Life As I Know It Now

Realized I hadn’t mentioned it on this blog that my husband of 38 years passed away May 9th 2017. So almost a year ago my life has forever changed. My creativity, cats, and family have kept me going. Some days are bad, others days awful and other days tolerable. I was already grieving our marriage for about a year when his dementia got so bad, Anticipatory grief they call it.  Life does goes on.

Had to replace my car, son and I drove it to death.  Electrical problems  $$$  Cleaned out the old car and found:  3 pairs of work gloves and three odd singles, Two jumper cables, lost count on the misc tools, Power converter, Three gaggles of rope, Two cases of tools, three pairs of sunglasses an Emergency road kit with all of that in it too.   Emergency Clothing for when he had accidents.  Duplicates and triplicate of tools.  OMG I have a shed and work bench to go through as well.  All this between his need for safety on the road, a bit of pack rat and dementia, my son drove it as well and has inherited the pack rat gene from both of us.

Most of this  except the car is posted in another blog at: Dealing With Dementia

Bitter sweet at times.  A grand son was born March 30th that Dave will never meet. I swear I felt his presence when Little Leo was born. Leonardo David Perez, I think she  was missing him when they named him.  Dave took so much joy and perked up at seeing her 2 year old at home and a year ago at the VA Hospice. My collection of baby items above. My sons daughter birthed a Great grand daughter that I have never seen, one or two pictures on my daughters phone. She got a collection as well.

Baby Leo

So needless to say I have been knitting things for him and dealing with shoulder and right arm pain. PT is a slight help due to health problems in general. Despite all this I joined a knitting guild and a cowl group. Had to get out of the house. Have completed 2 cowls and have another 1/2 done. Gave the first to my daughter should have taken a picture. 2nd cowl I ripped out 3 times and gave up I didn’t like the way it joined in the round. Below is the Irish Mesh Cowl by Jo Strong on Ravelry. The yarn has a purplish cast to it. Life does go on even without my sweetie of 39 years, 38 married, More than half my life.

 

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Fair Isle Boot Cuffs

    Fair Isle Boot Cuffs by Lois Erbland

If you would like just ribbed boot cuffs the Pattern I started with: ribbed boot cuffs

 

With Main color Worsted weight yarn.  CO 30- 29   or 28-27,    T 3.5 -4 depending on the weight of your yarn and size of ankles.

This does not need to be a fancy cast on as it is going into the seam.

First larger # on are the turquoise cuffs, smaller # are the blue and white ones. Second snowflake pattern are with a heavier worsted weight.

Knit 5 Rows then switch to Fair Isle as per your machine instructions.

I knit approximately 27 Rows, this depends on your pattern. Switch out of Fair Isle.

Knit 4 rows

Transfer stitches to ribber same tension or smaller

Knit 25 rows of ribbing this depends on how large a pattern of Fair Isle you chose.

 Transfer and bind off. I used:  https://youtu.be/1_UFOVcIIAo

Again this doesn’t need to be perfect  because it is going inside a seam.

I attempted this Cuff by doing the ribbing first and it just would not work for me.

 

Next assembly:  seam Cast on row to ribber row making a tube.

Sew making a circle with ribbing inside ribber edges together, then sew Fair Isle sides together.

When I get more time I will get a picture of sewing them up.

Pattern for Machine Knit Mop Covers

 

Machine Knit Washable Mop Covers

These instructions are based on a great value 3 WAY generic mop Your brand may vary

If making multiple of these covers I highly recommend making a cast on rag. At least L28- R28 spaces. You can add a place for a rod or add the claw hem and weights.   I learned how using this video:  There are many methods on you tube.  https://youtu.be/L67oRQnvJVI

HB4116

HB4116

Pattern uses Peaches and Crème Cotton and Scrubby Red Heart

Waste yarn rows, either by the above method or whatever way you like.

Knit one row with ravel cord,

Crochet Cast on    25-26 set tension to T5 on KH260 or KH 270

Knit 5 rows with the MC cotton ending COL

Knit 2 rows with scrubby CC I didn’t fully insert this yarn into the tension dial.

Then repeat these rows:   Knit 6 rows in MC cotton

Knit 2 rows in CC scrubby

Do 5 or 6 repeats of scrubby row to fit your mop. Next ones I make will be 5 scrubby rows.. I just carried the scrubby along the left-hand side, less to sew in.

