I'm not dead yet

"well, thats what they always say" Yes, I am a huge nerd, why do you ask?
To sum up the past 2 months in a very short sentence, got sick, hurt my knee, my cat ran away, knee got better, got very sick, landed in the hospital, got out of the hospital, cat came back over two weeks later, slid on steps and hurt my knee. Again. this morning.
In between getting poked and prodded by needles and coughing up my little brains (fyi, artery blood draws hurt. OMG do they ever) I managed to do some knitting and cooking!
Over the weekend, I made these cookies and they are by far the best peanut butter blossom cookies EVER. I changed up the recipe a bit, adding in a bit more vanilla and upped the brown sugar to half a cup. I also baked them a bit longer, about 13 minutes.
And as for the knitting, I made this last year but just got around to uploading it (the gnomes returned the camera, now if only they'd return my cell phone). I just love this photo of Asta and I,

the pattern is quant from knitty,a great intro to entrelac if you're new to it. Raveled about it here.
Around the same time, I also knit up a handspun hat. Handspun hats are my drug, I swear. Raveled here!

this weekend, Cpaag group on rav had an auction for japan. I, being me, knit up and designed a knitted boob washcloth. I'm working on the pattern, and even have a few test knitters for it! If you want to test it, just pm me on rav. I'll publish it here this month, I hope.


I'm very happy with how it turned out, just like what I pictured!
As of right now, I'm stuck sitting and knitting and watching dvds and netflix. Which is just so horrible.

Different verse, same as the first

Concussion is almost gone, I still get waves of WHOOOOOOOOEEEEE every once in a while,but those moments are only moments and are gone rather fast.
but, it has been replaced by Death by Snot cold of 2011 (it is still odd to type 2011) and I have lost my voice. I am now reduced to texting and making motions as to what I want. I'm hoping I'm better by mid-week because I'm really sick of being sick. and I want to bake.
I did finish a pair of socks! YAH! first socks of 2011 (nope, still weird). I need to get photos,but i snapped a quick pic with my crapy phone.

the yarn was flat feet, and it's a basic toe up pattern 60 stitches on a us 2, I think.
In other news, my Grandfather fell out of bed on Friday morning, and broke his hip. We had no idea, no one called us. Friday, late evening, the doctor at the ER called and told us. He had a partial hip replacement and is doing well.
Meanwhile, we're iced in the house. Poor Asta slid on the ice yesterday trying to go out. I know, I know.I love snow. but I do not love ice. At all. bad ice. Bad Bad Bad ice.
I heard we might get another storm this week.I hope it's snow! *ducks and covers*

you fart helium?!

This year started out great. And then, well, not so much. Last Friday, i went to the ER. 6 horrible hours later, I was diagnosed with a concussion, sprained toe, and possibly torn tendons in my knee. What happened was this. My mothers knee hit my head (she claims that my head hit her knee, which is so not true) and then, about half an hour later, I was feeling dizzy and fell, landing all my weight on already bad knee (it had an egg on it already, I was going to see a doctor for it that day) and managed to sprain my toe on my other foot. I really should win a medal or something for the sheer idiocy of that injury.
Meanwhile, I'm stuck sitting on the sofa watching Netflix and dvds. and knitting and reading, of course, when my head will allow it. Currently I'm reading How to Bake a Perfect life, and loving it. It has some great looking recipes, and several bread making tips.
As for knitting, I finished a pair of knucks that should have been done by Christmas (whoopsies) and I'm just about finished on my first 2011 cast on to cast off project. A pair of fuzzy feet! i did run out of yarn doing the last few rounds on the toe, brown sheep in this lovely dark rusty red, so I dug thru my stash, ripped the toes out, and am now doing them in a bright lime green. I can't wait to felt them.
For the next two weeks or so, I'm not allowed to walk much or do anything but sit and knit. Oh, the horror:)
I have cinnamon bread in my breadmaker (made while my tea was steeping), Farscape on netflix hence the title, and my fuzzy feet about to finish and a nice new bottle of painkillers. Maybe this year isn't all that bad.

HAPPY 2006!

