10.24.07
Posted in knitting, wls at 6:17 pm by Shari
I got an email last evening from Susie Zanni at The Yarne Source, requesting help from members of the guild’s board. RNews was going to be at her shop today to tape a segment about the big sock. At 7:00am. Her shop is almost 30 miles from my house. Did that stop me from going? Of course not!
The sock is probably about a yard and a half long now (only about 1/3 of the way down the leg toward the heel!!!). When it first arrived in Rochester last May, it was about 5″ long - precisely 43 rows long. How do I know? When it arrived, it had been joined with a twist that had to be corrected. True to my usual approach, I said “oh, we just need to lay it out, make sure we have the twist isolated, then steek it, cut it apart, undo the twise and tie the rows back together” Little did those who heard me say it know that I had never done such a thing before. So, I got to do the steek and tie all those 43 rows back together and work in the 86 yarn tails.
So it was very neat to see it again and all the progress that’s been made. And fun to be on TV, even if it was earlier than I normally get up. :O
The last few days haven’t been the best with the eating habit changes. Being away on the weekend with all that BORING time in the car alone didn’t help much. One the way home I did at least have some better for me stuff like red pepper strips and radishes, but it was hard to stop the hand-to-mouth stuff. I’m trying to get back on track now.
Chuck was sick while I was gone and had to go to the doc as soon as I got home. Just what I was looking forward to doing - driving him to the doc then to the pharmacy for a prescription - after driving home from Kingston and before going to town to teach for the evening.
Last night was the end of the short crochet class that I was doing to fill in for someone else at continuing ed. The agreement of all was that the description wasn’t clear that they should know how to crochet before coming to class (of the 7, 5 didn’t know how to crochet) and they’d much rather work with a smoother yarn than the Lion Brand Homespun. I agree - I generally totally discourage my beginners from using Homespun, but I was going with what the usual instructor does.
Speaking of Lion Brand yarns, I finally started playing with the Ruffles. Skein Gang next month is using it, so I wanted to work up a sample before this month’s Skein Gang. It’s interesting to work with. I’m not convinced yet that I can make this purse with just one skein, but it’s giving me some ideas for other ways to work with this yarn as well as other materials that might be able to be worked in the same way as this yarn.
Time to leave for tonight’s knitting class. It’s our last session of “Pattern reading workshop” and boy, do these students make it totally easy on me. Next set of Wednesday nights will be different - I actually have to produce samples and patterns for the “Quick Knits for Holiday Gifts” sessions. Luckily I’ve been working on them - not waiting til the last minute.
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10.21.07
Posted in wls at 12:59 am by Shari
So here I am in Kingston, NY, visiting with Shaundra. I had a nice drive down today - intermittent bursts of rain to drive through, but nothing too terrible. During my first stop, I ran into Sandy from knitting and spinning guilds. We chatted for a bit and she loaned me a book on tape because I hadn’t brought anything like that along and was bored, and was having trouble resisting munching too much. It was fun to run into her there, and to remember that this isn’t the first time we’ve met each other just outside the ladies room at a thruway rest area.
I love making this drive in the fall. The colors along the thruway are always so pretty. We were talking about it tonight and I was wondering if I just don’t pay any attention at home because it’s home. Shaun said she noticed a huge difference at home compared to the drive and here, so now I don’t feel so bad about ignoring my surroundings.
We did get to go to Morehouse Farms’ shop tonight. We both dug through the “lace weight, some breaks” bin. 220 yds at $2/skein (vs 8.80) and came back with a “few” skeins. I wish I could buy just the patterns for a couple of the projects, but they are all about kits to sell their yarns, so patterns aren’t available.
Tonight, one of Shaun’s roomies made an awesome dinner - “Artichoke Flan” and salad and beets then roasted pears with creme brulee for dessert. Okay, so I passed on the beets, but the rest was wonderful. Got to meet and re-meet some of her friends and some of their significant others.
Tomorrow we’ll be off to Rhinebeck. We have 3 options for what to do in the morning - church or clean up her mess at the pottery studio (the power went out yesterday so she has to get back to what she was doing) or breakfast with some of the friends. Any of them sound fine to me, but I know she’ll want a decision from me in the morning.
Shaun told all her friends about my surgery. It’s so cool getting a good response from these 20-somethings about it. Amazing listening to them talking about the changes in society and medical procedures over the last 10-15 yrs - heck they were too young to know about it 10 yrs ago!
As usual it’s way too late to be up, so time to turn in now.
