02.28.08

I still feel like poop

Posted in Etsy, Life, Update tagged , , at 8:45 pm by iknitipurl

But today was my last surgery! Yay! I went in around 8 this morning and was out at 10:30. The findings? There were adhesions on the right side of my uterus, caused by two C Sections and the tubal ligation. They also found a signifcant sized tubal cyst on the left side. All has been removed. The surgery wasn’t quite as harsh as previous ones, I assume because it was done laprascopically. I just wanted to tell you all that I am fine, my hiatus is over. My recovery begins today! While I didn’t want another surgery or more problems, I’m glad that they did find something that seemed to have caused the past few weeks pain.

I don’t have any knitting or sewing content, but I do have some owl content:

picture-401.jpg

Me and my owl obsession. I know. His name is Twiglet and you can find his friends here at Blossom Hill. The stamp I bought at Beverly’s and is called “Ollie and Olivia” by Stampendous.

Have a great weekend. Hopefully I’ll have some major updating going on then!

02.21.08

hospitals = whale poop

Posted in Etsy, Life, Sock Yarn, Sweater, Update, WIP tagged , , , , at 11:33 pm by iknitipurl

Yes I know, I give great visuals don’t I? Since Sunday afternoon I’ve been in and out of the ER and my doctors’ offices like crazy. It all started with right pelvic pain. They did ultrasounds, CT scans, an enema, bloodwork, urine cultures…Two Morphine shots later they told me I had ovarian cysts. No shit Sherlock. (Can’t wait to see the bill for them telling me something I already knew and something that I had told them.) I went to my OB Monday and Tuesday and they are pumping me up with antibiotics and crappy painkillers. Tuesday afternoon I had the cyst on my head removed. So along with the pelvic, back and hip pain, you can add severe headache to the list. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to brush my hair yet.So honestly, nothing else has been on my mind because of this. Tomorrow I see my OB, (again), and will schedule a laproscopy for sometime next week. The sooner the better because I’m uber tired of being in pain and feeling so drained. (Add to that, Scout and Jem are both sick with colds.) Could it get worse? Probably. I’m hoping there isn’t a vengeful God up there!In the meantime, between aches and pains I’ve had my mailbox completely full the past few days and that’s really helped! I’ve gotten a number of packages from Etsy and Swap bot and a few “get better” cards. They’ve all made me so happy, but I was completely in awe when I opened a package and saw this:

mermaid2.jpg

“Mermaid” by SunnySideEllen

And then I got my custom made coin purse JPATpurses from the owl fabric I sent her:

owlpurse.jpg

I had actually purchased one from her, for a swap pal. I loved it so much I asked if she had another, but she had ran out of that fabric. So I asked if she could do a custom order and she did. She also slipped a little owl fabric magnet in there as well.

In the midst of all of this hubbub, I have been getting a little knitting done though I admit not much. Mainly due to error use, the pattern is simple but not when on prescription drugs. I have frogged the lace pattern a few many times. Two or three times because I had 4 stitches too many. Another time I frogged about 8 rows of lace because I was missing one stitch, (that wasn’t dropped, instead I did a Slip 1, K2tog, PSSO rather than the SSK that the pattern called for). Nevertheless! I am making way, considering I only started the project last Tuesday and have been incapacitated for four of those days.

henleyperfected.jpg

“Henley Perfected”

Interweave Knits, Winter 2007
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Wool/Silk in Champagne

Needles: US 4’s (body) and US 3’s (edging)

Other than that, well a lot of sleep has been happening. The whole thing makes me feel like whale poop. Not that I know what whale poop looks like or feels like, I just imagine it’s pretty shitty. (Sorry for the pun. LOL.) Today I asked Shawn, “What is bigger than whale poop?” He thought for a minute and said, “I don’t know.” I then replied, “Well whatever it is, that’s what I feel like.”

On that note, I’m off to take a nap!

