The Mother Bear Project

This is the first bear or any stuffed animal for that matter I've made. I saw it on DIY Knitty Gritty and just had to make one. I've named her Luanna. I think she turned out pretty good considering the amount of uncertainty and questioning what I was doing. I have since bought some brown yarn and will try another bear, but I think I'll try it in the round to eliminate all the seaming; this will require steeking which I haven't done before though.

The Mother Bear Project
is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear.

The simple gift of a hand-knit bear with a tag signed by the knitter has touched children with the message that they are unconditionally loved.

Sweet as a Nectarine

It was a debauchery of drinking and canning this weekend. Friday night's drunkeness with Lance, ME and friends ended at about 3 AM after a quick visit by yours truly and Lance to Dave's place of work. It's amazing how much a horseshoe shaped street can really mess with a mind that's liquored up! Then finalizing the night with some very pathetic pool playing before crashing.

Saturday morning was a trip to the dermatologist for a quick 8:15 am check up. Yes, I know my eyes are bloodshot, but aren't I here for my skin? Ugh, that was enough.... home to bed! Got up at about 2-ish and shortly after went down to Eastern Market mostly to get some black cherries. I did get the cherries plus a few other things: A pretty bundle of Glads', a yellow plant of some sort, and a vendor was clearing out his peaches for $1 a case. Yes, a case! Cha-ching!

Oooh oooh, I'm gonna can some peaches. Oh wait, the side of the box there says nectarines. Hmmm. Well, still a good deal and there has to be a zillion things you can make with nectarines too. After Googling like mad I found several recipes and instructions for canning them albeit the instructions were for using pressure canners rather than a water boiling canner - such small details.

I made some awesome nectarine muffins which I found at the All Recipes site granted the recipe is suppose to be both nectarine and peaches but what the heck they are quite tasty! I bet these would be good with a little lemon and blueberries. I also made a Spiced Nectarine Cake which is very very tasty, but just a little wet. I'm still pondering over how to arrange the nectarine slices in a concentric circle. I wonder if I'd made my circles of fruit with the tips facing the sides rather than the middles if the sides would have held up better. Very good nonetheless and I wouldn't hesitate to make them again. Well that used up ohhh about 12 of the 40 or so nectarines. I canned 3 quarts which is to be determined at a later date whether or not that is a good idea; I do have that fear of one of my jars exploding and creating a huge mess... will one of these be the one? Canned nectarine update: I used 2 of the cans for various thing, but they didn't have the right consistancy and I wound up dumping the 3rd jar. It wasn't a complete failure, just not as good of a result as I'd hoped for. I gave 6 to the neighbor and 8 to Lance. There's about 20 still in my fridge... maybe I'll make more muffins for the GLR trip? Maybe some nectarine smoothies are in the future for this weekend. I wonder if I can freeze the slices for a short period of time. Oh, I also canned 6 jars of the Black Cherry jam, which I've come to really enjoy with toast.

Sunday was the "Free at Last" hash hared by Coxcycle in South Lyon prior to which Mark, Katie and Dave ran 12 or so miles. It was a good time and we all were eager to run up the tab at this uncommon "no hash cash" event.

More about cleaning Brass; Experiment

For the latest round of brass cleaning I decided to do some experimentation. I had read that not only will boiling your brass in baking soda remove the paint, but to shine up the brass you can boil it in ammonia, rub it with ketchup, rub it with Worcester sauce, and rub it with a lemon dipped in salt to name a few. So I tried everything but the lemon since I believe that was more for cleaning copper pots anyway.

I had two lock plates both of which I began by boiling off the paint in the baking soda. Then I polished one as I normal would using just Bar Keeper's Friend and the other I used several experiments. For simplicity sake I'll call them sample A and sample B. Both samples started out looking pretty much the same as shown below. Oh and Sample A went through the following sequences while Sample B was simply cleaned with Bar Keeper's Friend.

Both pieces looked like this

Sample A; the following experiments were conducted in the order listed:

KETCHUP: I basically just swiped the ketchup on a paper towel over the brass and immediately a more golden color appeared.

