01.30.08
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 12:30 am by Shari
I got another moebius basket started now and I feel much better about it working this time. I’m using a strand of Noro Kuryeon and a strand of Patons classic wool in black. After doing the first few rows of the handle, I switched to 2 strands of black to do the I-cord bind off. That’s where this one will rest until after class tomorrow because it’s to show them how to do the next step. I’ll take along the mistake basket that wouldn’t felt also, and show them the concept of the finished piece and then have a good one the following week.
Last night I had the first session of a continuing ed knitting class. I’ll be able to teach 3 of the session of that one before surgery and then will have my buddy Marcia teach the rest of the sessions for me (hopefully I’ll be able to make it in for the last session). Tonight it was a a crochet class - pattern reading workshop - at the high school. I was glad that they all had something in mind to work on and ask questions about. I think they did all come out with some new information - in some cases they had projects that were a good stretch, in some cases not as much stretch, but still there were questions about how things were written (and we found 1 mistake each in 2 of the patterns we were using), so it was a good class.
Exciting in the last 2 evenings has been that I found out that some of the students had also had gastric bypass, so I had a chance to ask more questions. I continue to be certain that this is the right thing for me to be doing.
Another excitement yesterday was realizing that the pants I was wearing were just too big and I need to either take them in or toss them. For some reason they had been out of the rotation for the last 2 or 3 laundry cycles, so I hadn’t worn them in several weeks. They’re not in the best of shape, so it’s probably not really worth doing much to them. The only down side was that I didn’t have a chance to get home during the day to switch to something not quite so baggy.
I ordered the pedometer that Pat, a student from JA’s, had told me about. The order only went in a few days ago and it already arrived today. I put it on this afternoon and will try to keep wearing it each day to just get a history of my daily steps. The plan, then, is to try to get myself to increase the steps once I have a feeling for what I “typically” do. I completely forgot that I had ordered the book Handcrafting Chain and Bead Jewelry at the same time, so I had a lot of fun opening that box today.
Unfortunately, the order for my new mp3 player seems to not have gone in. We knew that it potentially didn’t work that night because it got hung up on the page after hitting submit. But it looked, that night, as if the hold had been placed on the $’s in the bank account. Well, nothing has come through from them on the card and it’s over a week. I was supposed to call this afternoon to see if it had actually gone through but didn’t get that chance, so I’ll have to do that tomorrow. I don’t want to risk losing that price on that model, especially since I also ordered (and already received) some accessories for that one now.
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01.27.08
Posted in Crafts, knitting at 2:56 pm by Shari
When you get yarn and expect it to felt, be sure it’s feltable!
I finished the moebius basket and took it today when I went to do laundry. It didn’t even begin to felt. Put it through another cycle and still, no felting. So I get home and look again at the label: 75% acrylic, 23% wool, 2% other fibers. Well, no wonder it didn’t felt. So now I have a very loose and flimsy green tonal striped something with a twisted handle. Grrr….. I guess I’ll leave it together until Wednesday and then I’ll decide about taking it apart and re-using the yarn in something else. I guess that firms up my plan to use the lone ball of Noro I came across yesterday to make another one that’ll felt this time. I think I’m going to get a strand of black to knit together with the Noro, though, to kinda mute the colors and beef up the weight of the basket a bit.
Meanwhile, I did get several inches more crocheted on the 80″ shrug, and we have game night with John and Kelly tonight, so I’ll be able to do bunches more then. Of course, I planned to use 40% coupons to get the rest of my yarn for that, and now it’s on sale, and I don’t think the sale with my discount is as good as a 40% coupon. Should’ve done it yesterday when I was leaving work.
Last night I quickly read through my previous postings here. For all that it took to get that food journal going, it was quickly put aside. I am still doing well with separating the food and water consumption well, and although I don’t pack a day’s worth of food, I am much better about taking plenty of healthy food along even if I don’t think I’ll need it so I’ve drastically cut down the “stop on the way home for something quick” syndrome. I’m also SO pleased with myself for having cut carbonated beverages, especially diet coke and diet pepsi, which I used to drink CONSTANTLY, from my diet. I did that cold turkey 2 days before Thanksgiving and only slipped once - the day before Thanksgiving. I’ve replaced it with lots of water and sugar free drink mixes and tea. Even when I do have the drink mixes and tea, I have them very watered down - a single serve drink that’s meant for a 16oz bottle of water usually gets mixed into a 24 - 32 oz bottle of water. I’ve gotten good, too, about prepping the water bottles each night so they are ready the next day and I know I should get through them all during the day to be sure I’m drinking enough. I found a GREAT tea this week at Tops. It’s from Stash and is called Licorice Spice. I LOVE it! I’m not sure if it’s a temporarily available tea, so I think I’m going to stock up on a bunch of it in case that’s true.
