Delegating...not my strong point

The pain was a bit worse today with it moving further down the sciatic nerve.  Bed rest isn't recommended so I've been alternating sitting and moving around.  Sitting, at this stage, hurts a lot.  Putting my feet up helps but moving around for brief periods does seem to help temporarily.  More and more this is being confirmed as sciatica.  Every article I read said it takes about 3 weeks or so for this to resolve itself.  I've got another two weeks to go apparently.

Zach has been my dray horse today, carrying stuff for me and doing the heavy duty work.  I've washed up the dishes but he will cook supper.  He washed a load of clothes under my direction, carried them up the narrow, steep basement stairs for me and handed them to me while I hung them on the line.  Next time (Monday) he'll hang them up while I watch and advise.  We still have to transfer the curtains over the front door to curtain rings so they'll slide easier, and he'll do that under my direction as well.  I'll be honest, though.  I'd rather just do everything myself.  I'm crap at delegating.

Tomorrow Tom will be home but I need to go to the library so I'll ask him to do some more winterizing...like putting weather stripping on the bottom of the back door and the door leading upstairs.  Not so much to keep the cold from coming downstairs, but to keep his cigarette smoke from creeping downstairs.  Last winter it wasn't this bad but lately the smell has been very noticeable.  I bought some scented candles but I really hate the smell so I hope the weather stripping works.  I don't mind him smoking up there.  I just don't want to smell it myself.

I finished up the fingerless mitts last night and Zach asked for a new pair, too.  So I dug out my purple Vanna's Choice and am knitting him a pair as well.  Mine are a gold color Vanna's Choice that I got on sale last summer (half-price) when they were discontinuing that brand at StuffMart.  When I get a bit caught up on things we need, I'm going to start working on things to sell.  Another reason I want no smokey smells down here.  Many people won't buy stuff from a home that has a smoker even if they can't smell it on the product. 

I plan on keeping to small items because large items get too costly to sell.  People want the best price, not necessarily the best quality right now.  I'm using up a lot of my acrylic but once that stash is under control, I plan on investing in a good wool yarn.  Plus using my handspun for various things.  I'm not sure about selling wool that is only hand washable.  I know I probably wouldn't buy much along those lines so I can imagine that busy people want something they can throw in the washer.  But a unique item or a special item might be different.  Something they would take pains with.

This is all so new and frightening to me.  I can't stop imagining how risky it is to invest in something not knowing where or how I'll sell my products.  I won't do online stores for a variety of reasons.  Biggest being, I think I can sell better if I deal face-to-face with a customer.  Especially if they can see and touch the item themselves.  Then there are no misunderstandings about color or texture.  Or size.

In the meantime, I'm studying up on spinning because I want to make that a bigger part of my crafting process.  Both for the cost effectiveness and the skills I'm learning.  Next week I plan on dyeing my Welsh top singles and scouring my Shetland fleece.  I'm going to practice carding my crap fleece first.  This is the fleece I got free from a guy my husband used to work with.  It's really not bad, but not quality or anything.  I wish I hadn't thrown out the rest of it, but it was about 20 fleeces and I would never be able to clean and card that manually.  At least I thought so at the time.  Regrets, now.

When I went outside today to refill the bird feeders I nearly stepped in a humongous pile of some kind of shit.  It looked way too big for the Rottweilers in the neighborhood.  My first thought was bear, but that's highly unlikely.  Zach and I cleaned it up because Tom runs Professor around the yard in the dark when he gets home and the pile was big enough he would have skidded in it and fallen down.  When I say huge, I mean huge.  Not exaggerating a bit.  Zach, bless his heart, did the best he could but with his OCD he had to turn away a lot while I used the shovel to get most of it.  He had to scoop some of it into the shovel without vomiting.  He did fine but underwent a huge handscrubbing episode when he came in.  In spite of not touching it.  He used a stick to scoop it up.

If it was a dog, then I'm pissed that someone is letting their pets run loose and shit in other people's yards.  If it was a wild creature, then my pets will be closely watched when they go outside from now on.

Well, time to get Zach and start supper and get that curtain done.  Then I'm going to put my feet up and knit while watching my dvr programs.  I've gone through so much this week that I'm nearly under 50% on my inventory.  Lots of knitting while watching!  One other reason I love winter.

Finally...

