Random Yarns

The Happy Slob

By nature, I'm a slob. I can overlook piles of newspapers, overflowing garbage cans, dust bunnies under the bed the size of elephants. I just don't mind having my stuff heaped around me, like a nest. In fact, there is some kind of weird comfort in that for me. A confirmation that this space, as humble as it may be, does indeed belong to me, and the things in it are mine.

I'm even comfortable with letting a certain few individuals see me in my natural state. Umm, actually I can think of only one. And his place is worse than mine, so that's why I don't mind too much. I don't even like my parents seeing my place messy. I ask them to call me before dropping in so that I can have a few minutes to stuff dirty dishes into the oven to hide them. And my husband hates a messy place too. So I work to control the chaos somewhat. Keep it so that I can escape the house in event of fire without tripping over some personal detritus.

My husband is away on business this week, down in Boston for training. Normally, I'd spend this time lounging around, working on knitting projects, allowing the mess to pile up naturally, and then go on a cleaning binge at the last moment, to pull the place up to passable in the last few moments before he walks through the door.

Instead, I've spent the day doing my least favorite activity: Cleaning. I mopped and waxed the kitchen floor, disinfected the master bathroom, picked up, dusted, and thoroughly vacuumed the master bedroom, even going to far as to clean the fingerprints off the TV screen, and vacuum the cheerios up from under the dresser (not sure how they got there).

Next I tackle the kid's room. And the second bathroom. And dust the living room. And finish cleaning the kitchen.

Why this frenzy of domestic activity? In-laws are coming. They've not seen the kids in a while, and are arriving on Wednesday to visit for a few days.  And while here, since my family of four has only a two bedroom home, I'm putting them up in my bedroom, and I'll sleep with the kids.

Gotta run. Mr. Clean is calling my name.

Problem Solved

I figured out how to mirror the corner detail from one side of the Eris pull-over to the other. A close look at the panel showed that the central design is reversible.

So that made me wonder, could I just continue working across the bottom of the hem, and then repeat the chart for the other side, making a few adjustments to make it fit? Turns out that, yes, I can.  So instead of working each corner from the top down and grafting stitches together at the hem, I started at one corner, and with only a few changes, continued all the way up to the other corner. This way the there's no difference in texture when I switch from Slip-slip-kit to attach the border to Purl-two-together-through-the-back-loop. Here's the result. The center of the hem is curling pretty badly. Hopefully after blocking it will lay flat, and not creep up in the center like it is now. (crummy picture. Sorry 'bout that). I'm actually pretty proud of myself.

Now I'm in the process of figuring out the math to shorten the sleeves to fit my tiny 4'11" mother's arms.

The American Cancer Society has a promotion called Daffodil Days. My hubby's office had a fundraiser, where for a donation, you got a bunch of daffodils and a teddy bear. He bought them for me in celebration of the end of my treatment. Look how lovely!

The bear has the most unbelievably soft fur, and is cute as can be.

And look at the details on his feet

And speaking of cancer, I got a call from the hospital today. Good news! The scan I suffered through last week shows no spread of my cancer. I think I might be officially cured, but I'm not sure. I know have to be checked every year for at least the next five years.

I'm beginning to feel the urge to spin again. I have boxes of roving received for Christmas put away right now, and my thoughts wander frequently to them. Cheryl and June have been doing a lot of spinning, and the sheep in me is dying to follow along (Sheep. Get it? Herding instinct and wool. Yeah, weak joke). I'm forcing myself to finish off the Eris sweater first. If my pattern for the Tina Shawl ever shows up I'll start on that soon too. Oh, there needs to be more hours in the day!

Over the Rainbow

Finally finished the rainbow socks. These are such happy socks, that I feel good wearing them.

Yarn: Opal Mexico  Color Number 5001

Source: EBay

Needles: US1

Gauge: 10 sts per inch
Well, my feet feel good at least. The rest of me is feeling pretty crappy. I have a miserable cold, and (forgive me if this is Too Much Information) cramps from hell. Ah hell. Just finally get over the whole  hypo-thyroid misery to be struck down with some horrible bug. And since misery loves company, I've also infected little Ryan. He woke me up by coughing and sneezing in my face, then saying "I sick". No kidding.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm climbing out of Hypo-hell. I'm obviously not the only person going through this. The number of people who surf onto my blog with thyroid related searches is pretty impressive.