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01.26.08
Posted in Crafts, wls at 10:34 pm by Shari
So I found out yesterday that one of the benefits of our insurance plan is case management. How? I got a call from my case manager from Excellus. That was quite a surprise - she wanted to introduce herself and let me know that if I needed any information/help that I could contact her and that she’ll be following up with me before and after the surgery to make sure all is going well. I also found out that there’s some benefit there for some help with aquatics/gym membership, etc. She’s going to gather some info about the specifics of that for me. Also reminded me about other stuff I should be sure is done… health care proxy, living will, HIPPA for both Chuck and I with the other listed for them so we can both talk to the, etc.
I couldn’t help but to keep going on the moebius basket. I finished one and have another whole skein that I can knit up into another one. Maybe this time I’ll stop at the right place so I can take it to class on Wednesday. Tomorrow is laundry day Even though the machines there aren’t the best for felting, since it’s done, I’m going to give the basket a run through the machines.
Another project I worked on tonight was the “Candy Apple Shrug” that is next month’s Skein Gang project. Lion Brand Homespun is NOT a fave yarn of mine. I’ve started this darn thing many times and somehow I keep messing up the stitch counts. It was supposed to be done in single crochet, done through the back loops only to make it look kinda ribbed. Eighty inches of that sounded like agony to me, so after several false starts, I’ve settled on doing it in double crochet, back loops only. Definitely doesn’t have that ribbed look, but it does have more texture than straight dc. It’s definitely going to work much faster than the previous attempts. Now I just have to be sure to do 5-6 inches a day and it’ll be done in plenty of time.
Things are going well in getting everything together for the time I’m away from work. I’m SO glad I started it now. I made a checklist of all the things I remembered that I do each week, and as I filled it out and am doing my job, I’m remembering things that didn’t get noted, so I’m able to update it all now rather than trying to think of it all at the last minute. I’m thinking that I’ll do one for the week before I am gone too, so that Mario can use it while I’m still around and see if everything is clear to him.
I think it’s time for my dark chocolate Hershey’s Kiss and then bed…. so I can get to that laundry tomorrow.
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01.23.08
Posted in knitting at 11:30 am by Shari
I actually did get my shaped mobius done before class tonight… and I got to class on time (which was in doubt because I was doing a scout troop’s sewing badge just before knitting class…. one at Jo-Ann’s and the other at the high school). The mobius (started here) didn’t turn out quite like I had intended, but it did turn out pretty nice. The yarn I used was Jo-Ann’s Sensations Rainbow Boucle - a dark gray that was pretty “solid” rather than the very long color changes that most of them have. I had changed the number of stitches, number of rounds between shaping rounds, etc, but followed the basic plan. I had 13 sts between markers, a total of 30 sections. By the time the shaping was done there were 7 sts/section on the narrower edge and 19/section on the wider edge. After the last decrease/increase round and a few plain rounds, I did 2 rounds where I doubled and then doubled again the number of stitches along the narrower edge, creating a ruffle effect on that edge. That worked out great, making it easy to discern the difference between the narrow edge and wide edge to put it on.
After getting paid today, I went out running errands. One of them was to get a new 40″ needle (size 10.75 - how weird is that!) from Village Yarn and Fiber so I can work on another magical knitting project. I also picked up some Debbie Mumm yarn at JA’s to see how that works. Not so crazy about it so far - it’s a single ply yarn, all wool with very long color changes, a la Noro yarns, but pretty much monochromatic (I picked greens). There’s some weird springy thing happening as I’m using it. All I’ve done was demo the technique for casting on for the mobius, so it’s not fair to really judge it yet. Anyway, it’s intended to be a felted basket/bowl. I’ll get it cast on, the waste yarn knitted in for the opening of the bowl, and the top/handle knitted up before next week and use it to demo how those types of projects are done. The challenge will be to get it felted eventually (ideally before class is done, 2 wks from tonight) , since laundromat machines don’t “do” felting very well.
