I’m not sure, but I think my knitting mojo may be creeping back.

I have gotten a little bit of work done on two of my sock projects, the Socks for Colbert, and the Circle Socks. It’s not a lot, but I will take it happily.  I’ve even been remembering to toss one of my projects into my tote bag before I leave the house, which is something I have not been doing much since I was in the hospital.

Here is a list of things I have started, or have to get done, once it does come back for certain:

• Wonder Woman Fingerless Mitts  (c0mmission)
• Socks for Colbert
• 3 pair of socks for my accountant
• Sediment Scraps Blanket
• Get fully caught up on Year of Stash Socks 2012 projects.

It’s a doable list.  I have only one project for myself to work on this year that will require a yarn purchase.  My ex gave me Craftsy’s “The Perfect Fit Seamless Crazy Lace Cardigan” class as part of my birthday present, and I will need to purchase yarn or that.  Otherwise, I continue to work on projects I can find the yarn for in my stash.

I am hoping that these things are a positive sign.  I miss knitting, but when every stitch seems to be a chore, putting it down or a bit is probably the best thing I could have done.

Fail (although not epic)!

It’s been a long summer for me. And my knitting and writing has all suffered as a result.

For some time, I have been feeling incapable of doing much more than knitting and sitting at the computer. This culminated in my thinking I had the flu again in late June. Unfortunately, it was nothing so easy.

When I didn’t answer her phone calls for three days, my sister turned up on my doorstep, and demanded that I go to the hospital. She offered to take me to any hospital I wanted, and was even willing to let me consider it overnight. Fortunately for me, I realized that my not having the energy to tell her to go away probably meant that she was right. So we headed off to the hospital, with an assist from my ex. (It took both of them to get me out of bed. I literally did not have the energy to stand up.) When we got to the hospital, I found out that my blood pressure was 96/52 — not good for a woman whose untreated blood pressure can only be described as obscenely high! I was admitted and diagnosed with cellulitis that had not only gone septic, but systemic…as the doctor put it on my third day in hospital, “If you had taken the overnight to consider, the question would not have been which hospital, but burial or cremation.” And, yes, that scared the heck out of me. I have been on antibiotics since admittance — in hospital, I was receiving one bag of Vankomycin a day, as well as an oral dose of Cipro. Since release, I have been on Vibramycin (Doxycycline Hyclate) twice a day. Mostly, all antibiotics make me want to do is sleep, so both my writing and knitting have suffered.

The upshot of my hospitalization is that I now have Medicaid, so I don’t need to worry about medical bills, and the insurance that I got assigned to is one my local doctor takes.

And that’s where the fail comes in. I am barely 1/3 through my Ravellenic Games project (which I will finish, darn it!), halfway through my Socks for Stephen Colbert project, and only on the second pair of socks for my accountant. The baby blanket I have been crocheting for charity is only about half done, and the writing project I need to turn in (with pictures) on the 18th is going to need an extra week or two, which I need to discuss with the client.

As for blogging, I have not felt up to much, especially since when I was just starting to feel better, my roommate got sick. It took me a week to get her to go to the doctor, and the day following her appointment, we got a call that he was sending an ambulance for her, it would be at our house in half an hour or less, and she was going to the hospital, no arguments, because her hemoglobin was 5. I tossed on clothing, and we headed to the ER in the ambulance, and I stayed with her until she was admitted and in a room. She was in the hospital from Friday afternoon until Tuesday, so that meant I had to do some of her chores, including feeding the cats and changing their litter. (We have an agreement that I will not ever have to do because she is the one who insisted on getting the cats. However, the litter seriously needed changing, so I did it.)

At any rate, I am back, plugging away at my Ravellenic Games project (Bea Schmidt’s ). After that, I will get the Colbert socks done (and they are coming out beautifully, although slowly), then get back to the socks for my accountant.

I am just hoping I can get back on track enough that I can finish out my YOSS for this year. I need to make three pairs of socks to be caught up, and the two I’m working on will help do that.