So now its back to working on Eris. Eris has an asymmetrical bottom. There is a Shirt-tail like detail that appears on one hip. But my mother doesn't like that, and asked me to mirror the detail on the opposite hip. I worked it as suggested in the Mods section, but I wasn't satisfied with its appearance. The Slip-Slip-Knit doesn't look the same as the Purl Through the Back. The grafting isn't great either. You're grafting top-to-top in a ribbed pattern. When you graft what is essentially two cast-off edges (with out doing the cast-off) together, you're always going to be a half-stitch off. This isn't a problem if you're doing stockinette. But in this case its a rib pattern. And the grafting shows. So I've been working on a way to continue the pattern all the way around. I'll work on that some more tonight, and tell you what I come up with.

 

Overheard in the grocery store last night:

Two teenaged girls
Girl 1: I left my I-Pod on his desk on purpose tonight.
Girl 2: Girl, why did you do something so stupid? Now you have no tunes.
1:   I'm gonna call him tomorrow, ask if I can come get it. Then I get to see him again.
2:   Oh Girlfriend, that's smart! I wouldn't have though of that.

I smiled at this exchange. Each generation thinks that they invented leaving something behind on purpose to see him again. I did it. My mother told me that she used to do it. My grandma said she did it with my grandpa. Once I purposely "lost" an earring in a place where the guy I was seeing would be certain to find it. When I mentioned later that I lost an earring, he looked slightly guilty, but never volunteered that he found it. Maybe he wanted a souvenir. I still wear the mate, and remember him.

Sniffle, snort, whine

This post is whiney. You've been warned.
I've caught a cold. Its both in my chest and my head. I feel stuffed up, congested, and miserable. I also feel fat and sluggish. I stepped on the scale, and the final damage from the 6 weeks of hypo-thyroid is 10 pounds gained. I thought it was 7. I'm in my 'fat' jeans, and they're snug. Its making me cranky. And  I'm snacking while I'm typing complaints about being fat. How's that for stupid?

I'm waiting impatiently for my Tina Shawl pattern to show up from The Knitter.com I've had mixed results from ordering from her. But I'm not ready to cast on Tina right now, so its fine that the pattern's not here yet. I ordered from her because her shipping rate is the best - free.

I've been continuing on the rainbow socks.
Damn, they're taking forever. This time I managed to match the heels as well. Usually I don't bother. I just use the other end of the center-pull ball, knit in the heel, break the yarn, and then go back main yarn, which keeps the colors in sequence. But this time, when I split the skein, using my trusty Weight Watcher's scale to make sure they were even, the balls ended at exactly the same place. What are the odds?

Friday I drove back to Manchester, NH to Elliot hospital for the last test of my treatment, a full body scan. I had pictures, but they're on my mother's camera and she forgot to email them. Darn it, I was trying to be a good blogger! Anyway, that was a real nuisance. I had to be admitted to the hospital again, which took me about 20 minutes. The scan its self was no fun. It involved lying very, very still on a very narrow bed, while a large and noisy piece of machinery moved very slowly from the top of my head, missing my nose by about 3 inches, all the way to my knees. That took 22 minutes. Then they scanned my head and neck again. 12 minutes of lying still as a rock, with my head on a pillow that felt like it was filled with 10 lbs of wet sand. My neck hurt, and I was feeling very claustrophobic and began to get panicy at the last few minutes. I was trying deep breathing, meditation, singing to myself. I really think I was beginning to get a panic attack, which was an awful feeling. I almost kissed the doctor when he came and got me up.

The Starbucks that I will be working at has opened. They had a 'soft' opening on Thursday for friends and family, and opened to the public on Saturday. I will be starting work on April 1st. I'm looking forward to it, but realize that I have to be very careful about the food. While working, you're allowed drinks, and (I think) some food. But since even the Tall (small) size of my two favorite drinks, the Chai Latte and Caramel Macchiato, made with skim milk are about 200 calories each, it will be really easy to get out of control with it. It'll probably be like when I was working at the fabric store, and I ended up buying about 15 years worth of material in the first 60 days I was working there!

 

"C" Is for

a Church in neighboring Durham has a program for mom's and their kids called Mothers of Preschoolers, or "MOPS".

Childcare is provided, and the kids have a really great time playing with each other, making a

Craft, and having a snack. Mom's do their own thing in the other room, have a bit of

Conversation and visiting, a bit of snacking, a speaker and  we all work on a

Craft together (for this series, everyone brings their own. Soon they will provide one for us to learn together). The

Cost is totally reasonable, only a $3 donation requested per meeting. I am so glad I found this group! I was getting a little lonely here. After MOPS, my parents and I took the kids out to a local restaurant for  breakfast and a

Cup of Coffee. Afterwards, they took the kids back to their house. Mom and the boys

Cooked together, baking

Chocolote Chip Cookies. Meanwhile, back at home, I

Cast On the second Rainbow Sock, and I knit intently. I'm trying to get it done by the end of the week, so that I can

Continue working on Eris, and eventually

Complete the now very late

Christmas present for my Mom.

