I leave early this afternoon for an 11-day trip to Greece.* It’s a National Geographic Expedition trip, “Wonders of an Ancient Empire”. Since I’ve been studying a lot about ancient Greece for the past two years, I jumped on this trip as soon as I saw it.
No, John isn’t going with me. He doesn’t get around well enough to do a tour like this. So he and Hank will be here to guard the yarn stash. John’s two kids and his sister will be here to help John out and to keep Hank in line. Here’s my itinerary.
Stay tuned!
*Yes, there is a knitting project in that bag. Socks, and as per usual, enough sock yarn for me to remain in Greece for a couple months. You never know.
Hank is TWO years old! He’s getting lots of love from his people. He might get a birthday doggie donut from our local donut shop later. He’s already excited.
Now, those socks.
Aren’t those colorful? The yarn is an older Opal sock yarn color, named Kasimir the Daredevil. I entered it into my stash in 2008, so it’s doubtful that it’s still available. The pattern is the same one I always use, Jerry rigged to fit my foot. I have found that I needed to decrease the number of stitches around a bit since I lost weight. Not a bad problem to have. I put a picot top on these, which is fun, and also keeps John from stealing them. He thinks picot tops aren’t “manly”.
And no, they don’t match. No, I don’t care.
And here are the new socks on the needles. Seattle Seahawks colors, to kick off the new NFL season.
That’s how many rows I have left on my current lace shawl in progress.
At this point, the public-side rows are taking close to an hour to knit. The yarn is very fine silk yarn, and it wants to jump off the needles any chance it gets.
The color is all off in that photo. This one is closer.
Of course, lace shawls don’t look like much until they are finished and blocked, so you can actually see the patterning.
And I had one little heart stopper moment when I set it down for about three-millionths of a second this morning. Hank has had his eye on that yarn ball all morning, and grabbed it and ran off, dragging the knitting behind him. Fortunately for him, no harm was done except for a bit of dog spit.
The pattern is the Elizabeth shawl, by Dee O’Keefe, and the yarn is silk lace, dyed by Lisa Souza.
In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I’ve lost 50 pounds since October of last year. Not surprisingly, there were questions. So here are a few answers.
I’ve been overweight for years; I really had trouble staying at a healthy weight when I started working as a hospitalist. I was working a deadly 7 day work week, with a 90+ hour per week schedule, followed by 7 days off. My sleep was totally screwed up, and eating 2-3 hospital meals daily isn’t the most healthy thing.
Fast forward a few more decades, involving multiple attempts and failures at weight loss. I decided last fall that I needed to get serious. I had passed that “overweight” milestone, into the “obese” range. My knees and back hurt, my energy level sucked, and I didn’t sleep well.
I decided to try semaglutide. This is marketed under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy. My insurance doesn’t cover weight loss drugs at all, so I opted for a compounded version*, authorized under an FDA program for drugs that are in short supply. I know this is controversial for a lot of people, and I’ve hesitated to post about it.
Here’s my take. Obesity is a killer disease. It’s not as dramatic as cancer, but it results in a shorter lifespan, as well as a lot of secondary medical problems. When you see your doctor, and they suggest that you lose weight, there are good, scientific reasons for that recommendation. Semaglutide is not a miracle drug. It has side effects, some serious. But not treating a serious disease that can kill you is about as senseless in my mind as not taking meds for your high blood pressure.
It took several weeks to titrate the dosage up to where I was losing consistently, about 1-2 pounds per week. Yes, I’ve had to modify how I eat. Yes, absolutely, I’ll need to keep doing that forever, or I’ll gain the weight back. My plan currently is to taper off slowly, but if I have to take this longer term, I’ll do so. Again, to use an analogy, you don’t stop taking your hypertension meds and expect your blood pressure to stay normal. Some chronic diseases, including obesity, need chronic treatment.
Here’s the major disclaimer part of this TED talk. I’m not posting this as a physician. I’m retired and no longer practicing medicine. I can’t give you advice regarding whether or not you should take one of these drugs. They aren’t for people who just want to drop five or ten pounds to fit into their clothes better. They are serious meds for a serious disease.
I’m mostly posting this to let people know what has worked for me, and maybe remove a bit of the stigma that surrounds taking weight loss drugs. I feel 100% better with that extra 50 pounds gone. I can do things that I haven’t been able to do for years. I don’t hurt all day like I did before. AND. I can fit into clothing sizes that I haven’t seen in two decades. That includes some hand knits. Remember this sweater?
