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I wasn't born with wings, so I'm trying to make my own
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Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday night already? *sigh* Oh well, it's been a great weekend and like all great things it must come to an end. I spent this whole week being freaked out and angry about my blood clot and doctors and on and on. Then, on Friday I just finally decided that I'd had enough of all that badness and I wanted to have a nice weekend. This is one bad thing in my life, but there are lots of good things and I need to make sure to enjoy them. (I'll put the update on my clot at the end of the post, I want to at least start out with good stuff. Friday night was the usual recovery from the work week with pizza delivery and DVR'd Top Chef (rooting for Tre) and knitting (38 repeats on Fleurette) and video game playing. Saturday was an awesome day, though. Mark, Mom and I headed over to a new-to-us restaurant, Hugo, which features upscale southern cooking. The company (as usual) was the best part, of course, but the food was really phenomenal. I really didn't expect to enjoy the food as much as I did because southern cooking isn't my favorite. For the first course we had fried green tomatoes, corn fritters with marscapone and sea scallops with cauliflower puree (so much better than it sounds, I promise). For the second course, Hugo salads all around, good, but I didn't like the sherry vinagrette. For the third course, shrimp and grits (my first grits ever, so good with lots of white cheddar), monkfish with parsnip puree and asparagus (I usually love parsnips, but the puree was blech), and pork tenderloin with butterbeans. Dessert was lemon curd tart and pecan tart with madagascar vanilla icecream (it was to swoon). I love good food... and it shows. As we were getting ready to leave, Mom wanted to run to the restroom, so we told her we'd meet her outside. While we waited, Mark and I tried to get a picture of ourselves with the restaurant in the background. We didn't know Mom was sneaking up on us as I snapped the shot:  I almost fell over laughing when I saw this picture. I love the way Mom is peaking up over my head like "Hey guys, what's going on here?" And don't we look very happy and full of yummy food? I really love this picture. It is very "us." Happy and silly and together. (By the way, we did take another picture with the three of us... and I actually managed to get the restaurant's sign in the picture.) Most of this week my leg has been hurting too much to sit down and spin, but Saturday night it was finally feeling good enough, so I sat down and started my next big project. I thought the occasion called for a glass of champagne:  Actually, it's sparkling apple cider because I'm kind of "meh" about alcohol. As far as alcoholic drinks go, the less it takes like alcohol, the more I like it. But I LOVE sparkling apple cider, so I celebrated the first steps on the very long road ahead of me with a glass of it. This picture actually shows a lot. In the bottom right corner, you can see my SOAR info and a pair of scissors and rubberbands I used to perfect the tension on my wheel. Then, there's the big pile of silk that will be used for the first ply and the little nests of fiber ready for spinning. And you can see Mark's rear end in his computer chair, right where it usually is :-P
So, I've started my next "big thing" and I'm very excited. Unlike the last shawl, I have no idea which way the design will go, but I'll have plenty of time to think about that as I spin. I'd love to do a circular shawl, but right now the silk is gently whispering "triangle." I guess we'll see.
As for the leg... The doctor FINALLY got back to me on Wednesday. I was supposed to find out on Monday, but the sonogram reader was on vacation. They called me Monday to tell me they'd let me know Tuesday. Then on Tuesday, nothing. So Wednesday morning I called and left a not very happy message to call me back. The doctor did call me back and basically said the clot is in a superficial vein, so I'm fine. Uh... more information, please. So, I started asking him questions about all of the questions he left open when he first saw me because he wanted to find out first if it was actually a blood clot. After a bunch of stumbling and bumbling, he decided that maybe I should come back in for some blood work to see if I'm overcoagulating, blah blah blah. So, I don't know much more today than I did two weeks ago. Maybe I'll find out more this week when I go back, but I'm not counting on it. My leg is feeling a lot better because the clot has moved up from behind my knee to my upper thigh, which is a much less painful place for it to be. It worries me that it is that much closer to my lungs and brain, but Dr. Doesn'tCallBack said I don't have to worry about pulmonary embolism or stroke with this clot. He doesn't say why, so maybe he's just telling me a nice little story to make me feel better. Who knows? Worrying about it certainly hasn't made any difference, I'm going back this week for testing and I'll go from there. Now I just get to look forward to the hassle my health insurance company will be giving me when it receives the bills for all of these tests. Yay! I'm going to go stroke some silk to make myself feel better.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Okay, this is a long post (and not a particularly happy one), so I'm starting with the pretty picture, instead of ending with it. I finally have my next big spinning project all worked out. I got a 2 ply of the English Gardens bombyx from Treetops spun and knit, and I love it. I love them both, the 2 ply and the 3 ply, but for a big project, like a shawl, I prefer the subtlety of the 2 ply. Here's the comparison shot of the two:
I'm so glad that I finally have a spinning project to work on! It has taken too long to finally settle on something.