WORCESTER SAUCE: Again I wet a paper towel with the Worcester sauce and swiped it over the brass. While it did clean the brass slightly, it didn't do as much as the ketchup did with the same effort.

AMMONIA: Next I dropped the piece with the two semi cleaned spots from the ketchup and the Worcester sauce into a mixture of ammonia and water in a ratio of 1:8 and let it boil for 5 minutes. Upon inspection after 5 minutes, it does seem to be slightly lighter, but hardly clean.

I dropped in in the ammonia again for another 5 minutes after which there was no noticeable change at all between 5 minutes and 10 minutes.

KETCHUP: So I wanted to see how well the ketchup would work so I smeared ketchup all over sample A and waited a few minutes. I scrubbed it lightly with a tooth brush. Rinsed it and inspected. While the ketchup does indeed clean brass, it does not completely clean it. Although, if someone were looking to take blackened brass to an antique look, I'd say try the ketchup method otherwise stick with the Bar Keeper's Friend.

Lastly I cleaned the piece with Bar Keeper's Friend and it has the same exact look as the one the I only used the brass cleaner on.

I think I only have one more round of brass cleaning to do. I'll definitely keep with polishing it up with the Bar Keeper's Friend.

How to Remove Paint from Brass

I've been very slowly working on painting our upstairs bedroom. Slow... yes... it's been like 6 weeks since I started the project. Ya know it all started when I simply wanted to hang the new Ikea panel drapes. Next thing I knew I was patching a hole... then another... then another until the room was all spotty. That's ok though, the room needed a paint job anyway.

I really, really wanted to do a quick paint job but DH seemed to continue to prod me into doing it in the more thorough manner that he's used to seeing me do my projects. "Ok, I'll remove the paint from the fixtures and the hinges." Honestly, I was already armed with a can of spray paint that I figured would just fine.

It had been a while since I removed paint from the brass hardware and I wondered if there was a better product or a better way to get the job done. I really hate paint remover; it's so messy! Googling brought me to a very simple solution to try. For this paint removal trial I would need a large pot that I won't ever use for cooking again and a lot of baking soda. I got a big pot from the thrift store for under $10 and proceeded to embark upon this experiment. So I needed 4 tablespoons of baking soda per 1 quart of water and of course the painted hardware. I decided to try it out on one of the brass door plates; probably not the best thing to try it out on, but it was handy.

I placed the brass plate in the pot with the water and baking soda and boiled it for 40 minutes. Yes, I said boiled it! The results were amazing as the paint really did slide right off. After rinsing the piece it had a patina look to it that I hoped would come off. I used some Bar Keeper's Friend and a toothbrush and scrubbed the brass. It immediately revealed the original golden hue. I let it dry, polished it up a bit, then sprayed it with a clear lacquer finish to protect the surface. WOW. So the pictures below doesn't do it justice since it wasn't totally polished and since I'd just broken my other camera. Check out the pictures of the sconces though!

This is the finished hardware. These brass pieces are all from 1914 when the house was constructed.

I then decided to try my luck with removing the paint from the sconces. HOLY CRAP, they are beautiful! I hope they work still ;-o

1. Painted sconces
2. After about 30 minutes in the boiling baking soda
3. All clean, but not polished yet
4. After polishing with Bar Keeper's Friend then lacquering
   
   1.
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   3.
   4.

Mohican 100

I wound up taking the day off on Friday and headed to OH with Dave to support him in his attempt at running 100 miles! On trails! The temperature for the weekend is going to be hot with a chance of rain on Sunday so that means some humidity will be heading in sometime during the race early Sunday morning.

Ahh, the race? A glorious run with 150 or so other nuts through a heavily wooded area with about 110' of elevation change average over the 100 miles. You get 30 hours to complete it. I ask myself who in their right mind would want to be out there for longer than 30 hours.

On the way in to Loudonville we drove through several beer stores. Yes... drove. I'm not sure if Dave was really on a quest to fine Coors (just regular not light) or if it was the thrill of just driving through them. We never did find the Coors.

