didn’t I show you my mittens?

here’s hoping that showing ya’ll my fiddlehead mittens that I, umm.., finished in *cough* April *cough* and never blogged about will distract you from not noticing that I didn’t blog this weekend with adorable pictures of my children in their super cool Halloween costumes. The pictures that I took Friday night after trick-or-treating look like crap and I was planning to retake the photo’s when Corra and Bryce came home from their Dad’s Grandparents. But my darling ex-MIL sent Corra’s pants home with her father and forgot Bryce’s hat. *gr* So pic’s will have to wait till next week. (She can be such a pain in the ass.) My other excuse for not blogging was because Mike called me Saturday morning and asked me to go down to Virginia to meet him, bring him home so he could bring the camper down to be serviced. I was so happy to be home Sunday afternoon and catch up on that growing pile of laundry.
So, did you see my mittens?

Last spring when Adrian came out with her fiddlehead mitten pattern I knew it was time to learn fair isle. I was thrilled when she made just the pattern available for purchase, since I can’t touch the yarn the kit came with (stupid allergy to alpaca!). I couldn’t resist the swirls so I searched through my stash and came up with a good sub.

I used Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool as the main color and Autumn House Farm Del Rio (50/50 kid mohair and merino) in Skye Sea Garden as the contrast color. For the linning I used Posh Yarn Lucia (cashmere/merino) in color Conquet I used US 3 (3.25mm) dpns throughout. I started them March 16 and finished them somewhere around April 20.

I learned a few new things with these mittens. Fair isle knitting isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, I have a feeling it would be harder with more than 2 colors. I do love to charted knitting! I’m pretty sure this is the first time I worked a i-cord cast on and plan on using it the next time I knit a pair of mittens. Oh, and the liners, LOVE THEM! Srsly folks, I shouldn’t have showed these mittens to my father because now he wants a pair.

It took me awhile and a book from the library to talk him into a new pattern with different yarn. While knitting these mittens my body decided it didn’t like mohair anymore. So know every time I touch it my fingers feel all numb, just like when I touch alpaca or llama. *sob* Good thing these baby’s are lined with yummy cashmere/merino cause they are staying with me foreva!

one last shot, I promise, of the innards. I’m so proud of my first fair isle project! It’s killing me right now not to cast on for another set of mittens. but there are other projects to finish up first. *sigh*
See? The mitten distraction totally worked!

shamless plug: I’ve put all my mohair yarn up for sale or trade. You can see them on both my ravelry stash page and my flickr destash set. They need to go to good homes!

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Splish, Splash the mittens are takin a bath!

Splish splash, the mittens where taking a bath
Long about a Saturday morn

A rub dub, just relaxing in the tub
Thinking everything was alright!!!
Sorry! I couldn’t help myself with the cheesiness of the song reference… at least I refrained from embedding a song to this post! (Those drive me insane!!) I finished the thumb on my second fiddlehead this morning, and started them blocking. I can’t wait for them to dry so I can start the linning. I’ve been thinking of all the choices I have in my stash and am thinking of using this yarn

over the kidsilk haze I have. I think the mohair will get stuck to my fingers and while I have been working on these mittens for 2 weeks now my hands kinda tingle from the mohair in the one yarn. Anywhoo… Check out the multitude of sins a good blocking will hide

you might have to click on the photo to go to a larger picture. Its amazing, the mitten I blocked falls right off my hand and the unblocked one is pretty snug.

I want to thank all of you guys again for your thoughts and prayers. I got a phone call from my Dr’s office yesterday. The pharmacist at the hospital was going through the ER records and saw that no one told me to stop taking the cipro. And the pharmacist knew that the numbness is a side effect of the cipro. I’m so glad I listened to my gut and didn’t take anymore! But I can’t believe the nurse told me to finish it when I asked her if I should. (I just wanted to hear what she would say when I asked.) and the Dr never told me that he suspected that it might be the antibiotic (I know he did because he told a Dr that is friends with my Dad.) I had an MRI on Friday, I told the receptionist what had happened and that I was in the ER. She was a sweetie and put me in one of the appointment slots they have to keep open for inpatients. Which is a good thing, if I hadn’t have told her my appointment would be on Thursday the 11! Hopefully my Dr’s office will have those results on Monday. All the weird numbness was completely gone by Friday afternoon. I can’t wait till I get my survey in the mail for my ER visit. I have a book to right. And I can’t wait to get the survey for my MRI I have a slew of complements for those girls, they where wonderful! I’m so glad it was just a reaction to the antibiotic, but I better not get sick again anytime soon! Sheesh! Thanks again to all of you guys, ((hugs)) I can’t tell you how wonderful ya’ll are.

ER Frequent Flyer

*sigh* So today while I’m eating my lunch and making Allysa’s the tip of my middle finger goes numb. Then my pointer finger goes numb, then my thumb is numb. Odd huh? Wait. It gets odder. Then the right side of my forehead goes numb. Oh. crap I think. Am I having a stroke or an allergic reaction to my antibiotic? (I have a weird rare blood disorder called essential thrombocytosis. My body makes lots of extra platelets. So I have a higher chance of having a blood clot.) So I look up symptoms of a stroke on webmd, and call my Dr. While on hold, my right leg goes numb in patches. Then I look up side effects of my antibiotic. Dr. says go to the ER. and don’t drive myself there (umm.. no duh??) Long story shorter, A&K go to babysitter and I call the school to have C&B re-routed to the babysitter. And I got an ambulance ride and another pretty bracelet. Yay.

After 6 more hours I will never get back a bit in the ER , some migraine meds (that didn’t work), a EKG, lots of blood work, a cat scan, some other tests and a wee bit of knitting (this is the 2nd mitten. Just a few more decrease rows and a thumb!!)

they sent me home. They have no idea what caused the numbness, and I have to have an MRI done. Personally I think it was my antibiotic the numbness didn’t start to fade until it was almost time for my next dose. Its a rare side effect, but I’m that special kind of special. Now the only numbing that is left is a little bit by my right eyebrow. *sigh* I’m not finishing my antibiotic. And I’m going to be just fine. They might as well name a wing after me, or at least a room…

hehehehee!!!

Lookie!! Looooookkkkiiiieeee!!!!!

hehehehe!! I’m super excited and its hard to restrain myself from running door to door showing all my neighbors my first bit of fair-isle stranded knitting!!! (I know at least one neighbor that wouldn’t think its a bit odd.) I started the fiddlehead mittens pattern from Hello yarn Sunday night. I’m using Lion-brand fisherman’s wool and Autumn House farms del rio. Both from the stash. I’m feeling mighty proud of myself right now!!! but then again I haven’t reached the thumb…..

Here’s a quick update on Allysa, she’s doing much better. We saw the Dr on Friday and he said according to the blood tests she doesn’t have any allergies. He said to only give her the albuterol breathing treatments when she is wheezing (not very helpful, its really hard for me to tell when she is wheezing). And to give her the steroid breathing treatment till we turn off the furnace. We will be seeing an asthma specialist in the end of April. Hopefully that will be a bit more helpful. I do apperciate you guys, you really helped make this hard time for me better. ((hugs))

Lots left to do today before I can pick up the mitten again, Corra’s birthday is Friday. And you all know Easter is on Sunday. The first day of Spring is tomorrow (I think). Oh, and yes, did you see the start of my mitten? Just in case you missed it the first time, I am a bit excited about it…

maybe, I should cut down on my caffeine intake.