Knit and the City

Mrs. Mom's CB Camp Jacket

Finally finished!  Very happy with the way it turned out even if it's a little on the large size.  I did felt it slightly yesterday.  Just enough to shrink it a little bit but not so much as to lose all the stitch definition.

BFF

I was lucky to receive a lovely Rae scarf for Christmas.  Handknit by the bestest friend EVAR!

Three Little Lumberjacks

Such fun to knit up!  'Lumberjack' by Faye Kennington.

Fixing a FUBAR

I've been thinking lately about how far we all have come with our knitting skills.  I started this blog so many years ago and had an inkling of an idea of what I was doing, knitting wise.  Now I feel I am an accomplished knitter.  I still make mistakes.  I still sometimes read a pattern and can't figure it out for the life of me but I get it eventually.  Or I can make it work.  Without it looking 'home made'.

I am equally proud of my internet knitting friends.  We all started about the same time and each of us has grown in our skills.  Who thought at the beginning of all this we'd come so far.  I think most of us had the goal to make a whole big person sweater that was wearable in public.  Then we accomplished that and learned even more!  Socks!  The evil heel turning!  Not so evil in the end!  Lace knitting!  What?!  All you do is a yarn over here and a decrease there?!  Who would have thunk?  Not me, did you?  Did I ever think I would have a pattern published in a 'real' crochet book?  Never!  Yet I did!

I never thought at the beginning of all this if I missed a cable crossing I could fix it simply.  Without ripping back several rows.

I never thought I'd have the confidence to tear back that one section.

Then knit it back up correctly and evenly. 

Who knew?!

Finally!!!

 

 

Hello There!
I've been trying to upload a picture from my mobile app but it keeps crashing. I have a new 'Out and About' video but You Tube keeps crashing my desktop. Touch wood, I haven't crashed anything else...

Things have been a little time consuming here. We are the owners of senior dogs. Officially senior. We came home from the cabin after my birthday and old Ella was out of sorts. Walking around with her head down and shuffling her feet. We took her to the vet and after a series of x-rays the vet determined that she is suffering from arthritis. Heavy calcification in her neck, right between her shoulder blades as well, her lower back. A couple vertebrae are just about fused together. There's swelling that is pinching the nerves and blood vessels to her legs.
The vet suggests we start her on some steroids to bring the swelling down and a muscle relaxant as a short term solution. Long term he suggests back surgery. We agree that surgery is not an option. Ellers is old (13 1/2) and the chance of her surviving the surgery and the recovery is too risky to us. Not to mention the prohibitive cost.
So we go home and start her on her meds and see an immediate improvement. Yay! As the vet recommends we start to decrease her dosage after about 10 days and start to wean her off the steroids so she can go on NSAIDs long term. When we stop her meds completely within 48 hours she is 10 times worse than her initial incident. She can't lift her head. Can barely walk because her paws are curling under. Her back end has no strength and she's shaking like a leaf. She's staggering around like a drunk and falling over. We are freaking out. We are thinking 'this is it'. The day we never wanted to come. The time to say goodbye to our goofy girl.
Another trip back to the vet and he recommends to get her back on the steroids, gives us another med to protect her stomach from them. Another med to tighten up her pee sphincter (what is that called?) as the steroid makes her pee in her sleep. Not dribbles, my friends, full lakes of pee. Try waking up to that! We did several times in our bed and once on the couch before we confined her to her waterproof dog bed at night. Her left front shoulder muscles atrophied so bad her shoulder bones stuck out like knives.
About this time I had my friend who dogsits for us over. She saw Ella and was so upset by her appearance that she suggested we think about 'doing the right thing'. Terri and her Big Fella were out to at the end of September too and said essentially the same thing. It was awful. We saw her as so much better! I mean, they hadn't seen what she was like before! The Guy and I agreed that when Ella told us it was time for her to go we would let her go. Then we cried and cried and cried.
Well, what do you know? Old Ellers doesn't seem to want to go anywhere. Slowly she started to improve. Terri and her Big Fella visited again about 10 days after their first visit and were so surprised to see how much better she was! She was moving around better, getting more mobility in her head and neck, that front paw wasn't curling under so badly. It was a relief to have someone else see her improvement. Still not 100% but moving upwards.
We decided to explore non invasive alternative therapies. We started her on Sasha's Blend, a nutritional supplement for healthy joints. We also started her on tumeric powder which contains curcumin that studies are showing to have anti arthritic and anti inflammatory effects. We also took her to the chiropractor.
I know. Crazy, right? Chiro for the freaking dog?
Best. Thing. We. Ever. Did.
The Guy took her to her first appointment (she goes to see Dr. Sheikh, the same Doctor that works on us) and when the Dr. released the pinched nerve in her atrophied leg she let out a giant sigh. She got home, scarfed down her dinner (she'd been on and off her food for weeks) and then slept like a log. Her mobility is better. She can eat and drink out of the raised bowls again. Her shoulder is developing back some muscle tone. We've been able to cut her steroid dose way back. You can see it in her face. She's a happy dog again.
That makes us very happy.

I'll post the video of her at chiro as soon as You Tube stops crashing my desktop and I remember my password!

Testing mobile upload....stand by for actual content...

New F.O.'s in the photo album!

I'm still here!

I've been knitting and cooking and lots of things.  Keeping busy, I suppose.  Watching Masterchef and thinking "I could do that!" until Gordon Ramsay spits out my food or Joe Bastianich gives me one of those sorely disappointed stares that makes me burst into tears!

I started juicing.  I hit my personal weight limit.  You know, the number in your head that you tell yourself if you ever get that weight you'll do something about it.  I hit it and did something about it.  I heard about 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' on Rosie Radio.  They also had Joe Cross, the film maker, on talking about his documentary and his movement to Reboot Your Life.  It was inspiring!  Even if I haven't seen the DVD yet which comes out in Canada in October. 

I and 3 other co workers did a 5 day full juice reboot.  All juice, all the time.  The results were impressive.  I dropped 10lbs, another co worker dropped 15lbs and another dropped 7lbs.  So I thought this could be a good thing.  So I now juice twice a day and eat vegetarian 5 days a week and have a little fun on the weekends while remembering that 50% of the plate should be fruits and veg, 25% protien and 25% whole grains.  I also quit drinking real beer.  Now it's near beer, almost as good and 1/3 the calories! 

I've been knocking out some knitted goods.  I quit the beer and moved to socks!  I'm a sockaholic!

 

My dad would often joke about how he wanted to leave this world.  He would say 'On a flaming pyre into the ocean like the Vikings did!'  We would all laugh at how preposterous the idea was!  C'mon now, really?!

As he lay in his hospital bed I wanted to make him laugh.  Give him a reason for a moment to forget his pain and focus on something else even if just for a minute. 

I said 'Hey dad, remember how you wanted us to send you off on a flaming pyre into the ocean?' 

He nodded and smiled. 

'You know that the EPA is never going to allow that.'

He nodded again sadly.

'I think I have a solution!  How about we do the flaming pyre but in miniature?!  Let's ask Uncle Peter to build you a boat, we'll put some of your ashes in there, set it on fire and send it out into the Straight of Georgia!  Would you like that?  Would that be okay?'

He grinned broadly and maybe gave me a thumbs up.

So that's what we did.  Uncle Peter built a 30 inch deep hulled sailboat that was amazing.  We had dad's memorial out on the beach where my sister sang, my brother played the bagpipes, my husband played a song, my uncle read a poem and my other brothers lit the boat on fire and sent him out to sea.  A lone eagle circled above.  It was exactly what he would have wanted.

 
We also sent him 90 balloons for his birthday and one for Emma.