After checking in at our hill top hotel room with the very dangerously steep drive we got Dave checked in for the big run in the morning, had pasta dinner, and listened with quickening deafening ears as several people running this thing went on and on and on and on during the pre-race meeting. Dave tucked himself in early while I reviewed the maps for tomorrows journey.

3:30 AM: Get up. OMG it's early! 5:00 AM the runners are off! Quick recap not to bore the crap out of anyone, but Dave led the race through 40 miles. Unfortunately he was suffering from very sore feet. He said his PF (plantar faciatis) was bothering him and his inserts were slipping all over the place due to having wet shoes on the technical trails. He also pointed out the 5 toe nails he was certain he'd be losing. Yuk. We got him some cool water for his feet, a beer, and new shoes and almost forced him to at least finish 50 of the 100 miles to get the medal. He appeared at mile 52.something and declared he was done. Of course Mark and Lance had just arrived to run with Dave from the 60 mile mark in but instead ran together that next leg then we picked them up.

Even though he didn't actually finish the 100 miles, he ran a good race for the time he was out there.

Another Day at the Office

So I was told to report for work at 8:30 on Thursday. I texted back asked for a purpose, but none was given. This does not help me sleep at night wondering why I'm to report early. Of course if they fire you, they don't ask you to come in early.

Today's topic was a meeting with Jill the nurse. To back up before getting to work, I woke up at 5am because of the birds and I'm sure the never ending thoughts of why I'm reporting earl. I went to the Y and swam 20 laps, but was done way too early so I went to Walmart to buy some dog cookies and sinus aspirin stuff. Well, between not being able to find the dog cookies and the very slow register lady, I left a few minutes after when I wanted. Knowing that I'd be cutting it close, and delighted to see the speed limit pushed up from 35 to 40mph on schoolcraft, I exceeded the speed limit for the last mile. Lo and behold there was a cop. Crap, I really didn't know how fast I was driving, but he pulled out and flicked on his lights. I pulled into the work lot. Ok, this is embarrassing. I was upset because I just knew Randy would use this opportunity of me being late to stick his finger in my face, interrogate me, and tell me that I was "unprepared". The officer came to the window and I blubbered quickly about my knee surgery and that they were looking for any excuse to write me up as I pulled my license from my wallet. He inquired about driving record which is very good. He asked who my insurance carrier is and I said, Aetna; later realizing of course that is my medical insurance not my car insurance. Thankfully he did not give me a ticket, but I was already late by the time I allowed to leave.

Back to Jill. She had her book out with the pictures and I told her I still thought it was stupid to review this stuff after surgery but if she had to go over it I would listen. She said she knew I had good knowledge of the knee and asked if I had any questions. I told her about the tracking issue and asked if she'd heard of such a thing after meniscus surgery. She said it's common for people to have a funny feeling in their knee afterward. I told her of the cortisone injection the month prior and that it had helped tremendously. Of course I had to bring up the goofball medical examiner and his 6' walk method for determining if someone is deemed work ready; I also said that it was probably because of compensating that I tore the other knee. I told her that I was convinced that doctors don't really listen to you and that they've made a predetermined evaluation before even speaking with you based on a few basic symptoms. I also told her about the evaluation where I was told that there was no way a 40-year old woman could tear her hamstring that basically led me into the discussion about doctors not listening fully to what you have to say.

Afterward I went to my truck then I needed DR bags and Randy stopped me. "What do you need?" DR bags I told him. Then he did the very unlikely thing and shook my hand and thanked me for a good interview with Jill. Umm, Ok. You're welcome? I'm welcome? Although it did make me feel better that rather than being screamed at for not already having my supplies on my truck, it was also a little unnerving that he would shake my hand. Is this much like when I shook his hand in an effort to make him think he doesn't make me queasy? Reverse psychology sucks.

Today my truck was leaking diesel fuel from the fuel pump which was just installed so I had a 20 minuted delay in leaving the building, 139 stops, and informed by Mark that diesel fuel will stain concrete and to stay out of driveways. I had a 10 1/2 hour day and took a 20 minute break. I did a lot of walking.

