The Disaster

 A while back I started on the Pogona Shawl By Stephen West. It's been going well, almost mindless knitting, almost. I hadn't worked on it in a while and when I picked it up again I had forgotten how to do the M1 stitches. For the non-knitters out there, M1 means "make one". I realized a row too late that I had done them backwards. Again, for the non-knitters, there are several ways to make new stitches, the m1 I was doing caused the new stitch to lean a specific direction. Since the Pogona is several triangles, the m1's lean away from each other, making the triangle bigger. So I did the wrong side row, when I got to the messed up m1 stitches, I figured out how to undo them and redo them. This shawl has gotten so big that it takes almost an hour to finish a row, so I didn't want to tink (that's to knit backwards to undo my work, also, it's the word knit spelled backwards. . Yup, knitters are crafty) the whole row just to fix two stitches. After I fixed the stitches, I continued on, until I discovered that many many rows down, I'd YO-ed. As in I added an extra stitch by yarning over, leaving a HOLE in my work.

 And by many many rows down I mean almost 18 hrs, that's

 e i g h t e e n  h o u r s

 of work to undo and redo. AHHHHCK. I'm SOO pissed! It's just a little hole but it looks so BIG to me. Several knitting peeps all said that nobody will notice it. As the saying goes amung my knitting friends "if a Hun on a horse rides by and can't see the mistake, then it's not a mistake", others called it a design feature. I call it a hole. And I know that a non knitter wouldn't notice it, but I'm making this for me. I don't want to get it done and then regret not going back and undoing that stitch. So for now, it's going to hibernate, and I'll work on something else. Sometime before fall I'll pull it back out, fix it, and in November I'll have the most awesomest shawl the Manhattanites have ever seen.

As for the something else, I did get a good start on a previous months unfinished socks:

I'm also getting ready to swatch for the Endpaper Mitts in these colors:

This past week in photos

Photos from this past week:

1. I cashed in an Amazon gift card to buy a computer game.  With the left over money, I got some knitting books. I did hesitate for a second, What if I saved the leftovers to buy Christmas gifts?  But it was only for a second.

The Cast on Bind off Book will come in handy, specially if I want to create knitted items that look more professional.  The Knitter's Life List isn't really a knitting book.  It's more of a self help book for knitters, helps you create the ultimate "knitting bucket list".  It also has a lot of info on types of yarn, designers and/or people knitters should know about, places to visit, history of patterns and techniques, . . . . .  Pretty cool book for when you're not in the mood to knit.

2. I also let loose my inner crazy coupon lady.  The items pictured above were all FREE b/c I used coupons.  I know, I rock.  I also took a picture of my receipt, I saved 38% of my total order, again, I rock.

3. Then I got the game in the mail.  I feel like it's Christmas.  I LOVE the Diablo games.  So I got the game plus a strategy guide.

There is a catch with the gaming.  Some may find this silly, but this will keep me from sitting around playing all day (and all night).  My husband is a gamer and so we decided together that we had to "buy" our gaming time.  How do I do that?  Cleaning.  I've been cleaning almost every day, timing myself, putting "money" in my Gaming bank.  When I'm gaming, I'm withdrawing the "money" with the amount of time I game.  We'll see how long this lasts.

As far as my knitting goes. . I had a little disaster, but I'll have to use that as my cliffhanger for next time ;P

Must. Knit. Faster.

So I've been cleaning up my queue on Ralvelry. When I first signed up I added anything I liked to my queue, weather or not I would actually make that item. I've become a bit more realistic about what I can make and how long it takes to make things. Since I've been deleting stuff, I've been looking at patterns differently. Asking myself, would that look good on me? Would I enjoy knitting that? And most importantly, How much would it cost and/or do I have yarn in the stash for that? This year's resolution (12 pairs of socks in 2012) was so that I would use up stash yarn and not buy any yarn. . . because I already had all my knitting planned out for the year. I learned that socks are not boring, but not enough to keep me satisfied. I also discovered that if the money is there, I will buy yarn. So I've made sure that all the bills are paid first, that something is set aside in the emergency/gift fund. Then I'll buy yarn. I've even bought some patterns this year. One I liked so much that I made sure I bought the same yarn as used in the pattern (my color choice of course). But looking at all the things I want to make, I feel a bit overwhelmed. How silly? I should feel overwhelmed by the amount of cleaning my house needs or how much debit I still owe. Not over what I want to knit. So little time, so much to knit, must knit faster. 