Today is definitely a better day.  Last night was pretty bad, however, as the pain radiated down my left hip and my left thigh, which led Tom to comment that it sounded like sciatica, which one of his guys at work has.  After looking it up online (at reputable sites, not wikipedia) I'm convinced that's exactly what this is.  So Tom has insisted that I do little, rest often and give it a chance to heal.  I've done as much of that as I can, although I had to do shopping today, but the end result has been a definite easing up of the pain.  In fact, I've only taken on tramadol today and that was this morning.  I still hurt and when I start doing too much, the pain increases, but as the corrective solution is rest and anti-inflammatories, I don't plan on going to the doctor unless the pain is back to the levels I had earlier this week.

The big issue, of course, is that sciatica is a symptom, not a condition of its own so there is something that is causing the problem, most likely being the amount of belly fat I carry, which is causing a constant pull on my lower back and spine.  I've been scared enough to get more serious about losing weight, although not to to the degree that I plan on going on some drastic diet.  I'm modifying how and when I eat and have seen an improvement in that area, although not so much in weight loss just yet.  Zach on the other hand has had to tie the belt on his sweats because they're falling off of him.  'Tain't fair!

I'm also convinced that the back pain I had a few months ago was sciatica, too.  This attack being much more painful and lengthy.  For the next few weeks Tom and Zach will be carrying anything that weighs over 10 pounds for me, making up my bed, and generally doing anything that requires me to use my lower back.  I will be resting and doing light work until the pain is gone, then I'll start mild exercising, focusing on strengthening my lower back.

But if I have a recurrence or this flares up again, I will be seeing the dr.  Although I'd like to wait until I see my rheumatologist in January as that's where my GP will send me anyway.

I've been knitting merrily, though, enjoying time on the couch (although I didn't even make up the bed today) and making progress.  I haven't started my inventory yet, as I've got some winter things to finish up for us first.  I started knitting some generic fingerless mitts for myself since I can't find the ones I had last winter.  They're probably in a bag somewhere with the summer stuff.  Don't ask.

But I got a knitting magazine today that had some nice things in it.  I won't buy a magazine unless it has at least 3 patterns I plan on using.  Just a quirky thing since in the past I've bought them for only one pattern only to get home with it to find I couldn't knit that pattern because I didn't have the required wool or some other reason. 

Tonight Zach and I are going to watch Shrek 4 which I've got on dvr while I knit on the mitts.  I'll probably need to knit him a pair, too, since I can't find any of them.  Tomorrow he's going to attack the closet to see what he can find in the way of mittens with flaps.  And hats.  My scarves are on the coat rack where they've been all summer.  I use them for decoration.

Off to lie down while Zach creates a magnificent supper.

TTFN

Winter is here already

Woke up to SNOW!!! Lots of it, although the accumulation hasn't been what was predicted.  Or at least on the lower end of what was predicted.  But it's been snowing furiously all day.  And since it was so cold, I turned the furnace on this afternoon after the temp in the house dropped to 55F.  Even I can't stand it that low during the day.  Plus I can't find my fingerless mitts.

So I've been looking online for some fingerless mitts patterns and found several.  And thinking ahead to making an inventory of things to sell in the future, have been printing out patterns.  And bookmarking pages of patterns I want to give some thought to.

My back is still in the 5 range, down to about 3 with the back support thingy but the fibromyalgia is trying to outscream the back pain.  It's a battle I wish I wasn't participating in.  I have 20 minutes before I can take my next tramadol dose.  I ordered more from the pharmacy since I'm going through my monthly allotment pretty much in total this month.  Normally it takes me 6 weeks to use up my monthly allotment, but this month has been a kicker.  Still, I think it's easing off.  If I'm not better by Monday I'm going in to see the doctor.  I won't mess around with this in case it's more serious than it seems.

In the meantime I'm taking it easy, not doing a lot.  Some cleaning in the kitchen and fixing meals but aside from that, I'm keeping to the bed and limiting my endeavors to knitting on small things that don't require feeling the weight on my hands and shoulders.

I had a really difficult time sleeping last night.  Not so much the pain, just the insomnia rearing it's head, demanding attention as well.  I'm so popular with all my ailments.  And I had planned on going to town today to the library and the store, but didn't want to travel in the first snow of the year.  Considering some people forget how to drive in snow over the winter, I didn't want to be out there for their refresher course.  Staying home seemed the wisest thing to do.

