Life Happens

Well, just because I haven't posted anything in two years does not meant that I haven't been around.  I have even come by my blog a couple of time to see what I last posted.  Unfortunately for the blog-a-sphere I waste all my time on Facebook these days.  I hate that I do it, but it's so addictive to see what everyone is up to.  Not that I'm nosy I just like to see what other people think, like, want, or do everyday....which makes me sound like I have no life LOL!

The past two years have been crazy, of course.  How could my life be anything else?  I got re-married--something that I think I forgot to mention back in 2012.  Insanely happy still.  I must admit being with someone you are insanely happy with makes all the crazy stuff in life much easier to handle.

We temporarily moved to another state for work.  Which took place right after my last blog entry. We spent a year working there and then suddenly out of the blue a job landed in my husbands lap at home and we were able to come back last January.  We have been so happy to be home.  I LOVED my job in the other state and wish I could do it here, but no luck.  I was working as a biology field technician for an environmental consulting firm--sounds pretty fancy huh!  What I really did was get paid to hike about 10 miles a day in the mountain desert and look for plants, cactus (the one I have the picture of above), and birds.  I had no idea you could paid to go hiking.  BEST JOB EVER!

So here we are back at home in Wyoming.  I managed to get a temporary job where my husband is working.  I'm doing graveyard security for their construction site....yep I'm bored and it's the middle of the night LOL.  I've always been a morning person so I thought I would never be able to do a job like this, but you know I've done fine switching my days and nights around.  It's just so weird to be up and going when everyone else is fast asleep.  The job will only last a few more weeks and then I will be back to trying to sell my hand crafts.  If I could make money at that THAT would be the best job ever!  But after having three different etsy stores over the past eight years, I've about decided my stuff SUCKS! I've seen people sell ten times more stuff than I do and they have essentially the same product.  They obviously know something I don't.

Anyway, I've been knitting, of course.  I'm getting ready to start another sweater for my husband.  He had seen this online and asked if I thought I could make it LOL.  After those Aran sweaters I can make any sweater.

It's a really easy style!  I am going to try to have it done for him for Christmas.  My son is terribly jealous!  He really wants a sweater also, but until he demonstrates a talent for taking care of his clothing there will be no handknit sweaters for him!  

I have three grandchildren now! Talk about crazy!  I'm quite certain I am not "grandmotherly".  Ok, ok so I knit, bake cookies like they are going out of style, and like the museum better than the mall, but still.....DO I LOOK LIKE A GRANDMA?

Ya, I don't think so!  However, they are the cutest babies on the planet!  And I must admit that grandchildren are WAY better than children :)

These two cuties are The Daughters.  Her little boy is going to be two pretty soon and the adorable little girl was born this past Spring.  Wish she was closer so I could kiss and squeeze them :)

Then there is my oldest son's little boy that was born last winter:

I get to see him quite often.  He is so precious and he just LOVES me!  I get the cutest smiles and he even talked to me on the phone today--while he was eating the phone of course.  It would be wonderful if they were all living here in the same town with us, but they don't so I just have to wait for visits.

The Son, the one that thinks he needs a hand knit sweater, is all grown up--sort of.  He is getting his apprenticeship as a plumber/pipe fitter.  He really likes it and has a good job.  He still lives here so I get to see him :)  Thank goodness he isn't joining the "make mom a grandma" mission his siblings are on.  We love having him around...well except that since we've been back every time I turn around something "plumbing" is going wrong with the house.  At least we have him to come fix it!

OK! That wraps it all up. Now you know what I've been up to. And I got to show off my cute little grandkids :)

On and Off the Needles

I just realized that I finished the pomegranate colored Lucia Tee summer sweater (see this post) and did not take a picture.  I was so excited about how it turned out that I called the recipient and immediately delivered it to her.  She was thrilled with the color!!  It turned out really nice!!  The yarn was CotlLin from Knit Picks and it's a really nice yarn to work.with!

Another project I recently finished was this little dress and jacket for The Daughter's baby.

The pattern for the dress is out of last summer's Debbie Bliss magazine.  You knit the top then add a fabric skirt.  I added the little jacket because Wyoming can get snow even in the summer time lol!

