Annie Knits

Connect the dots

First, let me say that in this post, I will connect the following disparate things in one series of events:

• arterial stenosis;
• the Olympic Opening Ceremonies;
• rotator cuff injury;
• yarn from Russian wool;
• the WWE.

First, as this is foremost a knitting blog, let me say that my Olympic Knitting was ready and in the chute, so to speak.  Hubster chose the Portland sweater from A Fine Fleece and some Peace Fleece yarn from my stash in a kind of oatmeal color with slubs of orange and green (weird I know, but nice).  I figured that I'd been on a kind of a roll with sweaters and that I'd push it and try to do a 54 inch wide heavily cabled long sleeved man's sweater in 16 days.  Really.  I was swatched and ready to cast on on Friday night.  Spirits were high.  And that's where the trouble begins.

Dear Son and I were rough housing WWE style -- don't ask ... he's a fan and I'm hoping my interest in it will be the kiss of death for his --  during a commercial before the ceremonies even began (I enjoyed the telecast, but the speechifying at the end was too long).  I pushed at him with my right arm and something popped and tore alarmingly in my shoulder.  It was alarming, but not particularly painful.  Unless I tried to move my shoulder in any fashion.  Then, there was pain ... and I couldn't move it.

So much for casting on.  Hubster took me to an urgent care facility the following morning and, after looking me over pretty good, the doctors there gave me a sling, a probable rotator cuff injury diagnosis, and an appointment with a sports medicine guy at SLU.  What they also did was take my blood pressure.  Which was sky high.  Like crazy high.  I'd been getting slight dizzy spells and thought it was related to female stuff (why, I don't know as nothing's ever made me dizzy before).  

As it turns out, the Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) I've been taking to absolutely no effect btw for the pain in my hip has caused an inflammation in the blood vessels in my body.  

As these kinds of drugs are wont to do in some people don't you know.  

This is where the arterial stenosis comes in -- it's an ultrasound procedure which examines the blood vessels which connect your heart to your kidneys.  It's non invasive as these things go, but it requires an hour and a half on a table in the dark and you can't sleep because the gal doing the  procedure keeps asking you to stop breathing and then start up again.  And you have to lay on the side where your shoulder hurts for half an hour of that... That was yesterday.  The MRI for my shoulder and hip is next week.  God, almighty, I swear, my warranty is up.

Obviously, the most pressing question you might have for me is, "But can you knit?!"  

Why, yes, indeed, I can.

  

(As usual, first for color, second for detail.)  I have perfectly fine mobility from the elbow down, which is all I need.

Can I knit according to my pre-shoulder injury Olympic potential?  I don't think so.  

Do I have a little more time to knit what with all of the medical waiting rooms?  Yes.  

Will it be enough to medal?  I'm doubtful.  I'm nine inches in -- on the back of the sweater.  According to my pre injury knitting schedule, by now I should be finishing the back of the thing and ready to cast on today for the front.  

Was it a pie in the sky Olympic goal?  Likely.  

Will I persevere?  Do male figure skaters wear sequins?

Watch Out Knitting....

I forgot how much I love to paint.

 

White letters plus torn strips of blue tape plus three colors of paint plus stippling brushes equals too stinkin' cute for words!

 

Godson's room is decorated with giraffes and these will grace the room in time for his first birthday. 

Do you think anyone would buy Dr. Scholl's sandals painted like this? (It's an inside joke.  Ask me.)

The gray sweater is growing.  One repeat down, 9 to go.  I think, though, that I will do only about half of the repeats.  Ribbed cables eat yarn and I'm not buying another skein.

I'm sitting here watching the Super Bowl.  Bullet thoughts:

• The commercials are about three things: phones, cars, and movies.  They're not that funny.  Ok, the Google ad was a clever one...
• The Who are old.  Husband called the views we kept getting of Pete Townsend's belly a "wardrobe malfunction."
• The game is ... well ... a game.  I don't really have a horse in the race so I guess I don't have that much to say about this football game.

Oh, and is anyone else a total Weeds junkie?  Sheesh.  Streaming Netflix strikes again.  I'm enchanted. It's probably a generational thing.  I mean if you're a 40 something who attended high school during the 70's or 80's, it's enchanting.  Not because it's about smoking and/or dealing pot, but because it's about grownups dealing with their kids and pot and tangentially the legality thing.  And because I just really like Mary-Louise Parker.

I gave up on the Tudors about halfway through the second season... the characters, while visually very appealing, were just such horrible people doing such horrible things that I couldn't have them in my life.  

Go figure... that I'll take pot-heads and serial killers over British monarchs says something about my deepest self, but I'm goll-danged if I can figure out what ...