Rainbow Feet

I've finished the first of the Opal Rainbow socks (color 5001). I really, really like this colorway, and wish that I had used some kind of rippling pattern, like maybe SockBug's Lacy Scallops pattern.

I used the tubular/Kitchener cast off for the top of the sock, and it gave a really nice finish I'm proud of. Of course, I like grafting, so I'm weird that way.

To set up the top, I use two needles. The top is 1x1 rib.  I put the knit stitches on a front needle, and the purl stitches on a back needle, like this.

Now you have the equivalent of two pieces of stockinette, held parallel to each other. Then I graft it closed, using exactly the same technique that I use on my toes. Here's a good tutorial.

I've cast on the second sock, and hope to have it finished in the next few days, so that I can go back to the Eris Pullover, when I'm feeling better later in the week.

I'm beginning to feel human again. I can't begin to tell you the psychological boost I got from being able to swallow my Synthroid medicine on Saturday morning. Completely psycho-somatic response, since I felt better immediately. Ah, the power of the mind!

I went a little bit crazy with the food on Saturday, indulging in a plus-size BLT, and a trip to Burger King. It was wonderful! Then I stepped on the scale on Sunday morning, only to realize that I had gained about 7 lbs through all this. I'm a touch on the 'well-padded' side (about 22 lbs over my ideal weight) under the best of circumstances, so these extra pounds are not welcome. I started Weight Watcher's again. Back in 1998, I managed to lose 35 lbs with WW, and I was a Hottie! I gained back 20 of those lbs with my two pregnancies, but I'm OK with that. But these new 7 pounds are not welcome to stay.

That Healthy Hypo Glow

I did it. I survived Hypo-Hell  and the radioactive ablation. I thought that this day would never come!

Friday morning my father drove me to Elliot Hospital's Regional Cancer Center in Manchester , NH. I arrived at 8:45am for a 9am appointment. I filled out admission paperwork, signed consent forms, reviewed my latest blood work with the Clinical Nurse, the most sincerely awesome Stephen Paradise.  However, by 9:45am, my dose of radiation had not yet been delivered by the courier from wherever this Medical Radioactive VooDoo comes from. So back to the waiting room.

By 10:30 it still wasn't there, and my nervous father was having trouble waiting patiently. Me, I was knitting peacefully on my sock. I was too tired and too hungry to care much. Finally, they called me in.

Into an exam room I went, with a Doctor, a Physicist, the Clinical Nurse, and this nifty contraption:A Geiger counter.

They were also carrying this:
A lead shielded pill box, they referred to as "the piglet". They let me hold it, and it weighs at least 5 lbs, while measuring maybe 4 inches tall. Inside was the pill of Radioactive Iodine.

After all this prep work covering the last 6 weeks, involving 2 different kinds of medicine, a terribly restricted diet, three vials of blood,  physical discomfort on my behalf, and a fair amount of sacrifice and compromise from my family, the rest is kind of anti-climactic.

The physicist opened the 'piglet' and removed a tiny vial with a little royal blue gelatin caplet in it. It was dumped into a Dixie cup, handed to me with a cup of water, and I knocked it back. The little capsule contained 29.4 mCI (mili-curies) of Radioactive Iodine 131.

Then the physicist had me stand up, and pointed the Geiger Counter at me. I am radiating 4.5 mR/Hr (mili-rads per hour) of radiation. Normal, everyday exposure of natural occurring radiation varies from 1 to 1.5 mR/Hr, so I am putting out 4 days worth of exposure. Therefore, I have to following these precautions until Monday, at which time the danger (though hypothetical to begin with, but better safe than sorry) to others will be minimal.

1. Keep a distance of 6 feet or more from other people, except for brief periods of contact.
2. Minimize the time spent around other people.
3. Avoid close contact with children and pregnant women.
4. Wash hands thoroughly before handling items also used by others.
5. Double flush toilet, clean sink and bathtub before use by others.
6. Clothing and linens should be washed separately from items used by others in the household.
7. Use disposable utensils, dishes, cups.
8. Wear gloves for food preparation
9. Sleeping arrangements - use separate rooms.
10. Avoid intimate contact with others.
11. Breast feeding MUST be discontinued and pregnancy should be avoided for at least one year after therapy.