That’s Audrey (pattern by Kim Hargreaves). It was a big fad in the knitting world in 2004, and I knit one. I was already a bit “fluffier” than I should have been for a close fitting sweater like this to be flattering, and I only wore it once or twice before it went to the back of the closet. I tried it on recently, and it now fits perfectly.
I’ve had to replace a good percentage of my wardrobe, which is a good problem to have. I’m now looking at my hand knit items, and my yarn stash, with the goal of knitting myself some flattering “capsule wardrobe” pieces that I can rely on.
Finally, if anyone reading this feels compelled to offer any criticism or snarky remarks, save yourself the time. I’m not interested in uneducated/unsolicited opinions regarding this.
*I’m using an online company, Henry Meds. They have real, licensed medical providers that do telemedicine visits, and they use reputable compounding pharmacies to provide the drugs they prescribe. There are many other companies out there selling these drugs, and not all of them are licensed in every state. (Just like any other medical service, the provider needs to be licensed in YOUR state in order to prescribe medication for you.) Some of these companies seem a bit shady, so again, you need to do a bit of research. And please tell your personal physician that you are taking this, if you decide to do so. It should be part of your medical record in case there are problems, or drug interactions with something else you are prescribed.
Here you go! This still needs a little seam steaming to really finish it, but it’s all put together, and ready for cooler weather.
Sorry for the bad in-the-mirror photo. My usual photographer was unavailable, and Hank the corgi doesn’t have opposable thumbs, so he can’t manage the phone camera. The sleeves also look a lot puffier in that photo than in real life.
Project Details:
Pattern: Father/Son Pullover, by Cheryl Hevey
Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted, in the color It’s Gonna Be Alright. This yarn is actually more of an Aran weight; if you knit it to typical worsted gauge, it probably would stand up by itself.
Started:December 2023. Yay! I managed to finish a sweater in less than a year!
Finished: August 2024
For: Me
Needles:size 6 and 7 Chiaogoo
Yarn/Pattern rating: The yarn is *****/*****. I adore Peace Fleece. The pattern is more of a ****/*****. I’ll explain below.
What I liked/learned: I love simple sweaters. This will get a lot of wear. The pattern is very straight forward. What I don’t love about this is the sleeve shaping. For the size I chose, the height of the sleeve cap is 11 inches, and the top of the sleeve before the sleeve cap is 18 inches. That makes for a really oversized sleeve, even when worn over a turtleneck. This would look great on a working man with huge shoulders and biceps. I knew this, I knitted it anyway. As I said, I’ll wear it, and love it. BUT:
Now I’m on a mission to knit the best-fitting plain stocking stitch crew neck jumper.
This one has been on the back burner since summer, and warmer weather, arrived. I have had the main pieces done for a while, and have one sleeve to finish. Since we had a bit of cooler weather today (and rain!), I decided to get the front and back blocked. Once I get to the sleeve cap*, I’ll block that first sleeve so I can start sewing it up without having to wait for the whole thing to dry.
This is the Father/Son Pullover, by Cheryl Hevey. The yarn is Peace Fleece, in the color Gonna Be Alright. I might have Peace Fleece in a dozen other colors to make more sweaters, too. I do love a basic crew neck jumper for our chilly winter/rainy months.
Those books are my summer reading. I’m taking two classes with the Graham School, one on the Count of Monte Cristo, the other on Master and Margarita. The Gulag Archipelago sort of dovetails in with the Bulgakov novel. It’s not light reading, but it is oddly compelling. We’ll see if I have the fortitude to read the other two volumes of it. I might be in the mood by that point for some lighter fiction. Of course, Hank is my knitting and reading sidekick. He sticks to me like glue most of the time.
*I use the first sleeve as a template for the second sleeve, so I’ll wait to block it until I get all the sleeve increases done on the second one.
There is something very satisfying about going from fluff, to handspun yarn, to a finished wearable thing.
The fiber was something that had been sitting on my wheel, partly spun, until a few weeks ago when I finished spinning and plying it into yarn. As soon as it was dry, I cast on a little neck scarf.
The pattern is Orbit, by Janina Kallio. I knit this on 4.5 mm needles. This was finished two days ago, it came off the blocking boards this morning.
I couldn’t be happier with this. It will be a very wearable piece, and if this color doesn’t make you happy, you might be dead.
I’m going to call it a sabbatical, and leave it at that.