02.14.08

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted in Altered Art, Scout, Scrapbooking tagged , , at 11:49 pm by iknitipurl

My lack of attendance on this blog has upset me. I’ve had nothing but good intentions on posting more often, reading blogs more often, commenting more often. The “more often” is what’s gotten me in trouble, I do believe. The holidays come and I try to outdo myself each year. Last year I ran out of time. Last year our car broke down. Last year there were only cupcakes. So this year? This year I didn’t run out of time. This year there was scrapbooking. This year there was a Valentine’s Day party at Jody’s. This year there are chocolate covered strawberries. This year there is a homemade apple pie, (with homemade dough which I virtually never do because it’s pretty time consuming), cooling on the rack. This year is good. Amazing, really.I think Scout thinks so too:

vday2.jpg

I didn’t finish the dress in time, which makes me a little sad. But I ran out of eyelet trim and when I went to buy more my debit card was declined. Know why? Someone took money out of my checking account without my authorization. The kicker? It was an identity theft service online that took the money and have no record of them transferring my money. *sigh* (It’s always something, right?) But I’m not letting it get me down.

The fact is the dress will be done. And I suppose I’d better start on her Easter dress since Easter will be arriving a little early this year. March 23, if I’m not mistaken.

I’ve also been spending many of my insomniatic nights working on Shawn’s V-day album:

vdaycover.jpg

If you’d like to see more of my hard work, go here and you can see the rest of the pages. I’ll also load them to Flickr. I’m just happy it’s D.O.N.E. If you knew my scrapbooking peeves you’d know that while I usually just go with the flow, things still have to have balance and again: I always have to outdo my previous album or what not. I’m my own worst enemy. This I know.

All the same. I finished in time to enjoy the holiday with my sweetheart, (yes, I mean Shawn, LOL), and I hope everyone else out there in blogland is enjoying their Valentine’s Day too!

Til next time.

(BTW, next time I will have some pix of the new Henley Perfected I’m working on. Yes, knitting has been happening here too!)

02.08.08

Bag it up!

Posted in FO, Sewing at 9:00 pm by iknitipurl

Although I have not been knitting much, (Vicodin and counting stitches really don’t mix), I have been sewing here and there. I should say I’ve been cutting templates, pinning templates, measuring templates, cutting fabric, pinning fabric, ah you get the idea. Time at the sewing machine is minimal compared to the time of preparing everything. All the same, I enjoy it. I enjoy it enough that I finished this market bag and I ♥ it so much that I want to make a million more!

marketbag.jpg

The pattern is from a Singer sewing book. At first it seemed complicated: fusible fleece and mitered corners? I did eventually figure it out after reading the pattern, that omitted a very important photo of the mitered corners, and sitting down with the fabric for an hour or two.

And the inside? I love it. I absolutely love this fabric from the moment I saw it at Beverly’s!

marketbaginside.jpg

I ended up shortening the straps a little, due to a small mistake. If I do make this bag again, which assuredly I will, I will keep the 19″ strap length. My mom even wants me to make her one and she’s the queen of complaining and pointing out that it’s not perfect. I’ve succeeded!

I also whipped a few more fabric coasters for a swap I am in:

tealbrowncoasters.jpg

Note to self: cordorouy doesn’t make suitable material for coasters. I have issues with the outside seams. Next time I’ll just stick to cotton and batting.

I also started Scout’s Valentines dress the other night, though I only started the sewing last night while watching “Midsomer Murders” and “Poirot” because the Biography Channel has seen fit to pull the mystery programs off their channel, (including my all time fave “Murder, She Wrote”).

vdaydress.jpg

There is still a bit to do, but I’m 1/2 way there. I am not sure if I want to use the rick rack or if I want to get some lace, or eyelet, trim for the skirt. I am very hopeful that this will be finished in time for Valentine’s Day.

I went a little crazy on Etsy recently. Sheer boredom fueled my search. And then I joined an owl swap. Then I went absolutely therapy shopping for me and my swap partner. I picked up this for me:

owls.jpg

Adorable, right? I also picked out an owl coin purse for her, two crochet owl patterns for me, a custom order baby owl for her and one for me, some more lovely yarn from SunnySideEllen in Mermaid, a beaded purse pattern made from Tahki Stacy Charles Cotton Classic and I think that’s it, but I could be wrong.