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10.19.07
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 1:29 am by Shari
That’s what Dr. D had to say yesterday when I saw him about having the WLS surgery. I actually didn’t see him much, but did spend quite a bit of time with his PA, Karen, met his wife/nurse Theresa and several of the office staff. I also talked to a current patient who drove 2.5 hrs to get there for one of her followup appts. There was another couple there, seemed to be for some other type of surgery/followup who had come 1.5 hrs to see him, and someone else who had surgery some time ago who was in for a followup (but I didn’t chat with her.) All of that was reassuring - that they’d be driving so far to see him still…
So, my timeline now is followup appt w/ Dr. D in 6 wks. Before that, I have my psych eval (11/1), appt w/ a nutritionist (waiting til tomorrow for that referral to be done so I can make the appt), bloodwork, and have Dr. K write her letter to Dr. D showing her support and documenting a number of issues. Then, as long as all that has been done and moving forward is approved by all those people, the dr will submit to insurance to get preapproval for surgery. With a BMI of over 60 and several co-mobidities, they don’t anticipate a problem with that approval. After that, from what I gathered, I continue on the path of losing weight - a minimum of 20lbs from yesterday’s weigh-in, and then they can get me onto the surgery schedule. Karen said it is probably 6 months, which is pretty much exactly where I’d like it to be. Just after my birthday would be ideal timing, in my mind.
Last weekend’s parties went really well, but left me limping a lot. I’m still limping a bit, but it’s much less than it was. Just in time to do another party tomorrow :/ And in time to do some walking at Rhinebeck on Sunday. Shaun’s decided that she WILL go to the festival, one way or another. Last night she started wavering a bit when I told her my foot/ankle was still bothering me, but I know she wants to go, so I’ll be okay, whether I am or not that day.
I think we’re going to go to Morehouse Farm Merino’s shop on Sat eve. A friend found out that they are having an open house til midnight, so I suggested it to Shaun when I thought she wasn’t going to be able to make it to the fest on Sunday. I just saw the most ADORABLE Lobster claw mittens on their site… too bad they’re sized for kids - they’d be fun for hubby.
My The Ring Lord order arrived this week, so I had some fun playing with that yesterday. Got home and realized that the strip of 4-in-1 I was working on was going width-wise, not up and down, so it did me no good in terms of determining how many rings high my piece is going to be so I can finish designing the inlay 
No work lost, just not what I had intended. I’ll take it along to play with this weekend - one of Shaun’s roomies is into metalsmithing or something like that, so it may be good for conversation with her.
Do you need something safe to be addicted to on the computer? Check out Jigzone’s puzzle of the day. If I’m up at 1am (as I obviously am right now), I am there doing the puzzle. The one they just posted for Friday is lavender. I was just thinking today about getting some to make some new wands. The must have read my mind 
So it’s obviously time to hit the hay. One more day of errands and work, then I can pack and I’ll be off to visit Shaun. I should feel bad about leaving Chuck home sick, but the good part of that is I’ll be away from his germs for a few days and hopefully won’t catch them.
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10.12.07
Posted in Crafts, wls at 10:09 pm by Shari
It’s not a lot, but in the last 2.5 wks I did drop 4 lbs. 
Better than nothing or gaining. In a way I just as soon wait til next Wednesday to lose anything because one of the requirements Dr. D puts on his patients is to lose 20 lbs in order to show the committment to the process. Being on Byetta is cutting my appetite so that will continue to help and no matter how much I lose, it can’t be enough to put me out of range for the surgery, so I guess it’s all good.
I got to talk to Shaun a bit today. When I got a call before 7:30 today from her I knew she must be on the road - she always seems to call from the road. She was on her way back home to celebrate S’s wedding tomorrow. We didn’t get to see each other today, but maybe tomorrow morning she’ll stop by work to say hello.
Speaking of tomorrow, it’ll be interesting at work. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE doing the kids’ birthday parties, but they leave me pretty whipped when I do just one. I actually have *2* parties booked tomorrow, one at 10 and the other at 2. I’ll have just enough time between them to quickly clean up, rearrange the tables and chairs, set up supplies and hopefully eat some lunch before the second one comes in. I tried tonight to get as much in order as I could so I don’t go too crazy. So first we’ll do some polymer clay jewelry in the morning and in the afternoon we’ll decorate tote bags for the kids to use for Halloween. I have a couple of polymer pieces to stick in the oven while it’s on - the cutest push pins (a bee and a ladybug) , a pendant and a couple of beads I made with some scrap clay. I have some more scraps here at home that I should take in and play with too, while we’re in “play with clay” mode.
Linda and I set a play date to do some painting. I like to do the One Stroke painting in class/group settings, but not on my own. Linda found a source for some shirts in larger sizes, so she got me a green turtleneck that we’ll do some holiday painting on. She also showed me the most adorable beads that she painted elsewhere so we’re might get to do some of them too. I’m hoping we can do some sheepy ones. We talked about Christmas trees and snowmen and other winter holiday types of things. I wish we had some of the right size beads at JA’s so we could offer the class there, but, alas, we don’t have any that are big enough
Morning will be here all too soon, so it’s time to unwind and get some rest. Have to be prepared for the 17 kids that’ll be keeping me busy tomorrow.
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10.10.07
Posted in knitting, wls at 5:46 pm by Shari
I’ve gotten the food journal started. It’s about time, huh? Now I have to keep at it.
It’s hard to do when our lives are so rush, rush, rush, but I’m trying to slow down my eating. I realized again the other day that when I’m chewing my food, I’m really only tasting it with the side of my tongue. So now I’m trying to focus on tasting the food with my whole mouth - using all those tastebuds across the tonge, not just the edge.
