I am good at what I do.   That isn't necessarily boastful...but it is true.  Did I just jump into knitting and turn cables like a champ?   Not really.   I cannot tell you how many times I tossed that crappy Red Heart worsted weight on the US 8 14" straight needles.  I can absolutely picture it, to this day... it was *dreadful*.  Extra stitches, wiggly sides...  Hell, one piece I'd tried, had this weird triangle thing going on.   Thinking back, I was splitting the plies of the yarn, thus adding many MANY extra stitches LOL     I wont say I'm cheap, but I'm very frugal.   I folded the pointy edge of that dreadful triangle  to the inside, used it for a drawstring channel, and sewed the sides up... my elder daughter's American Girl doll got a horrid green skirt  LOL

Why do I mention this?   We all start somewhere.   That little doll skirt was made twenty seven years ago!  Where the hell did the time go?!    I'm appalled that, sitting here, i had to do that math  ...   And yet, here I am...still knitting...  

A week ago, tomorrow (Tuesday), I picked up a bag of yarn, with only the collar of a top-down pullover completed.   The knitter, a lovely lady who is NINETY FOUR (!) wants it just done and over.   It started as a KAL (knit-a-long) with her friend-group.  Everyone else is done, and she's just not feeling it.  After a follow-up text to confirm sizing, I picked up where she left off.  

I bound off at just about 2am friday morning.  

40" finished bust, US 8's, in the round.  

This is before it went to the bath :)  

The Bath...   While this piece is a cotton blend (WEBS' Valley Yarns Gretchen), I did use Eucalan in a cool sink-full of water.  I let it soak, gave it a swish, and squeezed the water out.  I laid the piece flat, used a yard stick to check sizing, and let it air dry in the shade outside.  Its been a beautiful few days... and the light breeze helped move things along.

And this is what the sweater looks like on the boards :) 

For something that only took about 52 hours total, start to finish, with sleeping and meals, and naps!

I'll be dropping this off to her tomorrow.. exactly a week since I picked it up from her.

I hope she likes it. :) 

Italian Waistcoats!

So. Check this out. My Laurel, Maddalena, bless her, and I were geeking over the jackets/waistcoats in the V&A. Like this one - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O10383/jacket-unknown 

  Then... oh... did we EVER find a piece! This jacket is ON DISPLAY! AS WE SPEAK! https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O107796/jacket-unknown/

  It is HEAVILY modified. When we brought it to our sunday group, everyone kind of looked and made their comments on what the heck is going on here. One lady, I believe it was Clare, mentioned that she thought they'd cut it down, then added the panels on the sides to suit the widening silhouette. My heart BREAKS, looking at this. It SHOULD be nominally constructed like the first one I linked. Same basket weave....same garter edges along the sides and underarm. The neckline is a hot mess, but was probably also modified to suit a much later form. I mean.. DUDE! LOOK AT THAT DARK YARN!!! The gold threads! ......and those floats. oh, those floats. Every hand knitter comes to colorwork eventually, and they fight with their floats. Apparently, knitters for hire in the medieval period just threw caution to the wind, kept those floats wildly long (i think you could hang small children in them) and just rolled with it... 

Tell me again that perfection is key

 Tell me again that you have to make things perfect. 

Tell me again, so I can tell you "NO! THAT ISNT RIGHT!" LOL

So. yeah. Slacker much? Well, not really. I've been terribly busy...and busy getting all up in my head. About what? heh. Everything.
Theres been a delayed grief reaction to the loss of my mom. I'm moving into a place, finally after two years, where I can begin to forgive...to be able to miss her...to love the woman, if not the things that made her unkind. And thats been a challenge. A challenge I didnt' realize until I began coming out of it. I've been out of the loop with my SCA (Society for Creative Anacronism) families, too. I've not been super creative. I've been dismissive and avoidant when it comes to working for the greater good in my hobby. I was so burned out. SO burned out. Add that to missing my mom? Oh yeah.. and my dog, wee Slick, was diagnosed with CDD - Canine Cognative Disorder. Doggie Dementia. Homie's been sundowning hard... and it's horribly difficult to find motivation when you're not sleeping and pre-grieving your furry companion. Brooke, my younger daughter, moved to New Jersey, and is starting a life. She's met a gentleman and is finding her way, sans parental units. Jeeze... this feels like a lot lol I'm coming back, I think, though... and making some progress in regaining my creative focus. My need to "MAKE" is coming back.. and with it, a want to write about it. To share it.

Do you care? heh thats okay.. Sit with me a moment... We'll learn to care, again, together

Blogging as a SCAdian

 You know…. I say I hate  blogging.  I think what I hate is that feeling of screaming into the void….  What’s the point of there is no one to hear?  No one to interact with?  No one to come back around and say “Holy crap! I saw!  That thing you’re doing!  How much fun is that?!”

However…. I’m also told that if I don’t put it out there.. how can I get all of that?  Lol.    Facebook is great.. and I get a lot of interaction there.  Is it enough?   You can’t exactly search just for the stuff I make, after all…. You have to Wade through the hundreds of memes and articles and Reels that I share….   Gee.  Fun.  Lol

So let’s give this spot another try, eh?  

Follow the Bouncing Esme!

Testing to see if I can play with the blog on my iPad!

Look what I got in the mail today!!! As a persistent allergy and anxiety/panic disorder sufferer, I've been looking for something.. *anything!*...to help. I'd heard about the GAPS diet protocol before, having friends in the natural/organic/bushcraft societies and not really known if this was for me. When I was younger, I still had the "Screw that! I can't have bread!" mentality. Thats not what this book is about at all. There is heavy emphasis on Autism, depression, ADD/ADHD...any "psychological' disorder, and their connection to the "Gut", or the digestive system.

We've all heard "You are what you eat!" ..usually from well meaning parents or grandparents. We've ALL heard it.. Does that mean I'm a giant piece of delightfully delicious chocolate cake? Sure..empty calories, full of 'dead' nutrients, rancid fats... yep.. thats me (no, I dont eat cake, but the same could be said for that dish of heavenly nachos at the local pub, or that nice big glass of soda on ice). Dont get me wrong... I cook. I actually cook ALOT. Most things I make are made from scratch..the old way. Little in my house comes from a jar, can or bottle... Even my kids, who are typical teenagers and have been known to gorge themselves on soda, chips and cookies at the least provocation, know that what Mom makes is good for them. However...is it good enough? Thats the real question.

My food makes a gallbladder sufferer pray for mercy. Rich roasts of beef, pork or chicken..mashed potatoes..handmade/homemade gravies... real butter on our vegetables, which usually come from the produce section of our grocery store. Whatever isn't eaten is frozen and saved for another evening. I dont use plastic storage anymore, having switched over to all glass with the silicone lids (making sure the food does not touch the lids) for freezing and any other food storage, after the big "OMG! There's BPA in plastic!" outcry. I always kinda figured that something like that was happening and had started converting to glass a few months before the big outcry came. I did it in a conservative way...each time we hit the supermarket, I'd buy one piece of pyrex to add to "The Collection". My husband thought I was just being eccentric... Now, he reminds me if I haven't picked up another piece in a couple of weeks.

In addition to the glass storage, I've switched out my cookware. No more non-stick stuff for me... Too many studies have pointed to the 'potentially' harmful effects of using non-stick cookware. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a 2 qt saucepan in cast iron? yyyyyeah.. I found ONE!...one.... In addition to the saucepan, I have three 'dutch oven' sized pots, and four frying pans...all cast iron :D One of the Dutch Ovens and one of the frying pans are nearly 100 years old... my great grandmother had brought them to this country (USA) in the very early 1900's, when she immigrated. I was brought to tears of gratitude and pleasure when my mother handed them down to me. She was having a hard time lifting them (though I bet she could now) and she knew that 1)I would make excellent use of them, and 2) I wouldn't allow them to leave the family. Its important to me, that we keep such things IN the family... Aww, I'm a sentimental old food, ain't I? Hell yeah! This pot and pan have nourished, now since I have my own two daughters, FIVE GENERATIONS of women. How freakin' incredible is that?!

SO... back to the point... I'm reading the first chapters of this GAPS diet (more info can be found at http://www.gapsdiet.com or http://westonaprice.org ). I've already learned more about LACTOSE INTOLERANCE then i EVER thought I knew... I knew lactase was essential for digestion of the lactose (hah! check that out... only one vowel from another, and an entire world of difference!). My elder daughter 'became' lactose intolerant in her mid-teens. It's gotten pretty bad...to drink a glass of dairy-milk, the poor kid has to take FOUR of those snazzy lactase enzyme pills... FOUR! not worth it...

I suffer from violent allergic reactions to things like dust mites, cockroaches (though, as I said in a previous post, I've never actually seen one), birch trees, maple trees, pine trees, cats, dogs... the list goes on an on.... Now see.. in 2008, I was rushed to the E.R. with systemic hives...which prompted me to go to an allergist, where I found out all these killer (literally) allergies that I have. I knew I had hayfever, growing up, and I couldn't be around cats. "Normal" allergies, in my opinion... This book, GAPS - Gut and Psychology Syndrom - isn't just about how to "fix" things like autism (ohhh, dont let a medical doctor hear that autism can be treated..they'll spit in your face, if not literally, figuratively), depression, ADD/ADHD.... it can help allergic people.. it can help lactose intolerant people. It is said, by those who participate in it fully, that it can cure just about anything... because it fixes the bacterial balance in the gut, or digestive system.