I need to get the kitchen cleaned up a bit because I have to do laundry and need space for the racks so they'll dry near a heating vent.  I have one in the dining room and one in the kitchen that are easy to get to.  But I'm not up for mopping floors tonight so that will have to wait, too.

Right now I'm off to cook spaghetti or something like it and crawl into bed.  Zach will have to make up the bed for me because I think all the work I've been doing has prevented my back from healing more quickly.  Or at least I hope that's it.

TTFN

Getting better

I slept well last night, if not long enough.  Still, it was around 7 hours of nearly uninterrupted and nearly pain-free sleep.  I apparently slept in one position most of the night though.  Sleeping at the other end of the couch seems to help a lot as it takes the weight off my left side.  Plus I'm further away from the dining room and the television in there.  I put my tv on timer and fell immediately asleep, waking up around 5 for a potty trip and some ibuprofen as it was too soon to take a tramadol.  Then I ended up sleeping until 9:15 when Professor woke me up needing to go out.

The pain was down to a 6 (with 10 being the worst pain you can ever endure) so I took a tramadol and put the back support thingy on, which dropped the pain down to a five immediately.  The tramadol is helping finally so the pain is down to about 3 now.  Very endurable.  I had to watch myself because I felt so well that I started doing some cleaning and stuff.  Zach put the plastic on the last window while I just stood there and handed him the scissors.  Didn't need to advise him on it as he had watched me very closely the other day when I did it.  This is a huge help as he can do half of it next winter.

I took a nap around 11 a.m. and slept until Tom left for work at 1:20 and I'm still sleepy.  I know your body does it's healing during delta sleep so I'm assuming that's what's going on, but I want to sleep tonight so I'm holding off on more than one nap a day.

I've been talking to Tom about maybe knitting up an inventory of things to sell at a flea market or craft sale or something, plus working on becoming more proficient at spinning so I can either enjoy knitting with better yarn at a cheaper price or sell the yarn I dye and spin.  Either way I decide to go, I've got to treat it as a job and set aside the time for it rather than doing it after my day is over.  My biggest problem isn't setting aside time to do this; it's having any confidence that anyone would want to buy my products.  I have this fear that my stuff won't hold up or people will buy it and it won't meet their expectations and they'll want their money back and will give me horrible reviews and such.  It's not something I grabbed from thin air; I've seen people do that to online store owners, sometimes on a whim.  Which is one reason I'm not doing the online thing.  The other one is I'm not keen on dealing with the mail service.  I'd rather sell person to person.

So as soon as my back is better, I'm tackling the house to get it under some semblance of control, then setting up some structured time for both my crafts and the tightwadding I need to do in order to make this work out.  It helps that Tom is supportive and understanding.  For a long time I don't think he understood my limitations because invisible disabilities aren't...well...visible or apparent to anyone.  But after all these years he knows that it's very real (he's gotten up in the middle of the night to find me curled up in a ball on the bed or walking the floors because the pain is too bad to sleep) and tries very hard to be there for me.  But he is a human being and I know that at times it gets to him, too.  Fortunately he doesn't take it out on me.  Anymore, that is.  Before he really understood, he would get fed up with me and feel resentful.  Now things are better.

I need to learn to be disciplined about this, which isn't my strong suit.  I need to feel productive in whatever way I can.

But today and maybe tomorrow I'm going to focus on healing my back getting my selective shit back together again.  Another early night for me!

TTFN

Occupying my couch

We have one window to put plastic on and while Zach is going to do it under my observation, I'm too tired and hurting to do it tonight.  Today was spent on errands so I wasn't home much and what little I've done is going to have to be it.  Still having pain in my back but the pain is down to a 7 from an 8.  And I'm taking tramadol regularly instead of waiting on the pain.  That seems to help a bit.  Except I'm taking it every 6 hours instead of 8 so I can get an extra dose in because of the pain.  I'm allowed to do that once in a while but I'm sure if the pain ever gets that bad regularly, my dr will increase my dose accordingly.  I'm on the lowest dose, after all.

Tom flipped my futon for me yesterday but that created more problems than it solved or we should have flipped it the other way or something.  I ended up with a spring right under my left back, where the pain is.  I was sitting on the side of the bed fighting tears at 3 a.m., when Tom came down and noticed.  He offered to flip the mattress over but at that stage I was too tired and in too much pain so I just slept on the other end.  Actually that ended up being the best solution all around as it put me on my right side and gave my left side a chance to heal a bit.  Although I was up at 5 a.m. taking more pain meds and could barely crawl out of bed at 11:30 a.m.  Still, while I'm still in a lot of pain, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

And I bought a back support thingy today and some heating pads for the back.  Actually they are ice pads as well, depending on where you store them.  I think this will help immensely.