Next Wednesday is getting closer and closer and I’m getting pretty psyched about it. I see Dr. K on Monday to check in and get info for Dr. D, then Dr. D on Wednesday… I’m setting my frame of mind as “I AM a candidate for this surgery - now I just have to prove it to Dr. D, so let’s get started!”
This past summer I was working on the Boobalicious tank top from Big Girl Knits and didn’t get it done. Now that I know it WILL NOT FIT next summer, and already knew that I liked working with the yarn (Linen Isle), I decided that I’m going to work on a goal garment for post surgery. Classic Elite has a Four Seasons Vine Lace Vest (PDF) that I think might work with this yarn, so I’m going to try that out. It’s a simply constructed garment, fairly unstructured and somewhat oversized. It looks like I could wear it if it was a little small or a little more oversized, so I’m going to make one in the L or XL range (depending on my gauge) and hold it for when I can (WILL) wear it.
Meanwhile, though, I want to work on a sweater for Shaun to take to Galveston with her. As she’s beginning a professional worklife, I know she’s having to buy more clothes to match the workplace. I thought a cotton or linen cardigan would be good for TX - so she can wear something light underneath but have the sweater for AC. I found one in Creative Knitting from May 2006 that I think looks nice - uses Wildflower DK - that I’m going to swatch for and see if she likes it. I can’t find a picture of it online to show her, though, so I should try to have it ready in a week because….
… next week after my normal work week with an extra night of teaching and the Dr appts, I’ll be off to see the Shaun for the weekend. We don’t know yet if we’ll actually go to Rhinebeck that Sunday or not. Shaun’s in grad school and has classes on weekends. It’s really okay to not go - heaven knows I have enough “stuff” and don’t really need anything else. It’s just good to get away for a few days and spend some time with her before she heads out to Galveston after Christmas. She’s talked about having a “knitting party” on Sat evening to show off to her friends “what an awesome knitting teacher my mom is”. I have a reputation to live up to, I guess. I can run some sweater ideas by her at the same time so I can have something together for her by Christmas time.
Time for work, again. Teaching tonight - pattern reading workshop. It’s really a different way to say “bring your projects you are stuck on and we’ll work it out together.
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10.04.07
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 1:21 pm by Shari
So it’s the 4th and I still didn’t start the journal. I did sit down this morning with FitDay to start, and decided it was too much work. It’s gotta be easy enough to do consistently. Gotta get that little book out that I got.
It’s been a busy week so far. My car’s on the fritz so DH and I are sharing the van. That means I get to go to work in the morning, come back and take him to work, go to my next job or activity (and next and next) and stay up late to pick him up after his work ends. Then start it all over again.
I tried to make good use of the time on Monday evening by hanging out at Barnes and Noble checking a bunch of books. For years I’ve been passionate about knitting and expanding my skills there. I’ve started teaching the crochet classes at work and working in bits of it in knitting classes, jewelry making, etc, so I decided to spend some time perusing the crochet books. I found this one that made me say “why didn’t they have all this cool stuff in the 70’s when I did lots of crochet?” I see a new mini diversion happening! Just what I need, a new diversion.
Speaking of diversions, I finally put in another order at The Ring Lord. I have a secret project to work on and needed supplies for a chain maille flower bracelet class I’m going to teach at Louise’s soon. More on the secret project after it’s 1) done and 2) gifted to the recipient.
And on the knitting front - I got my invite to Ravelry. I’m Sharspinz there. and about all I’ve accomplished is starting to add my library.
Off for more fun - a work conference call, then take hubby to work, go to my work, teach a class and eventually pick up hubby. How is it I ever get bored?
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10.02.07
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 12:33 am by Shari
… it’s the first of October already. Oh, wait… It’s after midnight, so technically it’s the second. Anyway, I can’t remember, as a kid, wearing shorts, tanks, etc after Labor Day. And yet, they are out today with the shorts still because it’s still that warm here in western NY. It’s hard to inspire new knitters when it’s too warm to wear knits
I had promised myself to start a food journal today. Being the beginning of a week and a month it seemed like a good idea. I know it helps me get a better handle on what I’m eating and what the effect is on my blood sugar levels. I even got a little book to record in. Guess what’s still empty. I do remember everything I ate and when, and pretty much what my feelings were at the time. I won’t beat myself up for not writing it down today. Tomorrow’s another day and I can still get today recorded then.
At work, we’re busily making schedules for classes to be offered in December - February. Birthday parties and Scout troop meetings have really picked up since school started. Today I worked with a mom who is bringing her kids back (they had their party with me 2 yrs ago) to do another party with a polymer clay project again. We talked about ideas and such, so tomorrow I need to make up some samples to show the kids on Wednesday. That may even lead to some good ideas for winter kid classes to offer.
I know I won’t have to worry during this calendar about surgery, but I’m hopeful that when we make up the next calendar, I’ll be considering the potential for surgery and how to plan around that. It’s such a long process with many variables so it’s going to be tough to create my work schedules, but it’s a problem that I look forward to dealing with, because it means moving forward with the surgery and improving my health.
For now, though, it’s time for bed. I got a new Fire Mountain Gems catalog and supplement with project ideas in it, so I need to spend a little time perusing that before drifting off…..
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