"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

5/26/15

Sometimes Life Just Sucks

It's been a very stressful past 3 days. On Sunday night my sweet husband had a stroke. We were at my brother-in-laws house getting into the car to go home and it happened right before my eyes. I knew what was happening within a couple minutes. I am well acquainted with the symptoms of stroke. I got him to the hospital as fast as I could drive safely and he's been well taken care of by the staff at Kootenai Hospital since our arrival. The left side of his face and his left arm and hand were affected the most. It's been a scary thing to go through, but he's recovering pretty quickly. As strokes go, we got lucky on this one. He's probably going to recover almost completely.

Doug is still in the hospital, but they say he'll probably be  coming home tomorrow. He will need physical, and some speech, therapy for a few weeks, and someone has to be here with him 24/7 for awhile so I won't be attending any knitting groups for a bit. Hopefully, by the time my June classes start, he can be left alone for a couple hours or so once in awhile.

This experience was totally unexpected. My husband is very healthy. He is very athletic and eats fairly healthy. I mean, this is the guy who rode a bicycle across the USA from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL last fall. The last couple days he's been subjected to all kinds of tests but the doctors haven't been able to find out exactly what caused the blood clot in his brain, so we've been told it's probably just the luck of genetics. Which proves that no matter how healthy you try to be, sometimes things happen anyway. His good health, though, is what is making the recovery quicker than normal.

So, if you don't hear from me for awhile, it's because I'm busy helping my precious husband heal and get back to his old self. I'm planning to keep blogging, but at this point, I have no idea how life is gonna go for the forseeable future.

My husbands family has been incredibly supportive, which has been wonderful. I really appreciate them right now. We've had lots of good wishes from our many friends too. I am so thankful for them all.

I am knitting. It's keeping me sane while I hang around the hospital.



Live long and prosper. \\//


5/25/15

Remember



Remember those who served this Memorial Day.



Live long and prosper. \\//

5/23/15

FOs and WIPs.

I have FOs and WIPs today, as promised. I haven't had a whole lot of time for knitting of late, so I've been keeping with small projects mostly for charity (Knit Wits). To start, I've got this pair of mens mittens. It is the 11th pair since I went into mens mitten mode for Knit Wits.



Mens Mittens for KW #11

Pattern: In my head.
Size: Mans large

Yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable Ombre
Content: 100% Acrylic, worsted weight
Color: Seaside

Needles: Circulars size 5.

Cast on: May 5, 2015
Completed: May 14, 2015




Next FO is a fairisle hat. I loved knitting the hat I made my friend Judy, so I'm making more of them for KW, as well as teaching a beginning fairisle class using the pattern.



Polarized Hat in Black and Pink

Pattern: Polarized Hat by Tanis Gray

Yarn: Berroco Vintage
Content: 50% Acrylic/40% Wool/10% Nylon, Worsted Weight
Color: Black, Fondant

Needles: Size 9

Cast on: May 12, 2015
Completed: May 17, 2015



This is such a fun knit. I think it will make a good class project for beginning Fairisle so I've scheduled one. This is a new class for me. I'm looking forward to it. I will be teaching it on Mondays in June at Knit-n-Crochet in Coeur d'Alene.

I have another Polarized hat finished. It's in dark and light pink. However, I forgot to take a pic of it before taking it down to the shop to put on display as advertising for the class. I will take pics at a later date.

Now for WIPs. I've got another pair of mittens for Knit Wits going. It's such a good KIP project.



When I went to the shop to drop off the hat, I picked up 4 skeins of Plymouth Encore in manly colors. This is the first.

I have good news. I finally got myself back to working on the moose sweater. I got 4 rows done this week. It took a few minutes to figure out where I was in the chart, but then it was easy going.



Another WIP I worked on this month,  but have not taken a pic, is the fairisle heart mitten. I got the top done, now on to the thumb. I am not enjoying this project. I'm thinking about stopping at one mitten and finding another pattern to do.

