Winners!

I only had two entries on the giveaway so I'm going to give both of them the book.  I can get another copy for myself later so the two winners are:  SusieB and Kymberly Pray.  Please email me your addresses so I can get them in the mail by next week.  I rarely ever check my gmail address so email me at kawaski@charter.net and I'll get your book out to you.

Thanks for entering the contest.  Even though I didn't have many entries, I enjoyed this and will offer something else in the future. 

Loving the knitting mojo

I'm frogging the red sweater because it's just too bulky.  I don't like the drape...heck, there isn't any drape at all.  Too stiff.  So I'll do something else with the yarn.  I was on gauge but it didn't look a thing like the picture.  Instead I'm knitting socks.  I had bought some sock yarn at the new JoAnn's we got recently.  Good price so I got several skeins.  Some is self striping.  That's what I'm working on now.  I might give them as gifts to the nurses in cardiac rehab.  They're so nice.

I love that the weather is cooling off.  I'm taking the a/c out of the window this weekend so I can watch the bird feeder while I knit in bed..  Still pondering turning it back into a living room but not yet anyway.  Maybe sometime when Tom is home for the whole weekend.

I still don't have a lot of energy even with the exercise and the weight loss...which isn't a lot but is steady now and while miniscule, is at least a sign I'm moving in the right direction.  I've got one more week left in my 50s.  Next Sunday I turn 60. 

I've got laundry going today. I was going to restring the clothesline but I think I'll do that tomorrow and dry the white clothes in the dryer since socks feel so much better machine-dried.  At least the dryer will feel nice today since it's so cool.

Otherwise I'm spending the rest of the day knitting and a bit of cooking.  I have some shopping to do but that might wait until tomorrow.  I'm not in any hurry.  I have 3 blankets on the needles right now so I think I'll dig out Zach's pullover and get back to work on it.  I'll have to figure out where I am in the pattern and relearn it, I suppose.  I much prefer working on pullovers to cardigans.  And I really hate the buttonhole bands that are folded over.  Too thick and the buttonholes never look right to me.  I got some purple yarn several weeks ago on sale so I think I'll make a wrap out of it.  Something to throw on when it's not freezing out.  Or something to wear while knitting.  I do have lots of things like that so maybe I'll do a pullover instead.

I started getting Knit 1*2*3, a knitting magazine in the mail.  I really like this one because the patterns use yarn I can afford and have access to.  It's frustrating to fall in love with a pattern that only will work in the yarn they have chosen and it's out of reach financially and is completely unavailable.  I have lots of things to watch while knitting this winter so I'm really feeling the knitting mojo today.  Lots of projects, lots of possibilities.  I also have plans to work on other crafts as well, like spinning, some crocheting, drawing, maybe some painting and hopefully I'll get some writing in as well.  Which means much less time online.  I haven't managed to be done with facecrack yet.  It's the only place I have to see some of my friends so it's hard but it lags my computer so much that I am more tempted each day to just give it up.

I've barely gone to Ravelry lately.  I should check it out more often and facecrack less.

Off to put the clothes in the dryer and back to knitting.

At least I'll have the pain meds for a few months

The nurse called back to tell me that the dr has refilled my pain meds but it didn't sound like the dr was happy about it and WILL see me again in a few months to discuss this.  I'm thinking of looking for a new doctor.  One who will treat all of me and not send me to a specialist every time something comes up.  I talked to some nurses today and found out no other doctor does that.

I nearly started a new project last night but I couldn't get it to come out right.  I may still do it.  It's a tunisian crochet cable scarf that I would like to learn how to do.  I know how to do tunisian crochet but this cable thing is a but difficult to understand. I saw it on a knitting show but I deleted the program so I don't have it anymore.  Maybe it's on the site.  It's either Knit and Crochet Now or Knit and Crochet Today.  Can't remember which.

I must get back to work on my dad's sweater though.  Which I will work on tonight as I'm not doing much  more than fixing supper.  It's been a hectic and frustrating week full of stress and little sleep so I'm tired and in a lot of pain right now.  Thankfully I can take some tramadol in just a few minutes and put my feet up for a while.

Still plugging along with the baby blanket, too...the sherbert green one.  I should get pictures of all that I'm doing.  I just keep forgetting to do it.  Maybe next week.

Not sure if I'm going to the family picnic on Sunday.  I'd like to go but if it's hot and I still feel this bad then I just can't sit that long in pain.  I'm going to try to make it.  I'll just have veggies to eat though.  Can't think of anything to take.  I'm too tired to fix much of anything to take.

Off to go lie down for a bit before fixing supper.

Not a happy day

Had my annual physical today and walked out of it frustrated and nearly in tears.  My rheumatologist retired in February and there are no others in my network so my gp told me she would manage my tramadol, my pain meds.  Today, when I asked for a refill, she told me she wasn't going to manage them because she's not trained.  My rheumie herself was frustrated that the dr wouldn't take care of my fibromyalgia as well.  Now I don't know what to do.  The dr told me there is a new rheumie at the hospital but there isn't and I still don't have anyone in my network who treats that.  I'll be out of pain pills by the end of the month and even if I could find a rheumie, it would take months to get in to see one.  The thought of being in pain again makes me want to cry.  I mean, I'm already in pain even with the pills.  Without them...

I guess it's possible my cardiologist might manage them for me but I don't see him again until January.  That's a long time to go without pain pills.

She also got me to agree to various other tests since my deductible has already been met.  Not sure if I'll do all this, because the deductible isn't all of the cost.  We still have to pay the 20%...plus I haven't received the bill for the heart cath, stent and hospital stay yet.

I'll wallow in yarn today in order to console myself.  I'm not nearly close enough to finishing up my dad's sweater so I'd better knuckle under and get it done.

Or cry.  Not sure which I'll end up doing today.

Giveaway!

I posted this on my other blog but since I haven't had any response there, I'll post it here as well.  You only need to comment on one post to enter the contest.  Either post will get you a chance to win.

I've never done one of these but I got an extra copy of a book that I ordered and rather than send it back, I thought I would offer it up to someone out there who likes fantasy books.  It's not a new book...several years old, in fact, but it's one of my favorites.  I read it to Zach when he was little...many times.  I had loaned my original out but never got it back so when I ordered a new copy, got the extra one, too.

The book is Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams and it's fantastic.  More like animal mythology/fantasy but reminds me a lot of Watership Down in many ways.

So if anyone wants to enter the contest, just comment on this post and on September 22nd (my birthday!) I'll randomly draw a name and send it off to the lucky winner.

I hope whoever wins it likes it as much as I do.