New year, new..... wait. What? It's 2011? But.... WHAT? Well, ok. If you say so.
2010 was... in a word, Wretched. Everytime I thought things were getting better, they got worse. So, here's to hoping this new year is so much better in every way.
I didn't bother to count how many projects I made, or books I read (which is way below what I wanted to read, see crappy year), but this year is going to better! She says hopefully.
I have PLANS. Shocked, aren't you? My plans are:
Finally knit and *key word here* finish a sweater for me.
Design and publish a few patterns. More the 3 is the goal. Which should be easy, since I have 2 patterns waiting to be written up.
Read more classics. I got an e tablet (I refuse to call them pads, its gross), so I can read things on guttenberg now! My goal is to read about 30 classics. I hope to read about 100 or more books this year.
Cook anything and everything! Since i make all my own food, my plan is to make anything I want. I wanted calzones the other day. I made calzones. Best damn calzones EVER.
Redo my bedroom. I've very excited about this. I have quite a few ideas of what I want to do.
BLOG MORE! I am going to try and blog at least once a week. even if it's to say how great my nail polish is and how I stop knitting to stare at my nails
I'm sure there are more things. but these are the things I most want to do this year.
It's the third, and I already finished a project! A pair of knucks for Christmas!
So far, this year is pretty neat. How's your year going so far?

HEY!

It's been utterly crazy around here, Between spraining my ankle so bad it would have been better if I had broken it, mom being sick, and all the other crazy stuff, I haven't thought to blog. Yes, for months, But, I shall get better.
Last time we left, I had discovered that I was allergic to msg. And I was making everything myself. It's been hard, but I've been doing it. Making my own bread, pizza, crackers (not as hard as you would think) muffins, cookies ICE CREAM. It's still a try and see thing, but I haven't had to use my epi pen! I found a restaurant where I can eat, granted it's 2 hours away, but still. Yesterday,
I made this amazing soup using stuff I found in the pantry. It was a mason jar of mixed beans, 28 oz of diced tomatoes, a thing of Swanson chicken broth (which doesn't have msg in it!) some water, garlic powder, pepper, and 2 bay leaves. I threw it all in the crock pot and cooked it for a looong time. a few hours before I ate it, I tossed in a can of tomato paste to thicken it up. Considering I had no idea what I was doing, it turned out so yummy!
but the best part about making everything myself? I feel so much better.
The knitting I shall save for next time (this week, i swear), once I get photos. I have quite a few projects too. Several calorimeterys, a few hats (all blue), some socks, a cowl, some entrelac, washcloths, and even a shawl!

And now for something completely different...

Last week, I saw my doctor. I found out that I have anti-bodies attacking my system. From my lungs, skin, lady bits, thyroid, everything is being attacked. The anti-bodies are from an illness I had when I was younger, one I thought was in remission. To get the anti-bodies, which I have named Borris, to die, my thyroid has to become normal range again. Also during that visit. I realized just how allergic I am to MSG. my heart speeds up I feel twitchy. Everything is in hyperdrive and yet it slows down to a maddening slow speed. I've also been trying to avoid HFCS, which has been very hard.
I decided then and there, with borris attacking me, my heart beating so hard it felt it might burst, I would start making everything I eat from scratch. I've been doing this since sunday. so far, I've made white bread, dill bread, which is omg good, I've made potato salad (barefoot contessa, best ever), egg salad, snickerdoodle blondies (from baking bites, very yummy) and I'm about to go out and make bluth mini muffins, which is just banana and chocolate chips. I've eaten so much fruit, chicken and veggies. Already, I feel better. I'm using my inhaler less, I have more energy, I'm eating a lot less.
this is going to be hard, but I'm sure I can do it. I think.

Coming out of the fog

You know how you drive someplace and have no idea how you got there? Or how you realize a few hours has passed and you have no idea what you did? Thats been me. For the past few months, I've just been, for lack of a better word, drifting thru life. I've felt blah, had no energy to do anything, was depressed and worst of all, I barely knit. Then my doctor ran some tests and turns out, my thyroid is very low, and my vit D levels, which should be 30, were 9. It's going to take a while before everything is back to where it should be, but I'm so glad to know what was the problem.
In the past month, I've cast on for several things! A pair of socks for my mom, and for mothers day, I'm knitting her Saroyan in mal lettuce. For me, I'm making a Baktus (it's for the CPA KCAL on rav), which is my "watching german subtitled movies" knitting. I'm also knitting a few baby sweaters for some friends and just cast off my very first BSJ. I've also been sewing! I'm on a pillow kick right now.
Yesterday, my mom was taking some laundry out of the washer and found she had washed a mouse (the animal, not the cat). Best we can figure, Dezi caught a mouse and then after he was done playing with it, dropped it in the laundry basket. That was new...
The past two days, it's been hot. 97 hot. I don't have a fan (I'm hoping to buy one this weekend), so I spent the entire time complaining about the heat and missing my snow. I just keep thinking only a few more months, then snow. Then I'll complain about how cold it is.