Having a Corgi that is in many ways still a puppy (he’ll be 2 in September) has made spinning an unrealistic hobby. A wheel that spins around, with pretty fluff on it? That’s more of a temptation than Hank can stand. I moved the spinning stuff well out of his way when he came to live with us.
Yesterday, I brought it out, dusted off the cobwebs, and got it going. There was some mostly spun up fiber already on it, so I finished spinning that yesterday, plied it up last night, and got it off the niddy-noddy* this morning.
That there is 228 yards of a merino/silk blend. The label for the fiber is long gone, so I have no clue where I got it. The color really is a Kermit the frog acid green, and I love it. I need to wash it up to finish it, but I think this is going to be on the needles as soon as it dries. It will be some little neck accessory, though I haven’t decided on a pattern yet. It needs to be something where I can use every last inch of this yarn.
I’m sure the ever-worsening political news has affected all of us. Getting the wheel out is one meditative way in which I’m counteracting the stress of doom-scrolling. Those of you who’ve been with me for a bit know which side of the political aisle I stand on. All I can do at this point is plan to vote, and encourage others to do the same.
Take care of yourselves in these times of conflict.
*Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy! That is such a ridiculously fun word to say!
What I liked/learned with this project: I’ve made several of the Boneyard shawls. It’s mindless, and good with many different yarn weights and styles. I used 3 skeins of this, and I only wasted less than 10 g of the yarn getting the gradients to work. The yarn is lovely, woolly stuff. I may have more in the stash.
As per my typical inattentiveness to detail, I missed my blog anniversary last week. 20 YEARS, people! And I forgot to post about it. Oh well, too bad, as John’s cousin says.
The last few months really got away from me. I signed up for 3 separate classes at the Graham School for both fall and winter quarters. These are 3 hour classes per week for each class, with an accompanying amount of reading. While I enjoyed all of them, it hasn’t left me much time for other things besides the real life stuff that doesn’t go away, even if I’d rather be sitting in a chair reading. I had signed up for another three classes for spring quarter, which starts next week, but came to my senses yesterday and dropped one of the classes. It was a class on Ulysses, by James Joyce, which I’d really love to take, but it will likely be offered again at some point. John has three grandsons in university, and has pointed out that I was probably doing more class work than any of them.
I have been knitting, but slowly. I pulled some yarn out of stash a few weeks ago to knit a plain warm shawl.
I bought that in 2022 after we got back from our Scandinavian cruise. It’s a lovely, woolly yarn made in Sweden. I’m doing another Boneyard shawl, which is dead-easy, and doesn’t require much of my available brain power to work on.
I really like how the gradient striping is turning out. I have the last skein to go, so this will be a really huge shawl to wrap up in.
That stack of books behind the knitting is for spring quarter. We won’t read all of each book, but it’s still a lot of reading. I’m taking a three-quarter class on the history of US immigration, as well as the Graham Basic Program (great books class), which is a four-year program. Spring quarter will complete my second year, and it has been a real eye-opener for me. The books we read are mostly things I missed in college, since I was on a premed track, and didn’t get a chance to study many of the classics. For fall quarter, I also took a class where we read Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, and for winter it was Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. (Spell check wanted to change that to The Brothers Kalamazoo, which certainly could be an interesting book, but not the same.)
I did actually finish a pair of socks over the weekend.
Aren’t those pretty? The yarn is from a UK dyer, Felt Fusion. This particular yarn base is John Arbon’s Exmoor Sock yarn, which I love. It’s the same old plain white bread sock, top down with a flap heel and gusset.
That’s all for now. I’ll try to not stay away so long this time!
I finished a couple of things this week! Our neighbor was over last week to have a wee dram with John. Whilst he was distracted, Hank ate his hat. 🙄
So I did what every good knitter would do. I searched the stash and knit him a new one.
The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica, from deep stash. I just cast on as many stitches as I thought it needed and knit away. Of course, I have more of this in the stash, and John needed one, too. This is good hat yarn. It’s a thick and thin Aran weight, so it goes fast. I cast on 80 stitches, single rib till long enough to make a thick turned-up cuff, then stockinette for a while, then decrease for the top. Size 7 needles.
I might be on a roll here. These are perfect TV knitting, and they’re a little like potato chips, it’s hard to stop at one. I have lots of single skeins in the stash that would make good mittens and hats.
And here’s my new sock, so far. There hasn’t been any progress since the hat knitting began.
