Life Update

Hubby has had new health issues since mid-November, which did not improve, so in the beginning of February, he had a major, life-changing surgery, then a couple of followup procedures.  He is now in a great rehab hospital.  For how long, we don’t know, as his other musculoskeletal issues are slowing his rehabilitation.

While he was in the ICU, then acute care, so make it easier on my energy, I needed to slow my design work down to just spinning, so to refill the depleted bins of handspun Falkland yarns for sale on Etsy. 

Now that he’s in rehab, I am inching back into my work – there’s SO much I want to get accomplished this year:  

1) The floor loom needs a day or 2 to get it put back together, then rewarped with the rug warp still on the warp beam, then the remaining 3 weft-faced rugs woven and hemmed (which will take more than a day or 2 to do).

2) I am planning a lighter weight series of woven scarves, for the rigid heddle loom.

3) I’d love to get some RH loom patterns put together and published.

4) The 4 knitting designs on the ndls need to get done, then the patterns, charts, photos, the whole shebang finished.

5)  I’d like to start to offer some of my patterns in other languages besides English,  To this end, I did some analysis of my patterns – which are favorited the most, along with which have sold the most, on Ravelry and Etsy.  There are 6 designs I should start with.  I am thinking of getting them translated into Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, then possibly also French and German.  As this will take investment in translation fees, and as I earn very little each year, I’ll be dipping a toe in, before I dive in.

Swimming around in my head is also thinking about how much medical paraphernalia hubby will need once he’s home, and how much rearranging of the rooms in this house will be needed to accommodate his needs, as well as mine.  This is no small deal.  

If he will need me to be nearby to help with getting out of bed and getting to the bathroom, little will change, except the living room where he has been sleeping will be even more crowded with equipment.

If he won’t need me nearby, he could be moved into the only main floor bedroom - mine.  Then I will need to sleep upstairs, which is no biggee, but my bedroom is also my office and knitting/RH weaving room.  All of this will need to be moved into the living room, which then gives me no privacy or quiet work space, which will SO not be good for me.  My nervous system needs a room with a door, for auditory quiet.  I can’t work with others in my space.

The only other option is that if he doesn’t need me nearby, we can get a stair lift, so he can sleep in his bedroom upstairs, and use the upstairs bathroom when he is up there.

The bathrooms here are small, though, and tight. That could well be yet another problem, if he can’t manage crutches and will need to use a wheelchair, it may not get through the doorways and past the shower end walls, to the toilets.  Which not only means I’ll be emptying commode(s) throughout the day, but his shower access could also be a problem.

Before my brain explodes!, I need to now go lock all the worries and concerns into a large closet, for now, and get back to spinning, then continue knitting on the 2nd design sample, whilst I think about what to cook for my dinner.  Eh, cooking for one stinks.  The usual things I’d cook are too much trouble for just one person.  Maybe a smallish pot of chicken soup…

Onward,
Dawn

The Unavoidable Long Pause

It’s been on my mind to post, as I know it’s been over a month.  Time flies when you’re dealing with a lot!

I have 4 samples done for the next design series (2 hats, 1 tam, and 1 sweater), with a minimum of 6 more to knit.  I’m at that point in the design process where I need to work on the pattern notes and begin getting it all written up.  

Every designer surely has their own way of approaching the process.  I tend to swatch, make basic notes, make working charts, then begin knitting, adding to the notes as I go.  Before beginning further samples, I usually need to pause, as I like to then get much of the pattern written up, and the charts finalized.  Formatting, editing, and proofing continue for quite awhile, whilst I knit up further samples, until I feel the pattern presents all the necessary info as clearly and as organized as possible.  Then, there are the photos to take and edit, then get the whole shebang uploaded to 4 sites, then do the minimal marketing I do.

And therein lies my current situation.  I’m at that pause phase in the process, where I need to get all the details written up, but I can’t get to it right now.  Hubby’s health has thrown us yet more painful curve balls (the poor guy is falling apart at the seams), that began mid-November.  Two months later, the issues are still unresolved, so it’s been stressful, looking after him, and taking up the slack, doing his chores as well as mine, and now I also have the taxes to prep for the accountant.  He does what little he can, but his pain and unsteadiness is very limiting.

Like many, if not most, women I have a lot of responsibilities, leaving not as much calm creative time as I would definitely prefer, esp. at my age!  Although I’ll be 66 in a few months, I don’t think of myself as old and ready to retire to a rocking chair!  I take very good care of this body, as it’s the only one there is!, but this, too, takes time and mindful effort, from waking to bedtime.

All this notwithstanding, I still need to knit, especially in the evening, after dinner and my shower, whilst I de-stress.  And right now, the simpler the better.  So, I pulled out a simple garter stitch shawl with built-in I-cord that I began months ago, then tucked into a drawer whilst I knit on design samples.  

I’ve pulled out 4 stitch dictionaries to find the right edging, but the person I will be giving it to loved the bobble and sawtooth edging on the adaptation I knit of Susan Mills’ ‘Highland Fling’, so I may use it again on this shawl.

Unlike most scarves I’ve seen that begin at one skinny end, which then increases to a wider middle, then decreases down to the other skinny end, this one begins at the center bottom.  If one increases just one st at the beg of each row, it makes a deeper, less wide shawl, unless, of course, one keeps going.  If one increases one st at *both* the beg and end of every row, it creates width more quickly.

I am using 1 strand each of a DK wt. superfine merino with a fingering wt.    100% baby alpaca, on US size 10 (6mm) ndls, so that the garter stitch isn’t too dense.  A bit of drape in a shawl is a good thing!

In case you’d like to knit a similar shawl or scarf, this is how I began, inc’g just at the beg of rows:

 

Long Tail CO 3 sts, turn.
Row 1: (K1, M1) 2x, k1 = 5 sts, turn.
Row 2: (K1, M1)2x, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 7 sts, turn.
Row 3: K3 I-cord sts, M1, k1, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 8 sts, turn.
Row 4: K3 I-cord sts, M1, k2, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 9 sts, turn.
Row 5: K3 I-cord sts, M1, k3, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 10 sts, turn.

Continue until you have your desired width and depth, then BO in Attached I-cord.

If you have more foresight that I, CO with a long enough tail, so you can graft together the 2 I-cord edges at the tip.  I would do this especially if *not* adding an edging.

I plan on then CO sts for the edging and working a perpendicular join at the end of EOR.  I’ll post pics as I progress with it!

Now to go drizzle the orange icing I made onto the orange cake that I baked  today, using freshly juiced and zested oranges!  Good food at least takes his mind off his issues for a bit.

Onward!
Dawn