WolfWeave

Bing, Bam, Boom! I have foot surgery scheduled for next Tuesday with Dr. Weil Jr. and will have a pin put into my broken 5th metatarsal to hold it together. I will be expected to keep weight off my foot for about 8 weeks (but may get a rolling cart upon which I can rest my knee)

Something like this??

and may be able to drive in as little as 3 weeks, since the boot—no cast!—will be removable (YAY!!). Already today I got the new boot to wear–a shorter version that pumps up to fit around my foot so I don’t need to be ace-bandaged.

I can wash my foot! You should all be thankful! I know I am. The odor alone should be wafting off the screen!

First of all, I broke my foot. Well, technically, I re-broke it. The 5th metatarsal bone—the one coming from the little toe—on my right foot (I had already broken the one on my left foot 3 years ago and eventually had a pin put in when it wouldn’t heal).

I broke it in January and have been hobbling around in an orthopedic boot with a cane (very “House,” as I mentioned back then), though recently I’d been given the okay to move into a pair of Merrells, still walking with the cane.

Well, a week ago, I was all set to go out for the evening with the Bead Group women to an art benefit for Misericordia, all dressed up, and put on a pair of Merrell skimmers, thinking that they still provided some support with their rubber bottoms and velcro strap acoss the top of the mesh sides:

Aren’t they cute?

However, I was supposed to catch the train downtown and the boys had borrowed my van and I had forgotten the trick to starting my son’s car without making the car alarm go off, so was running back in the house to call him when I stepped in a crack in the driveway, twisted my foot, and immediately knew I’d broken the bone all the way through! Whoa—could not even put any weight on the foot! I crawled into the house and waited for my husband to come home.

Bead Group at art benefit without me:

We spent the night packing it with ice and went to the emergency room the next morning on the advice of our podiatrist. There they put me in a soft cast until I could see the podiatrist on Monday. However, worst of all, since I couldn’t handle the crutches, they made me leave with A WALKER!!! Yes, a genuine, geriatric walker:

And, what with not putting any weight down on that foot, it was all I could do to keep the walker upright! Boy are my shoulders killing me! (Can you say, “No upper body strength!”?) Luckily, Monday, the podiatrist taped up the foot, wrapped it in ace bandages and put me back in the boot. He showed me how to use the walker and step so I was just balancing on the heel of my boot. No more hopping, thank goodness!

Update: Saw the podiatrist again on Friday after the swelling had gone down and he had been able to carefully analyze the digital x-rays from the hospital. The bone is definitely cracked all the way through but does not look displaced. It will need a pin. But he is also worried about the arthritic joints across the top of my foot—that they may have had chips and small fractures—so he is sending me to a trauma podiatrist for further consult and surgery. Looks like it’s going to be surgery summer for me, what with the abdominal hernias/hiatal hernia repair to look forward to also! Good thing I have lots of knitting to do!

Second, unfortunately because of my foot, I will not be able to attend the Bead & Button 2007 show in two weeks.

I have been looking forward to this since the schedules came out in December and we registered for our classes in January, especially since I haven’t been able to go for a few years! I was scheduled to take 4 classes and spend 3 nights (all alone, all alone) in a hotel room, plus shopping (BEAD shopping), plus lots of fun. I swear, something like this seems to happen nearly every time I plan ahead to attend some show! Oh well…I have emailed all my teachers who are being very good sports about agreeing to send me the instructions and kits from my classes, so I suppose I’ll have to figure out the projects on my own at home. Good thing I’ll have lots of time this summer to bead as well as knit! (And, yes, I’ve already cancelled my planned classes at Stitches Midwest! I recognize a cloud hanging over my head when I see one!)

Third, Black Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke has been discontinued! This is a tragedy of monumental proportions, as I am majorly addicted to BCV Diet Coke (as we afficianados call it)! I like(d) it best mixed half and half with regular Diet Coke—the perfect elixir, the nectar of the gods. I am bereft. There are no words to mark my sorrow. People all over the internet are mourning the passing of this soda. You can write and complain to the Coca Cola Company, as I did, to no avavil. Unfortunately, it only had 4% of the market share and was the most expendable of the Coca-Cola Company’s products; apparently it got axed to make room for the new Diet Coke Plus—the one with the “vitamins” added (otherwise known as “who the hell needs it?”).

