Monthly Archives: April 2011


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new pattern up: my first hockey player: montreal canadiens

NOTE: for some reason comments are closed for this post…I’m not sure why, but you can still reach me by email if you want.

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It’s up!!  I’ve been working on it for a while, and I’ve finally finished my HABS player pattern!  And thanks to our boys making it to game 7 tomorrow, now YOU’VE got enough time to knit up a little good luck totem of your own!  (Or, depending on how things turn out, it makes a great voodoo doll…hehe)

The pattern is $2.99 CAD and is available in Ravelry here, or to purchase directly click here.  That link is for a Ravelry PDF download, but you don’t need to be a Ravelry member to purchase.

I hope you enjoy it!  I tried my best to make the pattern faithful to the red home uniform, and you can knit it with just stripes, or duplicate stitch/embroider the famous CH logo.  There’s even room on the back to duplicate stitch your favorite player’s initials (and even his name, if you’re good at embroidery!).


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happy easter

Sorry for the bit of a break.  It’s been a long last 2 weeks here.

The week before last was a dark week for me.  On the 13th (Wed) was my 10 day post-op follow up with my surgeon.  My mom took me to the appointment and he said everything looked good.  Other than being  crazy sore from  the pushing and feeling he does in the exam, I left there feeling pretty good.  I went home and slept off the pain, then settled in for the evening to rest, and that’s when it happened.  I was propped up against some pillows and there was a nursing pillow (Boppy) on the bed that I use to protect my tummy when I’m sitting up, like  at a table.  It was touching my foot and bugging me, so I leaned forwards gently to move it over.  Well moving forwards when I was already propped up put me into a “crunch”-type position, and my (a?) hernia popped out.

I made it 10 days.  10 hernia-free days.

So the rest of that week was a wash.  I was feeling very down, very depressed and very upset.  “Frustrated”  doesn’t even begin to cover how I was feeling.  I couldn’t even focus on how upset I was, though, because Sunday the 17th was our year 2 midterm, and I was a little behind in studying.  I couldn’t think of blogging, or even knitting, because every moment I wasn’t sleeping, I was studying.  Between not talking ‘cus I was just in a funk, to not doing anything but read and review, it was a long, difficult few days.

Not even the arrival of a surprise package from a sweet friend could raise my spirits- though it certainly was the brightest spot of the week!   (JayJay– you are so  sweet!  A proper email/thank you and post with photos is coming, I promise).

As soon as the midterm was over we had a chance to relax from school a little, but jumped right into family obligations because Monday and Tuesday nights of last week were the 2 Passover seders.  The kids were awesome and well behaved, and in general both nights went well, but I was sore and the dinners were long.  Even when the kids are good, they are still used to a schedule that starts the bedtime routine at 7pm.  Henri is usually asleep for the night by 7:30, Jakob later but still playing quietly in his bed…and the two dinners only started at 7pm.

Monday also started a commissioned crochet project that I finished on Saturday, but the pics are still in my camera so those will also come soon.

On Wed I had a repeat visit with the surgeon so he could find the hernia I’d felt.  I left there in tears, half from the pain of him poking around, and half from frustration because he couldn’t find it.  It was to be expected, though, ‘cus I’m still too swollen for him to really feel anything.  Either way nothing would be done to fix it for a few months, but it was still just a sucky experience to go through, especially since it had popped out 3 more times since the first time, one of those being earlier Wed afternoon!

All this to say why I haven’t been around the blog or Facebook much, even though I’ve been home.  I’ve barely even been online, other than checking emails.  If you have a blog, and I used to comment on it, don’t think I’m suddenly ignoring you, please.  I haven’t read anyone’s blog in months.  If I can’t sleep in the middle of the night I’ll open up some entertainment blog just for reading material, like Regretsy, Lamebook or Cake Wrecks.  I can just scroll down and keep reading until I doze off, and not worry that I’m forgetting to leave a comment.  If you’re a friend/blogger, I’ll get back to  you soon.  I’m still home for another 5 weeks…

Thursday turned into an unexpected long day.  I’d planned for more of the same- sleep in, lay around the house, watch a bit of tv, doze off, maybe knit a little, repeat.  (I’d make an “it’s a hard life!” joke but this all started with a now-failed surgery that I’ve done for the second time…so I’m not going to make any excuses for taking it easy!)  Instead on Wednesday  afternoon I got a call from the Children’s Hospital telling me that they finally had a date for Henri’s spine MRI- the next day!  Luckily Mom was free to take us.  Poor little guy- he had to fast, and then be sedated for the 45 minute test- but other than crying during the insertion of the IV shunt in his hand (completely understandable!) he was so awesome!  And when he woke up after sleeping off some of the sedative, he was acting like he was drunk- head lolling back, talking about random, nonsense things, etc.  Strange as it is to say, it was a real mix of being really sad (to see him in the hospital crib, drugged up with a bandaged hand) but also really sweet (not that I want him to be drunk!  But he was being really cute and silly, and just plain adorable).  He even charmed the nurses by waking up with a bright smile and being friendly and sociable from the minute he opened his eyes.

