Lorette

An anniversary, and a finished thing

The anniversary first.
21 years ago today, I posted my first blog entry here at Chez Knitting Doctor. For the past few years the posts have been a bit sparse, but I can’t quite bring myself to delete the whole thing. It’s weird, I thought I would post more in retirement, but it hasn’t worked out that way. Maybe I’ll get more inspired to write in the future. But 21 years of knitting and blogging isn’t just something to toss out.

That’s the latest finished thing. It’s one of those one-skein sock yarn patterns, which are handy when you have umpty-million skeins of sock yarn in the stash.

Project Details:

Pattern: Effuchief, by Casapinka. She typically releases a small project pattern in February, which she refers to as Effuary.
Yarn: Yvieknits Sparkly Sock, color Orange Julius. It really is sparkly, though it doesn’t show in the photos.
Started/Finished: February 1-March 16.
Needle size: 3.25 mm
This is a very easy pattern, suitable for watching TV or socializing. It blocked out larger than I thought it would, and makes a nice little accessory. It is knit from tip to tip, so could be adjusted to use all of the available yarn, which I did by using my handy little yarn scale.

That’s all that’s going on around here. My spring quarter classes started this week at the Graham School, so I’ve been busy reading. I’ll finish the third year of the four year Basic Program in May, which has been a blast. Since I had to focus mostly on the sciences in my original education and my professional career, I didn’t study many of the “great books” previously. There are about 15 or so of us in my cohort who have been together (virtually) for the past three years. Occasionally people switch around and take a different class section, but it’s been fun seeing how much better we all are at discussing and interpreting these major works.

I’m also taking a three week class on the Shakespeare play Henry V. I’m doing a two week Shakespeare course this summer, which I’ll talk about another time, but in preparation for this class I’ve read the other Henry plays as well as Richard II.

The third class I’m taking is a contemporary politics and constitution discussion class. For obvious reasons, this one may be the most interesting. It’s the third of a three quarter class sequence on the history of the constitution and American political development.

So maybe I do still have some things to write about after all. Stay tuned!

Sharon Show

Here it is, finished!

Project Details:

Pattern: Sharon Show, by Casapinka.
Yarn: Yummy 2-ply, from Miss Babs
Needle:US5
Started:July 26, 2021
Finished: March 5,2025

This was great fun to knit. It really didn’t take me four years to make this. I knit about six inches, then it went into the timeout pile when something new and shiny caught my eye. I picked it back up in mid January. I adore the colors. They’re bright and cheerful; just what I need for this not-quite-spring time of year. And it’s hard to get bored with all the different stitch patterns.

Stay tuned to see what’s next!

Blocking magic

It’s done! I finished sewing in the last of the ends this morning, and now I just need to wait for it to dry.

No, it’s not perfectly straight. I gave up on that a long time ago.

I’ve already found Ripley sitting in the middle of this. She made a run for it when she saw me, so no photo evidence.

Full post to follow.

A two-fer!

I’ve finished two things! This might be some kind of record. So far I’ve finished three projects in January, for a total of 1337 yards out of the stash.
Of course there are about 50 million more yards to go in that never-ending yarn stash of mine. And no doubt more will be added. I’m considering it a win, anyway.
Here’s the first. Socks!

That’s West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn, color name Mojito. They are quite cheerful. I used the same pseudo-pattern that lives in my head, and size 2.00 mm bamboo double point needles.
Here’s the second finished thing.

It’s a cowl thing. The yarn is a bulky weight thick and thin wool from Butternut Woolens (no longer in business). I cast on 30 stitches, knit in garter stitch till I had just enough yarn left to bind off. I put a twist in it and sewed the ends together.
The color name is Boreal Sky, but I think it looks like a Caribbean ocean deep pool. It’s perfect for the chilly weather we’ve been having.
I successfully used nearly all of this skein. Here’s what I had left.

The cowl was knit on 7mm plastic straight needles. I’m probably the only person left in the world that likes and uses these.
I started the socks back in October. The cowl was started January 23rd.
And here’s one of me doing what I do best, whilst wearing my new socks, and knitting the cowl.

Great Big Fun

I decided that I didn’t need to wait until I finished something to post. What a concept. I’ve been working on the next shawl from that pile of UFOs pretty consistently. NFL playoffs have helped, giving me lots of great knitting time.
Here it is in its current state.

The pattern is the Sharon Show, by Casapinka. This has been neglected for a really long time. Ravelry says that I started this in July 2021. I had about four inches done when it got stood up for a more attractive date, so I’ve gotten quite a bit accomplished since I picked it back up. I forgot how much FUN her patterns are. There are lots of different stitch patterns to keep me from being bored, but nothing too complex to make it inappropriate for tv knitting. One section is in Morse code, which had me stumped for a bit. John went to signal corps training when he was in the Army, so he had to learn Morse code; of course that was about 60 years ago. Surprisingly, he managed to decipher it. I’ll just say that it says “something something something skunk butt”.
I know I said something ridiculous about not casting on any more projects until I finished a few things. None of you really believed that, right? Here’s what made it onto my needles this morning.