Ending with cotton 6 rows.

I used a gate peg bind off.

Remove from machine and using ravel cord remove from rag hem.

Variety and combinations are endless with these yarns. The one on the right is a 4-ply acrylic yarn.

Put cover on the mop head with the knit side sticking to the mop, to determine size of hems. Hem the four sides with purl side facing out. Photo below this one.

Hems in red above. green is the fold line and red circles are approximate location of buttons

I tried machine knit bobbles, crochet bobbles none of them worked with my mop brand. So, I tried buttons I had some 2 cm or 1 ¾ inch with four holes in my stash and they worked the best of all. I found that re attaching the cloth to the mop head that very soon it wouldn’t stick well enough to mop the floor.

Buttons are on the knit side, right  at the edge. I used 4 thread darning cotton by Lily. Three or four strands of regular thread would work.

Your location for these buttons may vary depending on the brand of wet mop. Have fun with these mop covers I really like them with the scrubby added on.

 

 

 

 

Machine Knit Fingerless Mitts.

Combines two patterns

1. htttp://www.ravelry.com/patterns/lirbrary/machine-knit-wristwarmers

Using ordinary fingering weight sock yarn (Also used woolike by Loop Threads.)

 

These are yarns that are easily washed in a washing machine. My Gauge in the Fair Isle pattern is 34 stitches to 40 rows per 4 inches using st size #6 on my Brother KH930

Main part: Cast on 62 stitches using a double bed e-wrap cast on for 1×1 ribbing. In main (back ground) color knit 29 rows. St size #4

Hang stitches on main bed only. Knit one background color left to right with st size 6. Selecting the needles for your Fair Isle Pattern Choose a fairly small pattern.

Now set up for Fair Isle knit 48 rows in pattern * mark row 36* with a thread at both sides.  This is where the thumb will be set in.

Knit one row main color hang every other stitch back onto ribber. With stitch size 3 knit 5 rows of 11 ribbing and cast off. I used a gate peg cast off so that the opening for the fingers is stretchy.

Knit second piece.

1. Now go back to your knitting machine, pull 17 sts on both sides of zero (total of 34). Set machine to tension 5.
2. Take your now-seamed mitt, with wrong side of seam facing you, start hanging the mitt on the needles. Hang sts evenly from the center outward, 17 on each side.
   This picture shows the first stitch on either side of zero hung.

This shows all the stitches, 17 on each side of zero, hung on the machine, then push the mitt back past the latches against the bedss Mitts

3. COR Using your main color, knit across.
   4. COL Set your machine to “Hold” and pull the Right needles 3-17 out in non-working position, knit across.
   5. COR Wrap R3, pull the Left needles 3-17 out into non-working position, knit across.
   6. COL Wrap L3, put R3 back into working position, knit across.
   7. COR Wrap R4, put L3 back into working position, knit across.
   8. COL Wrap L4, put R4 back into working position, knit across.
   9.COR Wrap R5, put L4 back into working position, knit across.

   Keep progressing in this manner until you have 4 out of work sts left on either side and COL.
   Put left 4 st into work and knit a row. Put all into work and knit 1 row

Transfer and do 5 rows of rib. Gate peg bind off. Sew ends in and  join thumb.

Unexpected things…

Several years ago I wove this wasn’t happy with the neck part where the two warps join. It fell on the laundry floor so I thought I’ll wash it and see….

   

To weave this shawl a long fringe is left unwoven, weave a yard and leave a long section unwoven,  then it is cut off the loom. Tie up and for weft you use the long sections after your woven yard. Then weave a yard That makes the fringed point as seen in the picture on the left.

I’d made a plain one but I wanted to play around with plaids.  So what did I learn from all of this?  Wash handspun yarns vigorously after spinning if using in woven items. Ah well I kind of like the new shawl.The back v is  only curvy on one side the other lies flat. The side that the fringe / weft that was put in the side that is wavy.

It became very wavy and felted in spots.

 

The neck is nice now it just is a bit different. LOL

Knitting has become sanity?

