It's October, Y'all

How did THAT happen? Time forever seems to escape me. Sigh. So I wanted to post some knitting stuff, purchases, etc. from the last month or so.

My good friend, Jen, is having a baby girl in January. So since late August I've been knitting up some goodies for her new addition. She's going to get a lot of knitted stuff from me. Ha ha. Gotta love Ravelry and the folks that put free or relatively inexpensive patterns up there. I don't think I've purchased a knitting book since I've joined Ravelry 3 years ago. Anyway, I digress.

First I knit a Garter Stitch Baby Bath Wrap:



Here's a link to the pattern, if anyone is interested. But really, it's a giant diagonal dishcloth with a hood attached. I'm sure even a beginner could figure it out. However, I could NOT figure out how to do the fancy, i-cord castoff for the hood part, which is what sets this pattern apart from it being just a giant dishcloth. Steam was pouring out of my ears, I was taxing my brain so hard. So I ended up just seaming it closed inside-out. It looks fine, I think.




Incidentally, colors for the baby's room (or as I say, "habitat") are green and yellow with a touch of orange. I had this yarn in my stash (Filatura Lanarota Circus) and it worked out perfectly. I got this yarn years ago from Smiley's online. It's been long discontinued. Super-nice cotton "roving" with acrylic color filaments. Very soft and great to work with. Wish I could put my hands on more, but it's not commercially available anymore and few people are willing to part with theirs on Ravelry (understandably)! Anyway, I really like it when I can work from my stash. Makes my random purchases somehow seem valid and awesome.

Next I knit a Breezy Baby Blanket:


Again, here's the pattern. A really fast, neat-o knit! I've seen something similar to this pattern where the dropped YOs are actually stockinette stitches. I think it's called Lizard Ridge?

Anyway, this is similar to that in appearance, but infinitely faster and easier, I think. For one thing, you are doing triple YOs and dropping them. And there are no short rows at all! No brain torture!



The yarn for this is Plymouth Bella Colour. I got 7 balls in this colorway (which I think was called Sherbet) from Discontinued Brand Name Yarn last summer. It an aran weight 55% cotton/45% acrylic blend that stripes rather beautifully. I used a little more than 4 balls, so about 440 yards total. How awesome is it that I had yarn in a vibrant lime, orange, and yellow colorway?? SCHWING!

I like this pattern a lot. So I am going to make a wrap for me in this pattern. Something that I can use in the winter in my flippin' cold house while watching TV or sitting in bed knitting or reading. I bought some striping aqua/chocolate yarn from Joann that I think will look cool.

Then I knit a Cotton Candy Baby Jacket:

I've knit this little baby sweater about a dozen times. No, seriously. I can just never remember to write about it or take pictures. This pattern is in a book called Hip Knits. It's one of the first knitting books I ever bought, in fact. I like most of the patterns in here. On Amazon, it's only got a 3-star overall rating (I gave it 4 out of 5). I don't know why. I think some people expected it to be "edgy" or "trendy" based on the title. Whatever. It's a decent book, in my book!

This is the first time I made it with the hood, as the pattern dictates. I always just made it a regular crew neck in the past. I like the hood!

So this yarn I got on clearance from Webs. It's darling. It's called Starship by di.Ve'. (WTF kind of name is that for a yarn company?) Anyway, it was cheap! I think I got it for $2.99 a ball. I used 3 balls and I have one left over. This colorway was called Parrot. I made 3 buttonholes in the front (as you can see) and only just Wednesday did I get myself to Joann's to buy buttons for it. So now it's completely done.

Wait there's more!

The Knitted Bunny:


Pattern link. Some patterns beckon me with a siren's song, and this is one of them. This is one of the most unique and wonderful patterns I've ever seen. I'm shocked that it was free.

Basically, you knit a square in stockinette and then with strategic seaming and a little pillow stuffing, you turn it into a bunny. It's amazing how it works.



I thought about sewing a face on it, but I like it just plain. The pattern mentions how to make a tail. (By taking a crochet needle, you just yank out a tuft of the stuffing right at the butt. Ingenious.) But since this bunny is going to be for a baby, I thought a tail wasn't a great idea. Believe it or not, I knit this in Sugar & Cream dishcloth cotton. The colorway is Buttercream. I used 1/2 a ball. Seaming was a little challenging at first, but the end result is well worth it. I see many more of these in my future. I already knit another in a fuzzy alpaca yarn for a friend's daughter. Just too cute.