Response to the Comment on "A Shot in the Butt"

I feel remarkably better! I have NO pain on external rotation; a movement that before to even rotate my leg from the brake pedal to the gas would cause excruciating pain. The sciatic pressure running from the high hammy through the mid hamstring and ending in a very tender/sore feeling ligament on the outside (lateral) side of my knee is GONE! I've been working at strengthening the whole leg for almost a year but was only to really make significant strength improvements after the cortisone injection which relieved me of the inflammation and thus the pain. I am however experiencing some pain in the glute medius/external rotators now that I've returned to my regular job as a driver, but they were so weak from non use that I suppose that's to be expected and it is a very physical job plus the pain is more like a sore muscle feeling rather than a torn/injured one.

As I recently told one of my running buddies who inquired about this "quick fix" for his own pain in the butt. He described it to me and it sounded exactly like piriformis. I told him he should see an orthopod, but that the he would most likely be told to do PT and stretch which is exactly what the ortho he saw on Thursday told him to do. He is very inflexible and has horrible balance. Not to say that an orthpod wouldn't write a script for this procedure, but it seems they are reluctant to do so until the patient has refrained from over working it, done the PT, and is able to touch his toes. He was told he could still run, but not to do speed work or race.

My case started almost a year ago with a twisting fall forward which caused micro tears and a torn meniscus in my knee. It felt so tight that I overstretched it causing the biceps femoris to tear from the bone (an avulsion) with a very alarming pop/snap feeling and I again tore it more while pulling heavy boxes through my truck. I had completed 62 sessions of PT (way more than is needed) and other than doing a tad of running, leisure biking, pilates and quite a bit of swimming during this time it just wasn't getting better. IMO the cortisone injection was a miracle worker. I've been told that it could just be a temporary fix, that the cortisone is just masking the pain, but I've also been told that I may never need another one. I'm hoping for the latter.

I wish you luck. Hamstring tendinitis and tears are NO fun and neither is Piriformis Syndrome. The original post about the shot is here.

Thursday Night Runners

It just occurred to me that I hadn't yet posted a picture I took one Thursday night when the runners were over for the usual run, hot tub & beer, and dinner. This picture was from the past winter. Yes, the water went over the side when I got in. We've had as many as 8 in there, but we make someone sit on the high seat for room and not to loose too much water.

Here's the other Hot Tub Table

After the hole in my butt healed from the cortisone injection, I was able to get in the hot tub and retrieve the back table so I could seal the wood. I originally thought it wouldn't really matter if I finished the bottom part since it was hidden; then I discovered one Thursday night when the 'runners' were over that the wood was getting a little wet. Plus I hadn't taken a picture of it yet.

The original post about the hot tub tables is here.

Pudding Shot Recipe

Want a fun shooter, but Jell-O shots have become almost boring and a full shot of liquor makes you queasy? Try making pudding shots! Basically just use instant pudding but rather than adding all the milk cut it in 1/2 and make the other 1/2 your choice of liquor. One regular size box made 46 1-oz size cups.

We made a bunch of pudding shots for Motown A2H3 1000th, but this was my first time making them myself. I used a simple, can't-go-wrong recipe...

One Box (four 1/2 cup servings) Jell-O Instant Pudding (I used French Vanilla)

1 Cup Milk (this is 1/2 of what the recipe says to use)

1 Cup Liquor (I used O'Mara's Country Irish Cream)

One 8oz tub of Whipped Topping, cold but not frozen (I used Cool Whip brand)

Pour the milk into a bowl and beat for about a minute (no blender? use a whisk. No whisk? use a fork) in the pouch of dry pudding. Once completely blended whisk in the liquor. Stir in the whipped cream until blended, but try not to over work the mixture. An easy way to get the mixture into your cups is to pour it into a gallon size Ziploc baggie, seal the baggie, then cut a very small corner off and squeeze the pudding shot mixture through the hole into the cups; like a pastry bag and remember, you can always cut the hole bigger, but not smaller so cut smart. To get all the mixture out, I use the edge of the counter to work the mixture toward the hole. Snap on the lids and put them in the freezer overnight. Keep them cold when transporting.