But tonight I'm heading for bed and leaving the kitchen for Zach to clean.  Tomorrow after the plastic is on the window I'm Occupying My Couch until I feel better.  Knitting and video games await me. And I dare anyone to tell me to get up and do anything!

At least until I feel better.  I have tons of stuff to do, some of it fun, but I can't enjoy any of that until I get ahead of this pain.  And if this isn't incentive to get rid of the belly fat that is pulling on those back muscles, I don't know what is!

TTFN

Good thing we had warm temps today.

Since I'm still not done with the winterizing.

I will be so glad of the extra hour or sleep tonight.  Not that I'll get to use it, but glad it's there nonetheless.  I didn't sleep until noon today.  In fact, I was up before 10 because of the pain.  I've discovered it's not my dodgy hip after all.  It's my left lower back.  I've messed it up again, most likely hauling that laundry up those steep basement stairs.  Plus climbing up and down the step ladder hanging curtains.  And today putting the plastic on the two windows in the kitchen.

I ended up buying four more panels for the kitchen as I cut the one curtain too short and besides, one panel wasn't enough for that window anyway.  It's wider than a normal window.  I thought I could just pick up three more since I already had one, but I couldn't find any in that color.  So I went with blue.  Nothing in my house has any semblance of a color design, having decorated with early garage sale, but at least my curtains normally match within one room. 

I'm leftover with one long and one short curtain.  Not the one I cut off.  I put that on the back door and I'm not going to put plastic on it this year because of the insulated curtain on it.  I don't have to open it at all so there's no sense in wasting the plastic.  Plus it doesn't do any good anyway.  Same with the front door.  I get so much condensation on the plastic on the front door that the curtain gets wet.  At least this way, I can just wipe it off.  Plus I have an insulated curtain I can cover it completely with at night or on windy days.

Two more windows and I'm done.  The two most difficult are the one over the sink and the one in the bathroom so I'm halfway there. I just hope my back holds out long enough to do it.  I took some ibuprofen this morning but it did nothing much for the pain.  I'm holding out for the tramadol to get me through the night.  I might take a double dose tonight as I'm allowed to do that now and then.

I've turned the heel on the sock I'm knitting my dad but I decided not to continue the pattern past the heel.  I hate it when a pattern has a purl on the first stitch of a double pointed needle pattern.  I never get it tight enough. Plus, he's not going to care anyway.  I still have to get some sock yarn for my mom's socks but no hurry on that.  I haven't been to the yarn store in ages because I hate the parking where they moved.  There's one in another town nearby, too, but again, parking is a pain.  I might just do online shopping.

I'm ready to start the pattern on my Ocean socks that I decided to keep for myself.  I'll make my mom's out of the plum yarn I've got instead of the green.  She likes that color a lot.

And once I'm done with all the winterizing, I'm going back to sweaters and Bowser in addition to the socks.  In a perfect world I would have a pair of socks on the dpns all year round.  And then after I've gotten caught up on the cleaning, I'll get busy with the spinning and dyeing and washing of the fleece.  Washing of the Fleece sounds like a festival, doesn't it?

I saw a really cute Santa suit for dogs today but as I have red yarn and white yarn, I might just adjust a pet coat pattern I have and make one for Professor.  He'll hate it for sure but it will make for a cute picture or two. 

I'm late with supper but Tom is late getting home so that worked out pretty well.  It should be done in about 15 minutes...baked ziti and brussels sprouts.  Nothing fancy but something I could cook while putting plastic on the windows and the curtains up.

Off to get the plates and such out and clear off a space on the dining table so he can eat supper.

TTFN

Really glad it's Friday

I got the last load of clothes out on the line this afternoon, by which time only one of the loads from yesterday was done.  As I got up at 7 a.m. (due to pain) I got to watch the sun hit the frosted clothes and let off steam.  It kept me entertained for at least 15 minutes.   Tomorrow morning I don't intend to get up that early.  And by early I mean before noon.

I wasn't able to take the paperwork back to the credit union today because Tom missed several places he was supposed to initial.  The cover letter made it sound like there were only a couple of places but in reality there were about 8.  I probably won't make it tomorrow either because they close at noon and I plan on sleeping until then.