Ok so the last thing I'm knitting (I think it's the last thing) is a Diamond and Smocked Cover. I don't have a photo of this yet, as I'm only about 7 inches into the project. But it's gorgeous. You can see it here. This was a "free" pattern, but the link to it doesn't work anymore. It's originally from an OLD Patons knitting pamphlet from the 1940s called Beehive for Bairns, Vol. 2. Some of the knitting jargon is a little odd. But I am managing through it ok. For example, instead of indicating a yarn over by today's standard, "yo," it says either "w.o.n." or "w.r.n." Yeah. I was like whaaaaaa?? But basically it means YO, depending on if it's before a knit or a purl stitch.

I just noticed that someone was selling the pamphlet on e-bay, so I bid on it. It's a 64-page booklet, so I imagine there are other undiscovered knitting treasures in there! This pattern is truly a thing of beauty to behold. I am using a cream colored 100% washable merino wool called Super Aussie from Queensland Collection. This yarn is so nice to work with. Very soft and light. So this item will be more of an "heirloom" knitted item. I hope to have it done by mid-November, which is when her baby shower will be.

September 25 was Knitters Day Out (KDO). I had a much better time this year than last year. (Well aside from the ghastly lunch that they foisted upon us a part of our registration fee. $15 wasted. Grrr.) Mostly because my wrist was in a splint last year and it was pretty painful to do anything. As always, I lumbered around the knitting vendors area in-between classes at the conference, drooling and stuttering. Financially, I'm still digging out of a hole, but I decided to splurge a little and get a couple amazing things from independent yarn shops. Time for show and tell!

First, I fell in love with the color of this yarn:

The color is called "Dill," and it's a sport weight 50/50 wool and alpaca blend from a local vendor in PA called Bearlin Acres Farm. I've purchased yarn from them every year I've gone to KDO. They are lovely people and have amazing yarns. And now they have a shop on Etsy! Man, I'm in trouble! :-)

I'm going to use this yarn (held double) along with a black wool worsted yarn I bought from them last year to make a felted bag. This bag, actually, but without the music bar and notes and I want to strap to be longer.



As I wandered around the vendor booths repeatedly, I kept passing this amazing yarn, copping a feel every time I went by:

I lurve the color and it has amazing luster, too. It's a deep taupe or mushroom color. I came to learn that it's the natural color of the goat that gave the fleece. Yes, I said goat. It's 50% mohair and 50% wool. Most of you who know me also know that I really can't do mohair. Even yarns with small amounts of mohair are usually so unbearably itchy that I steer clear.

Not this yarn. This feels like alpaca or a merino silk blend or something similar. It's amazingly soft and pettable. Not exactly cheap: $24 for 250 yards of worsted weight. But worth it, I think.

I learned a lot about mohair from the vendor, Steam Valley Fiber Farm. Basically most of the mohair found in yarn that is commercially available from major yarn companies is crap. It's the fleece from a very old goat or a goat that has been shorn so many times that their mohair is coarse, wiry, and itchy. Poor goats. The best mohair is from young goats and/or from goats that have had a limited number of shearings. So, I'm wondering what to do with it. Maybe a cowl of some sort? I'll think of something. Maybe I'll go pet it some more.

So that's about it so far for my creativity. I did make and post the pattern for the Sweet Kitty glasses case. Here's the link to it on Ravelry. All-in-all, a pretty creative month!

Call the Men in the White Coats

Because this guy needs a straitjacket STAT. I mean, seriously? At least it's a free pattern. And if anyone of you makes this, I will stab you.

Can't see things in Ravelry?

Ok...

"Um...what the hell is it," you ask? "That can't be a...."

"GRAPE COZY???!?!??!" Sigh. It is.

You know, some days I feel like I may have crossed the threshold into insanity, then I see things like this. Some other lunatic commented on this in Ravelry saying, "I love this! This would also be nice for a little hershey kiss or some m & m’s. Thanks!" SURE. Apparently crazy is now an airborne disease.

If I start knitting cozies for individual pieces of cat-food kibble, please have me committed.

That is all.

Sweet Kitty

So I designed a little eyeglass/notions/camera case with a kitty motif on it (of course). After much trial and error, I finally got the cabled cat to actually look like a cat and not some sort of mutant, hunch-back, overgrown owl!



Here's the back:


The pattern should be up and available as a PDF on Ravelry soon!