Cost: For each batch that makes 46 cups the raw cost would approximately be....

• Cups & Lids: $1.89
• Pudding .75
• Milk .18
• Cool Whip 1.32
• Liquor 5.00

So the cost per batch in my case was about $9.14 or approximately 20 cents per shot. Certainly the biggest factor in how much a batch costs to make is the cost of the liquor!

Need to know how I got those figures? I figured out the cost based on bulk purchase complete set of cups a gallon of milk and a bottle of liquor. Obviously there is an initial investment in cups and lids. I can get 1 oz cups in a 250 pack for $4.69 but the lids only come in 100 packs for $1.99 each. So for an even match I'd have to buy 500 cups and lids (2 packs of cups @ 4.69 ea and 5 packs of lids at $1.99 ea). MInd you I did not buy all that at once, but for a cost per complete cup figure we have to have even amounts of both. So... (4.69 * 2) + (1.99 * 5) = 19.33 + 1.16 (6% tax) = $20.49 for 500 complete cups so each cup costs $.04. At Walmart a 4 serving size box of Jell-O Instant Pudding costs $.75, an 8 oz tub of Cool Whip was $1.32 and a Gallon of milk is roughly $3 (I don't do the regular grocery shopping so I really don't know the cost :o). I'm not sure what the cost of the OMara's Irish Cream was, but I'm guessing about $15; Bailey's is probably more like $25 for 750ML. Ok. So If I need a cup of milk that's 1/16th of a jug or about 18 cents per cup. A cup of liquor would be 1/3 of the 750 ML bottle (750ML=3 cups) so the liquor would be maybe $5. If you read all this you're probably thinking I need to get a life! :D

Gnaw Bone 2008 - Picture and Video Remix

Well, I had a cool video here, but apparently my Photobucket account is gone or something. That's ok, it lived it's course.

The best day I've had in months!

I woke this morning thinking that I did feel better; this has often proven to be false hope since later in the day PT proves that I'm not as recovered as I'd like to be which leads me into some huge emotional roller coaster. Today was different though. I went to PT and did all my exercises without too much discomfort. Pulling myself around the room on the rolling chair usually aggravates the crap out of my hamstring and even though last week this was easier there was a lot of pulling feeling; today... just felt like a workout without the extremes. The sideways rubber band walks usually hurt to bend forward and even though there was a tad of pulling it was nothing like I've experienced in the past.
It's now been two weeks since the injection.
Feeling so well, I decide to go to the Y and though I'd originally planned on swimming I decided to dedicate the day to working out instead. I started with running on the track and made it 9 laps which is about 3/4 mile until I felt a bit of a sharp pain in the area; I of course stopped as soon as I felt it. I then did some roll outs on the ball and there was no pain... weakness yes, but not pain. Then I did some good mornings and squats. The squats felt weird and I wondered about my form. I did 15 walking lunges then headed over to the weight equipment where everything felt way better than it did last week. I did all the leg exercises including the "butt kickers" after which is when I decided I'd continue on with weight workouts and save swimming for tomorrow.

Gnaw Bone 2008

Gnaw Bone results were great! Dave won again and shaved like 1/2 hour off last year's time. He says he was doing much better until he bonked out there and made it into the next aid station where we lounged for about 1/2 hour and ate 2 PBJs and what not. I didn't see him at that station because I was catching up with Katie and Anna at another. Katie and Anna got lost on the first leg turning a 6.5 mile leg into a 9 miler then after asking for directions and discovering they were further away from the start than they started got a ride in. They then had Randy drive them to the first leg. To put things into perspective; Dave left the first aid station at 7:20 after a change of shoes and Katie and Anna left at 8:25 after changing shoes... oops. I was glad to see them though! Katie and Anna made up a substantial amount of time during the rest of the race but apparently they took a little too long at the first few aid stations because they kept passing the same people. This is of course something you learn what you need as you come in, get it, and go. Somewhere in the last leg Katie went ahead of Anna and got lost again, but only for like a 1/2 mile off course; this gave Anna enough time to get ahead of her. Anna came in second woman after a pretty intense run against another female who finished 45 seconds after her. Katie arrived a couple minutes later she was 4th woman and 2nd in her age group. There are some pictures up now. EDIT: I uploaded my pictures and video to photobucket. There two ways to view them. 1. The Remix slideshow this is the same thing that's posted here on the 13th. 2. The Photobucket album (these might not be in chronological order.. OH MY!)

