Sky sock

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a cloud? Is it partly cloudy?

Actually, it's sunny. But there is one finished partly cloudy sock!

Extreme closeup?

I feel a lot of love for this sock. The yarn? The pattern? It's all warm and fuzzy to me!
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I don't know how you people do it!
I have been feeling stressed out lately. Always in a rush. Always behind on everything. A day late and a blog entry short. I tip my handknit hat to you. I can't seem to get my shit together lately. I'm sure it's a sign of something, but I can't imagine what.

Butterflies are free to fly!

A photo shoot with a butterfly~

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Warm Hands Update!

Mittens, I am knitting

Nordic Mittens pattern from Winter 2004 Interweave Knits
Yarn, Brown Sheep Naturspun.
I'm in love!

Thumb side:

Check out the participants in the Warm Hand Knitalong!

She knits

Sometimes it is clear to me that the day that I started blogging was a good day indeed. How else would I have met such a wonderful, supportive, caring, cheering-on kind of crowd?
A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for holding me up. I know that the diagnosis is not an easy one and some days are more of a struggle than others, but I am worth it. And I have all of you to push me in the right direction.
Thank you for being you.
~~~
What's the name of this blog? Sandy's Whining? NO! Sandy's KNITTING. So, without any further ado, I present....KNITTING.
First up: Mittens. What else would the hostess of the Warm Hands knitalong be knitting, really?

Okay. Truthfully, that picture is put there just to get a sky shot in.

These are the Aran Island Mittens from the book, Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski. I have a love/hate relationship with these mittens unfortunately. I especially love this side of the mitten. The cables, the bobbles and moss stitch. Intense love. The cuff? I could marry it!
But.

The palm side of the mitten is pure hatred. See the line going down the middle and a line of stitches heading upward from the right? Yes. There is supposed to be a matching line on the left. Missing. You want to know where it is? On the inside of the mitten. Apparently I had a bit of trouble mastering the Purl through the back loop stich PTBL. My nemesis. No lines where lines should be. I could overlook that. I'm good at overlooking. But you know what bothers me more than anything? All that reverse stockinette stitch. I tried not to pre-judge it, thinking that the overall look of the mitten would make it worth it. No. It's not worth it. I hate it.
Hate IS a strong word. I hate it. Say goodbye to the Aran Island mittens. Perhaps someday I will take that cuff and front pattern and create a backing for it. Not now, though. I have bigger mittens to fry!
More?

One sleeve is almost done on the Knitting Pure and Simple V neck cardigan. The yarn is Vermont Mountain Spinnery, mountain mohair in the colorway Moss. I love everything about this sweater. The pattern is wonderful. The yarn is heavenly. I had a dream that this would be the sweater I would wear to RHINEBECK! (aside: who's going?) but I don't think it will happen. It doesn't fit quite right. Yet. heh. The new and improved future me will have a kick ass sweater waiting in the wings. Which is a good goal, don't you agree?
Well, what am I doing going on and on here for when I have a house to clean. It's not going to clean itself. Believe me! I've waited!

Lifetstyle changes

When I was pregnant with both of my kids, I had gestational diabetes. A bit more severe with Bethany so it's safe to assume that any more children would have been hell to pay on my pancreas.
I knew the statistics. If a person is overweight and had gestational diabetes, there is a 90 % chance of developing Type 2 Diabetes in the future. Not being overweight cut that risk to 35%. Quite the odds, don't you agree?
Knowing this, what do you think I did? Was I the fountain of nutritional knowledge? An exercising fiend? Thin as a rail?
No. I am fat. I ate with abandon for many, many years. In denial that it would not happen to me. Only other people.. .
At my physical yesterday I got the news. The 3 month blood sugar average test put me into the diabetic category. Diabetes. Me. Talk about a wake up call!
What I have going in my favor is that I have lost 15 pounds since that blood test. (the test was 3 months ago, I had been shirking my physical appointment, rescheduling multiple times) So there is hope. The plan of action is that I will stay focused with Weight Watchers and exercise faithfully and have the blood test again in November. We are hoping for a lowering of that level, dropping me out of the diabetic category. If it does not, more actions will be taken at that time.
I suppose it is a 50/50 chance at this point. But it's a chance I have to be serious about.
And although at this time, I will follow a healthy diet, I am thinking about the role of carbohydrates in diabetes. This is not good news to me. Carbs are my friends. Let's look at some of my favorite foods, shall we?
pasta: carbs
bread: carbs
english muffins: carbs
yogurt with fruit or granola: carbs. Carbs. Carbs.
cheese: okay, not a carb, but how much cheese can a person eat? (this is a rhetorical question, not one needing an actual answer! :)
dried mangos: carb
Peaches: carb
cake: okay, I don't eat much cake, but a good piece of cake has it's place in society: carb
This is not going to be easy for me. I'm full of shouldas and couldas right now.

Check out warm hands update

There is a new entry to the Warm Hands Blog. Click on the Warm Hands knitalong button (scroll down) on the right or click here.
Be sure to blogline that page for easy updates!
Wanna join? Sure. Perhaps you have cold hands.
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In good news, I have won the lottery no less that 7 times in the last week. The Netherland lottery. It's true. All I have to do is send them my info. You know, social security number, bank number. And it's only fair that I have to pay a processing fee before I can get my millions.
How lucky am I, really?
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Scenes from a garden!

Not my garden! Even better! My neighbor's! None of the work, all of the beauty.

Maybe you remember the story. My neighbor is an elderly man that plants every inch of his yard with mostly dahlias. Dahlias need to be lifted every fall and stored away because they are not hardy for our winter. This is a lot of work. This man works hard.
The above picture is one of his gardens. The fence on the left of the picture runs the length of my driveway, my house is to the left of his garage. There is alot of flowers there, believe me!
Here are some of my favorites!

an orange row







Believe me when I say that I could have stayed out there all day long taking photos.

Autumn is coming, cold hands will happen

Ready for some Warm hands?
Visit my Warm Hands blog by clicking on the button on the right (in the sidebar) or click HERE.

You have an opinion, I know you do! Don't deny it!

Sometimes you just have to lay your head down on your catnip mouse/carrot and kick back!
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Many of you mentioned Elisabeth Zimmerman's afterthought thumb in response to my last post. Can you imagine that I call myself a knitter and I do not own, nor have I even looked at an E. Zimmerman book? It's true. So, I ask you, in which book is this afterthought thumb? And which book, in your humble knitterly opinion should I get? No fair saying ALL of them!
I have a couple of Barnes and Noble Gift certificates in my pocket.

Thumb wrestling

As I finished up the second Liidia's mitten from Folk Knitting in Estonia (the pattern is a glove pattern, converted to mitten) I felt excitement, relief that these would be done in time for cold weather and more relief because these have stewed a bit. My relief and gladness were shortlived as I lay them side by side to get a glimpse. Hmm. Can you see it? See the red line on the right mitten? That is the thumb position. Dang it if I did not make TWO RIGHT MITTENS. And how bad is it that I actually tried one on my left hand, twisting it into postion trying to convince myself that it was OKAY? It would be FINE. I would hardly mind AT ALL.
It did not work. I WILL indeed mind. I must now dig out the well buried woven in end and rip out the top shaping. Must Shape Differently.

I'm a little rosebud!
Looks like a fine day to go to a craft fair! Hey, I've got to keep myself busy as I'm newly released from daily Mom duty!