I did make a run to the store as we were nearly out of milk.  My excursions are costing almost half what they used to.  I'm trying very hard to stick to the list and not just grab things off the shelf.  I should have enough for a week unless the guys go through the milk as fast as they did this last gallon.  Although the clip on sunglasses I got don't fit so I'll need to take those back.  I can't drive without sunglasses with my astigmatism.

I finished up one Ocean sock and started the heel flap on the sock for my dad.  I went over my mother's phone call yesterday and realized the "thick" socks she was talking about wanting was the fingering weight sock yarn so I need to get more sock yarn for her pair.  I'll probably throw in a pair of bulky socks as well though. 

I'd like to start working on the sweaters again, too, and get back to work on Bowser.  At this rate, Bowser won't be done before spring.  But I still don't have the curtains up.  I must do that today and get the plastic on over the weekend.  It was 55F in the house this morning (and frost on the ground and clothes).  I don't think it got up to 60 in the house but it's still been pretty comfortable so I'm not going to turn on the furnace yet.

Tom is already planning his trip up north for deer hunting.  I was a bit astonished to see on the calendar that it's nearly upon us.  At least I have a reliable car this year.  Not that I plan on going anywhere.  But I could if I wanted to.

Well, off to fold the clothes before they wrinkle and then pop a pizza in the oven.  I can't cook and get the curtains up so I'm cheating again this week.  Hopefully once the winterizing is done, I'll have more time to do the frugal stuff.  And more time to work on my knitting, dyeing and spinning.  I'm getting antsy to scour my Shetland fleece, not to mention dyeing and plying my Welsh top singles.  I've decided I want another kick spindle for Christmas so I can spin more than one type of yarn at a time.  It will speed up the process a bit and I'll have more yarn to knit with.  My goal is to get to the point where I only knit with what I've processed and spun.  That way I can use better yarn instead of the acrylic I can afford.  Although I probably won't give up on acrylic altogether.  It has served me well!

TTFN

We're never going to win this race

The universe reminded me today that we are still in the can't-catch-a-break category.  The dryer quit.  Fortunately it was sunny today and will be sunny tomorrow provided the weather-guessers can be trusted so I have two loads out drying overnight and will put another load out tomorrow.  I think it's just a belt, which will be easy to replace if we can get the correct belt.  It was a cheap, cheap dryer we bought about 14 years ago but I just can't afford to replace it right now.

As a result of hauling heavy, wet clothes up the steep basement stairs, my dodgy hip is screaming at me to stop and go to bed.  Not going to happen yet but I will postpone the curtains until tomorrow.  And the plastic.  Climbing up and down the step stool won't help my hip much.  I know I should mention it to the dr, but I've already been diagnosed with arthritis in that hip and can't afford a bone scan because it comes off the deductible first and I don't have $600+ that it would cost.  I hope to lose some weight, which I think will help.  It can't be good for that hip to be carrying all this weight on it.

Beans and cornbread for supper tonight and I'm trying to catch up on the kitchen.  I have stuff that must be washed by hand and that's what's slowing me down, but mostly I'm making progress.  The dishwasher just finished and Zach will empty it when the dishes have dried a bit.  Then after I finish the cornbread, I'll eat a bite and make up the couch.  I've had trouble sleeping because of the pain lately so going to bed early makes a lot of sense to me.

My mom's birthday is today so I called and wished her happy, happy.  She would like some thick socks and I'm making Daddy some thin socks so that will make up the bulk of their care package this year.  It's going to be a bit light this year due to getting back into tightwad mode.  Well, triple tightwad mode.  I will admit I feel better when I do this.  Makes me feel like I'm doing my job.

Tonight I'll work on the socks for Mom and Daddy.  I'll give Mom the Ocean socks since I'm okay for now with what I have as long as I wash them out every other night. And really it would be better to do that than to machine wash them.  Plus I'll have to start washing my wrappings (lymphedema) every other night, too, if I end up having to use the clothes line and racks this winter.  I've done it before it's just finding room for the racks that is the problem but since I moved the living room out of the dining room, there is a space in front of the heating vent that is usable plus there is a space in the kitchen right under the heating vent that will work.  I'll just have to move the pet food to a different location.

So, off to make cornbread and go to bed.