Still, it feels like fail, even though it’s certainly not an epic fail, and I do understand that the health issues are a lot more important than whether or not I get 12 pair of socks knit this year.

I Know, It’s Been Too Damned Long…

…since i posted, but a lot has been happening at Chez Wunder this past month.

Work continues on my current, commissioned pair of Circle Socks, and on My July YOSS contribution, which will be part of Kay Gardiner’s Socks for Stephen Colbert project — an effort to get Mr. Colbert to cover the C&D letter sent to Ravelry by teh US Olympics Committee, over the use oof the term “Ravelympics”.

Work also continues on my crochet baby blanket, although it’s a bit warm for making a thick, wintery blanket.

I’m also working on a secret knitting-related project that I cannot reveal just yet, but will be thrilled to reveal when the time is appropriate.

Unfortunately, all of these got thrown a bit out of whack when I spent four and a half days in the hospital for cellulitis that went both septic and systematic. (I am still on antibiotics, trying to get this stupid infection killed off completely, but at least they are now oral, and I can take them at home.) Unfortunately, the antibiotics make me a bit more sleepy than usual, but that’s life.

Also, in the days to come: The Ravellenic Games are starting tomorrow, when the Olympics officially start, and I am a co-captain for Team Plurk. My event will be Shawl Sailing, and I am intending to do Tabea Schmidt’s very pretty shawlette, Maluka.

I suspect it’s gonna be an interesting few weeks….

May has not Been the Kindest Month this Year

Life has been happening this month; nevertheless I have been knitting.

My May YOSS Project was Marilyn Phillippi’s Tilting Tardis Cowl. I used Fleece Artist’s Nyoni, in Melon, and the shawl came out perfectly gorgeous! This was made out of the yarn that was left over after I had completed my Marrowstone Shawl. It just needs the right buttons, and I am planning to get those in the next few days.

Knitting Marcy Vandale’s Marrowstone Shawl was great fun! I forget who on Plurk turned me on to this pattern, but thank you whoever it was! It worked up fairly quickly because the trim of the shawl was knitted sideways, then the stitches for body were picked up along one side of the edging. I chose this to increase my options for Wear A Shawl Day, which is the 11th of each month.

For this month’s charity knitting, I picked a crochet project, Cay Litchfield’s Baby Bobbles Blanket, specifically to use up a donation to my stash of acrylic yarn (National Yarn Crafts’ Natura Deluxe Acrylic) from a friend’s late mother’s stash. The colors so far are medium blue, lavender, light blue, and two different pastel ombre yarns. This is being done as a contribution to Project Linus.

My next stash-breaking project is Martina Kastanek’s Sunday Morning Shawl. I am using up a lot of fingering weight yarn for this project; It’s good to watch the odds and ends become something useful and pretty! It’s also good to reduce the number of small balls of yarn in my project basket! This project is another addition to my Wear a Shawl Day collection.

My last project on the needles is Wendy D. Johnson’s Toe Up Feather and Fan Socks. These have been lying fallow for a while, because I have had Real Life to deal with, but have now been picked up again, and I am about 1-3/4″ away from starting the heel. The yarn is Ethereal Fibers’ Nebula Sock in the “Thump” colorway. Sadly, the light in my room is yellowish,so the picture does not do the colorway justice. The colors in this yarn are truly luminous in daylight.

So, knitting-wise it has been a busy and productive month.

And my next installment should have some exciting news, if all goes well!

April YOSS and Other Things

Did the Readers Choice pattern — Hunter Hammersen’s Dippers.

The yarn I used was Koigu’s Painter’s Palette. I can’t give a color number, since this particular colorway does not seem to appear on their current color card. The picture really doesn’t convey the rich inner glow of the colorway, sadly, but it is one of the most beautiful commercial colorways I’ve seen in a long time.

I have three other projects on the needles at the moment: The Swiss Cheese Scarf by Winnie Shih, the Madeira Mantilla by Donna Druchunas, and the Toe Up Feather and Fan Socks by Wendy D. Johnson.