This is a scarf I started the other day.  It's a little slow going but I love the way the colors are coming out!  The yarn is some really nice fingering weight superwash merino and cashmere that my husband got me for my birthday when we were still dating.  He knows what I like!!

And finally, this is a shawl I made as a sample for the shop.  The one yarn is some of my hand dyed lace weight merino yarn and the other is some of SWTC's new yarn I sell in my shop called String Me Along--a novelty yarn featuring sequins that comes in a million colors. 

I love the way it turned out!! (sorry the pictures aren't so great.  The camera on my phone is not the best)

The pattern for the shawl can be found on Ravelry Here.  It's a really simple pattern that works up quickly.  Depending on the yarn it can look a lot like peacock feathers.

And that wraps up the past couple of weeks :)  Right now on the needles is a pair of glittens--my pattern--for my dad for Father's Day.

Happy Knitting!

On and Off the Needles

To start it off I thought I would show you the latest FO.  I've been knitting like crazy lately--unfortunately also STARTING a lot of knitting project lately.  I have at least 10 new projects I've started the past two weeks :/  I hate start-itis!  I love finish-itis, but it doesn't happen as often as start-itis.

My daughter is due to have her first baby in August so ya, you guessed it!  Baby knitting projects galore! Just finished this one last night.

It was SO easy and quick to make.  The booties, of course, only took about an hour.  The sweater only took about 4 or 5 hours.  I love the yarn and the pattern was WONDERFUL.  Both are free patterns from Ravelry.  I did some modifications to the booties to make them a little more girlish.  The yarn is some hand painted worsted weight wool/alpaca blend yarn I picked up from WEBS a year or two ago.  Made both the sweater and booties from one skein (219 yards).

The project that is still on the needles but has to be done by Monday are these socks I designed for my niece who is turning 11 next week.  I hope she likes them.  They are quite colorful!

These have been WAY fun to make!!!  I will try to get a pattern written up and listed on Ravelry, Craftsy, and in my etsy store sometime in the next few weeks.  So if you are interested in making a pair check those locations in the coming weeks.  

Of course there are quite a few other projects still on the needles, but there isn't time and space for ALL of them :)

My health situation has improved.  Pretty sure it was ulcers that had gone way to far and were giving me all sorts of esophagus and stomach problems.  The pain was off the chart causing my blood pressure to sky rocket.  A very boring diet and lots of ulcer medication has made a big difference.  Can't wait to go back to eating real food!!!!

Baby Bunting and Update

Here is a picture of the baby bunting I made, with the baby in it :)

Pretty cute!  Won't fit him for long, but it was a fun cute project!

Going in to see a cardiologist tomorrow.  I don't know if I hope they find something or not.  After all, if a cardiologist finds something it's not a good thing.  But at the same time, I REALLY would like to go back to feeling normal.  I miss working out, not feeling nauseous most of the day, knitting, relaxing, etc.  Not to mention, if the cardiologist doesn't find anything then I'll be off to see if I have some sort of ulcers or esophagus issues--which doesn't appeal to me at all.

More updates tomorrow.

What's New?

Had another doctor's appointment yesterday.  All my lab work came back normal.  Which is good and bad. Good because that means I am not dying of a heart attack, liver problems, kidney problems, thyroid problems, Lyme disease, Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever, etc.  Bad because the only thing we DO know is that whatever is going on is not all fixed with a dose of anxiety medication.  Meaning that I have SOMETHING besides anxiety causing me health problems we just still don't know what.  So, back to the lab for more tests :/

I have been able to sit still a little bit and do some knitting finally.  (As you recall, sitting still was bringing on the episodes and still is it's just that the anxiety medication keeps it from bothering me to the point that I can't function).  The Daughter is going to be having a baby girl in August so I have been trying to put together some baby stuff for her.  I made the baby booties from the book "Last Minute Knitted Gifts".   Not really the best bootie pattern in the world, but fun to make.  I have also made three cotton chenille wash clothes using this pattern that I found on Ravelry.  The pattern is REALLY easy to memorize and works up quick.  I'll post pic's of them all when I give them to The Daughter at her baby shower coming up next Saturday--don't want to ruin the surprise in case she gets on here and reads the blog :)

The T-shirt sweater is in "black hole knitting" mode right now.  I think I have knit on it through three movies and only added two inches to the length.  I hate when progress is slow!  If I can ever get the body of the sweater to 16 inches long I can consider it practically done.  The lace yoke part, even though there are considerably more stitches at first, goes fairly fast and before you know it you are done!!  I am looking forward to moving on to some other projects!