Update

So it's been two weeks since I've started watching my refined-sugar intake. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. Most notably:

1- I sleep at night. When I go to bed, I fall asleep in 10-15 minutes and I don't get up until the morning. (Although once or twice I woke up with a cough and went to get a drink of water. Sometimes the A/C or ceiling fan will dry my throat out and cause me to cough.) The last several mornings I've been waking up before the alarm, too.

2- As a corollary to the above, I feel more comfortable in the bed. My hips, knees, ankles, elbows, and shoulders all seem to hurt a lot less. I can actually lay on my side and rest my knees against each other without feeling like I just hammered into an invisible bruise. I feel more comfortable sitting on the couch or in the recliner.

3- Swelling in my hands and fatigue in my limbs is also less noticeable. I get less tired during the day or from doing every-day tasks (like unloading the dishwasher).

4- I've been eating something for breakfast every morning, always within an hour of waking, and at least 11 out of the 14 mornings I was actually hungry.

5- Not eating the sugar has caused me to make better choices overall with food. So I haven't been over-indulging. I have had a few minor cravings (which I think are actually more like impulses than actual cravings) but usually, a drink of water or tea kicks that in the butt. I'd also like to mention that I honestly don't feel deprived either. I recall in the past when I've tried to get back on the weight-loss wagon that I would adopt this sort-of martyr persona. Maybe it's because my primary goal isn't weight loss and I am feeling better already, but I don't feel like some kind of freak who "can't eat like a normal person."

6- My skin, which never really had a "problem," per se, looks and feels better. My face definitely feels smoother and I have way fewer weird dry patches. I feel like my skin looks brighter. I also have a little brown spot on my right cheek. It's been there for at least 7 years. At first, it was about the size of a corn flake and very light. I did have a dermatologist look at it and it's Melasma, which is fairly common among women who have taken any hormone-related drugs, including birth control. It's gotten a lot smaller (more like a rice crispie), but also more concentrated in color in recent years. I swear on my yarn stash that it seems to be smaller and less concentrated than it was 2 weeks ago.

7- My general mood has improved, despite some rather stressful occurrences in my life at the moment (i.e., my crazy, red-neck, next-door neighbors and having an employee resign from her job in the middle of a huge project). I feel less likely to despair and whine about things that used to cause me great agitation.

8- My pants are looser and my bra feels just a little less squeezey around my upper torso. I didn't put myself on the scale when I started, but I would venture a guess that I've lost somewhere around 5-6 pounds.

9- The night sweating has, indeed, stopped. I have also nearly completely recovered from the flu/cold symptoms I had last week. I have been a little sneezey but I do think that is a real allergy issue that I have (thanks, Delaware).

All in all, I feel better and feeling better is super encouraging to want to keep moving forward. Granted, I'm not perfect. And I'm sure there's something I'm eating that probably isn't great for me. (Picked beets? Anyone know if this is a bad food to consume? I had a slice of pizza for lunch, too.) But at least it's not cookies or cupcakes or Butterfingers.

Human Experiment

As many of you who know me have come to learn, I have some mysterious health issues. Nothing serious --- at least I don't think so. But ever since I entered my thirties, I've noticed a major decline in my health. I can't really pin-point it with great specificity, but I can say that
ever since I had my gallbladder removed in April 2003, it's been a massive struggle for me.

It's easy for me to blame that laparoscopic cholecystectomy on everything. Hey, let's blame that for the BP oil spill too. Why not? Every malady I've had since April 2003 I've attributed to that tiny, missing organ. But what I'm just starting to realize is that the blame lies with me. I've basically punished my body ever since I was a kid, either by overeating, or eating ridiculous things, or not exercising, or a combination of all of those. And now it's payback time. My entire body is going Jean-Claude Van Damme on me.

I recall being in 6th grade, staying up late at night to watch David Letterman (yes, I was a weird kid and probably the only 11-year old that crept out of bed to watch Letterman). During the commercials, I'd comb through the kitchen looking for snacks. I ate everything from cookies, to Tastycakes, to pepperoni, to Bisquick (yes, I'd eat this out of the box --- I hang my head in shame), to bread with mayo on it, to cereal...you get the idea. Other times, I'd be playing Atari 2600 while devouring an entire bag of cheese curls while washing it down with Frank's pineapple soda. When I hit age 15, my gastrointestinal system revolted on an epic scale. Gee, I wonder why? I spent most of my high-school years getting upper and lower GIs, barium enemas (the worst physical test that a human being can ever experience), ultrasounds, etc. I lived in fear of stomach distress and spent most of the time in the house. When I did manage enough courage to go out, I carried Kaopectate, Tums, Maalox, Donnagel, and Pepto Bismal in my bag without fail. I was a walking pharmacy. There was a time when I knew the location of nearly every public rest room in center city Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. How sad is that?