So. This week has been... interesting. No, scratch that. This week has been (almost) total crap. On Friday I had my first ever sonogram. No, no, don't get all excited. I'm not pregnant. They were looking for a blood clot. In my leg. That could decide it wants to move to, say, my lung or brain and KILL ME DEAD. Okay, that's a bit of an overdramatization of the situation, but it's still been sucky.
A couple of weeks ago I went up to TNNA in Columbus. It was a two hour drive up there, then six hours on my feet in high heels, then a two hour drive home. Tuesday or Wednesday, I started to feel a bit of pain on the back of my leg, right below and behind my knee. Over the next couple of days, my leg also started hurting right above the knee. It'd been awhile since I had been on my feet in high heels for so long, so I just thought that I strained a tendon or some such silliness. But after a week, it still hurt just as much, so I thought maybe something was torn or I was reinjuring myself or... something. I figured that I had better go to the doctor and make sure I wasn't making anything worse. I really thought it would be something minor, like a strained tendon or ligament and that I'd maybe be put on a muscle relaxant or be told to keep off of it. But, no. Superficial veinous thrombophlebitis. Basically, doc thought I had a blood clot in a superficial vein and it was irritating the vein, resulting in pain. It was, he told me, "probably" not life threatening. Thank you Dr. Feelgood! Great bedside manner. I know he has to cover his butt, but telling me it's "probably" not life threatening is not very reassuring. On the one hand, he seemed to be trying to keep me calm, but on the other hand he insisted I not go to work until I could get a sonogram and forced me into the sonographer's full schedule. The urgency freaked me out. But then on Friday, after the sonogram, he couldn't be bothered to leave his lunch to come talk to me about the results. And today I hear that the doctor who reads the sonograms is on vacation. So who knows when I find out what the heck is going on. The sonographer "unofficially" told me that it's not a serious clot, and I'm hoping that if anything serious was going on, the doctor would call me, but I'm still freaked out. I've done all the general reading about the condition online, but I'd like to TALK to MY doctor about MY case. By the way, this is all with a doctor I'm not familiar with because my primary is on vacation. If I can't get straight answers, or even a call, from this substitute doctor, I'll be going back to see my regular doctor when she's back. One way or another, I will get some answers.
So, all of that has been my primary occupation since Wednesday. All blood clot, all the time. Which is a shame, because minutes before I went to that first fateful appointment on Wednesday, I found out that... I got into my first choice workshop for SOAR! Yippee! That kind of faded to the background for a few days, but now I'm getting back to being very excited. I'm taking Fiber Preparation with Robin Russo and I can't wait! I've got combs, cards and a drum carder and the only one I'm comfortable with is the combs. I'm especially excited about learning how to blend on a drum carder because I've been wanting to make my own batts for quite some time, but I haven't wanted to ruin a bunch of fibers while I learn. I've made so many "bad" purchases because I love the color play in a batt, but the fibers are just too rough for my kind of spinning. Now I can try and replicate the colors and batts I love with the fibers I love. And hopefully, with an expert there to teach me instead of teaching myself, I won't ruin quite as much fiber. Woohoo! I am so very, very excited to be able to go to SOAR. I didn't think I'd be able to do any big fiber events this year, but this one is working out. If you're going to be there, let me know! I can't wait to spend time with a bunch of other spinners. I need that part of my creative battery recharged, the part that only other creative types can fill. Especially after this miserable week, I really need the break and the fun and the inspiration.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Okay, I'm feeling a bit scattered today and I have a lot to say, so it's list time!