These are broad, general rules, written by law-suit leery hospitals, who are being very careful about covering their asses.  I received a very minimum dose, and truthfully, I'm not much danger to anyone, except for my urine. My Oncologist told me that I shouldn't sleep next to my children for the next 3 nights, to double flush the toilet, drink lots of water and wash my hands carefully, and no sex (So sorry J.-my-love. Be patient). That's really the only precautions I need to take. And in truth, there has been no recorded damages to anybody from "second-hand" exposure. Ever. There have even been several cases of surprise pregnancies going through this with mom's who have received much, much higher doses, and have had no problems at all.

So there  it is. And thank God its over.

Quantifiably Sluggish

Tomorrow is the big day, when I go in for my Radioactive Iodine Ablation. Basically, I go into a room, I'm handed a radioactive  pill, I swallow, and sit around for an hour to make sure I can keep it down. Then I go home, and wait for the radiactivity to dissiapate. Big fun.

In order to make sure that the Radioactive iodine is absorbed by any remaining thyroid tissue (which the idoine then distroys), I have to withdraw off my thyroid medication. The doctors use the measure of TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) to see how low my thyroid hormone levels are. The higher the number, the more starved for thyroid hormone my body is. Usually I am less than 1 mIU/L.  That's where I feel my best. The lab told me that my THS is at more than 150 mIU/L. They aren't able to measure it, the number is so far off the chart. Then I was depressed to hear that the hospital said that I only need to be at 20 mIU/L or more!

I feel pretty damn yucky today, and fell off the wagon food wise today. In my freezer I had a beef and bean burrito, one of those things that no one should ever eat, and really doesn't count as food, since its so filled with garbage. And I ate it. What they hell? I wouldn't normally eat it if you held a gun to my head, and today, I could hear it calling my name! Gross.

I've been working on the sock, knitting my way through the finale of Project Runway. But I miss-measured the foot length and put in the shortrow heel too soon. I worked the heel with the other end of the ball of yarn, to avoid interrupting the color sequence. So I decided to do an experiment. I took the heel off, by unpicking the first row from the foot. Then continued in the round for a few more rows, and grafted the heel back on. And I'll be damned, but it worked! The blue is the grafting. Not bad, I think.
Thing is, I really like grafting. Weird, huh? In fact, I just figured out how to the Kitchener/Sewn/Tubular Cast-off recently, and I can't wait for the chance to try it again on this pair of socks. I was never happy with the cast-off for toe  up socks, since I had a hard time getting the cast-off stretchy enough. The Kitchener Cast-off takes care of that, and it looks lovely. I'll show you when I do this sock. If you can stand grafting, you'll love this cast-off

Happy 100th

Thank you to Diana of Bestitched ! My 100th commenter. Its a little silly for me to be so tickled about that, since there are many bloggers that easily reach that number on a single post. But I am but a humble little blog, and must measure milestones in smaller increments. So thank you, Diana.

I'm actually knitting a bit too, though I had to put away Eris in favor of some significantly easier, plain stockinette stitch Opal socks, since I'm not thinking very quickly right now. My concentration is low, and I'm going to bed early, with the kids, and therefore have very little uninterrupted knitting time. This is Opal Mexico 5001. I think they've changed their yarn some. It feels much nicer that the old ball I have in my stash.  Smoother, with a better stretch. Its knitting up at a tiny 10 sts to the inch on 2.25mm needles. But I love how the smooth fabric feels. I like a snug sock, so I've only cast on 72 sts for my 8 1/2" around foot.

The restricted diet sucks. My mother made me lots and lots of meals, which is good. I really hadn't realized how much mindless eating I do though out the day. Pick up a chip and pop it in, grab a piece of cheese, or a cookie. Open a soda. Now that every thing has to be scrutinized before consuming, food is becoming an obsession. I'm so pleased that I only have to do this for another 4 days. I can't imagine the impact that something like diabetes must do to the newly diagnosed. 

However, even with the restricted food, the significantly slowed metabolism is beginning to catch up with me. I feel sluggish, and in an attempt to self-medicate with a sugar rush I'm reaching for a lot of high-sugar items, like gummy bears and fruit. I stepped on the scale this morning, and I've gained 6 lbs over the last 6 weeks. Hopefully they will come off fairly easily once back on the thyroid medicine again. They did last time.

The kids have been spending a lot of time with my parents lately, allowing me some time during the day to rest. This gives me enough energy to make it though the busy evenings. My husband has been studying for a test for work, and portions of the evening have to be devoted to that. (and we really want him to pass. If he completes all 7 remaining courses by next spring, we get to go to Hawaii on the company's dime for the conferment ceremonies).

I have been working on keeping them busy in the evening. One night I let them entertain themselves. Not my best idea:

Ryan pried off keys from the laptop for a few minutes  before I figured out what he was doing.

So out came the wooden blocks. Look what they made themselves