Kitchener Stitch

Heatherc3 posted this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTxeHz7rtw demonstrating the kitchener stitch (aka grafting). A wonderful seamless bind off. And a nicely done video too!

OMG am I really getting better?

First off let me just say it was a beautiful Monday and I'm very glad to see Spring is here. I just love springtime when the grass is so green the tulips have popped in mass arrangements and there is that interesting collection of trees in full bloom, trees that have totally leafed out while other slower budding trees at an interesting contract with their still bare branches full of little buds. Deep breath, ahhhhhh.

It was a busy day for me and included way more activities than I've been able to do in I don't know how long. I started out with PT which went ok. Scott asked me about squatting and I told him it was getting easier. He then had me do single leg squats while holding onto a rail. I did the left one ok, but could barely lift myself with the right. Eeeek. I'm that weak? He wanted to test the abductors and adductors so I climbed on the bench and he did a face down passive test of the adductors. YOWIE! Major pain, major weakness. I told Scott this was the same movement that would send me flying off the table during PT in September. This has definitely Scott miffed. He gave me a exercise to do and hopefully it strengthens the area, but he also said that muscle weakness generally doesn't lead to pain like that rather a tear does. Hmm, could I have a tear in the external rotators too?

After PT I went to the Y and swam about 18 laps. I can never keep track. Then showered and went upstairs and in addition to doing chest and shoulders I did some leg work for the first time in like forever. I did both "Jane Fonda's", the machines that spread your legs and one you pull your legs together and the other you open them. This was, OMG, pain free? How could this be?! Elated, I moved over to the leg press and did double leg then single leg presses. The right leg of course was ridiculously weak, but I pushed through it and did 10 reps; I was using the lightest weight on the machine. I then did some leg curls with really light weight for the hamstrings and that went well. At home I planted the experimental plants into the garden area which went ok, but I did have quite a bit of knee pain from squatting for extended periods of time. After that I dug up some dandelions then cut the grass! My yard is a mess from not being able to clean up in the fall. So after that I did a set of the new exercised Scott gave me and soon after headed off to pilates. Pilates was almost pain free! There was really only one move that caused some pain, but those aren't that easy and really use the hip rotators with your whole leg weight.
I'm truly ecstatic that my condition is improving! Can you tell?

Flying Pig Marathon Slideshow

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Flying Pig Cincinnati Marathon Results

It was a gorgeous day for the 10th Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon and Half Marathon. This is the third year in a row that the temperature has not been a big factor and the sun has shown quite brightly. Of course it would have been better if I actually ran it, but I'm still recovering. I did take my bike and attempt to offer support to the runners but that didn't work out very well since the course is rather hilly and climbs up to the furthest point out; the return trip is much easier. :) Well I decided that I would take a different route in attempt to keep my bike off the runner's course and in doing so I believe I found the biggest hills in Cincinnati. I mean I knew Observatory Road would be high, but there were ridiculously steep hills and several times I walked my bike up. Was all this biking a good idea? No, but I actually don't feel sore from it as I thought I would and I don't feel like I jeopardised my recovery. Perhaps it was even good for me. Here are the results for most of the runners that I know: Half Marathon
Doug 1:33:14
Lance 1:34:24
Ann 1:49:39
Angela 2:03:54
Yvette 2:04:21
Kelly 2:40:22
Marathon- the course was stated to be .27 miles long and the times will be readjusted to reflect an exact marathon distance of 26.2 miles
Ken 3:16:50
David 3:25:33
Doug took 1st in his age group. Lance did not place in the Clydesdale division and we've been hearing about it; he's adamant that it's because they did not have a weigh in at the expo and went on the honor system. Granted Lance ran the best race he's ever run at the Pig, but you never know who will show up especially as word of mouth travels about the Clydesdale division invoking more runners to register for it. Ken ran a spectacular race although he did not BQ. Dave decided to have fun on the course where he ran a good race and yet managed to have some beer, Mimosa, breakfast, and collected items such as a pirate hat, lei, and beads. It's very strange that I can't paste the html for a slideshow into my blogger and have it work, but I can add it from photobucket; once added from photobucket however I cannot edit the posting what-so-ever.