I know people who, at hearing E.Coli, go into full panic mode. Being raised by a very intelligent mother, myself, I knew that E.Coli and the streptoccocus (you know..that bacteria that causes strept throat?) are *naturally* present in one's intestines. Most people these days knows that E.Coli on the vegetables in the produce section comes from fecal matter (ewww, poopies!) in the fields that the produce is grown. This is NATURAL. Why? Dude.. if someone poops on your food, and e.coli is a naturally occuring bacteria in the intestine and bowel...guess what?! You're going to have e.coli on your food. Will I buy that? Probably not... pretty much freakin' grosses me the hell out (pardon the language and stuff). I dont know the science of all of this, of course (Bill Nye, I am not, trust me!) but... I do believe there is a tremendous difference between the bacteria E.Coli in one's intestines, and the pathogenic (or is that pathological?) bacterium E.Coli that ends up killing people. It's for greater brains then mine to discuss the differences, though.

So, I'm starting to learn about the GAPS protocol and I'm hoping that, if I rebuild my gut, it'll boost my immune system, which will, in turn, boost my body's abilities to fight the allergens in my environment :) Pretty awesome stuff, if you ask me.

New Year.. new..Blog?

2/16/2012 -

Have I been a total blog "fail" or what?! Let's give this another shot I've been "blogging", so to speak, on FB, though it's FAR from a blog, sharing the things that make my life interesting. However, the post-lengths on FB aren't nearly long enough and no one actually reads "Notes" that people make (at least, I dont do so often). So, here I am.. kickin' it back on the Mus-Knits :D

About four years ago, maybe four? I had a big problem with getting systemic hives... Hoooboy! Covered my entire body, swelled my eyes nearly shut, and made my heart race.. Definite allergic reaction.. But..to what? I went to a really fantastic allergist and found out that I have a whole laundry list of allergies (ie: Cats (duh!), Trees (birch, maple, oak, pine - you know, all the ones in my back yard), cockroaches (I've never even seen a roach in real life, so I wasn't too concerned about that), DUST MITES (this one is freaky as hell, since you canNOT get rid of dust mites, no matter how clean one's house is.. and my house is clean as heck, thanks to my husband's diligent efforts), and mold. Yeah, I know... everyone seems to be allergic to mold...but I could end up in the hospital from any of these allergies. Yep..anaphylaxis.. happy, huh?

After a full year of the immunological shots to try and build a resistance to these allergens...my allergist (he really is one of the best in the area, from everything I could dig up about him) told me that I wasn't building resistances...that I was/am a "Severely Allergic" person and he could really do nothing more for me.... Well, hell...

So I stopped going. Why pay for the shots and go to their office every week if there wasn't anything more he/they could do for me?

Now, three years later... I'm going through all of it again. Not the shots, but the hives and incessant allergic reactions. The only thing keeping me sane is that it's not closing my airways.. I dont really know what I'd do if it were closing off my breathing...you kinda have to be able to breathe, ya know? I had, back during the first time, five different prescriptions to keep the allergies down... My GP, now, doesn't want to hear that... Nor does he want to hear that the Zyrtec, one of the best meds for hives, only works for 8-10 hours, not the 24 hours that it does for 'regular' people. The allergist had me taking a prescription allergy med twice a day by mouth, plus the eyedrops, nasal sprays, etc...so I figure taking Zyrtec twice a day probably wont kill me (picture me crossing my fingers here).

I've had extremely high hopes (really got it stuck in my head) that I could honestly be "chemical free" (medication wise, at the least) by this spring. I got off of all the other stuff.. especially the SSRI that I'd been on for NINE years...(they now say that the one I was taking, you're only supposed to be on it for six months at a time - oh YAY!) with the help of a really fantastic psychiatrist who doesn't believe that I ever needed it (I have anxiety, not depression, though the ssri did help alot with the anxiety, if only masking it so I just didnt feel it - I'll go into this another time, when I'm more fired up about it.. you know the whole "outrage" thing). I WAS down to just taking a synthroid for my hypothyroidism (man, it sounds like I'm just a mess all over the place, doesn't it? I'm really not LOL) and the occassional Advil for a headache....then the hives hit. Now I've added the Zyrtec and Zantac (did you know Zantac actually has antihistine properties to it?!) to my regimen...twice a day...every day... ugh.

