Another Creaky Monday


Creaked out of bed early this AM & decided I am NOT going to Curves this morning like I planned, I'll go after lunch when I'm not as stiff - I sure hope this isn't a taste of the future!! My bones just aren't liking mornings these days . . . . I thought I'd just drink some tea & do a few hours of data entry to get myself warmed up for the day instead, hahahaha. I get to make one of my bi-annual trips to the doctor today. Wooopie! I get to see if my blood pressure has improved since October when I saw him last. He likes to lecture about stress, weight loss, blood sugar & lifestyle. He tells me I don't drink enough & I should have a glass of wine every day. He's always disappointed when he stabs me to test my sugar & I come out smack in the middle of the 5's where I should be - I'll bet his sugar is higher!! He's a runner & likes to lecture about my sedentary ways. I remind him that Runners drop dead of heart attacks just as often as couch spuds! Stress is the real killer. My stress is waaaay lower this year & I'll be shocked if my blood pressure hasn't dropped 20 points! I mean, the BT had just had a stroke when I saw the Doc last so my stress was off the charts!! No BT, no stress - right?? Well almost - my Ex cleaned me out of my extra cash yesterday for two month's worth of Extended Medical. Looks like I have to go back to work a couple more days a week - geeze, I like being semi-retired!!!
So, today, I get to find out if the lifestyle changes I've made this year have made a difference to my health! Curves should've reduced my resting pressure by now, dumping the BT should've reduced my other numbers & my sugar has always been good. And I've even increased my fibre too! But I'm getting creakier in the mornings & my joints hurt more - hey, is it too late for some estrogen???? Getting older is a pain - literally!!!

I sat outside with my spinner yesterday - this reduces blood pressure too!!! - all the neighbors came out to watch the crazy Goree (white devil in Punjabi)!!! I plugged in "Deadly Nightshade" a Martha's Vineyard murder mystery on my headset & spun the lovely Brown Sheep mill ends. I'm still working on spinning up the fuzzier "eggs" into skeins for dyeing later this summer. These yield an almost spongy yarn with lots of stretch & volume. You can see the difference in the unspun rovings between the smooth wool/mohair & the fuzzy 'eggs' but the knitted samples really show the difference. The mohair/wool knits smoothly, lays flat with a nice even consistency while the 'eggs' make a yarn that is lofty, stretchy & elastic. I used the 'eggs' to make the Danish Working Shawl & love the way it took the splochy dye job. The yarn is so stretchy that I didn't even make ends to tie the shawl - they stretch enough as knitted to tie around ME!

I promised my Ex I'd knit him some socks. He's been left out in the sock department while the BT & his parents got socks for birthdays, Christmas etc. The reason the Ex didn't get socks is that his feet are HUGE. I need three balls of yarn to make socks for him! But I promised socks - this is the price I pay for his helping me out of the financial mess the BT left me in - & so, on the weekend I cast on the first pair as promised. I bought 21 balls of Confetti last fall at Knitopia when it came on at two for the price of one. Now this is dark, ugly sock yarn. The Ex will wear just about anything I knit in any color but prefers dark socks - it's a guy thing & they GO with everything, apparently. So I bought a lot of it. The one I cast-on this weekend is dark brown with deep plum & yellow in it. Bloody awful in the ball but the two men I consulted in the shop thought it was great - well, a man is going to wear it . . . . AND I bought many balls in the same theme. I have the feeling that these socks will take a - L O N G - time to knit! Good thing I put them on my 2.5mm bamboo skewer needles . . .

I had to cast-on some bright pink DROPS Fabel yarn for short socks for me to counteract the glumness I experienced when I started that ugly Confetti sock. Somehow, I got to the heel shaping on both of them before I realized last evening. Gad, both to the heel shaping while the ugly sock has only an inch of ribbing . . . . . I have to stop this! Have you noticed that knitting with exciting yarn is like eating chocolate??