Happy Knitting!  And thanks for all the hugs!

Throwing This Out There......

Ok, so where did I go after my last post?  Well, I don't know.  I ended up in the emergency room at the hospital twice, two different doctors offices, had eight vials of blood samples taken, was given all sorts of medications that were supposed to stop what was going on, and I still have the whole whatever it is going on.

The ER doc is absolutely sure it's anxiety attacks (apparently you can get these for no reason what so ever--they can just happen). My regular doctor has no idea but had two pages worth of lab tests run on me.  Thyroid tests came back normal.  The rest of the tests haven't come back yet I guess.  My blood pressure is higher than normal (which is really no surprise since I am freaking out because I am having unexplained chest pains, occasionally shaking like I'm having a seizure, can't focus AT ALL, my vision keeps going blurry, I keep having the sensation that burning hot water is being poured over my shoulders, down my arms and then it stops as it hits the bottom of my rib cage, nausea to the point I can't eat and even water is difficult to get my throat to swallow, my sense of smell is off the chart which is NOT helping my nausea AT ALL!)  When I went into the first doctor my blood pressure was WAY high--152 over 100. And of course, each time "the episode of burning hot water-nausea-blurry vision-chest pains" happens my blood pressure spikes.

Naturally I can't get a doctor to talk to me and get me help immediately, mostly because none of them can figure out what's going on.  I mean how many times can they get away with saying, "Well, it's probably just anxiety attacks and the medicine SHOULD be making the symptoms to disappear. I don't know why the symptoms are coming in waves still even though you took the medicine...."  The ER doc is certain that if I can just come to terms with whatever it is that I am so anxious about then they will stop.  WELL THAT WOULD ALL BE WELL AND FINE IF I KNEW WHAT WAS STRESSING ME OUT!!!  All that's stressing me out is these stupid episodes!!

So ridiculous!!  I really would like for it to just go away and leave me alone.  I don't know why I need any of it to be going on in the first place.  I hate doctors and I do not like taking prescription medications!!  I don't even take over the counter medicine unless something gets so bad I'm pretty sure I will die if I don't.

Ya, so not much knitting going on :(  I keep trying, but it's almost impossible to stay focused on it.  Even my stand by "mindless" knitting in the round projects are too much for me.  As weird as it sounds, the more relaxing the activity the more frequent and severe these episodes become.  Which makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE!  OH! I just had an idea, maybe I'm knitting the wrong things!  I've been focusing on RELAXING projects.  Maybe I need to make a pair of Turkish Stockings where you have anywhere from six to twelve colors to work with on each round!  (Made a pair of these before--what a tedious nightmare!)  Or a lace table cloth with thousands and thousands of stitches and lace stitches to work every round!  And I could use bamboo needles--which I CANNOT stand because the yarn doesn't slide on them.  That would make the project even more difficult and irritating!

Pretty sure I'm loosing my mind..............

If anyone, anywhere, out there in the online world has ever experienced these medical symptoms and knows what is going on PLEASE COMMENT!!!! If you have experienced these symptoms and still do not know what is going on LET'S TALK!!!  Maybe talking will help, or not.  I don't know.......

New Yarn!

I just spent most of my day listing all the new yarn in my etsy store.  I actually dyed and got the new hemp yarn in October, but I am just now getting around to listing it online.  IT IS SO TIME CONSUMING TO CREATE LISTINGS.  Etsy makes it as streamlined as possible but it still takes FOREVER!

Here are a few of the exciting yarns now available in my online shop :)

My hand dyed self striping yarn :)

Some of the new fingering weight hemp yarns in GREAT colors

And then a couple of cones of undyed natural hemp in DK and fingering weight.

I also listed the new yarn colors from Dale of Norway's Daletta and Baby Ull.  A REALLY dark espresso colored yarn and a soft mint green.  If you're looking for some yarn for your next project, check out twistedharefiberarts.etsy.com!

Happy Knitting!