The results won’t be in for about a month, though this was really only done to rule stuff out, and the doctor fully expects that the results will all be normal.  I think his blood test results have come in, but the doctor’s been away so we have an appointment coming up soon to go over everything.

The boys’ daycare was closed on Friday and today, and it’s been fun to spend time with them since I haven’t really been able to lately.  Jakob has been a total clown.  On Saturday I was working on the crochet thing while we were hanging out at my parents’ place, and Jakob came running up with a Hot Wheels car held above his upper lip.  “Look Mom,” he said, “I have a mustache!”  I asked if he’d like me to make him a mustache that he could wear, instead, and his eyes were shining, he was so excited!  I had some black acrylic with me and quickly whipped up this little number that he wore for about the next hour:

My little Mario!

Have  you seen much of Yannick or Henri lately?  No?  Let’s fix that:

There.  That’s better.  🙂

The sitting and laying around time this week, without being coupled with studying, allowed me to get a bit of stuff done.  In addition to finishing the crochet project, I also finished the Spring, Take Two socks (the ones with Zaubby and the black Sisu).  I’ve also been working on a special design, timed just for this time of year.  The weekend after the hernia popped out, I finally managed to finish the prototype for a new pattern.  I’ve mentioned it here before…remember all the talk of finding the perfect red?  Well my prototype needed a bit of work, so I altered the pattern and Maaike knit up a sample for me.  I’ve got it back now and am just doing the finishing before I can get the pattern finalized.  It should be available this week, and just in time too!

Stay tuned!


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wha? where’s green?

My ball of Zauberball is insane.

Remember what it looked like in ball form?  Lots of pink, blending from nearly-white, to deep…and right in the middle was a bright Spring green.  It was the combination of the colors that I fell in love with, so bright and cheery.

When Maaike and I wound the yarn, we made sure to divide the whole ball evenly in half, and then rewind one of the halves from the outside-in, so the colors wouldn’t pool in the same direction.  I was immediately enchanted by the stripes, and was picturing sections where light pink met green, dark pink met light pink, light green met light pink, in my head it was a beautiful sort of controlled chaotic madness that I couldn’t wait to see on my feet.

I finished the first foot, and so as not to mess up the striping (that I was working from the inside of the ball) I did the heel from the outside of one half-ball.  Since my last stripe was light, I chose the ball that had a lot of dark pink on the outside, and did a short-row heel.  I put a stitch marker on that ball to remind me to use the other ball for the other sock’s heel, and started to knit a few more stripes when I realized something.

My foot was all pink.  My heel was all pink.  And if I looked at the yarn still to come from the center of the balls, there was still a LOT more pink to go.  (The lower one is misleading- it LOOKS like green is coming up, but it’s all lies.  There is a ton of pink squished in there).  I don’t like my socks to be too long, and at this rate I’d have one entire sock in shades of pink before hitting green in the second sock.

I had no choice but to cut the yarn.  I did a few stripes after the heel for stability, then transferred the stitches onto dpns and cast on for a new foot.  I decided to keep going from the inside of the balls, and at the very worst I’d have two feet that were entirely done in shades of pink, but at least I’d hit the green by the time I got to the legs, and I’d just make sure both legs had some green in there.  No sweat.

By random fluke I started the second sock with a light stripe, and it gave me the same color-bleed section as the first sock, but still ended up with the stripes reversing, so I had an almost exactly opposite sock from the first one.  (Good think I’m cool with fraternal twins).  When I got to the heel my last stripe was dark, so I grabbed the half-ball that would give me a light heel- which was conveniently the one I didn’t use for the first heel.

I finished the heel and set about to finish the leg, eager to race through it and show Maaike that I’d managed to finish almost a whole pair already(!) when I realized there was STILL a ton of pink to go.  My socks are usually only about 4″ or so up from the heel, including ribbing.  I find more is a waste, and I’d rather be on to knitting something else.  There was no way I’d even get a hint of green in this pair.  What would I do??