1. Thank you for your thoughts on privacy vs. craziness on the internet. Since I've been scattered all week, I haven't responded to most of you yet, and I'm sorry for that. I do mean to get around to it soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to give a public thank you. I really appreciated all of the perspectives I got.
2. Notice anything different around here? I've been working on a makeover around these here parts. Photoshop and html are not my strong suits, but I kept banging my head against it, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Except that the new look is best on a 1280 x 1024 resolution and most of the people who visit here use 1024 x 768. I'm not happy with how it looks at 1024 x 768, so I may keep tinkering with it. But really, I reached the end of my patience with html and my lack of finesse with it for the week, so for now... here's the new look. I would really appreciate constructive feedback on anything you think would improve the site (beside the fact that I need to either center the masthead or put something up in that left corner. I'm working on one of those two things.)
3. I had a (wonderfully) crazy week! Monday I got to go to TNNA for work and meet wonderful people and preview wonderful products and hear about all the exciting new books and authors our acquisition editors are working on/with. Nothing I can talk about just yet, but great stuff that I'm excited about. The only bad thing about TNNA is that it is wholesale only and sales are prohibited on the floor. It was TORTURE. I was surrounded by so many beautiful yarns and fibers and I couldn't do anything about it. I almost cried in the qiviut booth. (If my bosses are reading this - I am JUST KIDDING. I did not almost cry at the qiviut booth. I acted totally and completely adult and professional the whole time. I did not drool on any yarn or sniff any yarn. I did not try to slip some cashmere into my bag. No matter what security told you.) Sending a junkie like me to a wholesale only show was cruel and unusual. But...
4. I got to go to Knitter's Connection for work on Friday. Where I met even MORE wonderful people and previewed MORE wonderful products and SPENT MONEY! I got some good stuff, too. In order of purchase I bought...
a) Merino/bamboo fiber from Yarn Love
 I haven't tried bamboo spinning fiber yet (no, I do not live in a cave) and I've been looking around at some online, but I'm glad I held off because it meant I got to purchase this little lovely. The colors are gorgeous and the fiber is so soft. I'm really looking forward to this one! The dyer, Katie, is a really delightful person. And when she makes it big in the fiber world, I'll get to say that I bought something from her at her first show.
b) Rich bombyx silk from Chameleon Colorworks  Why am I craving mixed berry pie all of a sudden? Janel is a really neat lady and I loved the chance to have a good chat with her. She's the "cover girl" for this edition of SpinOff and she wrote a wonderful article on using painted rovings. I'm sure I'll be throwing more money her way in the near future, as long as she throws roving back (I promise, Janel, I'll only throw paper, no coins).
3. Silk, silk and more silk from Cider Moon 
(Sorry, I would have taken these gorgeous silks out of their bags for a better showing, but by this time in the photo shoot, the kitten had taken a keen interest in what I might be doing.) Wow, how gorgeous are these? Jacki, Gail and Travis were kind and funny and selling gorgeous yarns and fibers. It was hard to restrain myself. I almost asked if I could go home with them. But, my spinning wheel was at my home, and I had to introduce these silks to her. Here's another close-up of my favorite: 
Seriously, how much gorgeous can fit in one bag? *sigh* Not pictured are a skein of merino/silk yarn with matching beads for some pretty little beaded cuffs/wristlets and one of the new(ish) lace Addis. Yes, I AM the last lace knitter in the Western world to obtain one of these. Report to follow on how I like it. My one big gripe right now is that they do not come in sizes smaller than 1. What the heck? And someone seriously needs to make some 00 circs somewhere, somehow. If they can make 0 and 000, they can make 00! Am I right? I think I may be. Anyway, as you can see, it's been a long, tiring week, but in the best way possible. I'm off to play with my new toys and relax. Have a wonderful (rest of the) weekend!
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