Good thing my tax return will be showing up in about a week. My priorities have been totally off kilter as far as money goes lately. I don’t know what’s with me. Do you know? If you do, please fill me in.

 

02.05.08

A Little Goes a Long Way

Posted in Life, Sewing, Swaps, Update tagged , , at 5:14 am by iknitipurl

Which makes me feel somewhat productive. I think it’s my way of tricking my brain into thinking I’m doing a lot, when in reality I haven’t done anything. The past few days I’ve been working on my swap bot obligations. I really enjoy the writing swaps. I love getting mail, so long as it isn’t junk or bills. No one enjoys junk or bills, (or do they?).

I finished two Dotee dolls for my pals and I am loving these little dolls more and more:

2creativedotee.jpg

This little gem is made with pink and brown polka dot fabric I bought from JoAnn’s, (remember my first elephant attempt? Same stuff.). I used ribbons from my scrapbook stash and did a little cross stitching on her sash. Oh and I gave her mittens.

creativedotee.jpg

This lady is my favorite so far. She took a little more time and effort because I used size 8 seed beads and did a little freeform. Ribbon is by Foofala, from my scrapbook stash. The fabric I bought from Beverly’s a while back. (I also made a second elephant out of this stuff, I love the teal/brown combo.)

I have been getting a little bit of rest, though I admit I should be getting more. Unfortunately I live with two messy boys and one messy girl. None of which like to clean. Or cook. So while I sit around and try to do something for me, I have been working on my socks. They are gorgeous in the handdyed yarn. I’m quite excited to be designing something of my own. And nervous. Butterflies in my stomach nervous.The truth of the matter is that I don’t think I’m that good. Yet. Yes, I can knit. Yes, I can pick up techniques fast. But designing is a completely different out of this world experience. There are lots of numbers. And boy, do I mean lots of numbers. Gauges, needle changes, pattern repeats, adjustments. It’s a slow process. I do enjoy it though. I suppose what’s more nerve wracking is will anyone want to buy my pattern? Will they enjoy the experience? Will they appreciate the hard work? Only time will tell.Aside from that I cut the template pieces to the Valentine’s Day dress for Scout. Which I’m hoping will be done by Valentine’s Day. When I read the pattern at first I thought, “how cute?”. The second time I read it I thought, “What the hell is interfacing?” . The third time I thought, “Why do I do this to myself?”. And then last night I read it. And then read it again for good measure. And then it hit me! I realized that I am complicating this project. No, it’s not a simple sew here and then here type pattern. But it’s also not the cute fuzzy I’ve learned to hate Halloween costume projects mouse I want to make for Scout. I think I just might do fine.And while I’ve been writhing in pain, trying to keep myself busy, and being hopeful for the future, nature bestowed a rainbow at the end of the day:

rainbow.jpg

02.03.08

I am O.K.

Posted in Update tagged at 6:17 am by iknitipurl

Thanks to everyone for your warm wishes and prayers!
The surgery was successful. Unfortunately there are those “side effects”…mine being that I bit my tongue after they removed the trachea tube. It’s quite swollen and numb. On the right underside it’s bruised and you can see where I bit it. I can eat and drink, so I’m ok. I think it’s more of an inconvience than anything else. As for the surgery, they drained the cyst and stitched me up. I imagine this is what it feels like to give birth the natural way. But I have pain killers and have been getting as much as rest as possible.

I hope to post some craft related stuff soon. My USB cord wires frayed and broke so I need to get a new one – again. We bought one at Staples yesterday but the guy sold us the wrong size. Hopefully we can find the right size. I have been doing a bit of scrapbooking lately, (mini albums/journals), and a little bit of sewing, (though I whole heartedly admit that I am a bit confused by the pattern). I signed up for a bead class and am totally excited, even though it doesn’t start until March!

And even better news! I am going to be going home, (Chicago), in March, to see my sister! Yay! I am really excited. It’s been such a long time since I’ve been there. Eleven years. It’s a lifetime. I plan on hitting all the yarn shops, eating pizza everyday, and spending time with my sister, my grandma and my uncle. It will be great.