TTFN

The after stress nosedive

I wasn't going to go anywhere today but after a day of doing absolutely nothing except getting the clothes from the dryer and putting a new load in, I thought I would go ahead and get Tom's bread so I don't have to go out again.  Imagine our surprise when we walked out of StuffMart to snow!  Thick, wet, heavy snow!  It wasn't sticking so that was a bonus and by the time we got to our town,  the snow was gone...or not arrived yet, being east of the town we just left.

And I still don't have all the curtains up.  Which I absolutely have to do tomorrow in addition to putting plastic on the windows.

I think I just caved in to the stress of the past two weeks.  I do fall apart after the crisis.  Never during, which is good, I suppose.  But after I toss the pizza in the toaster oven on timer, I'm making up the bed and crashing for the night.  Some sock knitting to soothe me but an early night, I hope.  I did get to sleep early last night but woke up several times due to the pain.  In fact, woke up this morning in pain.  I didn't take a tramadol though.  I do tend to hoard those for night when I can't distract myself from the pain.  Today I just endured instead of tramadol.  Some days I can; some days I can't.  Tonight I'm just going to go ahead and take one as I crawl into bed so I've got enough time for another one before I go to sleep later.

When I got home I checked the mail and there was a letter from the loan officer with some paperwork he forgot to have us initial but I'm not going back to town tomorrow.  He can wait until Friday.  I've got work to do tomorrow.

But for now, I'm winding down and don't have a lot to talk about so....

TTFN

I'm a happy girl

Yesterday was packed with errands, cleaning and laundry and I was too tired to blog about it so I had an early night and slept until 11:30 this morning.  I did get some knitting done though so I feel pretty good about yesterday.

The Town and Country is sitting in the driveway after an effortless morning in settling all we needed settled.  First thing Tom called the insurance agent and got insurance set up on the new car.  Then we headed to the credit union where the fairly new loan officer had nothing done at all and didn't even remember talking to us until he found our paperwork, but the process, while long, was uneventful.  But I will be calling on the first of December to make sure our automatic payment got made and from the correct account.  Not saying I don't trust the guy, but it's my credit rating on the line.

Then we headed to Vic's, the mechanic, where the car was sitting, ready to drive.  It cost so much less than we anticipated:  $225, including the tow.  I swear they are the best mechanics around.  So we were able to drive the car home, take the plates off and head back across town to the dealer to sign the papers and hand over the check.  By 11 a.m., I was driving my new car and loving every minute of it.  Now we plan on cleaning up the car, fixing a few minor things and selling it.

I had planned on taking today off since I had shopping to do yesterday (meds in at the pharmacy and nearly out of toilet paper) but the library called and I had a book in.  I don't like to delay picking my holds up because generally there is a waiting list for the books.  I like to get them, read them and return them so the next person doesn't have to wait.  But we didn't go shopping or anything, Zach and I just stopped for a coke and talked about future possibilities and plans for getting our heads out of our asses and getting our lives back together again. 

Then we got home where I have been working on clearing out my closet (where the cold air return is) more laundry (I'm waiting until I have water from the faucet during showers in order to save on the water bill) and then I've got curtains to put up.  I can't find my other set of kitchen curtains but it's not a problem as I have to shorten the set I had last year anyway so I might as well just cut off the curtains I was going to use in the living room but changed out for shorter ones.  I have pinking shears so that will be okay for this year.  Next year I'll hem them.

I have to get supper started and straighten up the kitchen a bit but aside from that I'm not doing anything more tonight.  I'm tired.  And I would like to get more knitting done.

I ended up going with the Ocean sock pattern for the worsted weight yarn.  I've got a pair from last winter and love them.  They fit well and have a nice enough design.  I went back to the pattern I had been using on the fingering sock yarn.  It's an adaptation of the Yarn Harlots sock pattern.  I just do the twin "cables" down the sides instead of her intricate cable design with longer ribbing.  It's a great design that I used last year but with a gray yarn instead of teal.  I wish I had gray again because I think it looks better with a lighter color yarn, but I have the teal so...

I also would like to work on some fingerless mitts as I can't find mine and my fingers are getting cold while knitting and typing.  I know they're here somewhere.  I'm sure once I knit up a new pair, they'll show up.  But you can never have too many pairs of mitts.

In the meantime, I'm planning on doing some reading as I got a new knitting book from the library today and I can't wait to sit down with it.  So I'm off to get my work done.

TTFN