Gotta get that darn camera out soon and start taking pics - this mobius deserves to be documented!
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01.22.08
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 10:00 am by Shari
It’s still very exciting to know that I have a date and will soon be even further on my journey to getting to a reasonable weight for my body. I keep looking at patterns for sweaters and saying… “Hey, I’ll be able to make that for ME someday”. I have one pattern picked out - and planning to use the yarn from a sweater I started for myself last summer, but there’s lots more that are coming up begging to be added to the list of sweaters to knit for me.
Chuck ordered me a new MP3 player. The ones we got in Nov don’t accept the DRM-protected audiobooks that I can borrow from NYPL’s collection and that was the whole point, for me, in getting the thing in the first place. I’ve really enjoyed it for the music and FM tuner, but really wanted to be able to listen to books on tape. So, I am getting the Sansa E250. I had picked out the Sansa Clip at first, but once we found a good sale on this one, figured that the extra $20 was worth it to get to options of video and pictures as well as a memory card slot to add memory as well. I also went to E-Bay and found a package with an AC charger and a couple of silicone skins to protect it. In the meantime, I realized that books on CD are probably different from audio books and I should check them as well. I’m guessing that even though my library system doesn’t have audio books to download, they probably do have books on CD, so that might be another source for books to listen to. I’m going to check that out and see how that works on the MP3 as well.
I checked on my classes at the high school and was pleased to see that I do have classes going there. It looks like my basics class, my magical knitting class and my crochet pattern reading classes will all be going. Two of those three are before March and I have someone lined up to teach for me when I need to for the basics class, so all is in order there. I don’t know yet about the chain mail class - that one is slated for just before and just after my surgery date, so I’ll have to re-work dates for that if it’s a go.
Speaking of chain mail… I found the COOLEST book at work yesterday. Handcrafting Chain and Bead Jewelry. There’s really only 3 chain mail patterns in it, but lots of variations of how to arrange them with beads, adding some clusters/crowns/knots at certain points and pull them into different geometric shapes. I’m chomping at the bit to buy it and will have to resist for at least a few days. 
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01.16.08
Posted in wls at 10:51 pm by Shari
I had my appt today with Dr. D. Everything is progressing amazingly well. I am actually down 30, not the 25 that I thought at my doc office the other day 
I had hoped to have the surgery as soon as possible after 3/1 as possible. How does 7am that Monday morning sound?
So now I have a million, or 7 anyway, appointments to do before then. endoscopic upper GI, stress test, lab work, physical, education, etc, etc, etc…. and they already set the appointment for followup after the surgery too.
As amazing as it was to find out I am down 30, it’s as daunting to realize that Dr. D would like to have me lose another 20 before the surgery…that’s only 6.5 wks (the first 30 were in 13 wks). I’ll continue what I’ve been doing, trust that I’m going in the right direction and it’s all good, wherever I am at surgery time.
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01.15.08
Posted in wls at 6:37 pm by Shari
Yes! I got my pre-approval today… Apparently they called about 2 to let me know they didn’t have pre-approval yet and we could reschedule to 2:15 tomorrow and see if it came in before that. They hung up, the insurance company called them with the pre-approval and they called back to say they got it and I was on for 8:15. YIPPEE!!!!!!
So, tomorrow we set the schedule…. for the surgery and for the rest of what needs to be done before then - support groups if they are started up, education session(s), whatever else is required. Then next week I go to see Dr. K to set up a (nuclear?) stress test so she’s okay to give me a final go-ahead for the surgery from her standpoint as well.
This is all just in time so I can finish up a schedule for the store for March/April/May and get that all set in my mind and the minds of those that get to do my work while I’m gone.
Time to breathe a big sigh of relief!
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Posted in knitting, wls at 9:10 am by Shari
… close enough?
So I stopped at Dr. K’s office yesterday to weigh myself. I wasn’t feeling so positive about whether or not I was down more lately or not. After not eating as good as possible and a bad encounter with constipation (I think I had a few days of not drinking enough), I hadn’t felt as well. And, the day after walking the dog a pretty good distance, my knees and ankles, which had been feeling better, were aching again. So, I checked. Yippee - I was down ANOTHER 7 lbs! That’s 14% of the total goal - which makes 176 total sound very doable with the surgery. That part is all good.