Finished Socks

June Socks are Done!!!

And here are some crazy pictures of my cat and what he does all day.  It's very tiresome to be so adorable.

His name is Slick.

One sweater = Several Teddy Bears

I started taking apart another sweater recently.  It's acrylic that feels like it's been washed a bajillion times.  Picture doesn't quite capture it, but it has a beautiful grayish purple look to it.  It's several strands of different shades held together, including a cream color.  This will make some amazing Teddy Bears some day :)

Afternoon coffee break

I'm currently sitting in the sunshine with a great cup of coffee finishing up the first sock for June.  Really really like how this pattern panned out.  Nice looking lace that looks more complicated then it really is.  The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Hand painted Sock yarn in Cartoons.  The pattern did a good job at breaking up the colors so that it didn't pool.

I'm looking forward to having time this month to work on previous months socks.  For instance, I have training for work on Monday so tonight I'm going to start up the toe from my April socks.  So that during the hour long car ride to and from training, I'll have an easy sock pattern to work on.  So here's a picture of all the socks so far this year:

As far as my physical health, I took the last of my antibiotics yesterday.  I still have an open wound but the fluids are clear and I'm in no pain.  Three days after the surgery, I had a training class for work.  That meant that I had to sit on a metal folding chair for about 8 hours.  With in the first hour I was uncomfortable so some of my class mates found me a fabric lawn chair to sit on.  Much better.  Other then that, I haven't had any pain.

I have also been knitting away on a toy rabbit, A boy's bunny.  It's by the same artist as the bear I made (but have yet to stuff and sew together).  While knitting, I've been reading the earliest blog entries on his blog.  Mad Man Knitting.  Reading about how he has suffered brought back memories when becoming homeless seemed very very real to me and my husband.  My mom had to pay our rent for two months in a row.  It was a very dark and worry some time for us and I'm glad that we're on our way out of the hole we fell into.  It's so easy to fall and so hard to climb back out.  But this man, wow he's amazing.  I really want to buy one of his bears, I have a friend who is panda crazy.  However I can't really afford it right now.  So to help him out, I'm blogging about him.  Spreading the word, free advertizing, what ever you want to call it. So if you can help him out by doing the same as me, or buying a pattern from him, or even a bear, please do so.  And Gregory, if you're reading this "Hi, much love from Kansas!"

Not for the faint of heart. . Don't read of you don't like to hear about . . doctor stuff. . .

Two days ago I was crying because of the amount of pain I was in. Today I cried because the pain is almost completely gone.

Sunday: I started to feel some discomfort in my lower back, pressure on my tail bone.

Monday: Pain intensified during the day at work. Once home I striped from the waist down and laid on my stomach until my husband came home. “Sweetie, can you do me a potentially gross favor?” He replied with an mischievous smile “Like, pop a zit?” “Well, I don't know if it's a zit or not but there is something on my tail bone that hurts really really bad.” All he found was something that looked like a zit that was deep under the skin with no head on it.  

Tuesday: Pain continued to intensify, I could now feel a hard lump under my skin, over the size of a nickel, still looked like an angry zit.

Wednesday: It's a 20 min drive to and from work. I started crying about 5 min into the ride home. The bumps in the road were unbearable. Turning a corner made my legs tense up and I kept trying to squat above the car seat instead of sit on it. That night my husband suggested I make an appointment with a doctor.

Thursday: I called around to different doctors offices trying to get in that day. Most said that they weren't taking new patents or it would be the middle of July before I could get in. One office said that they would like to call me back after talking with my potential doctor. With in an hour I had an appointment with Dr. McSteamy. His office was kind of hard to find, out on the very very edge of town along side a living assistance building. “great, I'm going to an old person doctor” I thought. But the waiting room had people of all ages, including some kids.