In a word unpredictable. Went back to the bedroom for something, Dave was missing. There was a spot on the window, bird hit it (the tilts in to clean and I told him to wait until Rob could help me, heavy)  so he went outside to find a hose? put the sprinkler on the window came in and it wasn’t hitting the spot. He went back down the stairs and repositioned the sprinkler. Fell on the sidewalk.   Fell 2 x  in 2 months Thank God only minor injuries.  Snuck  out while I was in the bathroom.

We went and saw the neurologist today and he said falling may be a side effect of one of his medications, changes oh fun.  So basically I am with him 24/7.   He got angry last time  because I told the Dr he was incontinent at times. So this time on the list with his medications I put what was going on with him. Worked great!!  He was angry we were at the Dr “again” after our VA jaunt but was ok when the Dr came in smiling and shaking his hand.  Then Back seat drove all the way to Walmart. ” “Warning! Objects are closer than they appear.” Thank God for the Spinal cord Stimulator, I really do not know what I would have done, motorized Wheel chair?

I think what I miss the most is just conversation.  I feel like I need to fill the gap….  but hard with only one participant.

Knitting is definitely my sanity right now, That and music.   Almost finished a knitted lace shrug then my arthritis in my left thumb started acting up.  Didn’t do a swatch until almost done and figured out what size it will be when blocked. The pattern is below in the yarn I am using.  It’s a Kroy sock yarn made with wool and nylon. Blocked very well and I may steam it before I am done. It is loosely based on a lace shrug on the net but I wasn’t happy with the pattern. Working on the knit 1 purl 1 (KI PI)cuff at the end. I am going to add a little lace edging ? maybe only on one edge? will see when I get there.

Lace pattern #35 from “Knitting Lace”by Susanna E. Lewis

The other lace project went on hold just bored with it I guess this only has a 8 stitch repeat, easy.  The scarf a Estonian lace project has a 22-23 long stitch repeat. I’m using Bamboo Cotton it the one below.  Downloaded a neat knitting chart pattern program due to my eyesight: http://knitbird.com  I love it!  My printer died that enlarged pages so this has helped a lot and I could use it to design some of my own. At least there is something that I can do and be with him, Sneaks out when I am in the BR, sheesh.

“Knitted Lace of Estonia” Nancy Bush Pattern Lily of the Valley patten #1

 

 

Wow life can change quickly sometimes

My husband went to do his Honor Guard duty this past Saturday, Thinking it was a memorial indoors we weren’t concerned.  85 degrees out they changed their minds and they stood waiting in the heat for over an hour. He passed out, they were able to walk him to the van where he passed out again and spasmed or something. The rescue squad got him and he was admitted to the hospital. He remembered passing out but thought he came to in the ambulance. Echo cardiogram shows poor cardiac muscle function, Stress test Monday morning that he failed, 2 out of 3 arteries probably plugged. He decided to use medications since he isn’t having chest pain ( thank God) Why do stents if the muscle isn’t working right?  Will just enjoy the time we have left.

Most people don’t know that 6 – 8 months ago he was diagnosed with dementia. Short term memory to the max and a few angry outbursts. If he had been adamant about the cardiac catheterization I probably would have done my best to talk him out of it.

He goes places with me when we have the car and I keep a close eye on him that he doesn’t wander off. I make sure he has a good place to sit down if I need to walk any distance as he is unable to do that now.

Needless to say I am depressed, angry and trying to cope with all the things that he used to do that are now my bally wick. I guess in a way it is good it happened this way because I can ask him questions and get fairly decent answers about finances and he is over the angry back seat driver mode he has been in. Incontinent at times, “that cat peed on me again” Put on top of that a family member that just doesn’t get it and trys to tell a nurse with 30 years experiance what I should do and not do.

We still see glimpses of his sense of humour told the stress test people who asked that at the funeral the Army guy helped him to the ground, the Marine grabbed his rifle and the Navy guy grabbed his beer.   There was no beer involved but he was in his usual jokester mode that day.  Other days he hardly speaks. If I am not with him he is continually asking where I am.  I have taken to writing a note near his chair saying I am at the Dr or store. For now I can do that I can see that soon I will not be able to leave at all. Also an urgent need to know where the cats are??

So at times I will be on FB alot just to have interaction with humans. Other times it may be days yeah Golden years my ass.