And now we continue to await word from the insurance company. My appt w/ Dr. D is tomorrow at 8:15, but it will be re-scheduled if we haven’t heard from insurance before the end of today since the whole point of this appointment is to proceed forward - make appointments and schedule surgery which can’t be done without the pre-approval.
Last night was knitting guild. It was a meeting about books - reviews, how to catalog your collection, info about copyright and about the guild’s collection. I’ve had a few books on my list of I’d probably like to get, but wasn’t sure. I pretty much decided to put several books on my list for sure last night…. Victorian Lace Today, Cat Bordhi’s Sock book and… umm… I’ll have to look at the list again to remind myself. <later… it’s Antje Gillingham’s sock book> I’ve got that B&N gift card from the guild that I’m holding onto until just before surgery, so I’ll be sure to consider those books then.
The shaped mobius is plugging along. It’s probably about 1/2 way done now. If I could put more time into it it would move faster. I knit tonight at Louise’s shop, but the yarn is from JA’s, so I won’t take it there out of respect for her. Time to start another project <later…. better work on swatching for Shaun’s Cords & Cables cardigan>
I have a long day at work today (for someone who generally has 4 hr shifts) because I have another class today that is a “go”. I called it “Your Project, Your Way” where they bring in the project they need help with and we’ll work through the points they need instruction on. What’s amazing is that this is a day-time class, which seldom go - most people are looking for evening classes.
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01.13.08
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 2:29 pm by Shari
That’s me, alright….
Last Tuesday I called Dr. D’s office to see if my pre-approval paperwork had been sent in. Actually I knew the answer since I had just talked to the ins co and found they didn’t have a record of it. Okay, fine, it’s not done and they’ll make sure it’s done later that day or next morning. I waited until Friday and called back. Not to be a pain, but it’s my health and my life at stake - If I don’t advocate for myself, nobody else is going to. It still wasn’t done, but was one of the next 2 to be done. They called Theresa at home (she was off) and got all the info required, got the letter ready and faxed it later that day. Now I KNOW it’s been sent and we should have an answer soon. Hopefully soon enough to actually go to my appointment on Wednesday morning and get a date!
So now we start the waiting game that I *thought* I started 6 or 7 weeks ago. I’ve been feeling not quite so certain about the 20+ lbs these last 2 days. I have generally been eating very well, but there was one day last week when I had 2 pork chops, and last night I had some dirty rice w/ lots of veggies (good) that were sauteed in too much oil (bad) and some sausage (not so good) and had a second serving (very bad). Then later, I made quesedillas with fake crab, swiss cheese and veggies. The rest of the day was very good, but still, it felt like it was probably too much for one day.
Things have been hopping at JA’s lately. I had 2 scout troops in last week for classes, another one for a mini-store tour and prep for their class, and also taught a class of 9 knitters and another of 4 crocheters - all in the same week! The month is a busy one for scouts. I’m going to see if I can delay sending paperwork in for the payments for these classes until closer to surgery so that there’s something coming in while I’m out. We had 2 great weeks of class signups too, so several of the other instructors are having some good classes happening as well.
Jim’s got lots of work in the pipeline for me to be doing now too. I’m hoping that working w/ Jim will be the saving grace during my surgery recovery period, financially. He does seem to be getting anxious about how much he has that needs to be done. Let’s hope that continues for awhile.
Shaun seems to be very happy with her new gig in Galveston. She’s amazed by the resiliency and spirit of the kids who have suffered incredible burns and has witnessed several momentous events. It sounds *so* Shaundra to be doing this, so I’m very excited for her. She said she had a really good meeting with her internship advisor/mentor and told her she wants to be worked hard - wants to get everything she possibly can out of this internship.
She’s also managed to snag a job at a cafe to help cover expenses (the internship is unpaid) while she’s there. In true Shaundra fashion, she was herself with the manager, not knowing she was talking to the manager, while she filled out her application and was hired on the spot, despite the other fellow that was there telling her that he didn’t think they were looking for night/weekend help. She’s mentioned a couple of times now that’s she’s definitely a “New Yorker” in the south. So far, it doesn’t seem to have hurt her
Laundry awaits , as well as more website work (with a little luck they can be combined) .
