little bit of crazy leaking out

. . . in which we are thankful we didn’t get cocky and think we didn’t need to put in lifelines.

 Feb 13 - 1 repeat - 10 rows - knit 9, rip 7, knit 10 (0)
Feb 12 - 2 repeats - 20 rows - 15 rows (-2)
Feb 11 - 2 repeats - 20 rows - 37 rows (+3)
Feb 10 - Opening Ceremonies - 40 rows - 26 rows (-14)

I kept daughter home from school today since we were out so late last night, and because I needed to get her into see the cardiologist and I really didn’t want to disrupt her class by pulling her out in the middle if I was able to get and appt.

I was able to get an appointment and things went, basically, the way I thought they would.  She had another ECG, she has been put on a Holter Monitor for 24hrs, and other than that we are going to take the wait and see approach.  She has been off her medication for almost 2 years and this is the first major episode she has had, neither of us feel it would be a good idea to put her back on the medication, at least at this time, the results of the Holter may change things.

Quite the fashion statement isn’t it.  There are 6 leads, hmm, might be more but I’m not going to wake her up to count, that go to a small recording device, about the size of a pager, that she wears in a small pouch on a belt.  The mesh shirt is to keep the wires from getting tangled or caught on something.  She will wear it until about 2pm tomorrow and when she was getting ready for bed tonight she asked me if the kids at school would laugh at her.  I told her no, I hope I wasn’t lieing, I think the kids will be more curious than anything.  I will take her to school in the morning so I can have a quick chat with her teacher. 

After dinner we sat down and made Valentines for her classmates, she was in heaven, doileys, glue, and stickers. What could be better.

. . . in which we go to the ER.

Things are not going according to plan, but are not as far off as they could be.

Feb 12 - 2 repeats - 20 rows - 15 rows (-2)
Feb 11 - 2 repeats - 20 rows - 37 rows (+3)
Feb 10 - Opening Ceremonies - 40 rows - 26 rows (-14)

Yesterday’s plan was to do family things during the day then knit in the evening after the kids and Hubby went to bed.  Hubby has to be at work at 4am on Mondays so he goes to bed shorly after the kids on Sunday nights.  Well, the day went according to plan; shopping at Costco, working the yard, watch the neighbor pull down a tree, dinner, bathe the kids & put them to bed, kiss Hubby goodnight and sit down to knit. 

10 minutes later . . .
“Mom, I have something to tell you.”
“Daughter, why are you out of bed?”
“No, really I have something to tell you. My heart is beating really really fast.”

Crap!  Yep, in the 190s.  Shit!  Call the ped, take her to the ER.  At least they weren’t really busy, and when you say things like SVT they move you right on back to a bed.  The SVT had resolved it’s self by the time we got there, but she had an ECG and they talked to one of the cardiologist at Children’s Hospital.  They let us go home with instructions to watch her and make an appt at the Heart Center today.  She goes in at 1pm.  Looks like the WPW didn’t go away like everyone thought.

I did take my knitting with me to the ER, but didn’t do any knitting, just read Horton Hears a Who to daughter.  I am convinced that if I hadn’t brought my knitting we would still be there, but since I was ready for the long haul you we got to go home.

After we got home I did actually do some knitting, nervous energy, but I finally had to head to bed at about 1am.  Just couldn’t keep my eyes open any more. 

I did manage to catch up and ever get a bit ahead after I put the kids to bed. 

Feb 11 - 2 repeats - 20 rows - 37 rows (+3)
Feb 10 - Opening Ceremonies - 40 rows - 26 rows (-14)

Knitted, watched some Veronica Mars (oh, btw, who was the guy singing Veronica in last weeks episode? it’s been bugging me all week), watched some Harry Potter: PoA, had a beer (Weinhard’s Blue Boar Pale Ale, my current favorite), ate some pretzels; not necessarily in that order.

I am finding that my knitting is getting faster; part of this is because I am now using the chart, also with the rows getting longer it is easier to get into the rhythm of the pattern without having to look back at the chart as often.  Right now my eyes are getting tired and it’s getting late so I’m calling it a day.

I’m back from the SnB, and in the 2 hours I was there I knitted 5 rows.   OK, I knitted more than 5 rows but I kept ending up with extra stitches and having to tink back and re-knit.  *sigh*  I finally figured out what I was doing wrong to end up with extra stitches; when I would ssk, p, k2tog I was not bringing my yarn to the back and ended up adding a yo in between the p and K2tog.   OK, now I won’t do that anymore, right?  I also discovered I did better when I switched to the chart.

The mail came and my order from The Knitting Zone arrived.  Now all you Stashalongers, don’t you worry, I didn’t buy any yarn.  The order was for beads for the Odessa hat and the cutest little DPNs I ever saw, ChiaoGoo 5″ 3.25mm.  They are just so cute, I just wanna cast on a sock, right now, but I will wait until my Olympic Knitting is completed.

Well, day one was not quite as successful as I had hoped.  According to The Plan here is where I am:

Feb 10 - Opening Ceremonies - 40 rows - 26 rows (-14)

In my defense I was at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show all day and was not able to cast on until after 7:30p.  I do know this was poor scheduling, but it was the only day Mom and I could go together while Hubby watched the kids.  I shall strive to complete yesterdays rows and todays so that I will not be trying to overcome the shortage later when the rows will take much longer to finish.

I did have a good time at the garden show.  Mom and I took the bus to avoid trying to find parking down town.  We did quite a bit of browsing, some shopping and more shopping.  The deal of the day, for me, was a new knitting bag.  It’s a large bag, and I mean large, this will hold a big project,  with sturdy sides so it stands up on it’s own and it’s lined with a drawsting closure, I paid $10 for it, such a deal.

I also bought a pair of garden shoes, crocs beach in fuschia.  Very bright, so I won’t loose them if I kick them off in the yard; washable, so I can just hose them off after being in the garden or coop; and they are comfy too, they are unisex sizes so they are wider the average women’s shoes and they fit really will.

hmmmm, what else did I bring home with me?  Some fireweed honey (yummy), a ton of catalogs, I signed up for some estamates for a new roof and windows since we are in the middle of a re-fi to make some improvements to the house. Oh, I also picked up a shea butter solid lotion bar and a small tin of Honey Balm with bees wax and shea butter, it smells very lightly of honey and is perfect to tuck into the knitting bag.

I have a Stitch and Bitch to be at in a little over and hour, I better get moving.

I decided to do a little training for the Knitting Winter Olympics 2006. 

I knit up a swatch to get gauge and I came up with a plan for completeing the shawl in time.  If I calculated right the shawl will have approximately 175 rows and I will have 16 days to finsh the shawl, including blocking and drying.  Using Rose-Kim Knits Shawl Percentage Calculator here is my plan:

Feb 10 - Opening Ceremonies - 40 rows
Feb 11 - 2 repeats - 20 rows
Feb 12 - 2 repeats - 20 rows
Feb 13 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 14 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 15 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 16 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 17 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 18 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 19 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 20 - 1 repeat - 10 rows
Feb 21 - Lace Edging - 8 rows
Feb 22 - Lace Edging - 8 rows
Feb 23 - wash and block
Feb 24 - drying
Feb 25 - drying
Feb 26 - Closing Ceremonies 

Hopefully this will work.  I may knit more on a given day but hopefully I won’t knit less.

ESPN.com - Officiating was less than Super