Black Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke, it lives on in our hearts:

This weekend I finished my crocheted Elements for the International Freeform Crochet Challenge 2007:

Earth:

Air:

Fire:

Water:

They each grew rather larger than I’d intended—small scrumbles seemed to take on a life of their own—but it was a pleasure to concentrate on meeting the challenges of making the freeform pieces fit and work together. I’d forgotten how much focus is required for freeform crochet and how much fun it is. It was also fun rummaging through my stash for the appropriate colors and yarns. I thought I was in trouble for Earth, as I’d given away most of my beiges and browns, but managed to find enough bits and pieces to make it work. Thanks to Myra Wood for issuing this challenge. If you’re in Manchester, NH in July or Oakland, CA in September, you’ll be able to see the exhibit in all its glory. Note: And Myra was kind enough to make me a page in the online show too!

Okay, my gauge was really off on that Ananas shell, but with the bumpiness of the yarn it was impossible difficult to tell. I finally finished it up to the neckline, picked up stitches and started the neckline ribbing with the recommended (for the entire shell) size 7 needle. After a number of rows, it became glaringly apparent that I should have knit the whole shell on size 7s. My fabric, drapeable yes, was way too open, stretched out, and somehow—how could I not have noticed this?—the armholes were nearly to the waistline! I think I’m going to have to frog the whole mess but don’t know if that miserable yarn is going to take it.

The Ananas disaster:

So then I thought I would start a new summer project—the t-shirt called Tie-dyed Boxes in the new Knitter’s (K86) summer magazine. While in Neenah, WI, I had purchased the yarn, Ty-Dy by Knit One, Crochet Too at Yarns by Design, the store that organized the Midwest Master’s weekend. So, being a good girl responsible knitter for once, I knit several swatches until I found the right gauge and actually washed and dryed my swatch for once. My gauge was perfect (even though I was using size 5s instead of the pattern’s recommended size 6s, vs. the ball band’s recommended size 7s). I proceeded to knit my first mitered rectangle according to directions, though it took a bit of an adjustment to get back into the modular groove. Whoa! Screeching halt! My rectangle looked nothing like the one in the magazine photos…it seemed wide enough but way too short.

Did I tear my hair out and complain on all my lists? (Well, yes.) But I also took the responsible route and posted on the Knitter’s magazine KniTalk board (or thought I had; actually I had posted on Rick Mondragon’s board) and emailed Joni Coniglio, Knitting Editor. She got back to me first thing Monday morning with actual measurements of the mitered rectangle and it turned out mine were pretty much on the money. Photography is a tricky thing. She suggested that perhaps the pickup from one rectangle to the next made the rectangles look taller than they actually were. I’ll have to try that illusion…. (I also heard back from Rick Mondragon. They’re nice people over at Knitter’s!)

In the meantime, I had returned to a safe project, the ever-unfinished Noro Lucy, my supposedly warm and cuddly WINTER sweater which is still unfinished. I completed the one half of the front side and some of the other front over the weekend while awaiting my mitered rectangle answer.

Lucy lives on:

I would have continued (someday I’m going to get to curl up in that sweater!) but then remembered was reminded rather strongly by Myra Wood that the absolute mailing deadline for the International FreeForm Crochet Challenge pieces was May 20th. So I figured it was time to start mine. Earth, Air, Fire, Water…what could be simpler? And since my husband was out of town this week, I had lots of “free time” on my hands. Of course, I had forgotten about my doctor appointments and the two-hour dentist appointment from hell during which I was shot up with so much novocain that I was still drooling it lasted until the following evening (and my lips looked like they’d been botoxed!). So those slowed me down a “bit,” not to mention the frequent calls from my folks in Florida. My dad still isn’t feeling well and I’ll be glad when they’re finally back here next week. However, so far three elements are finished (fire, air, water) and part of earth, the remaining bits to be finished this weekend. Then it’s a shot of steam and off to Myra! It feels so odd to be freeform crocheting again after so many months of straightforward knitting.

Oh, forgot to tell you about my Wire Knitting class with Annie Modesitt at Midwest Master’s. It was so much fun, as there were only 6 students in the class so we had Annie to ourselves all day long. And once we got the hang of knitting with wire (treating it like wire, not like yarn), she was able to show us all sorts of tricks, and had us spend the afternoon working on one of the necklace designs that didn’t make it into the Twist and Loop book—a cool torque necklace utilizing short rows. Unfortunately, between all the laughing and chatting, the glass of wine I had at dinner, and talking later in the hospitality room at the hotel, I managed to lose count so that my necklace was off center, with one side having fewer stitches than the other. Plus, I ran out of the red and orange wire I was using…so, I will have to start a new necklace from scratch (it’s not like you can frog wire and expect it to regain its shape) and will show you the necklace when it is finished (did she say “finished”?…yeah, right!).

Wire sample and bracelet with beads:

Torque necklace: