Charity Begins at Home

To quote the old Bartles & Jaymes commercials, “Thank you, for your support.” The messages from you guys when I got home just THREE days after my brain surgery meant so much to me. My knitting community and desire to return to it was, for some reason, something to focus on in the midst of so much fear surrounding this thing in my head.

I‘m home. The surgery went better than expected and I’m physically capable of more than when I went into the hospital six days ago. I was knitting in ICU the day after brain surgery expected to give me more paralysis of my right arm than I started with. My whole rhythm has changed and I can knit faster. Smoother.

Life is good.

So.

I’ve been remiss about posting my F.O. because life got busy. This I can fix as easily. I’ve had several charity items finished and now it’s time for the Second Annual Knit-A-Thon at the Lakeside Café in Columbia, Maryland this Saturday. Since I’ll be saying goodbye to them, I finally got my camera out today and went out on the deck for a photo shoot.

Up there is the Jimmie Johnson preemie hat I made at the NASCAR race in September. It is a lot stiffer than I thought, but I had a lot of fun with it. Even if a baby gets a picture and it hits the floor, it was fun. I’ll do more in soft sweet colors and cushy yarns, I promise. The little model is the Taco Bell Chihuahua. It was from the Godzilla promo commercial and says “Heeeeeeer leezard, leezard, leezard!” In the commercial he sees Godzilla and followed that with “I think I need a bigger box”. That used to crack me UP.

Next is the oldest Warm Up America block in the history of the charity. I wonder if I could get some kind of award. It’s been in the car forever. It’s been ripped out, re-knitted, put on the back burner, lost, forgotten, and pattern-changed. And I’m rid of it. Bwwwaaaaa haaa haaa haaaaaaaaaa!

After that is the Nemo II preemie hat. I actually started this little guy on the way to Richmond and finished him during the Busch race of the event. I decided to make a tail on the top and improvised some short rows to give it a scaled effect. It isn’t perfect, but again, a lot of fun. I like the creative outlet. Could be worth a pattern thing if I put my mind to it, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. I still haven’t written Rainbow up yet.

It’s gonna look like a fish swallowing a baby’s head, eh?

When straightening out my knitting basket last week, I came across some leftover cotton. Knowing the Knit-A-Thon was coming fast, I used it for a face cloth for a knitting buddy’s pet charity in Pittsburgh. The name escapes me, but they give hand knitted cloths to battered women in shelters so they have something feminine and personal of their own. I used the same simple blanket pattern I’ve been using for a pet blanket I hope to have finish for the same event.

The simple rhythm of this cloth gave me someone other than myself to focus on for a while.

So yes. I’ve been busy. I’m gonna BE busy. But it’s so good to look at the little collection up there with pride.

Or simply choose a WIP and pick up where I left off.

Oh yeah, my blog

I forget how it came up tonight, but I was reminded I have a knitting blog. I shouldn't neglect you so. My humble apologies. Have a cookie. I was also reminded (again) why I bring only straight knitting to K1P2. There I was doing a Warm Up America block. A simple block. Well, a garter stitch block with a tiny bit of seed stitch border to give it character. Just four tiny stitches on each end right? Piece o' cake.

Wrong.

Let me preface this by saying the mistake was already there when I arrived today. At the hairdressers I noticed an oops where a purl stuck it's nose in the middle of a row of knits. Bad purl, no blankie. I only carry one project at a time so I tucked my cheek between my teeth and set out to fish it back through the five rows. It was my first major attempt in garter stitch repair. Eventually my feeble brain wrapped around who goes in the back door and who goes in the front - it took about 45 minutes. Huzzah for me! Merrily I clacked along.

Until I was faced with four alien stitches at the end of a row.

No. ::blink blink:: Nono. Nonononono.

I should be looking at k,p,k,p right now. Perky little stitches just panting for my p,k,p,k. But no. They mocked me with their kkkk-ness. I'm doing just ducky fixing screw-ups in the middle, but the turn still befuddles me. I believe the added stress of seed stitch put me over the edge.

Ribbit.