Surprise, No Surprise

No Surprise: Thanks so much for the tremendous amount of experience, advice and support for the trouble with my foot.  I appreciate the advice to: listen to the doctor, ignore the doctor, see a PT, see a chiropractor, put ice on it, screw ice and put heat on it, stretch it, keep it still, rest, exercise, take supplements, take arnica, take anti-inflammitories, avoid anti-inflammitories like the plague, and get or don’t get a brace. I read them all, I’m grateful for them all, and it should surprise you not one little bit that I’m going to go with the advice of the doctor who has actually examined the foot in question. Partly because the foot was in his presence (and that has to be a help in diagnosis) and partly because it feels right, sounds right, and appears to be helping.  I’ve got a huge advantage over you guys in that it’s my foot, and that makes it easier to tell what to do.

Surprise: While walking continues to be absolutely craptastic for my poor foot (and I am avoiding it, following the “don’t do it if it hurts” rule) I was shocked to discover that riding my road bike is almost fine. A more experienced rider said that he thought it was because the cycling shoes are tight enough to add support, and maybe he’s right, because my foot feels so good in the shoes that when I put them on, I thought about wearing them all day.

Surprise: I rode 116km on Saturday (that’s almost 73 miles, for my American friends who are as good at Kilometres as I am at miles) and it wasn’t awful.  I was tired afterwards, and I made liberal use of my E-Tomic balm that evening, I won’t pretend I didn’t, but I was surprisingly not too sore or stiff the next day, which bodes pretty well for the Rally, except for the part where I have to be fine with that for six days in a row. I’m trying not to think about that part, and really, it’s not my foot, but my arse that’s worried.

No Surprise:  On Friday night, rushing to make some real progress on the baby blanket, I re-proved a law I’ve been spouting for years, which is that more experienced knitters don’t make fewer mistakes. We make larger ones faster – which is exactly what happened when I decided to convert trinity stitch into the round without giving it enough thought.  I pulled the stitch pattern up out of my brain, thought about how it alternated active rows with purl rows, decided quickly that the purl rows were the wrong side rows, when you work it flat, and replaced them with knit rounds to work it in the round. Easy. I might even have chortled a little.   This chortling was replaced with despair about FIVE six-hundred plus rows later, when I realized that this simple “fix” had indeed broken the stitch pattern.

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Yup. My quick and easy solution was so quick and easy that I didn’t realize it would face the little trinity bobbles the wrong way.  The whole stitch pattern was reversed, because (dammit) those purl rows I replaced were actually right side rows. Not wrong side rows. It took me more than an hour to fix it, and at the end of the night I was further behind than I’d been at the beginning of the evening.

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I’ve fixed it up now, realizing what has to happen (those purl rounds need to stay, it’s the active rows that need to be altered) and I’ve got the whole thing working again.  I’m almost ready to move to the next pattern – or maybe the edging. I’m going to see where the spirit of the blanket moves me at the end of this section. There’s one more thing I’d like to add in, and I don’t think we’re approaching bedspread size yet.

No Surprise: There was no time over the weekend to get the Karmic Balancing gifts up, unless I took a pass on Father’s Day, which seemed like a super bad idea. Let’s do it now, shall we? Everybody remember the rules of the game? You help with the rally, any way you can.  You can donate to anyone on Team Knit:

Me

Jen

Ken

Pato

Or if donating isn’t in the cards for you, you can tweet, link, tell a friend, send an email… anything you can do to help is amazing. After you help, you send me an email to stephanieATyarnharlotDOTca (not the .ca NOT .com) with the subject line “I helped” and  your name, address and whether or not you spin, then every so often, I re-allocate great knitter and spinner stuff, drawing from amongst those emails.  The four of us appreciate this help more than we can tell you. (For more info on what we’re doing and why, if you’re a little late to the party, read this.)

First up, great gifts from Denise at Neese’s Pieces.  She’s got a whole group of beautiful little quilted bags that she made with her own two little hands – and inside each one is a co-ordinating set of stitch markers – also made by her, right down to the lampwork beads.

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Aren’t they lovely? I hope that Sherry M, Dawn H, Lisa B, Debra T, Margaret C and Christina D all love them.  Thanks Denise!

Riki has two presents, both lovely.  First is two 200gm cones of pure Thai silk (Riki lives in Thailand)  either lace or fingering weight, in the colour of  Carolyn Sue J’s choice.

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Then there’s this bit of amazing, 500 gms of local (to her)  mercerized cotton, about DK weight …

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and Brooke M  will choose the colour for that too!

 

Next up, a different sort of gift, but perfect for this. Who can appreciate something hand made better than a knitter?

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Lauren writes: “I used to own a yoga studio, and we had these quilted hangings decorating the studio walls. When we closed I sold some and gave some away, but they have soaked up their share of good karma over the years. They are made from recycled cotton saris, different on each side, made by Indian woman employed by the fair-trade folks at Asha Imports.”  I hope that Lisa D loves it completely.

Lauren also has this beautiful laceweight to pass along. (She’s feeling generous today, I can tell. Isn’t she nice?)

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2 skeins Claudia Handpainted Laceweight, 100% Silk about 1100 yards/appx. 100 grams, Pink colorway: Lipstick, Blue colorway: Antique Jeans. They’re both headed to live with Jeanette W.

Next, Tanja Lüscher went nuts.  She’s got 10 copies of her Stories of Inspiration Ebooks. The ebook contains 7 beautiful shawl patterns. She’ll be sending those to: Mikayla M, Shellie S, Amanda H, Kat K, Leslie C, Martha M, Cindy C, Laura C, Erin D and Lori B.
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She’s also got 2 free patterns for anything in her Ravelry Shop (except for Daddy’s Prayer Shawl) for ten other knitters, and those are: Kate G, Mary Kay C, Kimi W, Anne W. Laura R, Christine L, Athena D, Cathy W, Rosane M and Elaine T.

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Finally, last but not at all least, Katie Weston is here to make some spinner very happy.  She’s offering a 6 month subscription to her Time Travellers Fibre Club – the 100g option!
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This picture is “Tudor Dress” and it’s from a previous month.  Isn’t it lovely?  I sure hope that Jennifer K thinks so.

Whew! That’s 31 gifts, and I’ve emailed all the lucky knitters. This one is going to go put her foot up and knit the heck out of a blankie.