Finished Pomatomus Socks

Right I finally finished them, they're not pretty but finished they are. See what I mean. I started these back in September and picked them up again about a month ago. Maybe my tension changed or I can't count pattern repeats. This certainly lets me know something I need to work on. Oh well - the socks are for me and I don't think the difference in height is going to bother me - much. I'm going to wear them in a couple days so I'll see how I feel about them then.


I've been working some ghastly hours over the last couple of weeks, but work may start getting back to a more normal routine later this week. In order to recharge our batteries MFB and I headed down to Lancaster PA for the weekend. We had a blast and great weather and even found a small restaurant between Intercourse and Bird In Hand (those are names of farming communities with a large population of the Amish) where we watched the cows grazing. On the trip down we stopped at Knitters Dream outside of Harrisburg and I picked up a small Laurel Burch bag. Jessica gave me the idea as she had picked one up when we were there together back in March. It's going to be perfect to take sock projects on the road.


I can't decide which sock yarn and pattern to use for the start of Summer of Socks 2007 so I am doing some research. In the meantime, I picked up a WIP I started several months ago and ripped it out and started over. I'm using Noro Kujaku Color #5 and am making an evening bag. Originally I cast on over 200 stitches, this time it's about 120 stitches. It's fast going being as it is just (edited) stockinette garter stitch. This yarn is 85% Wool and 15% Polyester. Can't say I'm overly fond of the feel of it but it's a good project to be working on to tide me over till the SOS.

It's a good thing MFB is no longer in need of cane or crutches, because I've taken over use of his cane. Yes somehow I've done it again. Injured a tendon on the bottom of my foot and hopefully I'll be limping around for only another week. If you want to see what I think is a real cool xray showing screws in MFB's ankle click here.

Knitting motivation

Wheeee!! Here's my Pomatomus Sock progress. The marker shows where I started when I decided I better get back to this fun pattern. I think I finally have my knitting motivation back. It must have gone on vacation when I did back in March. Motivation had a longer vacation then I did, that's for sure. These almost look like they are going to be identical twins, if so, how in the world did I manage it? This is made from Opal in the Petticoat colorway.

MFB is steadily healing up. He ditched the crutches a couple weekends ago for a cane and even the cane has been abandoned. When he told me the surgeon said he should try going without the removable cast boot, I asked him if he told the surgeon the advice was a week and a half too late. Now, if I can just keep him off the baseball diamond and golf course for a couple months so the sprain can heal. Bad news, we drive past both every day to and from work. Patience is required in these situations. Do I have patience? Yeah - not so much.

I love the show Boston Legal, especially William Shatner as Denny Crain. This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting but has everything to do with hockey. Tonight Denny is threatening to engrave his name on Lord Stanley's Cup! The nerve.

Surgery Update

MFB had his appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday and surgery today. The surgery went very well and he had two screws successfully inserted. He's home and has only taken one pain killer in nine hours. I'd say he's doing pretty darn good. PT starts on Monday so we are very optimistic for the long term prognosis. Will he golf this summer? I'm thinking probably not till next summer.

We both want to thank everyone for your kind wishes, prayers, suggestions of exorcism, good luck charms, blog name change, jokes and better karma. As Steve read through everyones comments, and emails we received from our non blogging friends, he laughed a lot and thought how lucky we are to have friends out here who care. Laughter is truly some of the best medicine.

It's been a crazy week for us as we're not used to the care someone needs when they are on crutches. Did I mention that he's tall? 6'3" to be exact, so when he wobbles on crutches I imagine him toppling over. He's very independent and always on the go and doesn't like to put his feet up until the evening. The boredom will probably kick in around 11:00am tomorrow as he's not allowed to go back to work until Monday at the earliest. Help??

Here's something I hadn't seen before - xrays are now digital. How cool is that! The surgeon was showing us the xrays and the computer imaging was neat. We're going to get the xrays on disc at his post op appointment - the blogosphere may never be the same. Speaking of blogs check out his pre op blog post for a taste of his humor.

Thanks again everyone. Individually and collectively, you're the best!!

The taller they are...

While MFB was at his LHIS (local home improvement store) enhancing his stash, I was at home actually catching up on some blog reading and planning my post on my DC and Baltimore weekend. One of the many thoughts running through my mind was "Cool, it's been a little over a year since I fell and broke my foot. A whole year."

Fast forward a couple of hours and MFB is up on a ladder measuring the cathedral ceiling line for the crown moulding he came home with. All of sudden the ladder slips out from under him and he falls 6-7 feet straight down. Between the two of us we have more than enough medical knowledge to be truly dangerous, so after convincing myself he'd be better off up off the floor I helped him to the couch. His ankle hurt like a b... well lets just say it hurt - a lot. I grabbed an ice pack and some anti inflammatory and we waited a few minutes for the shock to subside. The pain wasn't subsiding and the ankle said it wanted to have an x ray.

These are the times that I hate that we live outside of town. Even though I was driving through some light snow squalls, the roads were fine - it just seems to take so long when someone is in that kind of pain. The meds I gave him didn't kick in till we got to the hospital but to tell you how bad it was he actually let me put him in a wheelchair. Once the meds kicked in we did our usual cracking wise as that's how we deal with stress. Things like "maybe you shouldn't be drinking water, they may have to operate" (he said that to me years ago the first time I broke my ankle while he was drinking coffee and eating cookies at the nurses desk). Then I asked if anyone had cookies. Later I said "now the shoes on the other foot, eh? Oh that's right, it won't be on that foot for awhile". (pretty bad one there).

So later on the ER PA comes in and says "it's broken and you need surgery so they can put a pin in". Darned if she isn't serious. My prayers were answered though as it's not shattered. My initial thought was to operate tonight but they don't do that and he wouldn't have that anyway as it's hockey tonight. The PA offered him some pain meds but the meds we have at home were enough for him. I asked her to still give them to him and I would take them as he was going to be a pain in my behind. Again with the cracking wise

I thought his xray was blogworthy but you know how doctors are, eh? Here he is in a splint and it's so strange that it's on his leg and not mine.

Monday morning we'll call the orthopedic surgeon he prefers and hopefully we can get the surgery scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday. Looks like I'll be his chauffeur (I asked him how to spell that and he said driver *laugh*) for awhile.

....the harder they fall.