It’s time for more finished stuff! First up is a pair of socks.
Aren’t those pretty? The yarn is Urth striped sock yarn, Uneek Sock, in oranGGe. These are for me. The pattern is the same as always, though I continue to tweak it to fit better. Currently, I cast on 68 stitches, but increase to 72 just before the heel flap, to fit my instep better. I decrease back down to 68 in the gusset decreases. I also knit the heel flap a few rows longer. This is what I love about hand-knit socks: they can be truly customized for the wearer’s foot.
These were knit on 2.00 mm double points, with a picot hemmed cuff. I started these back in July. I blame the Corgi for the slow progress.
Here are the new socks:
These are definitely going to be for me. The yarn is John Arbon Exmoor sock yarn base, but dyed by an independent dyer in the UK, Felt Fusion. I love every last John Arbon yarn I’ve touched, and their sock yarn is no exception. This color is “Down Devon Way”, and it’s still available. The Felt Fusion page has some additional colors available as well. (There maybe a few more skeins of this in my stash.) Her colors are very rich and saturated.
Here’s the second part of the two-fer:
It’s a washcloth! How exciting! Really, though, I love these. I keep a stack of these near the shower. This is Euroflax sport weight linen, which makes great face cloths. It feels weird and stringy whilst knitting, but softens up tremendously once washed. I just toss them in the laundry with the rest of the towels.
The pattern for this is Grandma’s favorite dishcloth, here.
Our Thanksgiving was quiet. John and I both had Covid this month, two weeks before TG for him, and the next week for me. We both took Paxlovid, neither one of us were very sick, but the subsequent fatigue has been a bit daunting for me. Since we were out of quarantine by turkey day, we were able to go to our friends’ home for dinner that day. It was lovely to spend the holiday with good people and good food. We’ve all gotten to the age that we don’t take for granted a single one of those moments together.
Yarn: Black Wolf Ranch Spirit Alpaca/silk blend. This is a DK weight, I used 3 skeins, or 750 yards. The ranch is located in St. Ignatius, Montana, they are on facebook, but don’t have a retail outlet online. I bought this four years ago at a local fiber festival.
Started: September 15, 2023
Finished: November 19, 2023
For: Me
Needle: 3.75 mm
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/***** This is a free pattern, but it is clearly written, very easy to make. The yarn is stunning, I wish I had a whole bathtub full of this.
I started this in the summer as a “mistake rib” scarf, and quickly became completely bored with knitting 2 by 2 rib, and ripped it out. I am perfectly happy knitting garter and stockinette stitch for miles, but ribbing and seed stitch make me crazy. I wanted a pattern that just showed off the yarn, and that was adaptable to a larger yardage. An added bonus is that it has a RUFFLE!
Ouch. Yes, that was a painful decision. In case you can’t tell what that blob is, it’s the Vanilla Sweater, which I started LAST FALL. I got it almost to where it was in that first picture and decided that it was too snug, and that I needed to do some body increases. Which would have been fine, except I was almost ready to start the bottom hem. I put it in a bag and hid it, like you do, thinking it would fix itself.
Right. Fast-forward to earlier this month. I hauled it out, tried it on again, because, you know, it COULD have been fixed in the back of my closet.
Nope. I went ahead and did another several inches, adding some increases, because throwing more knitting at bad knitting will turn it into good knitting.
This morning I sucked it up, and with the help of a friend, took the whole thing back to just after I started knitting the body, and I’ll do it properly.
Pattern: Hitchhiker, by Martini Behm. As of today there are more than 35,000 of these either finished or in progress on Ravelry. That is sort of moderately insane.
Yarn: Arcane Fibre Works 80/20 fingering yarn. The color name is Who’s A Good Boy. Though this is technically sock yarn, it’s pretty soft. I’m not sure how it would hold up in socks. It’s divine as a little neck accessory though!
Started: January 2023
Finished: August 31, 2023
For: ?? This is going in the gift basket for someone.
Needle: 3.25 mm
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. This may be the perfect knitting pattern. You can use a wide variety of yarns, you can change it up by adding eyelet rows or lace inserts, or it can just be a terrific easy TV knitting project. You just knit along until you have just enough to finish the last repeat and bind off.
Hank likes it!
I also never got around to posting the last sock pair I finished.
Those were for John. The yarn is one of the Regia Design Lines by Arne & Carlos. The color number is3879. It’s a sock, what can I say. This is my usual cobbled-together sock-pattern-in-my-head.
