I have knitting pictures!! The Sahara cardigan now has two completed sleeves, but it doesn't quite meet in the front, which is ok because I still have two skeins and a plan...





Sorry for the crappy bedroom mirror pictures.





My plan for fixing it is basically to pick up and continue the edging across the body, but not around the neck. I don't want a big collar that will need to be folded over. I'm thinking that this plan will work by just bring the two sides together. I envision that it will be a sort of D shaped neckline. But just in case this plan totally fails, I've put in a lifeline.


I have two different sets of buttons, but I'm not sure which to use. I still haven't ruled out making a belt/tie if I have enough yarn. But let's see if I can get this thing to close first!





In an arm update, the orthopedist told me on Friday that I should be able to get back to 95% functionality and 100% strength. Yay! And so I went to see the physical therapist today for the first time. He thinks that he can get me back to nearly as good as new or at least as good as I was. Both the orthopedist and PT said that my days as a pitcher though were probably over. The PT explained that my elbow has a new configuration which would change my leverage for throwing a fastball. Seeing as I'm too old (oh, and female), I really didn't have much hope of becoming a major league pitcher any way.


The therapy started out not too bad with the PT twisting and pushing and pulling my arm to assess the range of motion. Then he hooked me up to an electrical stimulation machine and wrapped my arm in a warm wrap. That all felt very lovely. He set it up for 15 minutes and left the room. I had to sing to myself in my head because I didn't come prepared with anything to read or listen to. When the PT came back, he used the ultrasound machine on my elbow. That didn't feel nearly as good, especially when he was pressing in around the bone. After that he had me lay down so that he could stretch my elbow. He told me that there would be a little bit of discomfort because he was going to stretch it more than it might want to go.


I'm not normally a violent person, but when he started stretching and bending my elbow, I was wishing that I had a fork with which to stab him in the eye. Repeatedly. There were a few moments in which the pain was so bad that I was nearly in tears and could feel my stomach turning (note to self, don't eat right before next PT appointment). I was so thankful when that part was over, but disappointed not to have another nice heat treatment to follow it up. I got to "workout" in the gym with a hand bike and some kind of pulley system. I get to go back twice a week for the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping that with the home exercises he gave me that it will loosen up and not be quite as painful when he stretches it, but right now, I'm not looking forward to going back on Monday.




Oh, and apparently my insurance company doesn't want to pay for any of this (ER, orthopedist, PT). Obviously, they are paying because that's what why they exist, but they don't want to have to pay because that means they lose money. If they never have to pay for me, they just take in all the money from my employer and never have to lose a cent of that. And what I mean when I say they don't want to pay is that they sent me a questionnaire to fill out asking about details of what happened, where, and who was involved. The letter accompanying the questionnaire stated something to the effect of "someone else might be responsible for paying your medical bills, we want to find out if that's the case." The underlying meaning... so we don't have to pay! Bastards!! (Again, they are paying, don't worry about that... but they just want to find out if they can push the expenses off onto someone else.)

Conference recap...
Driving.
Eating.
Eating.
Hanging out at the Carnegie Museum.
Eating.
Sleeping.
Standing by poster talking to interesting people.
Eating.
Hanging out at the Warhol Museum.
Eating.
Drinking. Drinking. Drinking. (and a stupid daylight savings!!)
Sleeping.
Driving.
Sleeping. Working. Wishing it was Spring Break already.

I finished this almost a week ago, but when I went to post it to the blog, the blog wouldn't work! (Please ignore the bad picture quality, pj pants, and purple shirt!)

So I got a request on Ravelry for some yarn I had in my stash. I ignored the request because the message was extremely casual and presumed that because I had the yarn I'd be willing to sell it. The gist of the message was "hey, you've got x yarn, i've got a customer who wants to purchase it, get back to me because she's really excited that she can get the yarn."


Um, hello? The yarn is not listed in trade/sell. Just because you can do a yarn search on Ravelry and found it in my stash does not mean that I'm just going to sell it. I would have been more receptive if the message was more like "Hi, I'm so and so. I own a yarn shop and a customer is in search of a particular colorway that I don't have in stock. When I searched on Ravelry, I noticed you had several skeins. Would you be willing to trade or sell them? The customer is willing to pay $X for skeins plus any shipping. Thanks!"


How hard would that be? If I got that message, I would consider selling what I have. But I didn't get that message and so I just ignored the request. Message me in a rude and presumptive way and I will ignore you (because otherwise I would respond rudely and that wouldn't be nice).


That message was on Wednesday. I just received another message today. This one just said "do you have any xxx color ### lot#####?" Well, yes, it is in my stash that's how you knew to message me, moron!! Ugh! No reference to the prior message. No "hey, I messaged you before about this yarn and didn't hear back..."


So instead of ignoring the messages, I'm ranting about them here. And I should mention that I checked out this person's profile on Rav. While she's filled in her profile info, she has no projects, no stash, and hasn't posted in any forums in over 5 months. It seems that she might just be using Ravelry as a resource for searching yarns she doesn't have in stock and ordering them for customers. I wonder if she charges for her services...


My stash, my yarn... if you don't want to be polite, go away!!

Need for More Yarn Annoys Knitter


Friends and relatives were shocked to learn that local knitter, Dr. Girlfriend, was annoyed at having to purchase more yarn. Such behavior is unheard of among knitters who are generally known as rabid hoarders of large quantities of yarn, and who frequently purchase new yarn even when they have plenty in their "stashes." An anonymous witness reported that Dr. Girlfriend threw her current sweater in progress on the floor, tore through the areas where knitting material is kept, grumbled and complained about throwing away a ball band, and then logged onto the internet to place an order. She then asked the witness to pray with her that the dye lots would match when the yarn arrived. Dr. Girlfriend could not be reached for a comment at this time, but this intrepid reporter suspects that based on her post from March 18th that she did indeed run out of yarn on Paron. We'll keep you informed of any developments on this story.

Stupid post office won't deliver the one freaking skein I need to continue. Blergh!