This week we had beautiful weather. It was hot and sunny most of the week. It looks like that will continue (though there are rumors it will rain on Memorial Day). It's in the 80's right now. We figure summer is going to be extra hot and dry this year what with spring coming a bit early and all. The woods are already dry and crunchy. I asked Doug about getting a portable air conditioner for my bedroom window. I can not sleep when it's hot, and my bedroom gets the southern and western sun, so it gets super hot. Doug suggested a better idea. So we had central air conditioning installed Wednesday. Technically, we got a heat pump, which does both cooling and heating. It's supposed to be super efficient and lower our heating costs in the winter by quite a bit.

We've got it running now and it's wonderful. I am staying indoors because it's pine pollen season and I was having a hard time with the asthma. After a couple really bad nights earlier this week, I decided it is better to stay indoors. The pollen should be done in a few days.

I'm gonna go knit now. Live long and prosper. \\//

5/20/15

Mothers Day Flowers

Good grief, time has gotten away from me. It's been weeks since my last post! I've been a busy girl. Anyway, today I post about my Mothers Day. It was excellent. I packed a lunch and Sweet Hubby and I went for our traditional Mothers Day drive up into the Coeur d'Alene National Forest. Me seeking wild flowers, and he looking for snow. We took Cable with us cuz she loves adventure too. Unfortunately, Ruth had to work so she couldn't come. We found lots and lots of wild flowers and even saw a moose. And just a tiny bit of snow. We managed to get lost. So lost Doug actually asked someone for directions. He was planning to come out of the forest in Hayden, Idaho, but took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. We ended up coming out at Fernan Lake, thanks to the couple who stopped and told us where we were and how to get out, which is quite a bit south of Hayden. The two of us had a blast getting lost though. The weather was gorgeous. It was a perfect perfect day. On to the pics. Click on them to embiggen.

The first wild flower we came upon was Trilliums. The red ones were extra prolific this year.



So pretty!



There were white Trilliums too. I really have to say I've not seen so many Trilliums before. The mountains were just thick with them! There were lots and lots of yellow Buttercups too (didn't take pics of them) along with the Trilliums. Slopes were covered in them.



Then there were yellow violets.




Where there were violets, there was Anemone.



We did find just a tiny bit of snow on the highest north side of the slopes. This particular snow is at a spot where we usually have to stop and turn around. But not this year. We were able to drive right on through. The roads were dry and firm.



Next flowers to come across were Mountain Lupine. They are such a brilliant blue.



One thing I didn't think we'd find was Fairy Slippers. But we did! This one was hangin' around the above Lupine.



Here's Cable at one of our stops. It was a very warm day.



While she sat and panted, I looked around and found this flower. It's so tiny!



Here's a close up. I've run across this flower before but haven't identified it yet. It's not in any of my wildflower books.



We found another patch of Fairy Slippers.



And here is a Service Berry Bush in bloom. I have a few of these in my own yard, but they're so pretty everywhere.



Close up of the Service Berry.



This one is a new one to me. It's Baneberry.



Interesting up close.


At this point, the battery in my camera died. I had my spare with me, but it turned out to be dead too. Apparently I had forgotten to recharge it, which is a shame cuz we came across a group of new flowers I'd never seen before and I was unable to take pics of them. :-(

After we got home from our drive, Doug and Ruth gave me a Mothers Day gift. A new watch! It's PURPLE!



Do they know me or what? I love it. It's got lots of Swarovski crystals that sparkle in the light. We went out to dinner then to O'Malleys Pub in Rathdrum. I had a good time. The whole day was wonderfully relaxing a fun.

I am knitting. Not a lot, but still doing it. I've finished a pair of mittens and two hats. Hope to blog about them in the next few days.

Today a couple of guys are here installing central air conditioning in our house. HOORAY! I will actually have a cool bedroom on hot summer nights! The better to sleep in my dears. Technically, it's a heat pump. It will heat in the winter as well as cool in the summer. 80's are predicted later this week. I say bring it on!

Live long and prosper. \\//