When I knit the second short-row heel, the yarn was so light that I didn’t realize it wasn’t at it’s lightest tint yet.  While I was knitting I was barely able to see the subtle graduation from pink to barely-pink-white, and the more I looked at the heel the more I really liked seeing the colors fade like that.  Not many sock yarns do a true fade or blend, very often it’s just a chunk of one color followed by a chunk of another.  I find it’s a show of dyer’s skill (well…when hand-dyed anyways, not sure what the Zaubby process is) to get a soft blend, plus I really like the look.

What if I were to knit yet ANOTHER sock foot?  The pink I had in the center of the first ball was at the lightest shade, but not too far off from getting darker.  And eventually it got light again before transitioning into green.  What if…Ok, this would work!  I’d knit another sock, only I’d do the toe in black so I wouldn’t waste the color change on the narrow toe part, plus it would keep me from using up too much yarn in the second pair, ‘cus I still need to finish the first.  I’d knit the foot with the center of just one ball, to get the full gradient effect.  When it was time for the heel, I’d work another short row heel, maybe in black again, so I would save the yarn, and also ‘cus it would set off the colors nicely.  I’d work the leg until I had enough green (ha!) and then do ribbing in black again, and put aside all the Zaubby left from that sock.  I’d use the remaining half-ball for another one with black toe/heel and in the end I’d have 2 left-over balls that I could use to finish the striped pair.

It’s a lot of work, but boy I’ll be getting my money’s worth from this ball of yarn!

sd

Here’s where that got me.  On the dpns are both striped feet, awaiting legs.  On my foot is the beginnings of the 2nd pair, working a lovely blend of colors.

Except…look at that giant chunk of pink!  I’d have to knit that entire section of shades of pink before getting to even a hint of green.  There’s no use.  I’m going to have to cut again.

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In other news, I’m doing ok.  My belly still hurts but hey- the surgery was only on Monday.  This is the longest I’ve tried to sit up in the whole week and I’m starting to feel a bit queasy so I’m going to go lie down again, but at least I can knit while reclining!  🙂

This coming week is going to suuuuuuuuuuck ‘cus I have to figure out a way to study from big, heavy textbooks in time for our in-person midterm next Sunday.  Once that’s done I’ll still have studying to do, but won’t be as stressed about it.

I still haven’t gotten to my emails, but don’t worry, if you sent me one, you’ll get a reply.  Just not today.


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taking it easy

I had my umbilical hernia surgery on Monday, with no last-minute pulls from the OR again.  I think it went rather uneventfully, the surgery was at 12:30 and I’m pretty sure I was home by 5-ish.  I’m going to be home for the next 8 weeks, under doctor’s orders not to lift anything heavier than a book, especially since after fixing my LAST hernias, a new one appeared 3 weeks later, during the time I was still taking it easy/no lifting/etc.  This time I need to be EXTRA careful.

I’ve spent 99% of my time since getting home in bed.  It’s a pretty sweet setup, with both my laptop and iphone here with me…though I’ve been sleeping so much that I haven’t been able to take advantage.  I just don’t have the strength or energy yet to get some work done, though that will have to change soon ‘cus our live midterm is next weekend.  😦  My online midterm showed me that I’ve got a LOT of studying to do if I want a good mark.

To keep my sanity level even, I have a small knitting bag in bed with me.  It’s a sock, worked on a magic-looped circ, so I’m not worried about putting it down (or falling asleep halfway through a row) and losing stitches.

After seeing the Zauberball yarn I picked up last week, Maaike decided to get some too.  We’re doing a mini KAL, both having divided our balls in half, then winding one of those halves from the outside-in, so that the colors run in the opposite direction.  We’re both doing toe-up socks with 3 rows from each ball per stripe, with the only difference being that she did her toe and heel in a solid black yarn, and a wrap/turn short row heel, whereas I did my toe striped right from the get-go, and I’ll be doing a YO short row heel.

Go figure that after all the work to rearrange the yarn, I still ended up with a section of overlapping colors.  I could have cut the yarn and forced the stripes to continue, but I decided to just let the yarn do what it wants.

I only managed to get about 10 minutes of knitting done yesterday morning, but it was worth it just for the peace it gave me.  Plus peeking into my knitting bag makes me feel like I’ve got a bouquet of Spring blossoms in here with me.

Somehow, even with the pain meds I’m on, I even managed to fix a stitch that looked wonky.

This is as much as I’ll be posting for now, ‘cus I can’t put the computer on my lap, and it’s obnoxious to try and type with one hand, over to the side.  If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t replied yet, it’s just ‘cus I’m waiting until I can sit at the table, ‘cus this is really awkward.  I just wanted to let you know that the surgery went well, and that for the first time in 2 years, I seem to be hernia-free!  🙂