Things I Have Learned The Hard Way

What I'll be wearing for the next three to six months.


I’ve learned a lot over the past two weeks. There I was bopping along—worries, stresses, too much work, not enough down-time, and wham-bam life was turned upside down, to the point of not even being recognizable. About two week ago, I started having serious headaches. My Doctor thought it was a bad sinus infection. I bought into that until the headaches started getting worse. You know how they tell you that when you can honestly say, “I have the worse headache I’ve ever had,” you should go to the emergency room immediately? Well, I didn’t—at least not immediately. The result was that I ended up being transferred from one hospital to another by ambulance, rushed into surgery, and given a tres chic haircut, (translate shaved head) and two drains coming out of my head to relieve the pressure from bleeding in my head. It’s a blessing that I don’t remember any of it, but I do remember some things that will be with me in the years ahead:
1. When you are flat on your back in a hospital bed, there are no faces you want to see more than the loving, smiling faces of husband, children and grandchildren, all saying, “We love you,” and “Come on Mom you can do it!”

2. When my head is wrapped, mummy-style, in bandages I look a little like Charlie Brown—you know, the kid with the round head. Don't want to do that again!

3. Nothing is more important than living a stress free, calm, relaxed life. I was a workaholic, and now I realize that the importance of work just doesn’t compare with the importance of being happy and enjoying life

4. I have staples zig-zagging across the top of my head, and I keep waiting for the little train to come out of one ear and zip across to the other ear. From this I learned that when incapacitated I’ll use almost anything to entertain myself.

5. Nothing can stop me from knitting! I was concerned that I might not be able to focus my eyes on knitting for weeks or months. When I discovered that I could knit without any problems I was a “happy camper.” My best advice is to do what makes you happy, and if knitting does that for you, as it does for me, don’t let anything prevent you from it.

6. Bald is beautiful! Except for said train tracks on the top, my head doesn’t look half bad! I think we can get used to almost anything when we consider the alternatives.

7. From now on I will take life one day at a time. One day’s problems are enough for anyone to handle. In addition, when I contemplate problems for the first time, I will do it with a smile and a feeling of “whatever.”

I have new life plans: I plan never to let things overwhelm me again. I plan to look for the best in every person and every situation. I plan to maintain this attitude in any way possible, and to always, always remember that LIFE IS GOOD! I've learned all the life lessons I want to for a while.

I'm Still Here

Sorry to be gone so long! I have been recovering from surgery and a hospital stay. I will post in the next few days and give you all the details. Surgery hasn't stopped the knitting. I have been working on a pair of socks and making preparations to cast on for the Canyon Fire Shawl.

Be back soon!

Business Is Good, But I've Been Bad

I have been bad about posting lately. I have been bad about doing anything except working—that has been non-stop! The Comfort Zone ad was in the new issue of Interweave Knits (look for us please on page 151), and it brought a heap of orders in. It has been fantastic, and I hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon. Thanks to all of you who have helped spread the word about Comfort Zone dpns. We also have worked hard to get the word out about CZS, and how wonderful it is to knit with them. This is the icing on the cake!

On the knitting front, I received four skeins of Canyon Fire lace weight yarn from Knit Picks to use for the Rectangular Square Cover Shawl. I said I wasn’t going to knit a lace tablecloth, but I didn’t say anything about a shawl. I tried lace once before and didn’t do so well. In fact, I was lousy at it. After frogging it several times, I just gave up and decided it was one of those things at which I was never meant to excel. Well, I’m going to try it again. I figure that if I can knit lace tops on socks, I can knit a shawl. I hear you all laughing! BTW those are Knit Picks new circular needles that I am giving a test run.

I hope the lace shawl goes better than the first three tries at the lizard illusion. Yup, three trips to the frog pond, but it seems to be going well on this fourth try. What I did different is amazing—I followed the instructions. Another thing I am bad at. I always think, “Maybe it would work better if I did it this way.” It never does. Follow the instructions and things work out better every time! I have finally learned to appreciate the streamlined nature of charts, and the simplicity they bring to knitting. I was always one to look for the row-by-row instructions for any project. Recently I find myself picking up the chart and launching into the project. It helps that I bought a board with magnets that help me follow the lines on the chart. Good tools make good knitting experiences.

I am still working on STR Lemongrass socks for DD. The picture is about a week ago. Now I have one down to the toe, and the other with two inches of ribbing completed. They are not as lime green as I wanted, but very pretty anyway.

All of this going on, and Macy still wants to play….