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01.03.08
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 2:42 pm by Shari
So we’re already a few days into the new year and I haven’t had much to say. NYE was not a good day for me foodwise, but I’ve pulled myself back together and am back on track. I resolved to not have any other resolutions this year. But, I expect to end the year much healthier than I am right now.
Talked to Dr. D’s office on Monday. I had some second thoughts about the pre-approval timing and wondered how long a pre-approval is good for and maybe they needed to wait until a few weeks before I want the surgery. Nope, it’s usually good for 6 months they say, so that isn’t why it was held up and it’s okay to proceed with that. Good. I haven’t quite gotten the gumption to call back to verify that it was actually completed yet though. I don’t want to be a pain, but I do want to be proactive in making sure things are staying on track.
Today Shaun is headed to Texas. I thought she was going to Philly on Sunday, then Monday, then it was Tuesday. It ended up being yesterday (Wednesday) instead. That means she gets to drive pretty much straight through to Galveston. She’s promised that she’ll stop when needed to rest. I was glad to hear her talk about the lectures and promises I gave her when she was younger. She reminded me that I always told her that it wasn’t a problem to stop and I’d always come get her whenever and wherever she needed it. She knows that’s a bit impractical, but the impression was made to stop and get whatever help (read sleep in this case) was needed. She’s stopping every few hours to send out an update on her trip - taking pictures and sending them to everyone’s phone. Mine doesn’t get pictures, but she can send them to my e-mail, so that’s good. (hmm… I just checked my mail and still no pictures)
SHHH….. Chuck’s Christmas gift is finally on it’s way. I stopped at…. well, I don’t want him to know where…. on Monday and thought that my plan wasn’t going to work. Came home and did more research and found out it would work, so back to the store I went on Tuesday to get “it”. It was out of stock there, at their other area stores and in their warehouse. DAMN! So, I did more research, ordered “it” and “it” should arrive tomorrow! We’re usually both home on Fridays at the time it should arrive, so I’ll have to be quick to receive and hide it.
I started working on a shaped mobius the night before last. I’m doing it w/ Sensations Rainbow Boucle on size 7 needles. The yarn is spec’d for size 11 needles! but I only had the 7. I made Shaun a shawl w/ the same stuff before and didn’t want it as loose as the 11 would be, but was afraid the 7’s might be too tight. It doesn’t really seem to be. Since the gauge I’m getting is quite different from Cat B’s pattern (found in the files in the magical knitting group at yahoo), I’ve changed numbers of stitches and rows (of course). Basically, though, it’s regular mobius done w/ 3 rows st st, 3 rows rev st st and increases/decreases happening every 10-12 rows or so. On the inc/dec rows, there are increases on 1/2 the row and decreases on the other half, making a funnel effect happen. With this yarn, the st st/rev st st is barely evident, at least thus far - perhaps moreso when I have more iterations of it done. I need to finish this up and get at least one or two more projects going from Cat’s book.
Today I get to teach some Cadet Girl Scouts knitting. They are working on their… um… silver? award. They are planning to knit prayer shawls for a nursing home. It’s a smallish group compared to the scouts I’ve worked with lately and it’s knitting not sewing, so it will be a real treat to do. I love working with the kids anyway, and knitting is my favorite, so I’ll be happy.
I’ve got a LOT of scout troops coming in this month - mostly for sewing. Next week I have 3, 3 the following week and 3 or 4 more the rest of the month. And a couple next month. One group is working on their bronze award and doing stuff to assist the afterschool care program at a school. The are going to sew ditty bags of varying sizes, color coordinated for different age groups, to hold the various games/pieces/supplies that are in the closet. We’ll put hanging loops so they can hang from a hangar on the coat rack or be put on shelves. Another couple of groups are making jammie pants in preparation for overnight plans they have later. We’ll use some of their scraps to fuse to a T-shirt to make them match their pants, do some decorative stitching to embellish those, use puffy paint on some socks then decorate them w/ embroidery, etc and voila, by the time they are done, they’ve covered their whole badge (we also spend time touring the store, learning about selecting patterns/notions/sizes/fabrics, etc) and have coordinated outfits for their overnight outings.
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