Author Archive: meri

I just finished watching the last episode of the fourth season of Heroes. Like many things before it, there should have been only one.

Let’s see. On the ‘good day’ front, I last updated on Thursday. I have had an unbroken streak of good days since then.

(more…)

One of the projects I’m doing is fairly small, in terms of “actual finished product.” However, it is knit on US 2 needles, which are pretty tiny, so it’s a very fine fabric that’s being produced. It’s also a very intricate pattern, which means a lot of switching back and forth between staring at the yarn and staring at the pattern. But, thus far, it’s been zipping along pretty quickly. I’ve gotten about a third of the way through the physical project in about 3 days of knitting. This lulled me into a sense of complacency, thinking that I’d be able to tear through the rest of the project equally quickly.

Little did I know that the “intricate” work that I’d been working on thus far was really easy, and the intricacy had not yet begun. I noticed that there seemed to be a decent number of cables in the part I was working, and looking ahead to the pattern, there were many more. In a fit of madness, I thought I’d count up just how many more.

470. 470 cables total in the project. Of which I have done about 30.

Oh boy.

Despite the unintentionally early start, today’s turned out to be a pretty good day. The usual good things (knitting, geeking, some time with G, some time with the keetons), plus the added bonus of getting to spend the day with Jenn (and later, Jim).

But on the super special bonus front: the pain in my left knee is significantly improved. I can actually walk reasonably well, and even manage stairs. Standing up still sucks, but it’s all so much better than it was two days ago!

However, this plan requires that I have a design epiphany for a project I’m working sometime in the next couple of days. If anyone has a mojo in that area, please tell the Muses to drop me a visit, k?

Thanks!

In case you haven’t run across this on your own yet.

You can identify VIP contacts in iOS 6. If you do so, when you receive mail from someone on the VIP contacts list, a notification will pop up and be added to your Notification Screen. (Assuming you have mail notifications turn on, of course.) Unfortunately, it does not look like they have yet split out the concept of VIP mail notifications vs standard mail notifications when it comes to things like audible / vibrate alerts. Baby steps.

Kind of neat, kind of handy.

Wanting to close a spare browser window I have kicking around, so have some tabs that I’ve kept open for a while.  (more…)

YAMA at 8 this morning. Today’s visit was to try to figure out why the hell my knees have decided that they are my enemy, and must do everything in their power to cause me pain.

Turns out, I had fluid built up in my left knee (and possibly my right, though the focus today was on my left knee)(hence the ‘Operation!’ reference in the subject). This was determined by a bunch of manual prodding, followed by a ultrasound, followed by a bunch (ok, 4) needles poking around in my knee. (The first needle was a *caine to numb the area, the second needle was to try to get the fluid, the third needle was brought in when the second needle was too short to reach the fluid (oh, that was mighty pleasant, lemme tell ya), and the fourth needle was a shot of cortisone.) The doctor managed to pull about 5ccs of fluid out of my knee to send off to be analyzed. And just in case I thought I was done on the needle front for today, I also got to get a blood draw.

So yeah, lots of needles. On the plus side, the pain in my left knee has already significantly decreased, though using it in any sort of leverage operation (stairs, standing up from a sitting position, etc.) still pretty much sucks.

Also, this may help both in figuring out what the hell is going on (for the short term), and also maybe shed some light on the long-term general brokenness of the meri, which would certainly be a good thing.

I’m not quite sure how it happened. Sure, I usually have a couple of projects going at any given time, but right now, I’m completely awash in projects. They range in intricacy from “completely mind-numbingly boring” to “gods help the person who talks to me while I’m working on this.” It’s kind of nice to have a variety of things to work on, but a couple are on deadline, so there’s that added looming sensation.

What I’m working on:

• A gigantic rectangle of stockinette for a LYS sample project (I swear, it’s almost done!)
• Shamala’s socks, which needs Shamala’s foot in order to continue. I have yet to convince her to mail me a foot.
• A pretty pretty shawl. No intended recipient yet.
• A super secret scarf project.
• A super secret toddler project.
• Tech knitting a shawl for a local designer.

These are just the active projects. I have another dozen or so sitting in hibernation. And we’re not going to talk about the blocking (much of which also has deadlines). Oy.

Yesterday included:

• geeking and knitting in the morning
• plotting a couple of knitting projects with G’s mom
• shopping (successfully!) for yarn for said projects with G’s mom
• napping with a Border Collie
• snuggling with G and the cats

A pretty good day, really.