Uncle Leona's Day Camp

No, I didn't exsanguinate

At the moment, it looks like my little surgery worked. The gushing is over, and, thanks to ample iron supplementation, my energy is returning. The true test will be in another two weeks, when the uterus will decide to start chatting with me again. This whole episode has been highly entertaining, though. Everyone I have mentioned it to has had it happen to themselves or a close relative.

I feel so common.

So, now that I have strength and some sense of stamina again, there hasn't been a lot of blogging, as is my problem every summer. I have been outside a lot trying to get the pool to look more like a pool and less like a cesspool, and I'm almost there. Also, the garden has needed tending--I now have a pea-sized tomato on one of the vines!! There's hope for summer yet. And today, I put down four bags of pine bark mulch on my flower bed.

Tomorrow, I cut down suckers from my pesky tree in the front bed of the house. That will not be fun. I foresee multitudes of scrapes on my arms and legs after that job.

But I'm hitting golf balls first tomorrow. Took a lesson today to figure out why I can't get any distance from my clubs, and I think the instructor actually may have figured me out! Tomorrow, I practice to engrain the new swing. Tiger took a year to retool his swing; I'm guessing I'll have this taken care of in a week.

I mean, come on...at least I don't have two stress fractures and a torn ACL. This should be a piece of cake!

There is a bit of knitting progress, but not a lot. I finished up the back of the Silky Wool project, and am about a third of the way on the front:

This project will be done in July, I'm guessing. Definitely off the needles by Stitches Midwest in August. On the body? I'm looking at October. No need for wool before then, that's for certain.

I also got started on the Noro sock skein:

This is a nice yarn for socks. The colors are beautiful. The only issue so far is that being a single ply wool, it twists a bit and tangles a bit. Nothing terribly offensive, but it's worth mentioning. I'm still leery about those out there in internet land who say that this non-superwash wool doesn't felt in the washer.

Trust me. I have mad skills. I could felt this sock without even trying.

Running on empty...or so it seems

My uterus tried to kill me this week. I have had fibroid issues for years (gotta love DNA...thanks, Mom!). For the most part, they have been annoying at worst. On Monday, things sorta changed. Think this:

I'll leave out the gory details, but by the time I saw the doctor on Tuesday, I had dropped my hemoglobin from 13.8 to 9.8 (that works out to around a unit of the red stuff). Sorta explains the lightheadedness I was feeling. Anyhow, I spent my day off in the hospital getting a D&C, then I was back to work on Thursday.

Thank God it was the last week of school--it was dead.

So, I now have this uterus that is still leaking a bit, I have been ordered to "take it easy" by my doc, and I planned to use this weekend to open the pool and plant my flat of portulacas.

And it's 90 degrees outside. With humidity around 3000%. I am the queen of bad timing.

So yesterday while I was waiting on my pool pump to empty out the duck pond that is my pool cover, I got some knitting done. I decided to get a good chunk of the Silky Wool project completed:

Proof positive that this project does have cables after all. I love this yarn, by the way. It just flies along on the needles with nary a snag. And the cables come out very sharp. Of course, I won't be wearing this for months. Just like Baltic:

I finished it up just as the weather got hot. It still needs the snot blocked out of it, but I am in no rush to fiddle around with wool right now. Remember, it's 90 degrees, and I'm supposed to take it easy. Yep. I love my excuses.

The top-down v-neck is also plodding along.

It's at the mindless knitting stage, but the half linen stitch pattern does require a little attention, so I can't just fly along like I like to do. It is looking quite cute, though. Just like Grady.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find me a piece of red meat to gnaw on.

Rounding third and heading for home

Baltic is one sleeve away from completion!

I am so ready to get this one done and put away for the next 6 months or so. It's finally starting to get warm, and Peace Fleece, although I love it, gets a tad toasty on the thighs after a while. The sweater is also getting really bulky and hard to work with. But, the end is in my sights. Finally.

I did start up a summer stashbuster over Memorial Day weekend. It's a top-down V-neck by from Laura Bryant's The Ultimate Knitted Tee.

I'm using the last few balls of Muench String of Pearls, some variegated cotton I got on sale, and poofy stuff from JoAnn's. It is done using half linen stitch:

Only one problem: the pattern sucks. It really sucks. The language appears to be English, but it may as well be Swahili for its ease of misinterpretation. Stitch counts are wrong, increases are wrong, and even when it's right, it's impossible to figure out. I have located the correction online, but that's a bit difficult when one is in the middle of Lake Erie with no internet access. Thanks to my calculator, I got the thing worked out.

Editing, people. You pay people to do it. Make sure it's done right.

OK, enough bitching. I have also started a work project that only requires one color of yarn. It's done with Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, which has been sitting in Ikealand for forever.

There are cables there. See 'em? Me neither.