Is it any real surprise that I had to have my gallbladder removed or that I have peculiar health problems today?

In the last 4 years or so, I've noticed other issues creeping up that I never experienced before, such as fatigue, joint pain, swelling, hair loss, depression, weakness, back pain, insomnia, and migraines, severe allergies, and tonsillitis, to name a few. I had lost about 60 pounds between January 1999 and August 2000, which I kept off for about 4 years, but now have pretty much all gained back, as of today. Aside from being mentally & emotionally distressing, this added weight exacerbates many of the physical problems I mentioned. I'm nearing 40 and I need to figure out what's wrong with me asap. Not that 40 is ancient --- I certainly don't think any ostensibly normal, "healthy" 40-year old should feel as rotten as I do --- but it's not 21 either. I need a better, more healthful approach to the last half of my life.

All that being said, I've been playing detective with food over the last few weeks. Summertime is always bad for me. Actually, once May rolls around, it's very difficult for me to eat well. Between May & December life becomes a never-ending stream of birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, holidays, work functions, family visits, etc. But for some reason, this summer has been a little epiphany. Never have I been more acutely aware of the amount of sugar that goes into my body. It's scary and a little disgusting. I started noticing that I was feeling exceptionally BAD a few weeks ago. And then I realized that the amount of sugar that I consumed during that time period was off the charts. I sensed a correlation.Now when I say sugar, I mean sugar or corn syrup, etc. I don't mean fruit or bread or pasta. Reading nutrition labels and scouring ingredient lists on packaged foods was something I used to do regularly, back in my Weight Watcher's days. It's really disheartening to see that a 6-ounce cup of YoPlait light yogurt has 15 grams of sugar in it. HOW? It's just a little cup of yogurt for criminy's sake! I just looked on the American Heart Association's website for information on the recommended amount of added sugar that a normal, adult female should be eating per day:

"The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of added sugars you consume to no more than half of your daily discretionary calories allowance. For most American women, that’s no more than 100 calories per day, or about 6 teaspoons of sugar [which is about 25 grams]. "

Uh...yeah. I've been eating like 4x this much sugar a day, at least. Usually I would eat a breakfast bar around 10:00 am (which has 11 grams of sugar) coupled with a 12 oz cup of coffee. Then lunch was yogurt and a granola bar with fruit. Well the yogurt has 15 grams of sugar and the granola bar I usually eat has 12. Then at about 2:30-3:00 I was starving and wanted to snack on something. So I'd eat either a couple mini York Peppermint Patties (like 2 or 3) or another granola bar type thing. So each of the mini Peppermint Patties has 9 grams of sugar. Eating 2 means 18 grams of sugar. That is insane. Then dinner was whatever I could find in the house or we order something out (another awful habit I'm trying to break). This is a lot of sugar to eat during the day (added up it totals 56 grams) and that's not even including dinner. But if you think that's bad, the REAL problem is after dinner. I feel like my dinner never satisfies me. So I end up snacking a lot between 6:30 and 10:00 pm. Mostly stupid, bad crap like cookies or chocolate-covered raisins (half a box of Raisinets has 27 grams of sugar) or a Smart Ones dessert cup (I linked my favorite one) or sometimes ALL of those things and even more. So that by the time I am hitting the pillow at night I've consumed at least 100 grams of sugar --- added, white, non-naturally occurring sugar --- in any given day, probably well over. This kind of reckless eating is taking its toll on my aging body. So I decided a week ago to stop eating this kind of sugar. I'm not going all NO-CARB and I won't ever do that. I don't think I'll even stop eating pasta or corn or white breads (although I will probably make better choices). At least for now, I am just cutting out foods that have too much refined sugar in them.

I read a lot online about sugar sensitivity and addiction. And I fall into both categories. One very eye-opening thing I read was that eating too much sugar causes your body to go into "starvation mode" overnight. The sugar elicits a brain response similar to that of a person going through a time of physical stress, such as starvation. It gives a false sense of security and well-being. (The extreme of this feeling is what happens to people at the end of their lives, especially if they die during a trauma. I'm sure you've heard of people who have "near death" experiences reporting feeling a calm, peaceful presence or warmth.) Anyway, as a result of excessive sugar consumption, people with sugar addiction almost never eat breakfast. In fact, the thought of eating first thing in the morning seems repulsive. So they don't eat. Then by 10:30 am they crash and grab the first thing they can, usually something sweet because it starts giving that false sense of security. And the cycle continues. This is me, 100%.

