, I don't do any pattern on the top of the foot. It all depends on what the fabric will feel like. I finished the toe increases and stockinette with about 10 minutes to sit and wait in the exam room.

It seems I might have spinal stenosis which is a narrowing of the spinal column. This is usually caused by osteoarthritis. The arthritis pushes the discs out of place or alignment and squeeze the nerves which cause the pain, tingling, numbness, and inability to be mobile. My MRI is scheduled for tomorrow. Thanks to my severe claustrophobia, I have to go in the Open MRI machine. Also, I have to take a Valium just to get in that machine. I feel like such a wimp, but, can't help it. The claustrophobia can be over powering during that test. My follow up is next week and I hope the treatment plan is simply therapy. I really don't want surgery.

Last night was spent working on the Rosebud sock again with 2/3 of the first 24 row pattern repeat in place. I plan to spend this evening with it again. My goal is to have this pair finished for next weekend so I can move them from the WIP pile to the FO pile. :)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Slow Road Back

As I sit here thinking about this past week, I feel some good progress has been made. Tuesday saw me able to spin on my wheel again. I only spent about 15 minutes but it felt so good just to put my feet on the treadles again. The leg and back were o.k. and I plan to do another 15 minutes later today. I figure it's a good idea to work my way into it slowly again.

Last night found me just relaxing and watching t.v. The shocking part is - No knitting! I just didn't feel like it.

I'm a little worried about my Rosebud socks. These are lace socks worked over a 24 row pattern. The original toe-up pattern from Wendy Knits uses a 450 yard skein. I must have missed this when I stash dived for these. I chose a gorgeous hot pink/fuchsia skein of Socks That Rock in "Lover's Leap". Unfortunately, there is only 360 yards in the skein. The first sock is knit through the heel flap and put aside. The second sock will be started tonight and worked until I get to the same point. After weighing the yarn, and sock 1, it should take another 1.5 ounces to do this. That will leave me 1.5 ounces to finish them. At this time, I estimate I can get 2 full repeats on the leg, which looks to be what is in the original photo. If I have enough, I will knit the rib section even though it might be a little shorter than the original. The other option I have is to dye a skein in a similar color which will give a slight contrast at the top and use that for the rib. I will have to wait and see how it turns out.

While on the road to the store, I made a quick visit to JoAnn's and got a second Ott Lamp for my living room. I really needed better lighting near my recliner and didn't want to keep moving the other lamp back and forth from the desk area. The new lamp has a magnifier attachment. Lately, I've noticed the small stitches are just a tiny bit harder to see. I do have reading glasses, but can't find them right now. I might put the lamp together later and then I can use it to start the second Rosebud sock later.

As for the back, I am feeling much better. The last few days have seen much improvement in my walking and moving around. There has even been a couple visits to the store. Maybe the cooler temperatures and less humidity of late are helping calm the muscles down. I did notice less swelling in my feet and hands which I usually have during the summer months.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

No Spinning on My Wheel For Me

Thanks to my current back and leg pain, I've had to miss out on participating in the spinning demo at Washington County Fair this year. If I try to treadle my wheel, I have pain running from my back into my leg all the way to the front of my calf. One of my spindles has been getting some use though. I have an appointment next week with my orthopedic doctor so hopefully, I will get some relief.

So instead of spinning, I'm still knitting. Legolas was finished a few days ago, but is still not blocked at this time. (This pattern is part of the Fellowship of the Rings series and not available individually.) The first "Rosebud Sock" is coming along nicely. Tonight was my knitting guild meeting at one of the member's home. I was going to go, but didn't feel up to it. The last three weeks has been spent pretty much at home.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Oh What a Pain in the Butt!!

I have chronic back pain due to the 28 years I worked as a CNA. I usually just live with it.

Last Thursday I had a back ache which progressively got worse by Monday. That's when the leg started to ache. Each day it was a bit worse. I called my doctor on Thursday and got something to help relax the muscles. It didn't work. My knitting guild had a bus trip to WEBS this Saturday which I was really looking forward to going on. I had to give in and cancel my seat on Thursday.

I can walk about a couple minutes before the pain starts to radiate down my leg. As of right now, it's from the back, across the butt, and down the leg to the calf. I decided to go to the walk in treatment center today. The doctor took x-rays and thankfully, I don't have any discs out of place or anything. It looks like the arthritis is pressing on the nerves. He said I have sciatica, which I knew already. It was also good news to learn I don't have a blood clot or anything. I just wanted someone to give me some advice or meds to help relieve the pain a bit. He gave me a different med to take, ordered ice and heat packs intermittently twice a day, and told me to come back in 10 days if it's not better.

Well, needless to say, there has been no spinning all week since Monday. So instead, I have been knitting. I started my "Rosebud" socks and had to frog them because I was making them too big on the size 1 needles. The pattern called for size 0 but I thought it might be too tight for my foot. When I started them over, I promptly broke my needles. New ones are on their way here as of tomorrow thanks to great customer service from Knit Picks.

The medication makes lace knitting with lace weight yarn too hard to focus on so I started "Legolas" finally. It's still lace but knit with DK weight yarn. I'm on chart 2 and all I can say is that the meds make it interesting to figure out this pattern.

Hopefully, I will be able to start spinning again soon, but, in the meantime the knitting is getting some loving attention.