Over the last month, I've really had to try to get it into my head that I'm not going to be 'chemical free' in the next few months. It's surprisingly difficult to do so... I guess when I get something in my head, it just kinda sticks...like flypaper...

*****

In other news, I'm knitting like a MACHINE!!!!!!! LOL Not my words, either..a friend on FB has called me that, and the other ladies in my knitting group have a good chuckle at how fast I get things done... All but one of those ladies, though, have real life jobs...working the 9-5, so to speak, except one..and SHE has a baby who's about to turn a year old.. That, unto itself, is a full time job, as I well remember. I have some 12hours or more to knit each day...so yeah! I get alot of knitting done. I should be covered completely in handknits, shouldn't I?! .. yeah, not so much. Things seem to "happen" to my knitting... the Husbeast, God(s) Bless his heart, tosses laundry in, if he's down there and happens to see I have a few things for the wash... It's amazing, how quick wool turns into felt... DD2 wont wear handknits anymore ("Oh, how gauche!"), so the shrinkage isn't going to help her wardrobe..and DD1 has pretty particular tastes, too :) Neither of these things is necessarily a bad thing... its just frustrating.. So GoodWill gets alot of felted items LOL

I've been on a HUGE sock kick this month... Four pairs so far! Amazing, huh? I've been digging through Rav (Http://www.ravelry.com) for Harry Potter inspired patterns.. Look up "Monkey Toes" under the "People" tab.. awesome designs!!! I did "Fawkes" while we were on vacation last year, recently finished "Bellatrix" and hope to start "Nagini" sometime this week :) I even bought a ball of Opal in this lizard-green color to work on "Nagini" when I was able to get to the Cornwall Yarn Shop (http://www.cornwallyarnshop.com) about a week ago :D CYS makes me a happy woman... Best dang yarn shop I've been in.. probably ever! Gail, the proprietress is just the sweetest, most kind shop owner I've ever known. She's been a tremendous help to me, with my allergies, in helping me find yarns that are minimally processed... Plymouth Yarn Co., one of the larger yarn companies, is discontinuing my favourite of their yarns. It's called "Homestead".. a heavy-worsted/aran weight wool that hardly made me react at all!!! ...discontinued. I posted on the Plymouth FB page of my disappointment and got pretty much a shrug and a "Sorry, Charlie". Dont get me wrong.. I wont stop shopping Plymouth's yarns. Galway, a worsted wool, is a lovely yarn and I'll continue using it...and Encore cannot be beat, really, when it comes to wool/acrylic blends for baby/kids items. I just realllllllly liked the "Homestead" and "EcoCashmere" that they'd offered for a while, and I'm *realllllly* disappointed to see them go. Since Gail had found out about the dicontinuation, and knowing my intense favor for this yarn...ANNNND knowing she'd end up discounting it to replace it with a new offering.. she gave me the lot of what she had...for half price!!!! OH MAMA!!!!!!!!! So I got seventeen (SEVENTEEEEEEEN!!!!) skeins of Homestead for just under 60.00 :D I hadn't meant to purchase that much yarn, that day.. but jeeze.. how the heck could I resist!? The yardage is pure win, so I'll get probably two basic sweaters out of it, plus a cowl and a pair of boot socks LOL

Gail - I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

OTN (On the Needles) right now - "Chandail Cardigan" by Triona Murphy. Working it up in LionBrand's Cotton-Ease (trying to not aggravate my allergies, so I'm playing with the cotton/acrylic blend) on US 7s

The needles I'm using are "Knitter's Pride- Cubics" in the US 7/ 4.5mm size. (http://www.knitterspride.com) I'm not usually a fan of wooden needles..they slow me down... but these needles are preeeetty awesome. I'm having a tiny issue with keeping the joins screwed in as I work, but the general work around (I have a full set of KnitPicks in each of the Nickel, Harmony, and Acrylic) is to add the tiniest drop of clear nail polish to the cable end before screwing it into the needle tip. I got this tip from...somewhere...it's been so long that I dont remember who said it worked for them, but it seems to hold them together a little longer then just using the screw key, which is what I've been doing this time around.

I like these needles. They're smooth and look lovely. The tips are good and sharp, and they dont slow me down as much as regular bamboo needle does..but they aren't as fast as the nickel plated (no matter the brand). It's pretty awesome that these tips fit the KnitPicks cables... Definitely a fan of THAT. I'll continue using these needle tips for this cardigan and get full use of them... For someone who likes a good wooden needle.. these, you will like :D Makes me wonder how they'd do when working with lace or cobweb weight... ooooh, something else to try! YAY!