One of the best things about knitting is that, even after 54 years of doing it, there are always new things to learn.

I borrowed Nancy Marchant’s Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch, and have been slowly working my way through the different ways of making the brioche stitch and its variants. I will definitely be buying this book at some point, since brioche is one of the very few things I have not been able to teach myself.

So, that is the current knitting state of the otherdeb.

March, so far…

It’s been a reasonable month, knitting-wise.

I got my YOSS project done and posted before the first half of the month was done. The pattern I used was Honey Badger, and the yarn was Madeline Tosh Sock Yarn.

I’ve become kind of addicted to yarn by a few independent dyers: Ethereal Fibers, MIB Yarns, and Keegan Lane Yarns. And Ethereal Fibers has one color, Poison Apple, that practically glows in the right light. I chose to use it for a second Belgian Waffles, since I loved the way the first one looks, but my main coat is burgundy. It came out even better than I had hoped.

I’m currently using her laceweight in “Saphira” to make the Madeira Mantilla, but I don’t have any pictures yet.

One thing I have found consistent among the independent dyers I’ve been using is the quality of their yarns. So often, the commercial yarns are full of breaks, or small knots, and it makes those yarns annoying to work with. I don’t know if it’s because the indie dyers spend a bit more for their base yarns, or what, but I have never had a problem like that with an indie dyer.

Finally Got Something Finished

I finally finished the socks I ended up doing for YOSS 2012 — you know I’m kind of allergic to doing plain vanilla socks, so I picked a pair that was calling to me beyond anything reasonable: Kirsten Hall’s Hexagons from Think Outside the Sox.

I am pleased with how they came out.

I’m still working on the Circle Socks for my customer, and will start the fingerless mitts for her once I finish them.

I’m still undecided as to what my March YOSS project will be; I like both patterns.

And I’m committed to a hat knit-along this month: Belgian Waffles by Keelin Sweeney.

I swear, my knitting eyes seem to be bigger than my time will allow for these months. Of course, spending much of the last two months sick with one thing or another has not been helpful. We shall see if I can get caught up this month.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I’m currently working on several projects. Got a commission for both a pair of Circle Socks (designed by Anne Campbell) and a pair of fingerless mitts. Doing the socks first, 2 at once, magic loop, on a 32″ long size 00 needle. The yarn for these is ZenString’s Bambewe, in the Tramanto colorway.

They are coming out nicely, and I really hope the client likes them.

I’ve also started my February YOSS project. I didn’t feel like making mittens, and I hate plain vanilla socks, so I’m doing Wendy Johnson’s Generic Toe-Up Feather and Fan Socks, in Ethereal Fibers’ Nebula Sock Yarn, in the “Thump” colorway. Haven’t gotten too far on those, because I also got some paying writing work to do at the same time.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to knitting-wise!

Crochet-wise, I have a student. She is a delightful woman who works at a school in a different part of Brooklyn.

I would like to get a few more students, but things happen when they happen, so I’m not going crazy over it.

YOSS for January is finally finished

I finally got my January 2012 YOSS project done!

I thought this pattern would be a quick and easy one, but it was annoying and fiddly from the heel to the toe. I changed the toe shaping, since I did not have the time or energy to look up the pattern the designer used for that. Further, I found her shaping instructions to be annoying, and not suitable for doing as a true magic loop project, i.e., two socks at once. In fact, after the heel flap, I ended up moving one sock to a set of dpns, and finishing first the sock on the circular needle, then transferring the other sock back onto the circular needle and finishing it.

It was an interesting project, but I do not think I will be making this pattern again.

Finally got my January socks on the needles

It’s been one of those months.

I actually had work. And I was ill.

The result of those two things was that I did not finish my December socks until about 5 am this morning.

For the first sock of the 2012 Year of Stash Socks Challenge, I’ve chosen to do one of the socks from their “plain vanilla” list, the Arch Shaped Socks.

I do have one little treat — a friend and I were talking online, and I noted that I made stitch markers. Herewith, a pic of some of them.