Once I got into his office the nurse looked me over and said that she was sure it was a cyst. But she wanted Dr. McSteamy's opinion on what to do. Within 45 minuets of getting in to see my doctor, I was referred to a surgeon. The reason being that the cyst could be much deeper and Dr. McSteamy didn't feel comfortable draining it in his office. That it may need to be done in an OR. My surgeon was Dr. McDreamy, who agreed to see me that afternoon. So I drove over to his offices, just a few miles away. He talked with me about what they wanted to do and then went down to business. I got four shots of something to numb me up. I wasn't expecting a small shot to hurt but because the area was so sore it hurt a lot. Then he made an incision about an inch long and drained the cyst. He said “just a little fluid in here” I was thinking “that's a lot more then just a little” I could feel it run down my back side, between my legs, and drip on to the padding under me. He then began to “pack” the cyst with gauze. That hurt, I could feel each little push. He put about three inches in to the cyst. Then covered the whole thing with more gauze and taped it down.

He rolled a chair over and sat next to my head (I was lying face down) to talk with me. He said he had never seen a case like mine. I wasn't old enough, I wasn't over weight, I didn't have a job where I sat all day, and I had good hygiene. He also said that he didn't see any evidence that it was something that would reoccur, as in pilonidal disease or pilonidal cysts. He thought it was just a cyst that appeared in an area that would make doctors assume pilonial cysts, but really just a zit gone wrong. So thank you Dr. McDreamy and thank you Dr. McSteamy for being able to help me that day and for helping the pain start to subdue.

Dr. McDreamy prescribed an antibiotic, no showering until Saturday, and on Saturday I could take off the bandage and pull the gauze packing out. So I went to the Dillons that I work at to get my prescription and buy some tape and gauze. I still couldn't sit very well but I had to wait about 15 min for them to fill my prescription. I also got some bottled water so I could take my first dose asap. I was home by 5:30 that night.

Friday: I had to be at work by 6 am that day, totally forgot to ask if I was allowed to go back to work. But with some Advil and very helpful co-workers, I made it through the day with less pain then before. My co-worker, Brandon told me he had been taking extra care to clean his “cheekies” since I told him what was wrong. At least we had some good laughs. Buy the end of the night, most of the pain I had was from the tape pulling on my skin.

Saturday: nerve racking, I was suppose to go to my grandma's 80^th birthday party today, but since it still hurts to sit in my car seats, I decided a 5 hour drive would be to painful. Happy Birthday Grandma! Sorry if I was ever a pain in the ass! Because now I know what a real pain in the ass feels like. Nerve racking because today I can shower, I can take the bandage off, I can pull the gauze out of my cyst. Don't know if any of that will hurt. I waited around as long as I could stand being dirty. Then gathered up my things, took an Advil and got in the shower. The water felt good. The tape didn't feel so good. But the gauze was out right terrifying. I decided to leave it there until my shower was complete. I washed from my head down, then got very “doctor” like and scrubbed between my toes, and under my finger nails. Washed really good behind my ears. . I was putting the gauze pulling off. The water temperature started to change, so I needed to do this fast. The first little tug stung, probably hurt more then it needed to b/c I was so tense. To calm myself I started to think about all the knitting I was going to do the rest of the day. I planned on making an entire pair of lace anklet socks in some super rainbow yarn. Then the cleaning that I wanted to get done before the husband came home. I hadn't cleaned since Sunday and I was starting to feel bad that he was picking up the slack. Next thing I know the three inches of gauze was out and the pain stopped. I got out and dried off, taking time to do everything slow, not knowing what movements would hurt. I dropped my towel, bending over to pick it up I realized that it didn't hurt to bend over. Wow. That's when I started to cry. I was so happy that the hard part seemed to be over. Now I just need to keep it covered until it stops draining. Then all I'll need is a band-aid. Sweet, now I just need to start on my socks.