The yarn is deep stash. It’s Butternut Woolens thick and thin bulky weight. I bought this at a local yarn festival in 2011, so it was time to make something with it. This will be a moebius cowl. I just cast on a bunch of stitches, and will knit garter stitch until I run out of yarn. I’ll twist it into a moebius shape and sew the ends together.
The bonus is I get to use a pair of needles out of my ridiculously vast collection of plastic straight needles.
Last but not least, I went to the dentist this morning for a routine visit. Whilst waiting, I noticed my footwear.

Yes, my friends, I went to the dentist in my slippers. I appear to have reached the age where I need better adult supervision.

Jewels of the Czar Shawl

We finally have a bit of sunshine today, so I got some photos of my latest finished project.

Project Details:

Pattern: I improvised this one. It’s a top down triangle shawl, started with a garter tab. The body is stockinette, with a three-stitch garter border on each side. After every nine rows of stockinette, I threw in an eyelet section: purl one row on the wrong side, then yo/knit 2 tog across on the right side, then another purl row. I added a garter stitch border and bound off.
Yarn: Raven Frog Fibers Elegante, color Jewels of the Czar. This is perfectly yummy yarn to knit with and wear. It’s a 50/50 merino/silk blend, with 650 yards/skein. I used all but a few grams.
Started: September of 2024
Finished: January 5, 2025
Needles: Size 3.5 mm circulars

This is lovely, and was a perfect knitting project to go through football season (aka TV knitting-simple enough to knit watching tv, but not so basic that I want to kill myself). It will get a lot of wear in the warmer months.

All the Christmas stuff has finally been put away. I’m ready for spring, though that sunshine outside doesn’t fool me one bit. We’ve got another few months of grey and rainy to get through first.

One down!

Six shawls left on the needles.

Project Details:

Pattern: Hitchhiker, by Martina Behm. I’ve knit several of these, and will likely knit several more. These are lovely little versatile pieces, and I wear mine a lot.
Yarn: Happy Trails sock yarn, in the color Amelia. The yarn dyer is Pat Fly, from Fly Designs. I don’t think she sells this exact put-up any longer. It’s super wash merino, with 650 yards/8 oz. It’s about a sport weight.
Started: June 2024
Finished: December 2024
Needle: 3.25 mm Dyak Black Nickel interchangeable needles.
What I Learned: Don’t start seven shawls. Pick one and finish it.
Rating: 5/5 for both pattern and yarn.

On to the next shawl!

It’s a hat!

Hey! I finished it!

Project Details

Pattern: I made it up on the fly. Cast on 80 stitches. 2X2 rib for awhile. Stockinette for awhile. Crown K2tog decreases, four times a row, every other row until it was tall enough, then more decreases every round until I had 8 stitches left, ran the tail end through the stitches and fastened off.
Yarn: Leftover Peace Fleece in the color Lena’s Meadow.
Needles: Size 6 double points

I love it. It’s simple, warm, and snuggly. I have lots of single skeins of heavy worsted weight and Aran weight yarn in the stash that would make good hats. John has been giving me the sad side-eye, but he’s NOT getting this one.

And he’s going to have to wait a bit. I need to finish a few of those SEVEN shawls before I cast on anything new.

Stay tuned.

Well, this is a bit ridiculous

I gathered up all the knitting projects that I could find to sort through them. That’s the lot of them.
In that pile are SEVEN shawls, two hats, one of a sock pair, a sweater, fingerless mitts, a washcloth, and a sock yarn scrap blanket.
Good grief. My “startitis” has gotten out of control. I clearly need to finish some of these before starting anything else. This is quite sad, since I’m a slow knitter at best, and have SO MUCH lovely yarn in this house waiting to be cast on.
I’m picking one thing out of that mess to focus on.

That is one of the hats. It will be a beanie style thing, I’m just jerryrigging this on the fly. I cast on 80 stitches, did ribbing until I couldn’t stand it any longer, then knit for awhile. I just started the decreases at the top.
This is some very precious Peace Fleece left over from a pair of socks I made decades ago. The color, Lena’s Meadow, is sadly discontinued. I wish I’d bought a sweater quantity of this when it was available.
I swear I’m not starting anything else for now. We shall see how this goes.

Sweetpea and I are off on an adventure!

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.

New socks

But first, it’s a very important day!

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 all for now.

58

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.

Onward!

50

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.

It’s a sweater!

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.

I’m coming up with a plan. Stay tuned.

Sweater progress

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.