A New Tubular Cast-On or a Re-invented Figure 8 Cast-on???

Ok, so I'm surfing the net looking for a good video on the tubular cast on which, by the written instructions that I was looking at is supposed to begin with a backward loop cast on. Anyway that's beside the point because I didn't find anything like that. I did however find this handy cast on the "Judy Becker Magic Cast-On. I'll have to put this in my list of knit tricks because it certainly seems to resemble the figure 8 cast on with out all the fuss of the extra loose needles. Take a look knitters and see what you think. I have to warn you that I find the lady demonstrating to be a little bit annoying; but she does get her point across.

I've decided that this cast on is not going to help me in my exploration of double knitting. Tsk Tsk cause it casts on so quickly. I think it would be more useful for a toe or top of hat much like the figure 8, there aren't many uses for it. Next I'm looking at the provisional cast on.

Double Knitting - Edges

I made up a sample swatch of a few different edges for two color double knitting and have decided that I like the following for the edges. At least for now!

1. Slip the first stitch purlwise with yarn in front (2 loops are acting as one)
2. work across to last stitch
3. Knit the last stitch (2 loops are acting as one)

When doing this though, make sure that as you knit that last stitch that the yarn is coming up on the right needle in the same alternating color pattern. In other words if your piece is being worked in red and white and the last purl stitch worked was red then the the 2 loops that you add to the right needle need to come up white then red (the red being the closest to the end of the needle).

A Shot in the Butt

I had a procedure done in hopes of curing me of my pain in my right leg. The procedure was an Ultra-Sound Guided cortisone injection into the Piriformis muscle. For those not familiar, the piriformis is the muscle that you can feel right about where the bottom of your back pocket would be; unless of course you're much younger than I and prefer to wear your pants around your knees. My pain symptoms? Major pain in the hip/butt are when leaning forward. Major pain in the hip/butt/ and down the leg to the outer knee when rotating the foot. Excruciating pain when seated and attempt to rotate at the hip. Cause: Flying Freeda out of the seat of my truck where by I extended the knee while twisting and falling forward at the hip. It wasn't pretty.

Previous Diagnosis from Ultra Sound: Hamstring Tendonitis at the iscial tuberosity. That's basically the bone that you sit on; in other words inflammation of the hamstring where it meets your butt crease. That spot is also known as the "insertion" point of the hamstring.

MRI: In my world it didn't look to me like the report much of anything, but Dr. Moeller whom I was referred to told me it was Piriformis Syndrome. In real words that means constant inflammation of the hamstring where your hamstring meets your butt crease
.
Diagnosis after the second ultra sound and the injection:
Medial and Distal tears to the Biceps Femoris Hamstring. What's that mean? Basically that when I fell over that pop feeling in my butt was my hammy ligament pulling off the bone. YIKES.
What do I do now? I dunno. As far as I know there's nothing that can be done for the torn hamstring other than rest it and progressively strengthen it. I asked if the hamstring had reattached and they said it did, but they don't reattach where they're supposed to be. However, so far it feels far, far better than it has felt in a long, long time.

I'm feeling very emotional today, because I know that this might not last and I don't want to revert to feeling pain with every movement. So I'm trying to take it easy and not over stress it and let the cortisone do it's thing. I put in a call to Dr. Anderson's office to see if there's anything more they can tell me about this injury.