Since cutting sugar, I've woken up the last 3 days HUNGRY and wanting to eat. In fact, I woke up on Tuesday feeling almost ravenously hungry. I've been told by a nutritionist and I've read from several sources that one should eat within an hour of waking and that it should be a protein and a complex carbohydrate. So I've been eating a hard-boiled egg and a banana over the last couple of mornings. I must say that I feel good until nearly lunchtime, which is a huge switch for me. I've been much less inclined to want to eat sweet things and I feel satisfied with meals in general. I've been sleeping more soundly and waking feeling rested. I generally feel less fatigued and my joints seem to hurt less. All in all, positive things! And it's only been about a week.

Now the downside...

I am going through some withdrawal symptoms. For instance, I woke up not only hungry the last couple of days, but also soaking wet with sweat. Seriously, I have been sweating like a pig. I hope that ends soon. I also had what felt like flu symptoms on Monday: seriously bad chills, fever, body aches, sore throat. They have subsided, and I now have sinus congestion and sneezing. My histamines have kicked in and are fighting a perceived threat. I read that this was a common symptom of sugar withdrawal. Sugar can really affect your immune system in a bad way, especially if you're like me and have a sensitivity to it. This could be why I've seemed to be prone to an abnormally high number of sinus and throat infections over the last 3-4 years.

I can't believe it's taken me years and years to figure this out. How dense can a person be?

Ok so what HAVE I been eating? Well, surprisingly, I'm eating less food overall, yet feeling more satisfied. As I mentioned, I've been eating a hard-boiled egg and a piece of fruit nearly every morning. Over the last weekend I ate mini shredded wheat with almond milk** and slices of banana. Lunch has been hummus and whole-wheat pita with either carrots or grape tomatoes and a piece of fruit, sometimes a few slices of a light cheese as well OR tuna on stone-ground wheat crackers with the carrots &/or tomatoes and fruit. Dinner is a little more challenging for me. Last night I ate cheese ravioli with just olive oil and basil as the sauce. It was actually very tasty. Other nights I've made eggs, or pierogies, or have had fish with brown rice or I've eaten the hummus with pita combo. Dinner is accompanied by a vegetable and usually a piece of fruit afterward. I have to say honestly, I haven't felt really "snacky" in the evenings lately. But the few times I have felt little peckish I've eaten fruit, or crackers with cheese or a little butter on them, or a few pretzels, or a few almonds & cashews (nuts sometimes wreak havoc on my skin, so I try to avoid them, usually). Earlier in my experiment, I made wheat toast with some sugar-free strawberry preserves on them. But now, I really don't crave that level of sweetness.
I'm usually drinking water or hot tea (love me some peppermint or chamomile). I may have had a glass of Diet Coke once or twice. Astonishingly, I seemed to have also been able to put my caffeine addiction behind me. I haven't had or wanted a cup of coffee in over a week.

In my online research over the last several days, I stumbled across the following advertisements for sugar, brought to you by Sugar Information, Inc. How crazy are these?:

WHAAAAT? So sugar causes one to UNDEReat? Uh huh. And it's a good idea to eat a sugary and probably fatty ice-cream cone so that you won't eat your normal mealtime food, which might actually have some nutritional value? Sure.

And this one....
The "Note to Mothers:" at the bottom right reads:
Exhaustion may be dangerous -- especially to children who haven't learned to avoid it by pacing themselves. Exhaustion opens the door a little wider to the bugs and ailments that are always lying in wait. Sugar puts back energy fast -- offsets exhaustion. Synthetic sweeteners put back nothing. Energy is the first requirement of life. Play safe with your young ones -- make sure they get sugar every day.

Make sure they get sugar every day??? Welcome to 1966.

Or how about this delightful ad from the Soda Pop Board of America?

My mind is officially blown.


** A note about almond milk: I adore it. I went to a nutritionist --- very briefly--- a few years ago and she suggested unsweetened almond milk as a good cow-milk substitute for me. I asked about soy milk, since that's what everyone seems to drink as a cow-milk substitute. She mentioned that for what I was experiencing in my body, soy could actually aggravate it and make it worse. I already have higher levels of estrogen than most women, so soy was not a good choice for me. I continue using the almond milk because I think it tastes awesome. It's also very low fat and low calorie too. This is the one I use. I highly recommend it for folks who have sensitivity to dairy and who may not like the taste of soy.